Work Life - The First 8 Years

Work Life – The First 8 Years

Going back to the beginning, my Dad was made redundant in 1992 (when I was 5), and he set up his own garage business in the centre of Lincoln.  From that early age, I was in that environment, and as I grew, I became increasingly aware of what was going on in the business and the discussions between my parents about various related matters.

At the age of 14, I spent the Bank Holiday Monday of Easter weekend with the living room floor full of paperwork working out why my Dad’s purchases with one particular supplier had doubled over three months, but his sales had not.  It turned out that this supplier had processed very few returns, and the amount owed was noticeable!  The following week, I spent the better part of two days in discussions and meetings to help establish what had gone on – it turned out that my Dad was not the only one out of pocket!  From there, I developed a way of matching incoming parts to outgoing invoices, and that way and returns were kept track of until the credit notes were received from the supplier.

During that year’s school summer break, I started to take an interest in buying parts, and started to introduce the idea of shopping around.  Although my impact at that time was minimal, the following year I started to change the way my Dad ordered parts during my school holidays, and started to prove where he could make savings.  During the summer after taking my GCSE’s another year later, I spent nearly 10 weeks working for my Dad, although mainly actually mending and servicing the cars at the time, I also did nearly all of the purchasing as well.  It was during this time that I was able to meet with representatives from many of our suppliers for the first time, and really start working towards increasing profitability.  I also recall there being a bit of an issue regarding alcohol.  One of the suppliers an a promotion which involved cans of beer with something, except the way they did it was actually to charge £0.01 for the beer for some reason.  The one slight issue there was they were selling me (at the age of 15) cans of beer for £0.01!

Beer aside, those ten weeks were a breath of fresh air at the time.  Whilst there were some issues with being accepted by some people I was working with or dealing with, the period was generally a success.  As I’ve already covered, in the autumn of that year (2003), my parents were offered the opportunity to move and expand the business from the centre of Lincoln to North Street Garage at Nettleham.  With this, came my opportunity to join the company, and with the frustrations of school life being ever more of an issue, I made it clear I was leaving at the end of my AS levels to join the family business, and that’s exactly what I did.  The business moved in the spring, although I did not start full time until the afternoon after my last exam (that morning).

So, the summer of 2004 was spent working many long days and weeks building two businesses into one, and finding ways of doing things.  I don’t remember too much about what exactly happened, but I remember being fairly positive, I think possibly because I’d moved on from what I associated a lot of issues with – that being school.  In the September, I started an AAT Accounting course at Lincoln College, which brought its own set of challenges.  I went one day each week (well – I remember finishing mid afternoon and then getting picked up to go back to work for the rest of the afternoon).

During that first year, I remember finding three things frustrating – that I struggled to make any real friendships (which is often he case in new situations), that I found the course very easy, and therefore I often took far less time to complete the work than was allocated, and I remember one day having three hours for lunch, which to me was awkward!  I found (and indeed still do) having nothing to do when I felt I should be doing something very hard, and a frustration.

Back at work, I pushed on with improving relationships with suppliers, and dealing with issues brought together by the amalgamation of two businesses.  I found the purchasing part of my role most rewarding, and still do.  I could quite happily hand the customer relations part over to someone else.  With some customers, I am OK, with others I find it very difficult, and sometimes just freeze up or have to hand them over to one of my parents, as I feel unable to find the right words or solution to their query or problem.  Everyone will probably say this, but there are some people I am able to “get on” with better than others, but it’s particularly difficult with customers.

I changed the way we, as a company, dealt with our purchases, so that we were maximizing the potential of both our increased demand, and the choices of products and suppliers available.   Once things settled down from the big change, I tried to start streamlining things.  I found that combining orders at periodic intervals actually saved time on the phone, and saved time when parts were actually required (i.e. the mechanics had less time to wait).  It also saved our suppliers time and money in that we weren’t ordering small things every five minutes, instead ordering multiple parts at any one time, and therefore they only had to make one delivery.  Unfortunately, this was met with very mixed reactions from our suppliers – some thought it was a good idea; others seemed to me to only be concerned with me taking up time of their staff.  Over time, this got better, although every now and again, someone would get a bit angry at me if I had a long list of part numbers!

As my knowledge of parts grew, and as the manufacturers started to embrace the internet for their cataloguing, I started to use parts cataloguing directly.  Up to this point, I would give the vehicle details to the person on the other end of the phone, tell them what I wanted, and they would quote me.  I generally insisted on getting more than one quote, which was sometimes seen as wasting time, and then making the decision on which supplier to purchase the part or parts from.  However, after a few months of this, it became apparent that the supplier’s listings weren’t always 100% accurate, and we used to end up getting multiple parts as choices.  To me, this defeated the point in trying to be efficient by ordering in batches to reduce the number of journeys made by our suppliers – they were actually making more than one journey in order to deliver the correct part at the second or third attempt.  I found that I was wasting time on the phone whilst 2 or 3 people separately looked up the same part, and then their quotes were not always correct if there was an error in the listing, or what I said was interpreted differently.  So I started looking up my own part numbers, and phoning up the suppliers and asking “how much is an X1234?”  To start with, this was very difficult to convince them that I knew what I wanted, or that I knew there was a choice and that was definitely the part I wanted (I had the vehicle with which to compare against).  Eventually, after many months, and managing to source an entire book case of paper catalogues to supplement the electronic catalogues (some suppliers electronic catalogues in the mid 2000’s were rather basic and buggy), my way of ordering parts became more accepted, and it’s a system I still use to this day, although I now have a pan-European web based catalogue which is becoming more readily used by more parts manufacturers, and has multi-brand listings side by side.  I would never go back to ordering based on someone else’s interpretation – even if I don’t have a listing, I try to work with the person on the phone, and not just accept the first thing they say if I don’t think it’s right.  Maybe that’s just me, and it doesn’t always go down well, but it helps save everyone time and money, and I’ve proven it works.  During the first 18 months when I implemented this system, our returns to supplier fell by nearly 25%, mainly due to the reduction in choices.  Today, they are even less.

During this time, I also tried to grow relationships with suppliers, and make them two-way relationships.  I became frustrated that as I started to compare one with another, they were approaching me as to why I was asking for quotes for so many parts, and not buying all of them.  They often seemed so surprised when I told them they weren’t competitive, and in those days, I was told “we’ll match the price”.  To me that was irrelevant unless I was ordering something else from the same supplier, or there was a quality difference – matching the price wasn’t gaining me anything!  It wasn’t until a new motor factor moved into Lincoln that this situation improved.

Their arrival made some of the existing suppliers re-organise a bit (well – eventually), but this wasn’t without its issues.  Dealing with this particular supplier became hard work, as they had a policy of sourcing from a number of manufacturers and numbering everything using one numbering scheme.  For someone who looks up the part numbers themselves, this was tricky.  All I could do is give them the part number which best suited the part I wanted, and hope the right one arrived if I ordered it.  It was around this time that awareness of quality parts became widespread amongst garages, and this supplier only highlighted the issue.  They would tell me that a part was made by manufacturer A, except when it arrived, it was made by someone else.  Sometimes this was not an issue, but sometimes the alternative was of much less quality.  Many times I returned parts which were not what they were sold to me as.  To my mind, if I ask for something that is “good quality” rather than a “budget brand”, I expect what I asked for, or at least something of an equivalent quality.  I have always only ordered what are considered to be “OE matching quality” parts, and to now have a supplier miss-selling me parts was a stressful time, not only on the basic level of having to source parts twice, but in making them realize that we did not want budget parts.

Eventually (over a year later), this came to a conclusion when we started receiving unbranded suspension components.  I had already been investigating some of the sources given to me of these parts, but had yet to actually prove anything.  That was about to change.  I ordered two Vauxhall suspension arms (same part, but opposites for each side), and was told they were both made by x.  When they arrived, one part was as quoted, but the other was unbranded.  Examination of the part revealed that they were not of the same manufacture, and that there were noticeable differences in the quality.  I even dug out a poster from about ten years previously from Vauxhall about ‘fake’ suspension arms, and sure enough, the unbranded arm I had been sent matched the description of these ‘fake’ arms!  A phone call followed requesting a replacement arm to match the quality part sent for the other side.  I can’t remember why, but they were unable to supply another one at that time, so I re-ordered a pair from another supplier, without issues of quality.  I did also order the replacement from the original supplier, only for that to be another ‘fake’ arm.  A third also arrived (all quoted as would definitely be brand x), and I had had enough.  Looking back, I may have over stepped the mark a bit, but to me it was blatant miss-selling of sub-quality goods.  I contacted the supplier’s head office, and asked for their managing director to deliver me the promised suspension arm of the requested and quoted quality.

To my surprise, he arrived at the garage the next day with another ‘fake’ suspension arm, claiming it was the same.  After what could be described as an “education” from both me, and then my Dad, along with a copy of the original Vauxhall poster, he left with our excess suspension arms, saying the matter would be investigated, as he could not understand how these suspension arms had entered their supply chain.  I heard nothing further, and any parts ordered were now checked meticulously!  About a month later, I received a message saying that the company had changed their supply of suspension components, and I would start seeing a new supply from a company who supplied a well known brand.  Given the previous incident, I checked the company name, and it was a real company, who did manufacture suspension components.  However, I noted that they manufactured the steel or cast iron type of suspension arms, but not the aluminium type which is fitted to many vehicles today.  To my horror, when I enquired about such a suspension arm a few days later, it was quoted as this particular company who don’t make these types of arms, and I verified this using their web catalogue.  I sent my findings to the supplier, and asked again what brand of suspension components they were supplying.  I also sent my findings to the company they claimed was being supplied with arms, and also to the company who supplied the quality products these components were being marketed as.

Within a couple of days, I received an e-mail informing me that the supplier in question no longer wished to deal with me as I was “clearly not satisfied with what they were offering” and “other garages didn’t have the problems” I did with the quality of the parts.  I didn’t take this very well, and neither did my parents.  Whilst they were aware of the quality issues, they did not like the outcome, and the blame was placed straight onto me.  I don’t understand quite what I did wrong, and I’m not really sure where I went wrong.  I saw a problem, and I tried to get to the bottom of it, and looking back, I think there was a cover up.

Back at college, I completed my first two years with ease, and went into the third year.  It was at this point that things became challenging.  I was constantly up against a lack of an accounting background, and a lack of accounting based work to be done at the garage (the course was mainly aimed towards people working as accountants or learning to be an accountant, where I was learning things which I used at work, but certainly not what I was doing all day every day).  Some parts of the course were a battle, and the enjoyment of being away from the office disappeared slowly.

Moving on from those things, I started to try to look for something to regain that sense of fulfilment once again.  I found a hole in the range of certain parts we were struggling to source since the cessation of buying from the supplier with the issues above, and so I started to look for an alternative supplier.  Again, I contacted the parts manufacturers directly, to find out who I could buy their parts through, and at the time, one company was mentioned by three of the manufacturers.  I contacted that supplier, and found they had started to deliver to Lincoln from another branch twice per day, and started to establish links.  They brought a fresh focus as I learnt about their range, which at the time, was much broader than many of the suppliers I dealt with up to that point.  They also had their own electronic catalogue, which proved a useful tool, as it allowed me to check prices online without a phone call, and also to order online.  It also solved the issue of batch ordering, as I did not have to go through a list of part numbers with someone on the phone, whilst it was claimed they were “missing other sales” whist dealing with my enquiry which would generate sales!  Whilst other suppliers since have talked about it, none have followed the example – at least not at a trade level.

As delivery was limited, I was only able to order certain parts from this supplier, something which was rather frustrating.  Eventually they opened a branch in Lincoln, and once the changeover had taken place, I was able to treat them the same as the other suppliers I already dealt with.  Within a few months, I noticed changes behind the scenes as what I saw as politics took over, in that certain products changed.  Whilst there weren’t quality issues, I started to notice errors with their cataloguing.  Again, I switched to checking with other catalogues to ensure I ordered the correct parts, often differing from those listed by the supplier, or perhaps not the one they stocked if I wanted a better value part from their range.  I learnt that this particular supplier only stocked what they wanted you to buy, and that’s what their sales team pushed.  Through using the electronic ordering, I was able to order what I wanted, which was often a part of the same quality in a different brand at a cheaper price.

I was questioned about this on a visit from their representative, and they were asked “why should I pay for their stocking policy?”  In my opinion, it did not offer me the best value for money.  Over time, I started to make progress in persuading them to stock what I wanted to buy, and also started to negotiate better terms as a result of increased business since they had opened in Lincoln.  However, they could not understand why I would not give them all of my purchases in return for these better terms, and I was asked this repeatedly.  They were certain they could offer me best value over “a basket of goods” – which I repeatedly proved to be incorrect – I repeatedly proved that by shopping around, I was achieving the best value.

However, this work did not go unnoticed by my parents, and I received criticism for pursuing things which were outside of what they felt I should be pushing for.  I was determined to get to the bottom of the issues, and I continued to push for the truth, and continued to be frustrated by the lack of willingness of a response.

At around this time, my time at college was coming to an end.  Unfortunately, it all dragged on for an extra 6 months or so after I (and a number of others) failed one part of the final exam.  We all put this down to the difficulty of our lesser workplace experience, and the particular construction of the exam paper being particularly difficult, which was eventually acknowledged.  We all went to re-sit the exam around six months later, and as far as I know, nearly all passed second time.  I remember my feelings were more of relief rather than joy after that exam, and even more so when the result was received.

Back at work, I was now working five days per week full time, and I found I’d lost the escape if I needed it.  Although towards the end, college directly was not the best of experiences, it gave me the chance to have my own space, and a chance to stay completely out of the picture in the evening as well.  I found another issue too – that my time was not always totally occupied.  I started to pursue the bits of my job that I was getting reward from, and principally, that was from buying parts, and understanding what was available to buy from sources other than the car manufacturers.  I have already mentioned the electronic catalogue access given, and I started to use this quite heavily to explore what I thought I might be missing by what I quickly discovered to be some poor listings, and therefore I had to work around that to get the most out of the system.

I also found that I was constantly referring to multiple listings for certain parts, and dealing with constant claims of “we are competitive for x parts” – and kept finding those claims to be misleading.  I started an experiment to see if I could make some of the listings more user friendly, and also make comparisons between suppliers to establish an easier view of what the situation really was.  Over the following months, I built up a file on this basis, and repeatedly found issues and errors in listings.  With one particular supplier, I was able to feedback these errors in their catalogue, and I found myself doing this on nearly a daily database.  After a few weeks, their local management got a little fed up of this, and queried what I was doing.  I was able to prove what I was doing, and disprove a number of things they had told me which I now proved to be false, including how wonderful their pricing structure was (or rather it wasn’t)!  I was asked to report the issues directly to their head office, which I started doing.

To my surprise, after a couple of months of sometimes feeling like I was being ignored, and some accusations I was wasting their time, I was visited by a director.  Up to this point, I had kept what I was doing fairly quiet aside from the specific negotiations over pricing of certain areas, but it was now going to become fairly obvious.  I write the next bit carefully, as events since make me wonder quite how truthful the situation was made out to be, but at the time, it seemed to be the real picture.

This director had come to see me as how was concerned how I was finding so many issues, and also that the pricing issues I was finding were apparently not normal.  I demonstrated with a number of examples on both matters, and he went to talk with my Dad.  Whilst I don’t know quite what was said, I seemed to get the attention of my Dad as to quite what I was doing.  To say that my parents became a little annoyed that I was, as they put it “effectively working for someone else,” hurt me.  They could not suggest what I should do; only what I should not do.  I then set about proving that what I was doing was getting results, and when I looked back at previous records, I had already reduced the purchasing costs by 15-20% through shopping around and dealing with multiple suppliers.  Through that visit, and a number of subsequent visits and phone conversations to try to (apparently) work out a way of making my findings less time consuming to deal with, there did start to become a way forward, and a new pricing structure was set out, which would “sort all of the problems”.

My previous experience told me to check this, so I compared my file again against these new prices, and I found that whilst there were many reductions, there were some quite noticeable increases as well.  The first time I questioned this, I got fobbed off.  By the third or fourth time, it became clear that the whole system had to be looked at again!  I remember one Friday evening having to end a phone call with this director at shortly before 7pm, as I was being collected to go out for dinner (having supposed to have finished work two hours previously).  Whilst some progress was made that evening, there will still some issues remaining.

Unfortunately, the positive dealings were about to come to a sharp end, and in a pattern that seemed to be a repeat of a previous instance, I found myself suddenly shut out of the relations regarding the issues I’d spent so long dealing with, and thought I’d made so much progress with.  It was very difficult for me to understand what had gone on (or indeed what was alleged to have gone on), and I still don’t to this day.  What I do know is that from dealing with the people at the top directly, and actually solving problems, I felt like I was pushed all the way back down the chain over the following months.  The result was that I knew problems existed, but I was talking to a ‘brick wall’ as regards getting anything done about it.

Meanwhile, other suppliers made some changes as well, and I was able to keep an interest in monitoring the situation between suppliers, although no one company was able to offer me a strong overall package.  Despite their representatives repeatedly telling me their company could offer “the best overall package”, I could, by this stage, just print them out a section of the file I had built up, and prove that shopping around still offered the best deal, and it still does today!

I read back, and realise that I’ve mainly focussed on the purchasing side of my job.  Well, there’s another side too – that of the reception counter.  I focus on the purchasing, as that’s always the part I’ve found most rewarding.  On the other hand, the reception side is probably the bit that’s regularly frustrating, as I try to interpret the situations of dealing with customers, and not always getting it right.  The other thing that is really frustrating is when other people take over the conversation I am having.  My Dad seems particularly good at this!

Having read this back through, I’ve decided that I will continue this in another post sometime soon.  There are things I want to put, but this post is long enough for the moment!