Manufacturing is all about getting product onto a truck and watching it leave the gates of the plant. Because after the shipping documents are given to the driver, the invoicing begins.  This is a very time sensitive action.  The customer can’t pay until the invoice is received and the 30-days-net countdown begins.

It is deeply satisfying to package a chemical product that you have prepared with your hands and your wits.  I find the act of packaging product after it has passed QA appproval to be my favorite part of the process. It also means that I can start something new.  Rarely does one hear anything from the customer if the product is satisfactory.  The only time you hear from the customer is when something has gone wrong.

The bean counters will render the process into some bland abstraction that has inputs and outputs. They’ll yammer on about ROI and earnings before taxes, interest, and … whatever.  I’m glad to see that the MBA’s learn something in business school besides how to manage their IRA’s. But there is more to business than the electronic transfer of funds.

What really matters to me is that I did something useful this day. It matters that my hand-made product is useful to someone else and performs as required. Making things and stuff contributes to the ongoing process of civilization.  I feel sorry for the pure finance people.  They don’t know the satisfaction of isolating a water-white product in 99 % purity and slapping a label on the bottle and giving it to the shipping folks. I still get a  kick out of it.