what makes a good staff meeting

we had a very good staff meeting this week. there was lots of feed back and even some new ideas. I think now I have a team that will turn into a very effective work group, that is after all what I am trying to achieve. In addition to creating woodwork, being a part of an effective work group is a very rewarding experience on a personal level. Apart from the monetary gains that the members can achieve there is the shared experience of great accomplishment and the satisfaction of working together with other people for a common goal. It brings meaning and purpose to work other than the work. I have four main ideas that I continue to teach to create an effective work group.
1. having a sense of dependency among team members.
2. having a structure and order in what we do.
3. creating a sense of inclusion among team members.
4. having constructive conflict among team members.
why do I do this. because an effective work group will out perform an ineffective work group in any market at any time. The largest most improtant value of KBWC is longevity, I want to leave behind me a woodworking company. to do that we need to be able to compete in good markets and bad markets. Creating exceptional woodwork is one thing, creating a living for myself and employees through making wooden products is another. one thing that I have chosen to do is create a company culture that promotes people working together.

where do we get good ideas

one of the things that I need to do is continually improve our product in the eyes of the end user. How do I do that? By listening to my customers. I turn to my customers for any creativity in the cabinets, I let them drive the creative process. For that reason it is why I go out and do the installs myself, i want to see first hand how the cabinets are being used and what customers want. One of my side projects is a line of cabinetry called "hungry coyote". It is a bi-product of the economic climate, meaning the highest level of value added engineered cabinets. leaps and bounds more expensive then Ikea but also leaps and bounds higher quality. We have been building this type of cabinet for several years. Recently at a high level meeting with a client an improvement over how we deal with the light molding was suggested during a brainstorm session by a homeowner that I hadn't thought of. I continued to think this idea over because it just made so much sense. We are going to be implementing this new idea right away and probably be using this new way moving forward. this adds value to our clients. Collectively my clients are smarter than I, it's by actually listening to them and thinking over their ideas that we will become a more customer centered business.

interior shutter series 2

in "this is how we do it" below you will see photo 1 of the shutter series. in photo 2 just below this post the same pile of lumber has been processed once again to it's final dimension(it is deceiving to me, it looks like much more lumber). We also keep the lumber piled up separated for air circulation to prevent further warping. Since we did machine all four sides again today it is important to let all four sides breath equally. At this point all of the styles and rails plus some extra's have been milled on all four sides and are now ready to be mortised.

photo 2 shutter series

 

milling rought lumber

there is a photo that I hope will post here. It is a picture of wood half way through being milled. I was making shutters for a house interior, really nice shutters with solid 6/4 maple rails and styles with balsa wood louvers, I will try to find a picture of the finish product. The photo shows the 6/4 maple stacked up with sticks in between each layer. The reason for this is to let the wood dry out some more. I smoothed out three sides of each board and the next step is to rip these parts to near their finished dimension. before I rip them it is a good time to let them dry out for at least 24 hours. When I smooth out the sides I am exposing new wood cells to the air, when that happens the new cells absorb moisture and that can cause the wood to change shape again. Never try to mill stock like this all at once, if you do it will move slightly. Also when I rip these parts they will again move because of the changing tension within the board. So I will rip these parts in larger than what i need and we will mill them again to their finished sizes. this is one of the area where you can't rush the process, wood is an organic material and it requires patience when working with it.

this is how we do it

 

variety

I forgot to mention that you can also see some mahogany doors to the right in that same photo. Door makers is another market that stands on it's own that we compete in. So I have just identified three totally separate markets that we can effectively compete in. These different markets utilize the same asset base and very similar operation processes. This is how I perceive KBWC a woodworking shop that serves the cause of woodworking in many different markets so we will therefore survive any economic climate. It is the goal of this company to get a market share in each of these markets.

variety

this photo below is one thing that we are striving for here at KBWC, this one way that we continue to challenge ourselves, by doing a variety of things. The wooden counter top is actually a whole other market that we compete in other than cabinets. The black kitchen panel is not only an unusual finish but also another market that we compete in, that being kitchen cabinets and kitchen designers.

variety

 
A mahgany top and an oak island panel with jet black finish