On Assignment A-1 At Island Futon

Before the sun evaporates the morning dew on the coconut palm fronds and lush vegetation throughout Indonesia, a 27 year-old international businessman and economist strides toward a vast woodworking factory on the exotic island of Java. It’s time to start another day.

He is Dan O’Neil, the Director of Quality Assurance for Island Futon Company, and he has an inspection to complete before catching a late afternoon flight to Kuala Lumpur, when he’ll fly over places named Sunggabuwana, Palembang, then over the Straits of Malacca into Malaysia.

He is on Island Futon Company’s Assignment A-1. His job is straightforward: to determine that each container filled with Island Futon furniture meets the stringent expectations of the American futon buyer. Despite the locale, this isn’t glamorous work.

A graduate of Columbia University’s School of Economics and International Business, Mr. O’Neil is a conduit between two cultures with vastly different histories in business and consumer attitudes. Dan’s primary focus is to meet the company’s core goal: “We must anticipate and meet our customers’ needs, focus on the customer in everything we do, and offer cost effective, innovative solutions to meet the needs of our customers.”

“If Dan does not accept the produced goods, it is discouraging to the people who work for him, but he has to be firm and resolute. “We will allow no product to leave the factory that does not meet our high standards for quality,” says Island Futon General Manager Sam Leone.

“Because quality assurance is so important, we decided to put our best man on the job. Dan has been full-time, on-site for almost three years now, and it has made all the difference,” he said.

“We pay our Indonesian employees a relatively comfortable wage, however the working class in Indonesia doesn’t customarily possess the most basic things that you and I take for granted,” Mike O’Neil, Dan’s brother and the company’s Director of National Sales, said.

“I’ll give you an example,” he said. “One of our workers spent the night sleeping on one of our futons, not the mattress, just the frame and said it was one of the best night’s sleep he’d had in a long time. Otherwise, he is sleeping on the floor. We’re looking for ways to improve our Indonesian employees quality of life.”

Dan O’Neil enters the workplace and walks briskly to the production department before heading back to the loading platforms. It’s time to have a serious look at what’s coming off the line before inspecting the container-load waiting his approval.

The production manager watches intently as Dan inspects the futon frames. While the machinery hums and big collectors pull sawdust from the humid air, Dan rubs his hand over the smooth arm of what will be sold in the States under his company’s brand name. “Very nice work, Yunanto,” he murmurs to the boss. “Impressive.”

Dan monitors all aspects of production: the winching of big logs out of rivers, saw milling, kiln-drying, futon furniture manufacturing, packaging, and container loading. He provides the on-site quality inspection that satisfies Island Futon’s strict attention to detail and excellence. “It is through our commitment to continuous improvement of our quality process that has enabled Island Futon to be the premier provider of futon frames throughout the United States, Michael O’Neil said.

Ninety percent of the of the goods consumed in the United States travel on cargo ships at some point in their manufacture. Looking out over the vast oceans covering the globe, sometimes it seems to Island Futon staff in White Plains, N.Y. that most of those containers are packed with Island Futons.

Since the emphasis on the company’s 18 Step Quality Assurance Program and the recently added “Tuff-Pak” packaging to promote damage-free deliveries, Island’s business is growing steadily.

An esprit de corps is evident in the faces of New York based employees such as Larissa Carlson (accounting), Gabe Ruiz (data processing), Jocielyn Palad (customer service), Diana Videla-Schray (order processing), Valerie DeVito (traffic department) and Val Pinto (accounting).

Island Traffic Manager John Murphy says, “With the slow-down of the Asian economies and the upturn in our business we have to work twice as hard to obtain enough containers over there to bring our goods in to our futon buyers. We do it, but it is more difficult nowadays.”

Island Sales Manager Michael O’Neil adds: “Since adding the new Quality Control program we need more containers to fit our futons than at any time in our history.”

On the other side of the globe, Dan O’Neil sips a cup of real Java and chats with the managers of the sprawling factory outside of Surabaja, a city of several million in one of the world’s most over-populated countries.

He knows the factory workers are pleased that he is happy with the work being done now, and that tomorrow in Kuala Lumpur, he’ll have a similar experience with the employees there. “It’s all in a day’s work,” Dan said with a smile on his way to the airport.

FL