Gerlach Administration/Production Services
Production
Services is a new term for the functions that in 2002 comprised
the DPW Purchasing department and Gerlach office administration.
These services included bid research, purchasing, transportation-run
coordination, rentals, receiving, bookkeeping, office management,
local PR and DPW departmental budgeting. In 2002, the role of the
DPW Purchasing department was expanded with a corresponding increase
in the number of departmental staff. Also, new jobs were defined
to facilitate the building of Black Rock City.
In 2001, the Purchasing department consisted of one purchasing
manager and two assistants. Such a small staff struggled to stay
on-task sourcing materials or handling payroll, etc., while dealing
with constant interruptions by incoming phone calls, faxes, radio
transmissions, and visitors stopping by the office. While these
events are distracting, they are also necessary. Since no telephone
landlines or mail delivery link the office with the work ranch
or the Playa, all incoming and outgoing communications and packages
must be routed through the Gerlach office staff. With the addition
of an office manager in 2002, communications ran much more smoothly,
allowing the rest of the team to focus on their respective tasks
rather than being sidetracked by the telephone, radio, or important
well-wisher.
The purchasing agent has the difficult task of managing the
acquisition of goods to build a city that houses nearly 30,000
people. This staff member is accountable to the Budget committee
and serves all departments within DPW and the greater organization.
The purchasing agent is responsible for collecting material requests
from project and department managers and finding sources for
those materials that offer the best possible deals. This work
is often done with little notice, although efforts are being
made to help managers plan ahead for material needs. The scope
of departmental requests varies from heavy machinery, such as
an 80-foot crane for lifting the Man, to items like cots for the
Emergency Services Department.
DPW
is the largest user of purchased materials. Lumber, equipment, and
other material is required for major projects such as the Man, the
Café,
and the fence to name a few. Production Services coordinates the
runners who travel through Nevada (and California if need be) to
pick up everything
from scrap metal to Post-it® notes. This is a huge task, considering
runs are often required daily and the event is in such a remote location.
Additionally, Purchasing develops and maintains relationships with
many of the vendors that provide the services that make life on the
playa possible,
such as the portable toilets and water trucks. This purchasing activity
along with accounting and increasingly complex DPW activities created
a need for a Business Processes committee that discusses and plans
purchasing practices and business-related process management for
the organization as a whole.
A project management tool, the Gantt chart, was introduced
into the project management process this year. An overall event timeline
helped
staff to ensure efficiency and timeliness in obtaining equipment
and materials.
It also facilitated coordination of crews with project needs. Tracking
jobs and crews allowed budgets to be maintained more efficiently
and projects to be completed.
Contracts were drawn up and managed this year through Production
Services for the portable toilets, heavy machinery, generators, water
trucks for roads and fire suppression, individual labor contractors,
and transportation
services, among others. Each of these contracts represents a different
management challenge. Managing heavy machinery needs, for example,
is concerned with obtaining very expensive equipment and arranging
its transportation
to receiving, and then also to different locations for multiple
people and purposes.
This year one of the new positions added to DPW Production
Services was that of receiver. In 2002, one of the first tasks of
the receiver was to establish a staging area for all the materials that
would
soon flow through the shop on the way to various project sites. This
person was responsible
for knowing when a supply run was due or a delivery was scheduled
and meeting the truck to check goods received against goods ordered.
This
year our
receiver was also the de facto shop steward, handling inventory and
allocation of goods.
Once the DPW moves on-playa to begin the construction
of Black Rock City, the receiver's job is further complicated, as
deliveries might
be made either to the office or to the playa. As the person in charge
of knowing
what got dropped where, when, and for whom, the receiver must be
available on radio to answer questions from project managers about
the availability
of their supplies. The job also overlaps with inventory tracking,
transportation, and dispatch.
Within Production Services, the bookkeeping staff is responsible
for processing data for all financial transactions and conveying
that information to the main
accounting offices in San Francisco. Before an invoice or receipt is sent to
San Francisco Accounting, it is coded so that each item is assigned to a specific
budget category. The department/project is also noted so that the cost of an
item can be charged back to the appropriate budget. In previous years, final
accounting would have to wait until December or January, as the volume of paperwork
generated during the summer months outstripped the department’s capacity
to process it.
This year, the addition of a dedicated Gerlach-based bookkeeper
reduced the turnaround time for paperwork and consequently the time
required to record expenses in the
main accounting system. This improvement also allowed for better tracking of
real-time costs of business than had been achieved before. In Nevada, the bookkeeper
acts as a liaison between the Gerlach office and the main accounting department
in San Francisco.
The Gerlach office enjoyed help from over 21 dedicated staff
members and volunteers who kept the office running throughout event.
Fully staffed by a purchasing
agent, two receivers, a bookkeeper, four runners, innumerable kindly volunteers
to fill
the gaps, and an operations manager, DPW Production Services continues to
refine, grow, and develop.
Submitted by,
Ada Lee Chester and Matt Morgan aka Hazmatt
Click here to read the 2001 DPW Business report 