April 2015
| Business World
97
“We worked with some groups to come up
with an inventory system where our custom-
ers could come in and instantly look what we
have in inventory for them. It’s worked very
well,” she said.
“We could see with our inventories that peo-
ple wanted to know exactly what they had
at any given moment in our place because in
the Port of Houston the goal is to turn ev-
erything we get in 30 days for our custom-
ers and if it’s longer than that we have other
yards we use for longer-term storage.”
Keeping up with a society transfixed on the
immediate delivery of information was a
steep learning curve for Rains and AllTrans
Port Services. Placing a heavy stake and in-
vestment on its employees meant putting the
right people in the right place. In a custom-
er-driven industry, every second is a precious
one.
“We have about ten managers and a general
manager at all times during work hours,” she
said. “We have to be open when the ships
are there. Sometimes we have to bring in two
shifts a day to meet a ship’s unloading sched-
ule – having some people come in early and
some people come in later.”
“When I was first selling it was a pay phone
kind of communication in business; as I
would travel, I made prospective contacts
and appointments as I drove from town to
town, fromone payphone to the next,” Rains
continued. “Look where we are as a country
today – everything is instant, we have cell
