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Week 4 Discussion - Noble's Collaboration

Contains unread postsCaleb Dorough posted Feb 3, 2023 2:58 AM Subscribe

As a service member, many collaboration systems are in place to ensure our jobs can be completed within a reasonable amount of time. My wife, however, has recently started working at a company here in Okinawa named Noble. Upon obtaining the contract for the Civil Engineering section of the base, they started a mass-hiring campaign to bring in the required employees that could manage the parts acquisitions and distribution. As a company subcontracted by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), they must route all purchase requests through DLA for final approval before they can be sent to the customer for final confirmation. On their site, they pride themselves by stating: "This new contract expands our presence in the Pacific, meaning lower prices and faster order turnaround for our military customers" (Noble, 2014). Based on my wife's experience this is far from the case. The method of personnel management is sporadic with little to no direction. For example, my wife receives a request from a customer to purchase fans for the elementary school. To process the request, she needs to send out the request to vendors across the world to find the requested asset. The locations could be Japan, the United States, or many other countries. After receiving the quotes from the vendors, she will find two companies with a price range of 25% to continue with the request. If she only receives one quote, then she needs to route separate paperwork for a single vendor request form. Only then can the request be sent to DLA and then back to the customer. This process is lengthy, sometimes taking months to complete. So the CEO, Tim Noble's quote on lower prices and faster turnaround is not exactly sound.

Overall, Noble is required to collaborate with multiple international companies to accelerate their delivery of goods and services. My wife's location collaborates with other locations with time overlaps to ensure 24 hours coverage is met. While my wife's office only works day shift hours, their follow-up team from Europe fills in until their day shift hours have ended and the American workers take over. There are many data systems they use to communicate their requests, but the primary method is through the use of Microsoft teams. "Microsoft Teams is a collaboration app that helps members of the org use any device to stay organized and have conversations. You can use Microsoft Teams to have immediate conversations with members of your staff or guests outside your organization. You can also make phone calls, host meetings, and share files" (Denisebmsft, 2022). Through this system, they manage their training, leave, appointments, and more.

References:

Denisebmsft. (2022, December 15).Use Microsoft teams for collaboration. Microsoft Learn: Build skills that open doors in your career.https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business-premium/create-teams-for-collaboration?view=o365-worldwide

Kadena hardware store, Okinawa, Japan awarded to noble supply. (2014, September 3). Noble Supply & Logistics | Mission Critical Solutions.https://www.noble.com/media-center/news/kadena-hardware-store-okinawa-japan-awarded-noble-supply

Side note: I was completely lost on how to in-text cite an article that only had a username for the author. I hope using the individual's username is fine in this case.