Spotlight on Volunteers by Skip Kay, C.P.M. Communications Chair
February's Interview El Roy Codding NAPM-OC Board of Director

This month we are proud to “Spotlight” El Roy Codding, CPIM, Director on the Board and Sponsor of the Membership Committee.

El Roy was born in Southern California and grew up in Downey. He attended college at California State University Fullerton and graduated with a degree in Business. El Roy has been married for 6 years to his wonderful bride, Marjorie, who teaches 6th grade in the South Whittier school district. Their first child, a girl, is on the way and due on February 28th. There is a baby pool and if she is born on Feb. 26th, this writer will win the $200.00 pool. At home there is a big fluffy white cat named Prince Edward who allows the Codding’s to co-habitat with him.

His hobbies and interests include: Sound technician at Crossroads Community Church, an evening at Disneyland, gardening on the weekends, and golf. And speaking of golf, in last year’s NAPM-OC and Inland Empire joint golf tournament, El Roy rounded up a team of “duffers” and claims to have had a fantastic time. As you know, the proceeds of that golf tournament will go back to the membership in the form of C.P.M. test reimbursement. We hope to continue this on an annual basis.

El Roy works at Racal Instruments in Irvine and commented: “The environment is a little unusual whereby we work in manufacturing “Cell Groups” to build automated test equipment. From the outside I would consider this a type of job shop where I, the buyer, work closely with electrical and mechanical design engineers, assemblers, planning and sales to provide a custom unit per our customer’s specifications.”

El Roy has been a member of NAPM-OC for two years. His boss encourages everyone in the Purchasing group to become active members, and pursue their C.P.M. certifications. El Roy is also a member of APICS and has earned his CPIM Certification.

A Director on the Board of NAPM-OC, and sponsor of the Membership Committee, El Roy is also involved with the upcoming “Forum” scheduled for Saturday, June, 7, 2003 at Coastline Community College’s Garden Grove Center. The “Forum” is an ideal event for low cost, high return educational training designed for procurement types throughout Southern California to develop your “Skills and Strategies in Today’s Business Environment”.

When asked about his most interesting Purchasing experience, El Roy reminisced: “When I worked at Parker Hannifin’s Flight Systems Division, we were given the task of sourcing the parts and assembly needed for the hydro mechanical portion of Boeing’s B717. My portion was focused on the hardware, plastic and MRO items. During the two years I was there, I was instrumental in establishing two separate facilities; the first to be as close to the customer as possible, and the second because we were growing so fast.”

"For example, before the last move there were over 100 people in the building, but only 2 single stall restrooms. (1 men’s and 1 women’s) As the MRO buyer I had to source portable restrooms with holding tanks to accommodate the workforce. This was an extremely sensitive and highly visible project. Not to mention the repulsive logistics of scheduling a pump truck to empty a septic tank weekly. I was overjoyed to move when the time came, and extremely disappointed when the program was canceled, but the experience for me as a new buyer will never be forgotten.“