Cindy Tran Profile

McDaniels
February 1, 2016
834 words

Meet the woman helping new business make

presence in Pico Rivera

PICO RIVERA, CALIF.For residents in Pico Rivera looking for equipment to

complete construction projects, a new option just opened in their own
backyard.
Construction equipment company Noble Iron celebrated the grand opening
of its new Pico Rivera depot that will serve customers in Southern California
on January 22. The grand opening came months after the company began
bringing equipment to the new location last May.
Noble Iron offers the option to rent or buy construction equipment and
accessories, including forklifts, backhoes and light towers. The company also
has a software division, Texada Software, and has another depot in Houston,
Texas.
As a company that specializes in construction equipment, logistics play a
major role in ensuring the success of Noble Iron. Cindy Tran, who works at

the Pico Rivera facility, is the Manager of Logistics Operations at Noble Iron
and is in charge of several facets of the company.
I manage the supply chain, Tran said. Within supply chain, you have
operations that lead to inventory control, purchasing, transportation as
well as order fulfillment.
Tran has 23 years of experience in her field, but she has taken a long road to
get where she is today. Tran came to the United States from Vietnam with
her family in 1975 and eventually made it to California, where she attended
California State University, Long Beach originally to study criminal justice.
She took a job in transportation to help pay for college and that job gave her
experience in supply chain work. After two years of working in the industry,
she left college to pursue a career in supply chain, so she never graduated.
She worked at several companies before coming to Noble Iron, including
Callaway Golf Company, Beats by Dr. Dre, AVNS Distribution and Powerwave
Technologies Inc. Tran said that most of her traveling has come from work
and she estimated she has traveled to about 36 countries. Through her
various jobs, the main lessons she learned revolved around being good at
exchanging information with other people.
(It) really is how you communicate, Tran said. How do you get projects
done? How do you choose the right suppliers? How do you manage the
suppliers? How do you negotiate with the airlines and everything else? You
are dealing with movement for air, ocean, sea, truck and really working with
suppliers to make sure you have your commodity completed on time. So
thats where (the) majority of the footprint is.
Tran began working for Noble Iron in 2014 and her job introduced her to
some areas in her field that she had not worked in previous jobs, but she said
her previous experience comes in handy while working in accordance to
Noble Irons business model.
I look at what Ive done in the past to actually incorporate that into Noble
Iron, Tran said. Noble Iron was a basic rental company. They had a division
for dealership and they had a division for software. So now me coming in is
more of trying to bridge all those gaps together.
Noble Iron used to have four locations in Southern California, including in
Ventura, San Diego, Long Beach and Riverside, but Noble Iron began
consolidating those four locations in one facility and that chosen depot was
in Pico Rivera.

We realized that we needed to be centralized, Tran said. We picked Pico

Rivera cause its right smack in the middle of L.A. We continue to have stuff
moving in here, but still (have) made our deliveries on time.
Carlos Cruz, who is the Executive Director of the Pico Rivera Chamber of
Commerce, is looking forward to how Pico Rivera will benefit from Noble
Irons presence in the community.
Theyre (Noble Iron) looking at bringing their sales team out of Texas to the
City of Pico Rivera, Cruz said. Therell be an opportunity for Pico Rivera
residents and some of our neighboring cities to find an opportunity at Noble
Iron, so thats always a positive to create jobs.
Cruz said Noble Iron currently employs about 40 people in Pico Rivera, with
around 20 to 25 new job openings coming in the near future. These jobs
could provide a boost to the citys employment situation.
According to the 2010 United States Census, 55 percent of Pico Rivera
residents 16 years of age and older were employed and 40 percent were not
in the labor force. Of all the Pico Rivera residents 16 years of age and older
who were civilian employed in 2008-2010, only 5.8 percent of them held jobs
in the construction industry.
The city is looking at doing business with Noble Iron, Cruz said. Were
putting together manufacturer and industrial roundtables, so that will give
Noble Iron another opportunity to meet potential clients.
As Noble Iron and the City of Pico Rivera work on building a relationship, Tran
says Noble Iron is ready to assist residents of the Pico Rivera community.
We will try to help you get what it is that youre looking for. If we dont have
it, well look for it.