Mumbai CAEC and Trainers 9 - 14 - 07

Front - Yours Truely (CAEC - Midland), Kelvin (CPTC - Midland), Vidya, Deepa
Middle - Carmen (Cost Accountant - Tarragona, Spain), Kundan, Renuka, Shami, Supriti, Meenaksi
Back - Mehboob, Marcel (Cost Accountant - Horgen, Switzerland), Mandar, Vishal, Pankaj, Frederic (Cost Accountant - Rheinmunster, Germany), Medha, Amit

As there are so many companies in the center, we are not allowed to bring in cameras, recordable CDs or USB drives. On Thursday, we trainers were talking about wishing to have pictures of the group. I e-mailed Tulasi (the person who took care of all our arrangements on the Indian side) and she got the ball rolling for permission to take photos. Friday we got all the approvals but could not do it inside and could not show the other side of the road. So we are facing the midday sun in the bazillion % humidity (seriously - no whining from Midland folks about humidity anymore).

It has been an amazing time working with this group. This team wants to learn. They want every detail possible. They want to succeed. In training them, it has made me rethink our processes and reinforce my knowledge. They have made me have to be smarter.

They are also willing to put in extra effort. When it was apparent Wednesday that we weren't as far along as we should have been in with PCE (product cost estimates) pre-work, every manufacturing CAEC member was in the office Thursday at 10 or 11. Keep in mind that in order to fully support Europe, their normal work hours are 1PM - 10PM. They don't see it as just overtime money. They see it as doing their jobs. This is a different mentality than at home where we sometimes bitch and moan about having to be at the office later or on a weekend, but when that next check with overtime comes in we are glad about the money (and yes I am as guilty as anyone else in that regard).

I think the folks here have much more incentive to succeed. All you have to do is keep your eyes open during the ride from the hotel to the center. When you see the conditions so many other people are living in and knowing there are other people out there who could do their jobs as well. How could you not want to succeed?