Just returned from a very useful visit to Dell in Limerick where we were able to talk to their Global IT strategist about how they are implementing Oracle Grid Computing and gained a lot of useful information that will help us to shape our architecture for this challenging venture.
We also had a tour of the factory where your laptop was screwed together. This is a very impressive setup not the least because they don't hold any stock! They have local suppliers who are given 90 minutes notice of what bits and pieces are required for the machines that will be built in the next batch. At the start of the assembly line a bar code label is produced for every individual machine and the picking list for parts appears on a screen. All the bits are picked , the bar code scanned and checked to ensure it is the correct part for the machine being built before they are put in a tray to be sent up the line for assembly. The machine bar code is scanned again to enable the correct assembly instructions to be sent to the operators screen. It takes just over 3 mins to assemble a laptop (the motherboard is already fitted). Then inspected for damage and correct build before being plugged in to the central computer systems that determine what software needs to be loaded and then loads it (the barcode label is burned into the Bios during assembly to identify the machine.) Then on to a further inspection before being joined up with the correct flat pack of keyboard, manuals etc and boxed up ready for shipping, along a series of conveyors where the barcode is used to determine destination and push it down the conveyor to be loaded on the correct lorry. They turn out 30,000 units every day. This is a very slick, very impressive business that is heading towards a worldwide turnover of 60 billion (dollars I think)
Compare the impressive processes on which Dell manufacturing is built to our companies process for claiming my expenses for this and a previous (cancelled) trip to Amsterdam.
I have to fill in an online form for each and every item of expense and make sure that I have a VAT receipt where appropriate. I had no VAT number for the AerLingus tickets and couldn't see anywhere on their web site that I could obtain one. I phoned customer services and after a tortuous navigation through the maze of options managed to speak to someone. They told me that I would have to contact customer services to ask for a receipt and gave me a number and added that this was a FAX number and that this was the only way to contact them. Fax machines are not easy to find these days and I decided that it would cost more for me to deal with faxes and waiting for responses than the £17 VAT that could be claimed back. I have no doubt that the people who deal with validating expenses claims in India (yes India!) will reject my claim due to a rule infringement and I will have to get the infernal VAT receipt somehow.
I also had a confusing invoice from NIS (the travel management company that we are supposed to deal with) because it looked like they had charged me excessive agency fees. I could not check whether or not they had charged my credit card because some Mafioso felon has managed to get hold of my credit card details and buy train tickets, perfume and skype in Italy to the tune of nearly £500 - so that has been cancelled (another tortuous experience I will save for another day) and I cannot check transactions via the internet. So I phoned NIS and navigated my way through option selections to have a conversation with a helpful lady who said that the amount on the invoice was an error and that she really didn't think I had been charged. If I have been charged I will have to enter another claim......
Having logged all my claims I then had to scout around for an envelope and a label that has to be sellotaped onto it. Then you have to sellotape all of the receipts onto pieces of A4 paper taking care not overlap them. You write on every receipt the claim number and the unique ID that is generated for every expense item.
All you have to do then is photocopy all of the receipts, staple the photocopies to the expense claim form and staple the originals together and put the two bundles into the envelope (oh and you had better keep a photocopy for yourself just in case everything goes missing).
Because of a couple of flight changes and a cancellation there were a number of receipts and in all this expense claim involved 28 pieces of A4 paper and consumed most of a morning in its assembly. Not very efficient or cost effective for an expense claim of under £500 but I don't see how I could have done it any faster.
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