In the first article we were looking for the real purpose of the document, whereas here, the author takes us on a quest for the deeper meaning of the objects that are going to be tracked by the system.

You will notice that this study uses the terms customer order, object on order, vehicle and truck. This is done on purpose: it doesn’t really matter what the tracking object is, the original customer order like the FO-order, or the real truck or bus by chassis number, or a spare frame, or CKD (Completely Knocked Down truck), or an extra order for equipment, or an engine…

Or a washing machine for that matter. The author clearly tries to tell us that this is a generic system, fitted for all, although probably at the time of writing was not aware of the word generic. I especially like the term object on order, although I don’t immediate link it to a truck-factory, which was probably the original purpose of using the term after all.

The goal of my PPOCOTS series is to write the ultimate blurb, one sentence, a synthesis of the entire 17 page document, with no loss of info, and of course, no redundant info either. So far I have: “A PPOCOST is a system to track objects on orders in a generic way”.
Next episode: something about processes.

Principles of a Process Oriented Customer Order Tracking System. I found this document during the latest department move, a half-yearly event where a bunch of guys just starts moving our desk, thus rendering us incapable of productive activity. This particular document caught my attention because of its author: my boss-boss-boss, the same one after which this blog is titled. Although written in 1996, I’m sure much of it is still valid on the present day. I’ll start this PPOCOTS series with a random quote from the document, just to illustrate the clear and vulgar style (relating to the common people) in which it is written:

The PROPER prestudy typically reflects the current systems and the current way of working, even if there has been an attempt to redirect and simplify the current tower of Babel. Therefor the prestudy is a good starting point to find out what the problem is.

Clearly, the author tries to tell us (the reader) that this is not the document we are looking for if we don’t know what the problem is. Instead we should read the PROPER prestudy which is an entirely other document after all, in a far more formal style:

The Principles document refers to a general approach of the matter, more or less regardless of the kind of product being tracked, hence the more general name Customer Orders.

For example: washing machines, which in principle have a lot of common characteristics with trucks. They are being built.