54 GERMINATION.CA JANUARY 2019 SEED CONDITIONING MODERN TECH MAKES MANAGING MATERIALS EASIER Jeffrey Fawcett, Material Control Manager (Retired) olivermanufacturing.com I RECENTLY ANNOUNCED my retirement from Oliver Manufacturing. As material control manager for 37 years, my duties included all the purchasing and management of inventory adjustments as needed. I’ve been responsi- ble for inventory adjustments during our annual physical count and logistics for scheduling shipments, whether it’s parts or machines, going domestically and internationally. In 1981, I started at Oliver as a temporary contractor. I was fresh out of college and ready to start a career. At the time, Geoff Burney was the CEO and he didn’t actually have any fulltime positions available. However, he needed work done on creating part numbers, something that I still manage to this day. The parts system in place needed to be refined. Around the end of October, a permanent position opened up and Geoff offered it to me. Effective communication in my role as material control manager was vital. It’s important to have a good rapport with other departments as we rely on a lot of back-and- forth information from each other. I have to understand that we use an awful lot of those items, so we don’t want to buy just five or 10 at a time — we need to buy 100 at a time. Or, we don’t go through that many, and we only need five or 10 or if we are trying something new. Thirty or 40 years ago, the expertise and knowledge I’d developed on thousands and thousands of parts would be painstaking to record and communicate. I’d end up writing a book or manual about it all! But because of natural technological developments, a lot of that knowledge is ready to be passed along with the mantel. I’ve witnessed a great deal of change and a tremen- dous amount of growth. In 1981, I never dreamed that I’d be here in 2018. I sure am lucky to have been here for as long as I have, and I’ve had many meaningful relationships with different people at Oliver through the years. It’s been a wonderful journey! STORAGE & HANDLING TIME BRAINSTORMING YOUR IDEA IS TIME WELL SPENT Gerald Unrau Product Manager for Seed Sites and Conveyors gunrau@meridianmfg.com • meridianmfg.com WHETHER YOU’VE decided it’s time to update your seed stor- age and handling equipment, or build a brand-new seed site for your business, knowing where to start can seem daunting. However, your vision is where it all begins. The art of napkin sketches — or jotting down your ideas or vision — is important to the whole seed site design process. Don’t minimize the value of brainstorming: this conceptualization stage is necessary to turn your dreams into reality. Brainstorming ideas for your seed site will help you check off the important things on your list while allowing you to consider the extras you could add to the site if and when you have the budget and means. Some of your ideas will be driven by need and some by your vision. For example, even at this early stage, some of your cur- rent needs should be considered: • What product are you going to be handling? • What capacity do you require? • Where is the location of the site? •  Do you have existing equipment or is this to be a greenfield site with new equipment? • How do you want to fill the bins? • Are you putting up sheds or other buildings? Address these factors, but also give yourself room to grow. If you’re adding new buildings and storage bins to your site and you think you may be adding more in four or five years, you must have enough area at your location to expand, as well as the capabilities to expand (i.e. equip- ment that can handle being upgraded and extended). It’s a good idea to have that longer-term vision, so you have enough room to expand as your business grows. Eventually you’ll base the design of your site on your concept, and this time you’ve spent brainstorming. I have a few things for you to keep in mind while you’re visualizing your site: • What type of equipment do you want to use? • What is the capacity you’d like to achieve? •  What is the flow coming in and out of the yard bring- ing seed in and getting seed out to customers? Order your yard so that the flow in and out is easy and effi- cient for you and your customers to do business. Storage and handling equipment specialists can assist you with this important conceptualization stage. They can help you turn your vision into reality.