Merchant's Tales: Operations, Fish and Aquariums

One of the activities I consider very relaxing is to stay in cool cafe with a nice hot mug of mocha infused coffee and doing an operations model. Ive said it before and I will say it again, numbers always behave as expected and I find it amazing every time that I can manipulate them with ease. Before I lose most of you in nerd talk I'd take a slide back and have a little throwback essay on How I got to like operations. Ive been doing formal operations planning for a number of years back but I will be talking more about where it all started.

So where did it all start?

My quick answer will be in my early childhood. Im looking back with happy eyes on how we were raised with frugality. It was 1993, I was Grade four at that time, the time where I first got my daily school allowance of 40 pesos.  We were taught that money must be earned honestly and hard work therefore our school allowance. In addition I almost always never got to have new stuff, and for a fourth grader that would be the latest Jurassic Park toys or the latest sega or super nes console. What I did have is a trusted single gear BMX  bicycle.

I learned from the very start from a hard and pretty harsh lesson that my money will never get replenished when I spent it. Now matter how much I pleaded and how much I tried to appeal to my parent's logic, the stern no additional funds will be the answer. This became the foundations on being frugal. When I was that age I couldn't help but feel some self pity but little did I know that this would be the foundation of my values.

While I did not many of the most updated toys, I found a new hobby. Okay its a hobby that is really reserved for the nerdiest of the nerds, if you may call it that way. I started fish-keeping. Below are black and white mollies,  the breed of the first aquarium fish I kept. Initially sourced from Bio Research SM Megamall

Fish keeping was far cheaper than any fancy toy or super nes equipment and I found myself progressing from silver mollies to "higher level" fishes. When I was in Grade 6 the Arowana craze swept every household. The sucky think about arowanas at that time is that you have to feed them live fish. This becomes a big hassle as I had to schedule my biking trips, my budget and check the weather. 

Presenting the Silver Arowana

The Blue Line is the bike path I took to the petshop

The suckier thing is that with the absence of a good internet connection at that time I sometimes get drenched in the rain while traveling in a bike carrying live feeder fish. The road gets slippery and I had to carry my bike to get through the shortcut, that's why weather played an important part in my operations.

The grandest plan was when I finally decided to keep goldfish.I needed a new tank for this and to do this I had to save up money for a couple of months for a four hundred peso (400 php) 20 Gallon tank.

 There was also a big catch: I cant bring my bicycle


. To save money I decided to take the tricycle going to the pet shop (again see the above image in blue) then walk down Sun Valley Village and the long stretch of Sta Ana drive, finally reaching 11 Benedictine Street while having both of my hands carrying a glass aquarium.

I had to walk for 40-50 minutes

This is perhaps was the tipping point where I got to be an "official" operations guy.  The project sever obstacles. 1) Given that I will be doing this project during the summer time, 2) I had to take note of the various shade areas in the village. 3) Another thing I had to consider is that I did not want anyone to see my carrying a huge aquarium tank that would be quite a big embarrassment, it did not help that a lot of my schoolmates lived in Sun Valley too. 4) The distance was pretty far so I had to make sure that my strength will be recovered whenever I stop 5) I have to make sure that the weather would cooperate, the rains will make the glass tank very slippery.

If I drop the aquarium tank, that would mean my savings will be nothing more than shattered glass.

I pushed through with the plan and I went to do it on a Saturday, I got a tricycle and rode it until the entrance of Sun Valley ( a good 15 Minutes from our house) it cost me 25 pesos. After which I walked to the Pet shop and immediately asked for the 20 gallon tank. Going back, I took a special route. A route that makes me go from one shaded area to the next. When my arms were aching, I stopped by under the shade of trees. I sat for a few minutes and carried the cargo again.

The most difficult stretch was the home stretch: Sta Ana Drive which was long and was bordered by an open field. There was no shade in this road so I had to be under the sun for more than 15 minutes. It was hot, but I made it.

The finished aquarium looked like this:

Looking back at my achievement I can really say that this was the start of it all. Later on I would be planning my trips, creating itineraries that accomplish many and waste little. I did this for a variety of excursions ranging from friendly outings, school work outings and other outings. In my exchange term in Europe I planned a few trips on my own and with other people. It was wonderful, doing homework on places, distances and attractions became something like second nature to me. When I took logistics and Supply Chain, I took it with great interest. I was happy doing it every time.

I'm helping out in a major logistics program for our new product that's hitting the market on the third quarter of year. Its always a happy memory to revisit the time where had the aquarium project was the biggest logistics endeavor at that time.