Conference 7.286::digital

    Marie, maybe for lack of employees who lack for money??!!
    
    		Jack C. - how ya doin'?

    Hi Jack.. Still here huh?  Me, well maybe another 6 months or maybe
    I'll be gone by the end of August, can't tell...
    
    I could have used a few more bookcases...

  I just tried VTX PDCSTORE and got a message that this "page" is gone. Is
that the same message .0 got? This implies but doesn't prove that the store
is gone. Can someone confirm that it's gone?

When I did VTX PDCSTORE a few days ago, it said the PDC Store was closed.

    Stop looking in VTX.  The PDC that was located at the Mill is closed.
    It's last day was Saturday, July 30th.
    
    (My group's lab is across the hall...a scant 12 feet away.)

    Business decision, Digital needs to make money.  Materials will be sold 
    off to Brokers (their identity is unknown).

    In addition, I heard that the planned restructurings and building
    consolidations would generate FAR more surplus material than the PDC
    store could possibly handle.  At the same time, the quantities are now
    large enough so that brokers would be interested.  Therefore, the
    economical thing to do was to close the store and get rid of the
    surplus in large lots rather than in onesies...
    
    --jim
    

  I realize that selling surplus furniture in bulk is more profitable BUT, 
there is now no efficient way to redistribute used furniture within Digital.
We can't look for it in DIAL (because DIAL doesn't allow people to list it)
and now there is no PDC store. Does the PDC itself have any used furniture,
or does it go directly from the closing DEC plants to the broker?
  Who is the broker that is buying this stuff? Can Digital groups that need
used furniture buy from them?

Here at the CSC in Colorado we just got e-mail that offers
office furniture to H.O.M.E. workers only. They can buy excess
desks, lamps, chairs and file cabinets for $1 a piece. liesl

    They did the same in Detroit.  Many of us got some pretty good 
    deals.  We were told we could take 4 pieces each.  The rest 
    will be going to some company who is giving us a bulk rate to
    take it off our hands.
    
    Dennis

    Re: .9 Morrison 
   <   I realize that selling surplus furniture in bulk is more profitable
   < BUT,
    
    When I bought at the PDC just before they closed, I was told the
    brokers paid about 35 cents on the PDC dollar [but they had to take
    everything in the lot].
    Another beni gone...
    
   < there is now no efficient way to redistribute used furniture within
   < Digital.
    
    Howard
    the corporation seems to have little problem redistributing furniture
    inside the company [see notes about the 'old FXO furniture'].

    	RE: .9
    
    	The initial avenue to dispose of excess furniture is via internal
    	transfer.  Only after this avenue has been pursued is the excess
    	furniture sold thru brokers.
    
    	The PDC was never meant to be a significant channel for us to
    	dispose of 10's of 000's of pieces of excess furniture brought
    	about by the many building closings.  It was never used "to
    	redistribute used furniture within Digital" it was only used to
    	sell to employees for personal usage.  It was essentially a
    	convenience to the employees.  With the closure & ultimate sale
    	of the Mill and pressures on the PDC,  my guess is it was a
    	convenience we could no longer support.
    
    	If you have need for furniture, you should exprees your need to
    	your Building Services Mgr.  He or she if very likely tied into
    	the excess furniture distribution process.  Yes, there is a
    	process.
    
    	1. The Bldg Svc Mgr where the excess furniture is located, obtains
    	   a DIAL waiver, from the PDC, by listing the excess furniture with
    	   MR. X.
    
    	2. Mr. X circulates the info on the xcess furniture to his
    	   distrubution list, consisting of 90+ names, of Property Mgmt
    	   type employees around the world.
    
    	3. These indivduals can pick and chose what they want for their
    	   respective facilites.
    	
    	4. What remains after typically a 2 week review period, is then
    	   collected, aggregated and sold, via a bidding process, to
    	   brokers.
    
    	   I've purposely not id'ed MR. X, as he is one individual, doing
    	   this for the entire, US.  He doesn't need to be inundated with
    	   requests from individual employees.
    
    	I hope this clarifies this issue.
    
    	Rgds,
    
    	JIm

The PDC store used to bring in $10k-$20 on a good weekend.  At one point I was
told they were doing $1mil+ a year.  This was BETTER than they could have done 
buy selling it to wholesalers.  I do believe this.

I was recently at a place thathas a lot of DEC 'excess' material.

They were selling surplus DEC plastic bags for $10 a case.  PDC used to sell
them to employees for $10 a case. These guys paid under $5 a case.  There are
MANY items at this place just like this...

DEC throws money away again!

	- mark

    Is there a way to find out who the brokers are that Digital sells
    to.

>    Is there a way to find out who the brokers are that Digital sells to.

  I would like to know too.

>              <<< Note 3301.13 by MR1MI1::SHERWIN "Jim Sherwin" >>>
    
>    	If you have need for furniture, you should exprees your need to
>    	your Building Services Mgr.  He or she if very likely tied into
>    	the excess furniture distribution process.  Yes, there is a
>    	process.
 
  But why must this be a "closed" process that only the Building Services
Mgrs can pursue? 
  I think management's perception is that only Facilities people are inter-
ested in obtaining furniture. This is not true. There are some engineers, such
as me, who are responsible for obtaining lab benches and tables for our own
lab space. 
  This time I got lucky, in that our facilities group was able to find the 
furniture I needed within the cluster of facilities they manage. If our fac-
ilities group had had to search outside the cluster, and had not been willing 
to do so, I would have been stuck.
  We should not have to buy back our own furniture at a 100% markup, but this
is still cheaper than buying it new, and probably cheaper than spending 40
man-hours doing an exhaustive search of all the facilities clusters to see if
any have the items we need.

>	Note 3301.17 by TOOK::MORRISON "Bob"
    
>>              <<< Note 3301.13 by MR1MI1::SHERWIN "Jim Sherwin" >>>
    
>>    	If you have need for furniture, you should exprees your need to
>>    	your Building Services Mgr.  He or she if very likely tied into
>>    	the excess furniture distribution process.  Yes, there is a
>>    	process.
 
    >But why must this be a "closed" process that only the Building Services
    >Mgrs can pursue?
    
    By default, The Bldg Mgrs have had this responsibility "dropped" into
    their laps.  Considerable quantities of equipment, of all sorts, have
    literally been walked away from or abandoned by groups which move to
    another facility or are disbanded.  The Bldg Mgr is then responsible
    for the disposition of such equipment as part of the building cleanup.
    
    For all intents, the Bldg Mgr, in concert with the MR X, I mentioned
    in .13, are "THE" channel for excess equipment redeployment, w/in the
    company at this time.
    
    >This time I got lucky, in that our facilities group was able to find the
    >furniture I needed within the cluster of facilities they manage. If our
    >facilities group had had to search outside the cluster, and had not been
    >willing to do so, I would have been stuck.
    
    I've been involved in equipment redeployment from the 3M area to as far
    away as Singapore  & Taiwan.  I repeat "if you have a need, express it
    to your Bldg Mgr".  If he or she either doesn't know how or is unwilling
    to tap into the redeployment channel, you should approach your Cluster
    manager.  Keep in mind, if your need is instantaneous, you'll probably
    be out of luck;  regretfully, the redeployment process is at times
    laborious, circuitous, time consuming & frustrating; all brought
    about by the sheer volume of excess equipment being generated.
    
    >We should not have to buy back our own furniture at a 100% markup, but
    >this is still cheaper than buying it new, and probably cheaper than
    >spending 40 man-hours doing an exhaustive search of all the facilities
    >clusters to see if any have the items we need.
    
    I don't understand your reference to buying back our own furniture at a
    100% markup.  There may, in some cases, be a need for an asset xfr but
    you don't "PAY" anything.  Much of the equipment being redeployed is
    xfr'ed at $0 NBV, so you don't even incur future depreciation.

  This is a very belated reply to -.1.

>    >But why must this be a "closed" process that only the Building Services
>    >Mgrs can pursue?
    
  I understand that building services managers are responsible, by default, for
getting rid of excess furniture. My concern is why they have a monopoly on
OBTAINING used furniture.
  We already have a powerful computer tool (DIAL) for redistributing non-
furniture items. Why can't we use this for funrniture? The DIAL login message
says we can't. I assume it's not because of any limitation in the DIAL system
itself.

>    manager.  Keep in mind, if your need is instantaneous, you'll probably
>    be out of luck;  regretfully, the redeployment process is at times
>    laborious, circuitous, time consuming & frustrating; all brought
>    about by the sheer volume of excess equipment being generated.

  I gave myself a month to get the stuff I needed. Part of the problem with a
closed process was that I never knew if it was just a slow process or if
Facilities had given up on looking for the stuff.
    
>    >We should not have to buy back our own furniture at a 100% markup, but
>    >this is still cheaper than buying it new, and probably cheaper than
    
>   I don't understand your reference to buying back our own furniture at a
>   100% markup.

  I didn't make myself clear. At one point I considered calling used furniture
dealers to see if I could get the lab benches that way. If I had known which
brokers had bought Digital's used furniture, I would have called them. If one
of them had had the stuff I needed, and if it had been former Digital stuff
that they bought at 50 cents on the dollar (actually 35 cents, according to an
earlier reply), and if our group had bought it from them, we (Digital) would
have paid double what we sold it for.

    In Canada Call Al Leblanc DTN 621-4722  .  He periodically publishes a 
    list.
    
    GP