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The other day I wrote about having some 50 days left untilmy employment status changes. Now the waning number is 47, yet to be precise about the whole of the situation, this building will be vacated by the approximately 100 people that currently work here in this Fremont, Ca. manufacturing facility. We are the remnants of the the Tandem manufacturing group that moved into this space in January of 1995. It sure doesn’t seem like we have been here for 14years but that is surely the case. At that time we consolidated two manufacturing facilities (Cupertino and Sunnyvale) into one location.

In it’s hay day there were probably some 4 or 500 people working here in this 500,000 square foot facility. Parking lots in the front and the rear of the building were always in use. It was very rare to come in late morning and be able to find a parking spot in the front. You were sure to have to go out to the back forty to find a spot, and then you were in for a very long walk to get into the building and then yet another long walk if you happened to work in the front of the building. If I am not mistaken it is about a quarter of a mile from front to rear of the building. The exact distance doesn’t matter, it’s far. It has been very weird coming into work over the past year seeing the cars in the parking lot dwindle.

There are a lot of memories in this place. A lot of lessons learned, many friendships made and many experiences to draw on for many many years to come. The thing that most sticks out for me today and I believe will also be the thing that I most remember is the caliber and the DNA of the people that have worked here for these past 14 years as well as the numerous years at the other manufacturing sites prior to coming here. It has been quite remarkable to see in action. Just think about this group of people training others from another country to take their jobs and doing so with not a single complaint. Where do you find a group of people with that kind of DNA makeup? No other place I have ever worked or seen or read about, that is for sure.

And where do you suppose this DNA has come from? Well, how about a great company once known as Tandem. Someone (Daryl) basically took the Tandem Fundamentals that we all had instilled in us, added a measure of all that we learned as a manufacturing group over the years, mixed them all together, and poured out what we called Fremont Fundamentals. Mind you it really hasn’t matter how many acquisitions we have gone through. As one manager has so aptly put it, “all we’ve done is had different logos printed on our paychecks. We are fundamentally the same people working together to produce the finest computer hardware anywhere in the world.” So no matter who came through this facility to work, no matter how many acquisitions we have gone through, we have instilled a work ethic like no other into a great number of people who will take that dynamic with them wherever they go and just maybe we will instill just a little bit of that DNA into others.

It brings a smile to my face to think back on how many times we have had surprise customer visits to our facility and to have them remark that they couldn’t believe how clean and orderly the whole of the manufacturing operation looked. That is no easy feat when you are running a full blown manufacturing operation with material moving all over on a daily basis. We have had a great heritage from our Tandem days. A few years ago we had an ITUG tour come through after hours. We had a great turnout of volunteers that worked a full day and then stayed around that evening to assist with the tour. The most memorable part of the evening was later hearing that just about everyone coming through the building were amazed at the longevity of experience the employee population had as a whole and all visitors just had to have a picture taken next to a crate that we had that had Tandem stamped on the side. How cool is that when the name Tandem causes that much of a stir. There have been many proud moments being associated with this great group of people and that certainly was one of them.

So this really is an end of an era. It’s hard to let the reality set in but this chapter is coming to a close . I think I can say that everyone involved in this unique adventure will have lasting memories, from billion dollar parties to beer busts to sabbaticals. Gee, let’s have a party and have Chicago or Tower of Power for our entertainment. We all worked very very hard and we all played very very hard. What great things to look back upon.

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