The Canadian Civil War: Volume 4 - Mississippi Beast

  Chapter 34 –

  Load number one

  Back at our warehouse, we were making progress. The computer guys were pretty good. I could hear them talking between themselves about all the bullet holes. I am sure they were already thinking of all the cool stories they would tell back in Philadelphia. But they worked hard and got the equipment in during the three days they said it would take. The big test came when they linked up to the fiber from the phone company. Miracle of miracles, it worked. Suddenly we had data links at megabit speeds. Granted, in the U.S. we would have been talking about gigabit speeds, but for Canada, this was smoking fast.

  Once we were powered up, I thought the guys might hop in their car and get back home, but they stayed another week. First they downloaded all the data that had been backedup in Ohio, and restored all our office systems. We had customer data again, and an inventory! Then they went upstairs and started working on our RFID and bar code scanners. Saturday, as the rest of us were sitting down to noon hour sandwiches, the two of them came to get us.

  "Gentlemen, if you please, we have a short demonstration that you might find enlightening." Showmanship from computer guys? Fine with me. And they did seem very pleased with themselves. They led us to dock number one. They had a terminal sitting on a crate, and one of them had brought over a pallet using a hand truck. Once we were all standing in a circle around the pallet, one computer guy waved a bar code scanner at the pallet, while another made a big show of pointing to the terminal. "Abra cadabra - let there be data!" He shouted, and sure enough, the pallet registered in the system. We had inventory control. I'm not sure computer guys have ever been picked up and carried around on the shoulders of adoring fans, and that didn't happen this time either, but it was close. I knew these two would not be paying for their own drinks while they were in town. We had data. There was still lots more to do. The RFID system still didn't work, and neither did the pallet elevator, but from this moment on, we could at least do the basics. It would be slow, but we could move pallets in and out of the building.

  While everyone else was playing with the bar code scanner and testing the system, I got on the phone to Elise.

  "Remember how you wanted the warehouses operating in fourteen days? Murphy Manufacturing is up on day thirteen."

  "Thank, Shawn. But don't get too big a swelled head. Green Bay Trucking called in two hours ago, and the Port Authority got their systems up and running last night."

  "That's fine. Now we'll see who gets the first truck on the road." I shut off the phone and got back to my men. "Green Bay Trucking got their systems up and running two hours ago. But we're the people who will get the first truck load out of Kaskaskia, right?" That led to a cheer, and then LeClerk took over. He had a general idea for which pallets were stored where, and he started sending men off with forklifts to find the ones he wanted. Apparently he already had an idea for which load would be fastest to assemble. While six forklifts raced up the ramp to the pallets on the second floor, LeClerk was on the phone to a trucking company, and then to a driver he seemed to know well. Based on LeClerk's smile, I thought we might be in the fast lane.

  And we were. This was a set up. LeClerk had guessed at when the systems would work again, and had kept this driver within a few miles of the warehouse. I discovered the computer guys weren't the only showmen working for the company. When the driver showed up ten minutes later, LeClerk personally directed him back to the dock, and stood there while his men scanned their loads and drove them into the trailer. I have never seen a trailer filled so fast. Meanwhile, one of the office people came over with all the paperwork. At twelve forty five we put our first truck on the road.

  I called Elise again. "We just put our first load on the road."

  "Just a minute, let me put you on speaker phone. Now, Doctor Murphy, of Murphy Manufacturing, what did you want to tell us?"

  "Our warehouse facility is now operable, and we have just sent out our first load from exiting stock."

  "And what did you ship?"

  "We shipped auto parts to the Peoria Peugeot plant." I could hear a cheer go up in the background. She must have connected me to the auditorium sound system. Lots of showmanship going around apparently.

  "Please thank all the men at your facility, and tell them how important their work is to their nation." Need I point out that I had my cell phone volume turned way up and was holding it so all the men could hear? We were all standing at the empty loading dock watching the semi we had just loaded go around a corner and out of sight. If you wanted to see pride, that was the place to see it.

  What else happened that day? LeClerk called in three more rigs, and we got them on the road too. There was still lots more work to do to get the systems running like they had in the past, but at least we were functional, and that felt very, very good.