And so it finally begins...

So, the rotations have officially started and it is SO nice that they have. Today our task was to do inventory, which might seem simple but it's definitely not. I worked with one of the purchasing managers and she took me through her daily and monthly routine of doing inventory. U of M has thousands of products and produce that they have, not to mention nourishments and formulas.

The manager I was with was awesome. She first let me do the looking around in inventory, counting the cases or individual boxes or flats of product, then I would tell her. Seem easy? It's not. First, everything in storage comes in similar looking boxes, especially the formulas. With those, there might be one slight number variation and it was my job to find it on the cardboard box. Then, boxes aren't always where they're supposed to be. I may have thought I counted them all, but 10 minutes later, I would find a box out of place and then have to go back and add it. To make it better, a shipment came in while we were doing inventory so we had to go back and add all of those to our list.

After I was on that end, my manager let me be the one to write. That was also neat to see because again, it's unbelievable how closely related some of the products were. One product might read "For Enfamil Lipil 1.5 RTU" and another might read "For Enfamil Lipil Unfl RTU." And, of course, those products would be right next to each other in the storeroom and on the inventory checklist.

In other good news, I finished one of my projects today. Quite an easy project, actually. Each of us are to be assigned to a camera for 2 days during our rotation. Our task is to take 2 pictures for each of the following categories: Teamwork, Automation, Service, Quality, Communication, and Empowerment. Definitely harder than it sounds, but an easy project nonetheless and fun to do. We then turn the cameras in and they will have a contest during our wrap up session and people will be awarded prizes. I volunteered to be one of the first people with the camera so I could get this project out of the way and have one less thing to worry about. I'm really excited to see what people come up with! 


And, last but not least, of course, I'm started to get a head cold. There has been weird shifts in weather lately in Michigan, which always seems to mess with my health. A few days ago it was sunny and 80 and then today it shifts to 55, windy and rainy. It just seems to give me super bad headaches and make me feel like crud. But, luckily we got out early today and I was able to take a nap.