Nov 27, 2019

Life Inside CENIC: Manuel Ortiz and Inventory Control

Manuel Ortiz is highly organized, which is important in his role as CENIC’s Inventory Control Clerk. Ortiz meticulously catalogs thousands of pieces of hardware, mostly network equipment, which provides CENIC with clear visibility of its many physical assets and helps CENIC’s network engineers better serve the needs of CENIC members. Simply put, Ortiz ensures that CENIC is a good steward of member resources.

“A point of pride for me is when someone says they are looking for a certain chassis or power supply, for example, and I can quickly say, ‘It’s in Room 3 on Shelf 1B. You can’t miss it,’” Ortiz said. “It makes me proud to know that I’m making life easier for someone else.”

Inventory control and asset management are critical functions within CENIC’s Administrative Services and Facilities Department. The team is led by the Coordinator for Administrative Services and Office Facilities, Joe Gradillas, who is assisted by Ortiz and two part-time student interns.

Tackling Challenges and Finding Success

Ortiz is responsible for maintaining stock levels on a large number of parts that are frequently used, such as optical transponders and jumpers. Whenever equipment is received, he verifies the equipment against purchase orders, documents receipt by serial number, stores each item in an appropriately designated area, and coordinates with CENIC’s accounting team on reconciling invoices. In addition, Ortiz assists Gradillas with maintaining accurate records during the myriad changes in status and/or location of each piece of equipment throughout its life cycle. The challenge is maintaining real-time information about all of CENIC’s inventory across a variety of staff with different roles. His responsibilities require Ortiz to engage with every one of the teams across CENIC, from contract management, project management, and accounting to engineering and network operations to systems and tools.

Because so many staff handle equipment every day, and items are shipped all over the state or replaced through Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) or refresh activities, Ortiz must be constantly vigilant in his monitoring and record-keeping duties. “When people move items around, inventory visibility can easily be lost,” Ortiz said. One of his biggest successes has been establishing a more rigorous process for handling the decommissioning of equipment that is at the end of its life cycle.

Shaping His Role

Ortiz joined CENIC in June 2018, after working in inventory control for more than 20 years at organizations such as Seiko Epson and the Northrop Grumman aerospace and defense company. At CENIC, Ortiz helped define and shape his role, adding to the systems used for inventory control. His work is driven by his values of hard work, clear organization, and efficiency. Ortiz said he likes working at CENIC because the culture supports teamwork and camaraderie among staff.

Effective inventory management is just one way that CENIC maintains a world-class computing network that is reliable, robust, and cost-effective for the roughly 20 million users in California who rely on CENIC to power innovation, collaboration, and economic growth.

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