Chapter 3

"Is this your truck? I'm afraid that I hit it as I was pulling in the parking spot."

She showed him the mark on the car door. He bent down and wet his finger and rubbed the mark.

"It's just a scrap on the paint. I can easily rub it out with a bit of rubbing compound. It's a rental vehicle and I doubt they would even notice something like that."

She pulled her wallet out of her purse, "if you'd like I can give you my insurance information."

"No, believe me, a little rubbing compound will take care of it. You're an exceptional woman. Not many people would stop and wait for something as minor as this."

"Well," she hesitated, "I try to treat everyone like I want to be treated. I wouldn't want someone to hit my car and then leave without telling me."

"Believe me, there is nothing that a little elbow grease won't cure. Don't even think about it anymore."

He started to walk around her to get into his truck.

"Please take my business card. If the rubbing compound won't take out the scratch, have the car rental company get in touch with me."

He looked at her card. He got a strange look on his face. She noticed the look and wondered what had happened.

"Mrs. Bristol. Don't you recognize my voice?"

She tried to think when she had heard that voice. It seemed familiar, but she couldn't place it. She shook her head slowly.

"My, I must not have made much of an impression," he said, "We've talked quite often in the past few months."

He reached in his pocket and pulled out his business card. He handed it to her and waited for her reaction.

She put her hand to her mouth, "Of all the cars to hit, I had to pick yours. Of course, I recognize your voice now. You're the one that's going to bring us into the 21^st century. I hope this won't affect the quality of your work."

He laughed and they talked for several minutes. She asked where he was staying and he gave her the name of the motel where he had made reservations. She said that she knew of the place and gave him directions to the motel. She got an old envelope from her car and made him a rough map showing him how to get from the motel to the factory. They said goodbye and got in their cars and left the parking lot.

Jim Checked into the motel and was pleased to find that his room had a king sized bed with a new mattress. The room was clean and there was a restaurant and a cocktail lounge attached to the motel. His room was on the side of the motel that was away from the highway. It faced a stream and the woods started on the other side of the stream. He would not be listening to the sounds from the highway all night.

He unpacked his clothes and put them in the dresser. He would not be at the motel long but he like to keep his clothes relatively wrinkle free. He would pick up a paper in the morning and start looking for a furnished apartment that he could rent for the next two years. Many of the larger apartment complexes had furnished apartments for travelers like him.

He laid on the bed for a few minutes to rest and get over the airplane trip. In a few minutes he was asleep. The sound of the rushing water in the stream was relaxing. When he woke up it was dark.

He looked at his watch. It was 9 o'clock. He had slept for 5 hours. He hoped that he would be able to sleep later and not wind up tossing and turning all night. He pulled out the specifications for the project and started reading them. As boring as they were, he knew that the specifications were extremely important. He was about half way through the specs when he fell asleep again.

When the alarm went off, he was still dressed and the spec book had fallen off of the bed. He reached into his luggage and pulled the single cup coffee maker that he carried on these trips and started the coffee brewing. In a matter of minutes he had his first cup of coffee. As he stepped into the shower, he was thinking about the upcoming project and started the project in his mind. This project had an interesting feature. The first addition was the largest and was going to be a secure and separate building even though it was attached to the existing building. The shower helped sooth away the stiffness he had after sleeping all night on top of the covers.

He dressed in a long sleeved sport shirt, khaki pants and boots. He knew that he had to walk the site and start a bit of the surveying needed for the site contractor. He had to drive grade stakes showing the elevations. He hoped that Parameter Fabrication would let him use one of their phones and give him a place to work for a few days until he had his office trailer set up.

He found Parameter Fabrication, Inc. easily. He decided to introduce himself and make sure that his plans for the site work and his office trailer location would not conflict with any of their operations. He was impressed when he walked into the lobby. The lobby made a great first impression. The receptionist was pretty and appropriately dressed in a business suit. She greeted him in a professional manner and announced him to Rolf Parameter. He was told that Mr. Parameter would be available in a minute and the receptionist offered him a seat.

Rolf Parameter came into the lobby and shook his hand after asking about Jim's trip, Rolf asked him to follow him to his office.

"Excuse me, Mr. Parameter. I would like to say something about your receptionist and I don't like talking about people behind their back. This is one of the most professional greetings that I've ever had in my career. The lobby is perfect. It's well designed and clean as a pin. Your receptionist is the most pleasant and professional that I've seen in a long time. She's an asset to you organization. If the rest of your company is as good as my first impression, it's going to be a pleasure to work with you."

They both thanked him and Rolf Parameter worked him to his office. He was offered coffee and when he declined the offer Rolf looked at him for a minute and smiled.

"It looks like I'm going to have to watch myself. After the praise you heaped on my receptionist, she'll probably give you the keys to the building and push my chair out on the street."

Jim smiled, "That was no blarney. The last customer that I had was the worst first impression that I've ever had. When I walked in to the lobby, there was a card table with magazines all over it and four plastic chairs that you would be afraid to sit in if you had clean clothes on. The floor looked like it hadn't been cleaned in weeks. The receptionist was dressed in a sweat suit and running shoes. The sweat suit looked like this was the fourth day in a row that she had worn it. She was sitting behind a mound of paperwork that might have had a desk under it. She was reading a Cosmopolitan magazine. When I walked up to her, she looked up like she was mad that I walked in and interrupted her reading time. She announced me over the intercom and went back to her reading. When the person that I was to see came to the lobby, she pointed at me and went back to her magazine."

Rolf Parameter shook his head, "And some companies can never figure out why they failed."

The phone rang and he excused himself to answer it. Jim watched him as he talked on the phone. Rolf Parameter was one of those people that always looked younger than they really are. He looked to be about 50 to 55 years old and he walked like he was even younger than that. From the looks of his office and the manner in which he talked to the customer on the phone, it was obvious that he knew how to run a business.

Jim knew from information that he had gotten from the designers that had come to the factory in the early stages of the design process, that Rolf Parameter had started a small machine shop in his 2-car garage to make a little extra money. His reputation for meeting delivery dates and the quality of his work started to get him much more work than he could handle working in the evenings. He hired a few people that worked with him at the machine shop where he had his day job. Soon, the work started coming in so fast that he had to quit his job and devote all of his time to his own machine shop. He kept his reputation and his sales grew each year. He owned all of the stock except for a small percentage that was held by the Board members.

Rolf Parameter was still married to his childhood sweetheart. They both adored each other and when they were together, that fact was obvious to everyone around them. They had two children. Their daughter Sarah was born first, and three years later Rolf Jr. was born. Sarah always had a wild streak and when she went to college she fell in with a crowd that tried to pack a lifetime of living into each day. She died of a drug overdose in her freshman year. Rolf Jr. never liked working with his hands. He went to college and took political science. After graduation, he went to work for the State Department and had worked for the government ever since. He had been in Europe for the last 8 years and only made it home once or twice a year. He was rumored to be the next NATO ambassador.

Rolf Parameter hung up the phone and apologized for taking so long. They started to discuss the schedule that Jim had prepared for the construction. Rolf reviewed the schedule and said that he felt that they could work around the construction. He requested that the construction workers stay off of the production floor unless it was necessary for them to be there. He also asked that vending machine for sodas, cakes, sandwiches, coffee and candy are put in a separate trailer for the construction crews. That would eliminate the need for mobile canteens on the property. He was consternated that the extra traffic would interfere with the trucks that were required to conduct the business of Parameter Fabrication.

Jim went over his plan for completing the site work and putting in the roads, curbs and parking lots before construction of the building began. That would give the construction workers a place to park and there would be minimal construction traffic on Parameter's existing roads and parking lots.

Jim put his papers in his briefcase, "Mr. Parameter, what would be the impact to you if I could finish early. I try to complete the construction as quick as possible. The quicker that you have the building, the quicker you can start making money."

"Call me Rolf. Even the workers on the floor call me Rolf. It would tickle me to death to have the construction done early. I really can't afford to wait until next week for the buildings. If they were finished today, I would have product moving out of the back door tomorrow. Anything that I can do to speed up things just let me know."

Jim heard a noise behind him and Rolf looked up and smiled.

"Jim, I'd like you to meet our Production Manager. She's the one you'll be working with the most."

Jim turned as Ann Bristol walked into the room. He smiled when he saw her. She looked better than she had when he saw her in the parking lot of Walgreen's. She was dressed in a business suit. A shop coat replaced the suit jacket and she had safety glasses on. It was obvious that Ann Bristol shared the same genes as Rolf Parameter. She also looked younger than her years.

Jim and Ann both laughed and Jim told Rolf that they had run into each other yesterday.

"More like I ran into him. I hit his truck in the Walgreen's."

"Come on and tell the truth," he said, "It was a scratch in the paint that a little rubbing compound will take care of. You almost need a magnifying glass to see it."

Ann sat down and they went over the schedule and the plans for the site work. Ann suggested a temporary road from the parking lot for the first addition to the street. If they used the temporary road for the construction vehicles there would be minimal impact to Parameter from the construction. Jim agreed and Rolf told him to keep the bills separate for the temporary road and that Parameter would pay for that.

Rolf stood up, "Ann, why don't you show Jim our operation. If he understands everything we do here, he might have some changes that he would like to incorporate into the design."

Ann took him on a tour of the plant and explained every operation that they performed. She often had to stop and answer a question of one of the workers or to sign a quality control form. He was impressed with the number of quality control inspectors that they had.

"You have more quality control people than most companies that I've done work with."

"We don't skimp on the quality control. It doesn't do us any good to ship the parts and have the customer refuse them and ship them back. When we have to cut fat, we don't consider quality control fat. Our reputation is too important to us. We're hoping that the machinery that you are going to install for us will be more precise and we might be able to trim our quality control department because of the better manufacturing processes not because we want to save money. "

They spent two hours touring the plant and then walked back to Rolf's office. Rolf invited him to eat lunch with them but he told them he had a lot to do before the construction started. Ann showed him to an office that was not being used and told him he was welcome to it until he could get his construction trailer setup.

Tallorder64

Chapter 4