SuperGlue’s Random Thoughts

This is a long awaited story to write. There has been many thoughts going in my mind. But never got me writing. Never too late they say; so, there you go, finally, here it is…

When connected on Skype a couple of days ago, our daughter started to tell us about two betting websites that people can bet for English football teams. In the middle of the story, I figured out what was she going to tell and in my impatience I interrupted her to inform her that she should not have to complete the story, that I'm well aware about those sites and advised her that she must not even visit those kind of online web sites. Mother, who was seated next to me wasn't happy that I did not let the daughter to tell us the whole story; but I interrupted. I may have overreacted a bit; but in the end the whole blame was put on me for not being listened to the daughter - I know that wasn't unusual that in any of these kind of episodes, I ended up as the cause of the fault.
I did send a digital handwritten note to the daughter to say sorry and to appreciate that her honesty of attempting to share her online experience with us though. She had replied in just one word saying ok

This morning I reported for work straight away in the Flight Kitchen. After a light breakfast ¹ in the staff cafeteria, I met with SASLM ² and agreed that they reinstate documenting any incidents on equipment falling down inside the Catering Hi Loaders and will start from next Sunday, March 5th,2017. Next up, sat down with George - one of my team to brief and coach about the importance of following correct process of actioning Flight Attendants feedback on SPMLs ³ non availability. What we agreed was
. Read the Incident Description thoroughly.
. Any KIS ⁴ Reports on SPMLs must be actioned within 48 hours of receipt. (This will allow the team to verify whether the SPML was actually ordered)
. Check and verify whether the SPML was actually requested/ordered by checking either the customer PNR and/or Flight details on MACS.
. In the event of PNR and/or Flight Details are not available on MACS any longer, check on Daily Special Meal message sent from Reservations Services.
. Only if the SPMLs were found either in customer PNR or Special Meal Message, assign the CAT360 Incident Report(s) to relevant Catering Suppliers
. In the event SPMLs are not found in either customer PNR or Special Meal Message, that means the Catering Supplier has not been informed to supply that particular SPML on the flight. That is no fault of the Catering Supplier and therefore no further follow up and/or investigation required by the Catering Suppliers. Do not assign the Report to Catering Suppliers.
. Make a note in the Report such as Checked customer PNR (write PNR reference) and there was no SPML request and Close the Report.

After going through a few Reports by myself following the above process, I realized it takes about 3 to 4 minutes to action each Incident Report.
I also briefed and coached George regarding Rotable Stock Issue Dashboard - how to use it, the purpose it etc.

This morning, I also spent a good couple of hours at the ware wash, in particular checking about brekages of First and Business Class Mugs. It seems for the first 26 days of the month there have been 1907 breakages of mugs mostly due to hairline cracks. EKFC feel that there could be a better way to pack mugs inside the drawers that may potentially reduce breakages. They agreed to come up with some proposals. While at the ware wash I was also trying to verify Swen's Action Plan:

Action plan

1. Stop good products being mixed with damaged – This will be done with introduction of new colored bins with lids (lockable) so no other item can be thrown inside.
2. Make sure missed tray items are not mixed with damaged– This will be done by introducing two smaller bins, color coded for collection of items with current process of counting and disposal records.
3. Damaged collection points – This will be done by the introduction on new bins as part of point one.
4. Recording details – This will still be the same as current process but refined with the Supervision only having access to collection bins / record capturing and disposal processing.
5. The revamped breakage campaign shall be distributed to all on what the control measures and process changes were.
6. Retraining of all staff will take place again so all know the updated process changes.
7. Extra Supervision checks on machines will be done now already, plus with the additional Supervision resources coming soon will better the machine coverage / inspections and Supervision. (** This has already been implemented**)

After the ware wash, my next stop was at Damas's and he sounded a bit pissed off of having to do stock levels, re ordering etc all by him self without any support from us. Damas is a very knowledgeable, experienced and skilled gentleman who has been in the company more than 25 years and his frustration is understandable.

Later in the afternoon there were door to door meetings from 1pm to 5pm - Wastage Reduction Meeting, Operations Meeting and Meeting with Mr. Sharif

1. Mushrooms, Baked Beans with Brown Arabic Bread

2. Senior Airside Logistics Manager

3. Special Meals

4. Knowledge based In-flight Service

Today's mentoring session with The Conceptulisers was held at my home. All five of the youngesters came. We talked about the following
. The importance of making notes
. To capture key words that the audience bring up, ask questions - Durability of the product, withstanding for food safety and hygiene, cold soaking, flexibility for the airline customers to enhance/change the product offering.
. Do improvements to the product based on feedback and questions from industry professionals, where possible.
. Focus Group questions - to be tailored to grab and capture positivity
. Emphasize the cost benefits to the airline customers under current economic environment.
. Washing trials
. Flight trails - March 28th?

After sometime, we have some proper rains since this afternoon. As usual it was chaos on the roads when I was coming back home from work with a few accidents on the way. People here don't have any skill or experience in driving wet conditions here.

This afternoon I had arranged for The Conceptulisers ¹ as part of Intelak Incubator ² program, to give a presentation to a group of industry professionals based in our Dubai flight kitchen. There were 7 Senior Managers were attending the presentation. The founder cum CEO cum CFO did the presentation, supported by the COO cum Chief Design Officer.

I have to say, the youngsters presented their product concept and early prototypes very well, whilst also answering to the questions put forward by the audience. Understandably, the questions were based on typical industry, covering things like durability, food safety and hygiene, material engineering and the like.

Prior to the presentation, I had also emphasized to the team that they should also keep in mind that their product solution must give the flexibility for customer airlines to enhance food offering on the tray without having do any modifications to the tray itself.

1. The young innovator bunch who are coming up with a new style of airline meal tray concept

2. The Intelak initiative, which means ‘take off’ in Arabic, was launched in September to give innovators, entrepreneurs and students from across the UAE the opportunity to enrol in a tailored incubator programme that will allow them to further develop their concepts. All submissions were focused on the travel and aviation sector, and sought to make passengers’ travel journeys simpler, better or more exciting

A couple of weeks ago, the leader has asked me to draw up a chart to list down and show bullet point functions of three functional areas that I'm currently accountable in the day job. To give me an idea, he also email me a copy of similar one that he has done for the areas under his command. He did not tell me the reason why he wanted the particular chart though.
I struggled a bit doing the chart, not because not knowing the bullet points; but the format I should use to present the chart. Then I realised that, the boss him self had used a Microsoft PowerPoint Slide for the one he had done. So, I chose the same format and finally produced the document and handed over to him this morning. Though, I expected him to go through and discuss the document with me; instead he said that he will have a look at it critically. I guess, I have to wait and see what's up in his sleeve…

Here we go again! Last Wednesday,there was another work station move for some people, including me on 3rd floor at the HQ. From moving point of view from the old work station to the new one wasn't too bad for me because I only had my laptop dock to move. Yep, since I was asked to change work location from HQ to the flight kitchen in July 2015, I have mostly been paperless ¹ My work station is bare minimum and I even do not have a desk phone. It does not really matter to me from where I work, as long as I can get stuff done and achieve my work goals.

1. I had total of six cardboard boxes worth of paper material then

I haven't checked 10C blogging interface on a real computer for a long time. So this morning I just thought of power up my mid-2011 MacBook Air and here I'm typing this very short blog post. Looks like the 10C admin is primarily built for real computers rather than for smart phones or even tablets. Jason might be able to confirm this.

December 31st,2016 we had a get-together with folks from PG at our home