b58 during install

 
 

my position

things are going great for the company now. The team is working as seamlessly as ever, we are able to obtain all the materials that we need, our infastructure is holding up, and the phone continues to ring. We took a fast track job this past week and completed it in 48 hours. Only because we work together as a team can we do that. Doing small quick jobs is a big part of our position in the market place with general contractors or construction managers. Some times design changes come up quickly and their man power is otherwise occupied, and you can't always build everything on a job site. That is where our shop comes in. It is important to remember that we can only do this if we are ahead of schedule in our production otherwise we wouldn't have time.
Our position in the market place is varied. We have different positions going at the same time. We don't view the homeowner with a cabinet job the same way that we view a general contractor who uses us over and over again. Both of these positions are equally important, and I can see this business surving on either one. I have chosen to build both positions for this company.
The painting of b67 is coming along very well. Esteban will be making all the pedestals for those cabinets next week. I will start to formulate the install lists and delivery order. I was at the job earlier this week for a look see. The plastering is underway. The floors would be the next thing to go in before the cabinets but we will have to see how the client wants it.
B58 really could use my attention. I have got to get going with the remaining parts and assembly. But you know I cannot I ma held up right now by the hood not being connected, and I can't close in the hood. So we wait. also the electrician needs to connect the in cabinet lighting at the desk, he may have done that by now. I will need to stop by next week and check it out.
That could be one of my biggest challenges. I don't get up to date info on job progress. I could really use video of the job site so I can see what is happening and make my install plans accordingly. That will never happen. Having someone on the road making deliveries and checking the status, that I see, that we would call the expediter. Just like in big restaurants. That is the model, my shop is the kitchen, job sites are the tables. One person is in charge of the kitchen, and one person is in charge of the tables.

touch-up problems

The 10 gallons for b67 has arrived and we will start to paint all the cabinetry, and ready for installation.
We have to buy more paint for b58, bummer because the second batch can be sometimes a little different than the first batch, We have painted most everything that is together and all that is left is the molding and some other cabinets that are across the room.
We should start building b76 by the end of this week. that is a job that we haven't talked to much about other than design. It is a very attractive kitchen designed by Jackie Whalen of Whalen interiors. I would call it English country style, it will have a glazed finish which has always been a challenge for us. Now I think we will handle it better because we are actually ahead of schedule. It is easier to do things when you have more time. We work well under pressure and I think I excel when the pressure is on. When we have the comfort of time we drop the ball less.
We did some touch-up on a job in Cambridge today for an a rated client. It didn't do to smooth. I should have put it off until today but chose to do it today and we ran out of time because we had to h ave our bi annual meeting. Sometimes i feel like such a loser why can I plan better. I need to spend more time working up my plan of attack. The bigger mistakes today were this: The paint was supplied by others and we were not used to working with it, We didn't bring all the right tools, I chose to buy a spray can that we could spray any paint through, the device was a joke it through out a hideous mix of paint with no room for adjustment. We need a portable spray device that is professional grade. And then on top of that the finish that was on the cabinets to begin with poor. These are manufactured cabinets, the gc my a rated client(new mind you)should have used us to build the cabinets. I think he'll use us next time.
Then we had our bi-annual meeting with the staff. it was awkward as usual. My guys are shy and don't seem to have anything to say. I think that I need to do something different next time to get these guys relaxed to the point where they will open up a little bit. The weekly staff meeting is better than the bi-annuals. The bi-annual has a weird feeling to it. We are all craftsman and in some cases anti-social, creative types. I take it all to personally, I shouldn't. I have got some ideas on how to relax things for next time.

still forgetting

I took all of my dimensions for the fronts of job c78. It went very well, although I did forget to get the drawer box dimensions. So I will need to return to the site for that, kind of a pain, but that is life. The finish color for b67 has been chosen and now we will order ten gallons. Sondu has started doing some administrative type of work here at the shop. We are very lucky for that, typically the administration person is not that familiar with the operation, which can cause some confusion. Sondu is very familiar with the operation and already knows who the vendors are and how they relate to the business. He also knows how to input the data from the time sheets. So it is very handy.

buying hardwood

A very common scene in my life. I am at the hardwood dealer buying lumber. I am there buying two different types of wood, cherry and soft maple. Both are four quarter material. That means that they are 1" thick and they are unfinished meaning not smoothed. when I surface plane and true up their faces they will yield a thickness of 7/8" or less definitely 3/4". The measuring tool can be seen laying across the lumber, this is the tool the tally man uses to measure the amount of board feet in a particular stick of wood. Look at the close up. The SM means wood type here soft maple. The 10 means the length of the stick, and the 7 is the quantity of board feet which for the maple I will pay somewhere around $3.50/bdft making this stick around $25.00 check my math on that. On the tool, the first column of numbers indicates the lenght of the board. As you go across you can see the opposite edge of the board falls in the seven square. That tells the tally man that their are seven board feet in this stick to charge the customer. What I want to point out is the area of margin here. So I try to buy boards that are on the wider side of that 1 inch margin. This board is also tallied prior to going into a shelf in a lot when their is a greater chance for error, so this needs to be monitored. Also you can see that their is no row for an eight foot piece of lumber, which is very common. The tally man has to divide the 16 row in half in his or her head when tallying the stick, yet another chance of error. And what about boards that vary in their widths as you go down the lenght. The following is why I buy the wood myself at Kidder Blasidell.


1. buyer has to be able to spot quality wood, and know when to buy what by seeing the quality of what is on the shelf. I compare it to a tobacco buyer walking through a warehouse and selecting the bails of tobacco.
2. buyer needs to know what wood is most needed for what we are to build next, so he can chose to not buy a wood that is of poor quality and wait until next time when the available selections might be better.
3. buyer needs to be able to identify straightness in boards
4. buyer needs to be able to chose widths that are on the larger side of the widht margin
5. buyer need to be able to spot mistakes in the tally mans calculations
6. buyer needs to know how to see through the fuzziness of the rough cut to see and understand grain pattern. especially with cherry and other woods to be in clear finished cabinets
7. buyer needs to be able to load the truck in a way that cares for the wood and keeps dry and clean and straight
8. Now fair is fair and we should take our fair share of the scuds or at least look like we do, we will lose the respect of the vendor if we simply take all their choice boards so it needs to be done delicately. And the bins must be returned to a clean neatly stacked condition after we have rifled through them.

there are 8 reasons why buying the wood is so important, the obvious one is that the quality of the finished product depend greatly on the quality of the beginning product, it is the old adage garbage in garbage out.

our core values

The phase two of c78 didn't go quite as smooth as phase one. There are some very challenging site conditions that we didn't fully anticipate. Gagan was able to overcome them with ease but just not totally smooth. After today we will be 100% complete with phases one and two of c78. Also we will be 100% complete with the a61 pool box.

the oven cabinet for b58 will be ready for install on wed. hopefully. Perhaps as late as Thursday, but only because of the companies fun event tomorrow. this is maybe our sixth fun event, I am personally really looking forward to it. At our staff meeting today I went over the first four essential steps of becoming an effective work group. I think they could possibly be our core values, creating an effective work is a core value of kidder blaisdell so it's only natural that the steps to being an effective work group are also core values, and here they are.

1. A sense of dependency, that means team members are dependant on me, and I am dependant on them.
2. A sense of structure and organization, that means defining what we do and defining how we do it.
3. A sense of inclusion, that means that everyone one the team feels included
4. constructive conflict, it surfaces and goes away quickly

those are Kidder Blaisdell's core values. I am not going to proclaim that we will deliver unsurpassed products, because that would be a con and everyone knows it. It is impossible to please everyone. Our values are in providing a living for ourselves a sustained living that we can depend on through any economic climate. We deliver fantastic cabinets and mill work that we work very hard on and we offer a great value by focusing on how we do what we do. Hence the effective work group. Now this is easier said then done, so all the time I go over these first four steps. Any one of my employees should be able to recite these four steps with out hesitation, and that takes repetition, repetition, repetition and to the new guys you need to hear it more and more until you start to see how powerful being in an effective work group can be. Also how rewarding and satisfying it can be, personally.

Gagan couldn't make it to work today, so I had to cover his shift. So I installed the rest of phase one cabinetry for c78. And it went smooth. It is all due to thye fact that I came to the job and took real time dimensions of the plaster walls. The cabinets went in one after the other poerfectly as planned. I think that says alot. The job site at c78 is a little scatterd and out of control. The Contractor though is a really noce guy and has all really nice guys on the job site. It has been such a pleasure to do job where everything fits smoothly. I got into the shop early to day and got everything that i needed for the install today loaded up. I installed today only what I needed and only what I brought with me. just as we planned. It is a good representation of my vision for my buisness. Where there are installers installing cabinets and an expediter who is bringing the cabinets from the shop to the jobs on a daily basis, Modeled after a resteraunt expedtier who brings the food to the tables as it is prepared. No need to have food sitting around no need to have cabinets sitting around. Tomorrow Gagan will return and the two of us will load up all the wall cabinets and head to the job tomorrow in two vehicles. I will brief Gagan on the job and leave it to him to complete the phase 2 of the install. When I return on Monday I will get to the job and get my dimensions for phase three.

B58 is lagging behind momentarily. Althought it does appear that Esteban has begun fabricating parts for the oven cabinet. That will make the cabinet ready to install sometime next week.

I went to another home building seminar at Van Millwork today co-sponsered by Desing New England magazine. It was really great, the Classic Group spoke and interior desingers that they work with also. I really liked everything that they had to say. Both organizations have done some amazing projects in their careers. I posted earlier on my blog about these seminars. Personally I think they are a good idea, mostly in the audience are home owners who will have projects of their own, who need to get info about how Construction projects opperate.

what is manufacturing

We had problems today with the plans for c78. When I sent in the revised plans to be printed I accidentally sent over the originals. So I wasted a trip to the printer. When I delivered the a61 cabinet I forgot the doors and the shelves. a61 is a beautiful pool box type cabinet that Esteban finished,which Gagan started on Friday. A great example of how we are manufacturers and not just craftsman or artist. You see one person started the cabinet and a different person finished it. And then the boss dropped the ball on delivery. A classic, but no that defines manufacturing, one person starts what others finish. my First point is why didn't I spend more time thinking before I left the shop to make sure I was fully loaded. Why didn't I spend the few seconds thinking before I email the wrong plans.

Anyways, c78 install is going to happen tomorrow as planned, I will start the install in the afternoon.. Thursday morning I will brief Gagan and lead him to complete phase 2 of the install. Then I will go in and confirm my specs for the fronts and all parts for phase 3 install where we bring it home. We have two weeks to get ready, stay tuned. I'd like to point out here that Esteban built the cabinets, myself and gagan will install and Ventura will apply the finish. Again manufacturing as a effective work group. People with different skill sets working in harmony, handing off goods, aligning people's individual strenghts. This is what we are working at all the time.
The oven cab for b58 won't be ready until Friday minimum. So Gagan will have to install that cabinet by himself this weekend, and may need help from Esteban or Ventura. I am out for the weekend, although, I will have my laptop with me.

3d rendering

Wow last night I started messing around with Solid works. In a short period of time I was able to create a 3d rendering of an L scribe, which is a standard part here. Pretty exciting, I don't really know what i am doing but, I did it. We initially are going to use the software for in house operations. Some day we will have computers on the shop floor and the bench men will be using them for building specs.
We have a training event scheduled for this week, maybe I should use that to begin teaching about the companies computer directory and how to get and open autocad files and solid works files.
We should be completing the next a61 job today, and delivering tomorrow. I put of the install of c78 until late wed. afternoon. I will get an afternoon jump start and then be able to hand it off to Gagan on thur. morning. I am concerned about the oven cabinet install. I may have to leave that up to Gagan for Friday. This is of course assuming that it is built and painted by then.

Solid Works

Last night I loaded solid works onto my pc. It is a three dimensional drawing tool. It is made by the same people that made autocad so I should be able to open an autocad file in solid works and turn it into a three dimensional. That is pretty advance to start with I will probably just be making images for in house purposes and training. The software interest me because of how it integrates so easily with cam software, which is post processing software for a cnc machine. Which I am hoping to purchase sometime in 09.

I have completed the shops for c78. That job is a small kitchen. We look at it as a opportunity to practice our technique. I broke the job down in the shop drawing phase. it has 11 cabinets, 4 pedestals, and some standard items. I made a list of all the parts and also I made an installation order. So on the first day of the install I will have exactly what I need to install. And then the second day and so on. I am figuring a three to four day install period. where phase one is taking two days phase two takes one day and phase three one day. With a small job like this we can easily see what makes sense to be installed in phase two or three.
We have already started build c78 so our install will begin this coming week.

I went to b67 this week which was scheduled for install mid June. I think we will be holding finished cabinets for a little bit there. Luckily we have the room so its not a problem. But it is a good example of how the schedule in residential constructing is so fluid. Time lines are always changing and being renegotiated. We really have to be flexible with our installation schedule.
I have alot of new work to bid out this week, and a meeting with a potentially new client FBN Construction. I am excited about that, they are in the fantastic 12 that I mentioned earlier from the RDC show. Also, I should be hearing about some other work that I bid out, that is weather or not I got the jobs.
I have the shops completed for the oven cabinet at b58. I could not complete them because I couldn't get the exact specs of the appliacnces when they were combined. This is a oven, warming drawer stack. When they are combined up it gets complicated to figure on how they assemble. For me it is much easier to just get the appliances and measure them directly.

5th day b58 install

Now we are five days into the install at b58 and things are going great. I realize now that next time we install a large beam again that we need to install a super structure first and then apply the face like a veneer. We made the fronts of the beam actually make up the beam itself. Which is fine but it creates some challenges. It is harder to install and practically impossible to adjust after the install. so you have got to be dead on the first time. The install completely changes the space. In five days we have brought a kitchen into the project. The install was executed perfectly and our list of install ingredients has worked very well. One thing that also helped was the amount of time that we had to prepare. We went over and over and over the parts list tweaking it and refining it. It has paid off. What a pleasure it was to install mill work after mill work that fit together, just a planned. This will be a job that will go down in the history books as smooth. We have a chance to install this one in less time than I estimated which could be a first.
I also need to give credit to the client. His job site is well organized and in good order. We didn't have to move a bunch of appliances around and huge piles off debris. The room was left empty and very clean when we started our install.

install procedure

The install of b58 is going very well so far. We are only two days in and we have two more days to go in this initial install, phase 1. Some things that we could have done differently is to use a better laser, I was thinking that one that can easily adjust to a different height. As far as an installation guide goes I don't know how or where to put the info, I suppose for now I should use a word doc. It would go as follows:
check floors for level
check walls for plumb
check ceiling for level
determine the outside parameters of the cabinetry, in this case it is the refrigerator enclosure, and the banquet, panel, wall cabinet piece.
determine that the finished height of floor and ceiling is accurate to the shop drawings
determine the top line to use as a reference, that is because the bottom edge of the crown needs to relate to the cabinets consistently over the entire cabinet, for us that means that the top inside edge of the face frame or paneling needs to be in this case anywhere from 1.5" to 1.75" below the bottom edge of crown.
Once you know where the top of the cabinet is set all the cabinets and panels from that
snap a line on the floor at 25" from the walls this represents the face of the base cabinets
Snap a line 3.75" inside of that line, that represents the front edge of the pedestals
determine your pedestal height generally we assume a half inch space between the pedestal bottom and the floor for shimming, it is not uncommon for a floor to be out of level by as much as an inch.
I will be working on that as time goes on.

We blew off our Kaizen event Friday. I was just to excited about the install at b58 to pull away. We will jump on that Monday morning, we are going to relocate the dust collection switch. We are going to move it out into the center off the shop. I notice that the collector runs constantly because the on off switch is so far away from the shop floor. my current electric bill is $1000.00. Wow that is big and the motor on the dust collector is huge. Also there is no need to put the wear and tear on the motor if it is not being used, And then lastly it is a waste
of energy.

This week there is another rush job for a61 another box like the trash bins. I need to draw that get them approved and get up to NH to buy the cedar all by wed.