Days 24, 25,26

We've spent the last couple of days, reworking curriculum for their training of the product management department.

Day 23

Today we taught our first class. It went really well. We spent the afternoon finding incorrect mathematics in reports. We will be meeting with developers on Monday to try to iron these out.

Day 22

Final preparations.

Day 21

As we near our first class, we are spending less time creating and more time fine tuning our presentations. We spent today setting up for class.

We also had a discussion on some of the challenges of training adults. Training adults in a business setting is a different task than educating children. There are many similarities, but also a lot of differences. In the "real-world" employees can be motivated by compensation, while in the classroom students are often motivated by grades. Trainers don't have to worry as much about classroom management, there are no principals to send unruly students to. Classroom teachers usually have a captive audience. Trainers may need alternative ways to deliver their curriculum, like webinars for example.

I have taught inservices before, so I know what it's like to train adults. However, the "students" have always been teachers who are insulated from the real-world. It will be interesting how my experience with real people goes.

Day 20

Today Tim and I spent time putting our presentations together so that it is one cohesive production.

We also went out and took some pictures at the stores.

Days 18-19

I've spent the last couple of days trying to determine how the suggested triggers are calculated. A trigger is the amount of inventory that is on hand before the ordering system generates an order automatically. There are three basic factors that go into this calculation. They are lead time, order cycle and safety stock.

The order cycle is the amount of time between orders. So if you order every two days the order cycle is 2. This is used together with the weekly forecast to estimate the amount of product you will need on hand while you are waiting to order again.

The lead time is the number of days between the time that you order and the product goes on the shelf. So, if you get a truck in 5 days after you order, the lead time is 6. This is because the inventory doesn't get stocked until the night crew has a chance to stock it. This is used together with the weekly forecast to determine how much product you need on hand before you get more product on the shelf.

Safety stock is determined by the variance in the movement of an item. The more variable the movement, the higher the safety stock amount. This idea can easily be referenced in a statistics class when talking about variance.

I think there are some more factors that I haven't located yet. I'm pretty sure that when you order helps determine these factors because every vendor has a profile that shows when they sell the most product during the week. These values are somehow incorporated into the calculations.

My idea for the classroom, is to use the simplest forecasting model and movement data to have students calculate triggers. A colleague had an idea of using this in conjunction with a fundraiser. The students could sell something and keep track of what they've sold. They can identify peaks in their data and see if they can determined any event that may have caused the spike, a pep rally for example.

Day 17

Today I spent a lot of time reflecting on my experience so far. One of the 21st century skills that I have observed the most is employability, in particular, the need to continue to learn. With the speed of technology today, it is imperative that employees show the willingness to learn new things. Hy-Vee is constantly looking for ways to improve the technology tools that they offer stores. Sometimes these changes are minor, but other times there are major overhauls. This is where the training department is invaluable. Employees need to be trained on the new tools. This can be difficult for some employees that are used to doing their job in a certain way. Change can be scary. But with the current economic climate, employees should be thankful that their companies are willing to adapt and change. Employees should be willing to do the same.