HOME
NEWS
GALLERYAboutCONTACT BLOG

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

I love this stuff

We had a kaizen event Saterday. Since I have enforced a 50 hour work week maximum nobody is working Saterdays and it was myself and the lowly shop lacky who held the event. We moved a piece of equipment out of the main production area. This is part of the TPS system, get rid of idle assets. It will help us move the work more efficiently through the shop, and allow us to better focus on quality.

We are really looking at our own finishing capabilities. We have switched suppliers in an hope to get more consistent deliveries. We are most interested in getting consistent results in wood staining. Right now we are using shellac to prevent blochiness, we have several stain jobs, small but still requiring accuracy.

Labels:

Monday, November 10, 2008

I serve the cause, it serves me

I tried to lay out the weekly goals as best I could. I had to do the staff meeting later than normal at 10am. Because of a prior commitment I made with a client at 8am. never do that again, not on a staff meeting day. It through of the rythym of the meeting. By 10am at my business we are in full swing and ended up just being rushed. My mind was fully occupied and it was hard to concentrate, I forgot much of the ad-lib and jumped right into the goals so the meeting was more like a lecture. Also the farm team was present, that was a new dynamic. These staff meetings are very fickle and sensitive, even the smallest things have an impact negative or positive.

I think maybe my clients feel like I am not there. Nothing could be further from the truth. We may be behind schedule. I and my people work from passion, not logic. That is why we will always be here. we are the heartbeat of the woodworking industry. We are the front lines of keeping the industry moving forward as we know it. You couldn't work for me if you thought otherwise. The job here is very demanding, because we are willing to do things for the customer, contractor or homeowner. We will push our selves further than any other woodworking company, that I know of.
As a client you want your woodworker to work from passion. We are the ones walking around the neighbor looking for ideas to use on your project. We are the ones who are thinking about your job at night when we are falling asleep, or waking up. Just today Gagan came to me with a current magazine that he bought today and said look Jeff here is an article about this current issue we are having with stain blocheness.
All og the guys here work 50 hours a week and at a moments notice would work twice that. Not because they have to but because they work from passion. They are passionate about working within a team that is aware of it's goals, aware of it's clients' needs, and aware of the need to satisfy to survive.

We held are staff meeting today on the finishing room. So we could talk about the cabinets that were in there. We could discuss the strengths and weaknesses of those cabinets. We could easily see what needed to get installed today, tomorrow, and everyday of this week.

I met with my client today at 8am, to go over some door knob options. I didn't have to do that. It is not in my contract to that(maybe it should be), I felt that it was nesseccary to get the best knob for this cabinet and I wanted them to get the best service possible. In the end my cabinet serves it's client the best. Because of my passion I add value unknowingly to the client.

Labels:

Sunday, November 9, 2008

pratice day

I have a big week planned ahead. I asked my farm team to come in and a work a full week. We have a kaizen event planned for this coming week, we will do it on Saterday.
Unless someone stands up and does the kaizen event we will be further moving things around in the prep and finish area.

I was in practice all day today. I installed my own frig cabinet in my house. It was quite a job.(Today is Sunday for any of the clients who are wondering why I wasn't at their house). I had to first pull the frig, second pull the dishwasher out, remove the temporary frig panel and install the new one. What I learned and will bring with me when I work on the clients homes is exercising patience. What I do as far as installing cabinets requires great patience. Often I forget that try to take short cuts.

Labels:

Saturday, November 8, 2008

inspriration

 

A typical example of where I get inspiration for my clinets millwork. This is a door in the south end of Boston.
Posted by Picasa

our grinding room

 

Yea......at last we have an official grinding room. Here sits the main machine in the grinding room, the profile grinder. If you zoom in you can see that this knife is partly ground.
Posted by Picasa

ordinary post

This past week was pretty crazy. Our schedule is very fluid. It doesn't feel like my schedule we are actually on the clients schedule. We are trying to react to the needs of the client. For example last night Gagan and I worked till 9:30 pm. We couldn't start until 6:30 because we had wait for the admins to leave, we were working in an office building on some desks units that we installed a few weeks back.

We did accomplish most of the goals for the week. Job 89 didn't get started until Friday but that is alright.

We delivered the proto type for job 97 for examination. That went ok. The client was embarrassed because the quality was not what they expected. We delivered a proto type and we were focused on the proportions and such and the client was focused on the details and started harping about how the miters weren't sanded and the was some chips here and there. In my mind we built a proto type to analyze the process of construction.

I did some profiling this week, made three sets of knives, I am getting much better at it, but still burn the steel. It is really great that we have this capability in house, it saves a lot if time and expense. and helps us to create proprietary moldings.

Labels:

Thursday, November 6, 2008

week 45

At this weeks staff meeting we talked about the cost of having Kaizen events. And the fact that they cost us money give them important's.

We talked about how lately all the kaizen events have been focus around the production side of the shop. Finishing is half of what we do. And now we are going to focus the next few kaizen events at the finishing area. How we can we expect Ventura to think that his job is important if we don't ever focus on his area for a place to improve.

We talked about why other people need to step up and start leading the kaizen events. Mainly because I have so many other things to do. I pointed out that before work even gets to the shop floor it has to be sold and engineered by me. If I am putting my time into kaizen events than I am not putting it into those two areas. Gagan pointed out that this opportunity cost.

We talked about how in this upcoming week we had repair a job that we did several months ago job b80 I think. We had to go there and stain a few boards in a door so they would match the other boards in the door. The time spent doing the repair not only cost in time but also in opportunity cost of doing other things.

In the past few weeks I have seen a really strong team spirit in the shop. I have seen the staff work together with a focus on results and not on who does what. It has made me very proud and very assured. Most of the time we are doing are own thing, each of us at the shop. And we need to talk to another to make sure the big picture goals are being achieved. And it is this communication that I have seen happening.

Building a team culture has not happened over night. It takes years and constant work. We are now seeing the results of that. This communication and focus on big picture goals is it. We will never stop talking about the core values of uildng a team, dependency, structure and order, inclusiveness, constructive conflict.

Tomorrow evening Gagan and I are going into job c86 which was completed weeks ago to do another repair. The repair is completely my fault. Against the better judgment of my staff we cut of a scribe, at my request in the factory. Gagan told me that we shouldn't and I said just do it, so he and Esteban did so reluctantly. If they had been just a little more forceful than I would have said fine we'll cut it on the job. This is constructive conflict. Gagan and Esteban don't be afraid to challenge me, that is part of constructive conflict and we need to go through with it. It may be uncomfortable but what do we say about disagreements? They are surfaced dealt with and dismissed.

Labels: