Lonnie Miescke Retires After 22 Years with H&S Protection

We knew it had to come. It happens with everyone at some point: time to hang up the spikes and see what comes next in life after a long and successful career. We bid goodbye to Lonnie Miescke a couple of weeks back after a 22-year career with H&S Protection that started with her working at Sentra Protection Systems before the company merged with Horgan Sales and Service to become H&S.

She had a great run with us. Many ups. Many laughs. She’s earned her retirement, her time to enjoy the next step in life. As owners, we’re  thankful to have had Lonnie on board. She was a rock in our Pewaukee office, always caring for customers, joking around with employees and those who came through our doors. She was an integral  part of our company.

We didn’t send her off empty handed at her retirement party. There were many gifts – some funny, others heartfelt. There was a stuffed pheasant in Mike Solomon’s office that she became quite good friends with, petting  it when she stopped by. After many indications she wanted the pheasant, we felt it only appropriate she got to take  her feathered friend  as a reminder of the fun days she had with us.

We saved a Packers doll for her as well, one of those bad luck charms that we hope transforms with Lonnie’s magic touch to become a good luck charm for the Packers in the years ahead. She also received a nice caricature with some of her amusing sayings engraved. We put together a memory box for her, and personal notes from all our employees. Our Stevens Point Office gifted her a camping care basket.

Her retirement party garnered quite the turnout, with over 30 current and former employees attending, along with significant others, as well as others she touched with her unique style. We held the event at Albanese’s Roadhouse, an H&S customer in Waukesha.

H&S will miss Lonnie’s smiling face. We already do. When you entered our Pewaukee office, you knew you’d be greeted with a smile. That meant a lot to us and to our customers. Thank you, Lonnie.

Mike Horgan and Steve Garritson

H&S Protection Co-Owners

Focus and Source Like Crazy!

Unless you’re doing an imitation of an ostrich with your head in the ground, you know there’s been a global supply chain challenge the past couple of years. H&S Protection has its share of difficulties keeping up with the availability of parts, and we’re changing how we do business to ensure our security installations occur on-time and within your budget.

Here are a few issues affecting our supply chain:

  • Tariffs
  • Availability of raw resources
  • Resin shortage
  • Disruptions in microchip supplies
  • Transportation of materials
  • Shortages of truck drivers
  • Fewer manufacturers of card readers

What are we doing about this? The broad answer is that we are more focused on sourcing like crazy. Two years ago, we operated on a just-in-time basis for customer installations. Not any more.

Sometimes it can take three or more days to get the materials we need. We’re ordering earlier to address these shortages. We transfer materials from one installation to another when necessary . We’re improvising  to keep the job pipeline flowing as evenly as possible.

It’s not easy. Our ordering and employees are challenged. But, we’re meeting the demands of this new world in which we live.

We have seen shortages on orders of anywhere from 8 to 24 weeks. We search every supplier possible across the country to fill those gaps. Our inventories can go askew, but we plan ahead, seek alternative sources, get creative in our solutions.

There is no current relief in sight. We may place an order, expecting it to come in eight weeks and we get it in three days, or vice versa. There’s a lot of catching up to do on the manufacturing side, and we recognize this by working it into our planning processes. Everyone is playing catch up.

We’re working for you. We’re adapting, applying new lessons, learning on a daily basis. We’ll keep after it to keep you safe and protected. And, we thank our customers for their patience and understanding as we adjust to this rapidly changing world.