In today’s fast paced world it’s easy to equate a busy schedule with productivity and success. When speaking with other businesses that ice breaker question is often asked: “are you busy?” If the answer is anything but: “Yes” we take it as a negative. So if the answer was “not particularly” the person asking the question would likely respond with a sympathetic and reassuring comment like: “oh never mind, I’m sure it’ll pick up soon”.
Now I totally understand that a lot of businesses require a constant turnover of work to keep afloat. So please forgive the words I am about to write.
If someone asked me today: “are you busy?” my reply would be: “I am myself with quoting and working on the business but production isn’t” and as I said above that would be taken as a negative, and in someways it is, If we’re not making furniture, we’re not earning. But also we have a workshop, that when we’re flat out busy (like we have been for a long time) takes a back seat and gets heavily used (as it should), things get put off and when this starts to happen it’s going to go horribly wrong at some point. So we take rare quiet times like this as an opportunity and make the most of it. Here’s what we’ve been getting up to:
- We’ve cleaned the workshop top to bottom and repainted the walls, making a much nicer environment for the lads to work in.
- We’ve performed necessary maintenance and service on the machines which will allow them to run smoothly when needed and hopefully extend their life.
- We’ve tidied up and rearranged all the tool racks making the tools we use regularly more accessible.
- We’ve taken part in some online training courses to improve our knowledge on Health and Safety.
- Some of the guys have been on physical courses to improve their skills as cabinetmakers.
- We’ve had refresher courses on first aid.
- The guys have been producing jigs for fittings we use regularly to speed up manufacture and quality in the future.
- We’ve carried out maintenance on the vans and had parts replaced which needed replacing i.e. tyres windscreens etc.
- Leaving the best till last we’ve bought a new extraction system which is due to be installed next week.
Now all of these jobs are things that needed to be done, however to carry them out during a really busy time would have been majorly disruptive to our workload and commitments, especially the new extractor which would prevent us from using our large machines for over a week as there would be no way of extracting the dangerous dust they produce, with doing this now we don’t have to inform any customers of downtime or delayed installs as we are well ahead in production as a precaution. So, in a week or so we’ll have a brand new extraction system improving the environment for our team in the workshop and the quality of our product being manufactured.
With all these tasks now or soon to be completed we don’t have to worry about them for a while, so when all the large orders come in, which they will, we will be ready!
Along with all the tasks detailed above, times like these allow us to focus more on the jobs we do have, it allows us to think outside the box and challenge the norm, which potentially leads to improved methods and processes.
So if you need a fast turnaround on a project, require some consultation on a project which is in the pipe line or require prototypes producing feel free to get in touch, we are in a position to offer our usual top quality service but without the usual lead times.
Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings and have a great weekend.
Adam.
