Love In Secrets (Love Distilled #3) - Scarlett Cole Page 0,52
hoping to see,” Em said.
“Yeah. The truth is you should have been further along. From my deep dive into what is going on, it seems like procurement delays have hit you hardest. Different parts of the crew are waiting on materials, so they are doing as much as they can while they wait for those deliveries.”
“Have the products all been ordered?” Liv asked.
Cassie nodded. “They have now. I went through the project plan, created my own materials list, cross-referenced it with the list created by our former procurement manager, and ensured everything needed was ordered on Friday.”
“Thanks for doing that,” Jake said.
“Yeah, well, in fairness to you guys, that’s our job, and we didn’t deliver. You’d be well within your rights to be furious.”
Em shook her head. “What good would it do us? Would it make you fix it any faster?”
Cassie shook her head. “Unfortunately not.” She flicked the slide to the next page. “I know you really don’t need this, especially you, Jake, seeing you spend every waking hour here. With the order lead-times being the bottleneck, the plan needs to move back six weeks.”
“Ouch,” Liv hissed. “That’s going to hurt our Christmas production numbers, right, Jake?”
Jake was looking straight at her, a flicker of disappointment washed over his features before he cricked his neck from left to right. “Yeah. It’s going to hurt.”
Cassie looked at the plan projected on the screen, and then back to Jake. “Here’s a thought. The plan is built for productive, cost-effective, and speedy construction. But, I’m sure you have a bottleneck process that this reno is supposed to alleviate. Why don’t we walk through them and see if there is a way of resequencing the interior installation? For example, if the maceration process gets better in the new layout, perhaps we install that process before the stills. This plan is built from a construction perspective based on the most efficient method to get everything finished quickly. But how would you feel if, say, the timeline went out ten weeks, but the critical processes you needed were installed in three weeks instead of six. Like, if we delayed electrical installation of the offices to put people on the production floor sooner and came back to offices later, and you would continue to use these offices here instead.”
“I like this idea,” Em agreed. “Does it affect the cost?”
Cassie thought about the plan, about how much they were already paying, and the fact she was about to make another suggestion they might not agree with. “Don’t worry about the cost. Dad will eat it.”
“Do you need to check with him?” Liv asked.
“No. I’ll sort it out with him. I’m going to suggest something else. Some of the teams are killing time right now. So, I’m going to take them off-site and off your account until the supplies come in. I’m going to dispatch them to the hospital extension Dad’s also doing, to boost the progress over there for the next couple of weeks. The extra hands will push them ahead. And if they finish early, those resources can come over here and swarm the tail end of your project to speed things up.”
“Clever,” Jake said.
“Jake, will you sit with Cassie to go over the resequencing for production?” Emerson asked.
Jake nodded. “It’ll be my pleasure.”
Cassie went over smaller issues, and it was another thirty minutes before they wrapped up.
“This was helpful, Cass. I really appreciate your efforts.” Em grabbed a pile of papers off her desk. “I’m sorry I have to dash, but I have an appointment with the accountant.”
“I’ll walk you out,” Olivia said. “I have a couple of questions I need your agreement on before tomorrow.”
When the sound of their feet disappeared down the hallway, Jake stood and walked over to her. Cassie began to pack away her things, but Jake took hold of her hands. “Have I told you how hot it is when you’re being all intelligent and businesslike?”
Cassie grinned. “In my experience, it isn’t always a trait men like.”
Jake leaned towards her ear. “Well, those men are assholes.”
She looked to the door then back to Jake, worried about being seen by Emerson and Olivia, but the fact Jake took her seriously made her feel mushy inside. “Thank you.”
Jake pressed a chaste kiss on her lips. “I like that we get to spend more time together to figure the scheduling out. I feel like this is something we should discuss naked, with tequila. I do my best work with tequila and nakedness.”