Well, my story is that I was hired by Saleen (Mike Z.) to be the Material Manager at Wixom. When Mike hired me I will always remember that he said, “Cindy, you will be a part of history.” Boy, was Mike correct!
I started on the program in late March of 2004. Wixom was getting ready to build Prototypes when I first arrived. It was my job to work with Toolman (Randy B.) to follow the build process (which Toolman wrote/developed/documented) and get all of the parts put in the correct stations (there was a mountain of boxes when I arrived on the scene). When I look back and recall the mess that I walked into (prior to being hired no one was doing the job) I have to laugh, it took roughly 3 weeks to get all the parts in the correct station and ready for the first signoff by the engineers. The signoff is where the responsible engineer comes to the plant and station by station reviews the process, checks torques, part levels and checks the part integrity. Once, this is completed the engineer signs off and we were good to build.
Of course, on my first day the hourly guys wanted to take me for a spin in one of the prototype GTs that they played around with. I jumped at a chance to go for a “little” ride. Jerry H. couldn’t wait to get me in the car and show me what it could do (he intended to scare me . . . didn’t work). We went out in the back forty of the plant, took it up to speed, spun it and then decided since that just wasn’t enough take it for a spin around the outer loop of the plant. When we were on the far side we were stopped by security, we thought they were joking about our handling of the GT, but they were serious. The plant speed limit was 15 mph; yeah that’s what we were doing! Needless to say, Jerry and I knew we were in trouble since security made sure they informed Jerry’s boss of the road test we gave the GT. I thought for sure my career had ended before it even started.
I have a ton of stories that I could share, this one is just to get things rolling.
