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Wednesday, August 27, 2008

what I love

We started off with our weekly staff meeting today. IT was better than normal. It lasted about 45min which is longer than usual. I talked about what I learned in Atlanta at the IWF conference. I got some good feed back from Gagan about how everyone was stressed out last week by the deadlines. feed back is not always easy to get. We have some intense deadlines right now. We are beginning to slip behind, I start to get freakish and it goes down the line. I keep trying to remember that it is only woodwork and nothing to get worked up about. What Gagan said is that he had deadlines and wanted help from the other team members, but they had their own deadlines. This is where the constructive conflict will arise. Conflict is so necessary for an effective work group. We cannot avoid conflict it must be met and dealt with. Especially conflict over priorities. We are trying to please our costumers most off the time it is easy, but sometimes the shop can get really intense and loaded with work. Every one is working 50-60 hours a week, which seems to be what we all want.
There was a lot of talk about working over 40 hours a week in the Atlanta show. People where saying that it is ineffective to work over 40 hours a week. I say that if the competition is working over 40 weeks then how are yoiu going to pull ahead if you don't?
After our staff meeting we went straight into a kaizen event. An over due Kaizen event. We had no choice but to use it to clean and reorganize the shop, our silent team member.
I heard someone say that they wanted to lead the next kaizen event. $200.00 cash bonus to anyone who leads a kaizen event in my shop that is a standing offer.

It reminded me of a time when an old employee of mine shouted out into the shop of four or five guys and said "ALRIGHT EVERYBODY LETS GET GOING" I had never seen that kind of leadership in this person or anyone since. Sondu that was you.
Well I took part in the event and it felt great. Their is nothing more that i love than being in my shop with my team mates cleaning and prepping our shop for business.

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Monday, August 25, 2008

I love okoume


here is a shop picture. It is a good example of the wide variety of jobs that we will take on. Our client needed this part very quickly. We delivered this piece with in three days primed twice with thick exterior oil based primer. This rafter and a few other smaller ones. We built this out of Okoume marine grade plywood. Which I bought at Boulter Plywood. I was in Boulter Plywood today for some more okoume this picture is about 6 weeks old, and some 8/4 poplar that we needed for b90 interior doors. As expected I was brought out into full laughter, we all laughed together as they told me that they would give me net 120 days with a 2% discouunt. Just for the record I am COD with Boulter but is sure was funny as I think we both thought about the slow paying customers that we have. And how they treat you, like you owe them more favors.
Today I installed the next phase of b76 which was built while I was away. It fit like a glove, to my happiness. It was hard work, and very humid today. I will return tomorrow with more stuff to install.

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Sunday, August 24, 2008

more thoughts on IWF conference

Yes buy a cheaper machine and do what I can with it. Actually I will be buying no machines until late first quarter 09. It is a company initiative to build up cash reserves. We are going to focus more on how we do what we do. I know that i have talked about that much. But the one thing that stands out the most for me from all the classroom time I spent in Atlanta which was about 10 hours is that good systems with old and tired machines will out perform bad systems with the best machines. So we don't really need anything machinery wise now. We can get along just fine with what we have. We need most importantly to do our kaizen events, develop our lean material tags, and make a maintenance schedule that we can actually work.
We need to focus on working as a team, and taking on more responsibility as team members. We need to focus on following our plans(shop drawings) which means I need to put more time in on them. many of the mistakes we make now are because the shop drawings are incomplete(my fault) and that the staff doesn't study them enough(staff's fault). And I am not trying to place blame every one makes mistakes, and we will always make mistakes and we will always look at why we make mistakes so we can limit them and learn how to catch them before we waste more of company assets.
I am going to be working more closely with Ventura, our finisher. He is about to go one year with the company which was a goal for 08. As the finisher, he is one of our best quality control guys. I need to spend more time with him and teach him to catch costly mistakes, I want him to do that, and I want to increase his pay in return.

One of things I am starting to realize about this industry as a whole from my latest trip to the IWF convention is that the industry marketers are influencing the business owners. Most of the seminars are sponsored by associations, and trade journals. They are picking and choosing the speakers, most of the speakers are talking heads and they are laying out the facts of any given topic. But business owners don't need facts they need specific steps of what to do. The industry marketers have all these softwares and machines to do different tasks. And they make it appear that business owners can't do it with out their goods. The thing is is that everyones business is different. The software and machines are so broad trying to be marketed to a wide selection of people. You can't take a broad usage and apply it to all these different types of buisnesses it just doesn't work. The business owner needs to be smarter than that. They need to look at their own business and decide how they can compete successfully. I mean it is a no brainer, if we all have the same software and machines than what makes us any different from one another. It is the same for out sourcing doors and drawer fronts. If everyone has the same fronts for their cabinets than what makes any different than everyone else. Not to mention that out sourced fronts all look like massed produced garbage.
I really liked the seimnars and the marketing tactics that it allowed for those involved.
I will always go to the seminars, I feel like I could have gained more from them, I should have taken better notes, not on topic matter(that was 90% useless) but on who the speakers where and what each of them had to say specifically so I could walk away with notes that have the speakers name, contact info, and there comments that primarily conflicted with my own. I figure that if they conflicted with my own thoughts than they were probably worth considering.
IWF is all about the seminars and who is speaking. The show is fill in of the seminars. Any one should able to keep up on the new machines, the show is also good to see the machines in person and take them apart to see how they are made. It is also a good time to buy machines because there will be good discounts on the demo models. The sales people are completely useless and annoying actually, they don't know anything about running a business and many of them can't even talk knowledgeably about their respective industry. I would say that 20% of the sales people have use.
At this show there were about 30 software companies, with exhibits. I hope they have other plans because our industry doesn't need that many and I think that in the near future we will see many of those companies fall by the way side. Design, machine, and code software will all be combined within the next two years and who ever is the first to do it will succeed. As for me I am going to focus on AutoCad and Solidworks, with an emphasis on solidworks as being the choice software for design and machining.
Gero from the cabinet makers association had the best advice for software he said use excel. A simple spread sheet that individual's design for their own purpose will help them out much more than some one stop shopping software solution made and supported from some dude in India that will do everything for you. All you have to do is sit back and watch. Not.

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Saturday, August 23, 2008

conference comments

The show is over and now i am contemplating all that I learned. I looked at many different machines that I am interested. I looked at every different type of multi head molder that was there, It does seem obvious to me that the best name in molders is Weinig, a German company, they are also the most expensive. One thing that I learned and it contrary to my beliefs thus far in machines is that good systems with bad machinery will out perform bad systems with good machinery. Now I also believed that a machinery purchase was for life and it was prudent to buy the absolute best on the market. I am starting to change my position on that. The Weinig machine is twice as expensive as the cheapest machine. The quality of he weining is apparent by the naked eye, the casting are larger, the whole thing is more refined. Same thing with Martin shapers. Ether the Weinig molder or the Martin shaper is 60k. And both will last me the life of my business, which is important to remember. There are many other things that I need to consider, like I don't need to use these machines they way they are designed for. these machine could run all day everyday. Fact is that I will use my machines maybe 15% of that, maybe I don't need the best because my business doesn't demand the best. Also for many businesses like mine I would need to borrow the money. Also for many buisnesses like mine loaned out money becomes a 500 lb. gorilla that will stifle my growth. The cheap machines are built in China. I don't know if that is a problem or not especially when I need parts done the road. The market seems to shy away from chines e machines, I think they are just feeling threatened. The weak dollar is also hurting the European machine makers. But fact is that I am looking at this from a pragmatic stand point, I need function and cost that is it. I don't want to waste my money simply because the industry feels threatened by China's machines. Nor would be happy about marrying myself to a European company, I would prefer to buy an American made machine, but I didn't see any at the IWF. I am not going to compromise all my available funds into one machine. So we are competing, and it is survival of the fittest I think it will be best for me to buy a cheaper machine and do what I can with it. will post more later.

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Friday, August 22, 2008

first thoghts at conference

This week I am at Atlanta Ga IWF convention. It is the woodworking convention to be at. All of the latest machinery and supplies are in one place. There are lots of learning seminars as well. I am attending 6 of the 13 seminars. Much of what they are talking about in the seminars I am already doing. Especially the things related to high profit companies. Which I am not, sadly, but we are on our way. Open book management, training sessions, and kaizen events, and fun events. The biggest thing that they point out that high profit companies do is: doing a little bit better at everything that they do, which adds up to double profit, and they talking 5%-10% profit margins. They are saying that material cost are seriously escalating, and not showing any signs of going down.

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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

everyday struggle

we started the install of b67 on saterday. Saterday is very important day for our company. One thing is that it a chance for the farm team to work, or rather a chance for me to get to work with the farm team. Anybody who starts out with Kidder starts out on the farm team workimg on saterdays.
The install went well everything fit as it was planned. One problem that I had which is a constant problem is the height of the pedestals relative to the finished floor. It is a constant problem for me. We ran into this problem again on Monday when I started the kitchen install of b76.
I know what is causing this. A ways back I decided we decided my team and I that the bench man who is building the cabinets should make the boxes after he makes the face frame to expedite the engineering process. When that happens there is a lot of ambiguity as to the height of the pedestal.
I have given this much thought over the last 24 hours. And I think I have a solution. We will incorporate Gagan's idea of fixing the pedestal height with wood strips screwed to the side of the pedestal. In conjunction with that I think that some type of leg leveler would also be good. I want to try and make all the pedestals the same height and then only change the width of the side strips. The leg levelers would come in handy when leveling the cabinet after it has been placed on the pedestals if need be. I need to think about this some more, but I know that our current operation needs to be improved because I am shimming up the pedestals by inches or chopping them down on site. Rarely it seems that the pedestals are the correct height.
The install of b76 is going very smooth, the only problem is that I don't have any time. The first day I was able to start was this Monday, and the client is moving in this coming Monday. That gives me one week, completely out of the question. This is amatuer hour by all means. Get real people.

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Wednesday, August 13, 2008

profile grinding

I have been profiling like crazy lately. We got our profile machine tuned up. The most important advancement in the machine is that I can now dress the wheel to match the stylelous which is the pin that the template rides against. This ensure precision, we are now measuring the grinding wheel to the nearest thousandth. I am finishing my knives by taking only 2 or 3 thousandths off at a time. I am still burning the knives on the plunge cut that removes the majority of the stock. The problem that I am having now is that I can't figure out the correct speed of the cutting wheel to eliminate the burning. The are so many factors that come into play with grinding that it is very hard to know what to do with out experience. I have found a book that I have learned so much from, and a mechanic with some expereince came by my shop and showed me a few things, that was very helpful. Pat Farmer is his name and he is very knowledgeable about profile grinding for the woodworking industry.

I am working on the knives for job b76. Today I made my best knives ever. Yesterday I made the knives for a base cap for job b58, they came out really good and they are totally proprietary, making my work very unique.

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Monday, August 11, 2008

cuff cabinets

We have completed job a85 and delivered it on Friday. I think the client had more work for us which is exciting this could turn out to be a very good thing for us. In the A clients we are particularly interested in the repeatable prospects.
We should be wrapping up b80 which came out beautifully I will be posting photos of that as soon as possible. That should also lead to more work, The architect Gleystein design seems very impressed with what we did.
A87 should also be finished this week. A87 is a very solid cabinet. It is cabinetry designed for a pool house which is a wet environment. We built the cabinet out of maple plywood with solid wood edging. The face frame is mahogany to be painted. You can imagine the strength.
The main focus for this week is b76. A kitchen with a glazed finish. We should be able to begin install this week. I am going to the job site today for a survey. Many times they tell me it is ready but I get there and it isn't ready.
Like last week. I went to a job to install a vanity but the tile guy was there doing the grout. Why didn't the contractor call me and say wait another day? He wasted two hours of my time, I had to return to the shop with out doing the install.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

on the cuff

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day. He said "Jeff you are working on the cuff, you are trying to do everything, sales, managing, book keeping, etc. People won't take you seriously because you are working on the cuff. It takes a lot of money to run a legitimate business. You are succeeding because you are working on the cuff."

Truth is he is right. I am working on the cuff. It doesn't effect the work, we are still producing quality cabinets, just look at any of them that are out there in the shop right now. I don't know how else to do it. We couldn't afford to hire an office person. Sure businesses that are much older than mine have office people, but they also must have bigger jobs perhaps they are more profitable because of how and what they do. For the early years they probably worked on the cuff as well.

I like the cuff. I think that working on the cuff is my edge, it will allow me to break ahead of the competition. Working on the cuff is where we do our best work, we are a grass roots company, we started with nothing and now we have a permanent position in the market, all that because of the cuff and our ability to navigate through the cuff. I have seen bigger and better shops, and I see that they are above the cuff but they have also lost there mojo. You have to be very careful when you leave the cuff that you don't get content to sit back on your laurels. When operating on the cuff you are the market aggressor. And I always want to be the market aggressor. That is a key part of how I plan on being a dynasty company, by remaining the market aggressor. And threatening companies that are above the cuff with all there overhead and over paid staff wasting time and company resources. I want to stay in the cuff indefinetly, long live the cuff. It is where we dwell.

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Wednesday, August 6, 2008

ordinary post

Another hectic week. Things are crazy busy at Kidder Blaisdell. Our team does not wavier in fact we strengthen at times like these. One way is in our constant desire to improve at what we do. For example: I am trying a new system of doing our weekly staff meeting. We have changed the time from Monday morning to Wednesday morning. Why? Everybody is asleep Monday morning including myself. The purpose of the meeting is for me to share what I know about the work and to receive feedback form the men about the work status. I am preparing the weekly agenda for Monday and handing it out on Monday as it is everyone's time sheet as well. And it is easier for me to close out the weeks notes on Friday and prepare for the next week on Friday also. But I want to try and get more lively and productive meetings hence changing it till Wednesday. I will try to post an example of a weekly handout. For todays meeting I was especially pleased with how it went. We actually walked around the shop together as a group and observed what was happening with the current work and we were able to talk about each others existing issues as a group. It was easier to clarify the priorities.

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Monday, August 4, 2008

cool stuff

 

Here is a great example of the type of jobs that we will take on where many other cabinet makers will refuse. Our staff is ready to handle different types of jobs,. Ones that require them to think outside the box. In the forground you can see part of the front door that is about to be installed. You can see the unusualness of the length of the threshold. More pics of this piece to follow, it is super cool.
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