  Just felt like blogging a bit about what is going on at my job. I'm a programmer. I write custom software for urlLink Ingersoll Cutting Tools . We're a manufacturing firm that makes rotary milling and drilling cutters. To be honest, I know next to nothing about our products. I know a few terms about the cutters. I know a little bit about the machining and the manufacturing process, a couple of terms for the warehouse/inventory/logistics side but if you actually showed me one of our products and asked me to tell you about it, I'd know next to squat.
I guess that's o.k. because in the software world, you are slightly detached from reality. To me it is a "product". This product has a process to create it, a price, a cost, a usage. It is used in other products and other products are used to create it. We have demand for the product (from something called a customer) and we need to generate supply to meet that demand. Sometimes we can anticipate demand and generate the supply beforehand. This is called maintaining inventory. Inventory is something that entails risk, since you are guessing at future customer demand, you may guess wrong. Then you're stuck with the stuff. Inventory also has value. You have spent money in labor and materials to produce the product and those dollars are wrapped up in that product.
This is called an asset. But, if you ask me, it's junk until a customer buys it. Then its revenue. Revenue is good because the more revenue we generate the more can be distributed to employees or put back into the company in capital improvements. Both of which are good to me. Distributed to employees means I get paid. Capital improvements mean new technology which means my market value goes up. If you didn't know what ERP means, you basically do now. ERP is a system used to support all of the activities I just described.
I write the software that does that. It's pretty interesting. Especially when the company is a global concern with subsidiaries all over the world. Things are always changing and there's always imrpovements to be made. You also have to take into account tarriffs, exchange rates, and export duties. Pretty cool. I've worked there since Dec '88. I started out programming CNC milling machines (big ones), then moved to doing software support for design. Then I moved into System Administration and a slightly broader application development role. Still supporting the engineers and designers. Now I work on the commercial side and write stuff that supports a much broader user base. I program in RPG (old as the hills) on and AS/400 (old as the hills).
RPG is a pretty boring language--not very powerful but it is simple. The AS/400 is what they would have called a mini-computer in your Computer 101 class. If you ask me it's a kickin' machine--solid as a rock and stinkin' fast. Pretty open and well designed as well. I've worked on Unix workstations and Windows machines and both of them take a back seat to the AS/400 if you ask me. We have a 5 person programming department. There's a woman who covers accounting and costing, a guy in charge of purchasing, pricing, and management statistics, a guy who covers budgets, sales support, shipping, the warehouse, and invoicing, the web and e-mail, a woman who covers order entry, customer info, and management statistics. I cover engineering, manufacturing, production control, logistics (inventory planning), and communications with our other divisions. There's one last guy who was, until recently, in charge of customer quotations. I say "until recently" because I think I just took that system from him. He now has been re-assigned to help the woman who works on the accounting stuff. I think it'll be better for the company since he really wasn't making the kind of changes we need in this area.
I'm looking forward to it. I like my little world. I am basically support the activityies that surround the definition, design, manufacture and inventory of our products. If you work for a manufacturing company, that's a pretty good spot. All in all Ingersoll is a good company and my job is enough to keep me interested. And I'm sure this is far more than you ever wanted to know. 
