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Getting a grip on chaos

6/8/16       
KMAG YOYO Member

I was recently hired to run a medium-sized contract furniture shop of about 40 craftsmen, and I feel like I'm drowning. I inherited a disorganized, neglected shop that is overbooked by 2.5x its normal capacity. Overtime is through the roof. We are blowing deadlines all over town and I'm taking a lot of heat.

The machines are poorly maintained. Not a day goes by when the beam saw, or the wide belt, or the clamp carrier, or all three aren't down. There is no formal maintenance, training or safety program. I'm pulling 60 hour weeks but it's all spent in firefighting mode, and there's virtually no time to organize any systems.

There is no working system for tracking progress and I'm expected to know the status of $1m+ of product at any given moment.

I'm committed to making this shop work. The operations manager is also new to the company but fortunately he is very experienced. With his guidance I will get things under control, but for now I need some ideas to get a grasp on the immediate situation.

6/8/16       #2: Getting a grip on chaos ...
Pat Gilbert

You answered your own question.

"Not a day goes by when the beam saw, or the wide belt, or the clamp carrier, or all three aren't down."

FIX THOSE.

"There is no working system for tracking progress and I'm expected to know the status of $1m+ of product at any given moment."

FIX THAT. Keep it simple, just dollar volume per day. Figure out the daily break-even point.

I wouldn't worry too much about the overtime at first. Because if you take away over head which has been paid for in the first 8 hours it is equal to the increase in wages. However after 10 hours the productivity goes down and the accidents increase.

6/9/16       #3: Getting a grip on chaos ...
Steve

I have a couple of recommendations:
1) Adjust your attitude. You did not "inherit" this situation, you chose it. Accept the challenge that walked into and focus.
2) Watch "The Martian". It is a great object lesson on prioritization. What is the one most critical thing. Nothing else is important until that is fixed. In his case: he runs out of air - he lives minutes; he runs out of water, he lives a few days; he runs out of food... etc. Water and food are not very important if you don't have air.
Take a day, or 1/2 day away from the chaos and collect your thoughts on the situation, list all of the issues you are struggling with and put them in order. Then start at the top of the list. It will begin to fall into place.

6/9/16       #4: Getting a grip on chaos ...
Kevin Jenness

I would suggest putting one person in charge of maintaining the machinery.Make sure he has manuals and access to tech support and keeps spares for common wear items. If the machines are beaters, replace them now rather than dumping money into them. The work that is drowning you should pay for the equipment to make it happen efficiently.

6/9/16       #5: Getting a grip on chaos ...
Derrek

Website: http://closetdr.com

1st. Have a brief daily meeting with your production people. Go over issues they are having and what they need to fix them. Go over expectations for today and tomorrow and how you did on yesterday's expectations. This gets everyone on the same page and sets the expectations and also gives them the opportunity to give feedback. Celebrate success
2nd Dedicate 15-30 minutes each morning to clean up and improvement. Throw out the junk, organize and clean the work area. Ask for input from employees how we can improve the process. (I'm a big fan of the book 2 Second Lean, available for free at paulakers.net )
3rd set aside time to make 1 improvement a day for yourself

Sometimes you have to slow down to go faster.

Good luck.

6/9/16       #6: Getting a grip on chaos ...
Puzzleman Member

I have experienced a situation similar to yours. It was stressful and hard.

I was talking with a friend about it on e night and he gave me the advice of: Take a deep breath every morning and end of day. At the end of day write down a list of 4 things that MUST be done tomorrow and 4 items would like to have done tomorrow. In the morning, look over the list from last night and make the plan and enact it. At lunch, see how you are doing compared to your daily goals.
He told me to not worry about the big stuff at this point, taking care of the little things will result in the big things getting done.

keep your chin up and keep chipping away and before you know it, it will all be good.

The daily meeting with your people as suggested above will be very beneficial. They have helped my shop a lot.

6/9/16       #7: Getting a grip on chaos ...
Family Man

Focus on one thing at a time. Do not multi-task much. Conqueror one thing and move onto the next. Be a mile deep and an inch wide rather than a mile wide and an inch deep, until you have things on track. Thing is you can't get bogged down with any one thing. If a machine isn't working, get a new one. If an employee is not working out, fire them and get a new one.

Second, organize, organize, organize. Clean up, simplify.

Third, communicate with clients before you are late. Sometimes they are running late and you can move jobs around to keep the ones that need to stay on schedule on schedule. Whether we like it or not there is always priority work, a pecking order of valuable clients. Keep them happy first.

Lastly, while I like Derrek's list clean up and improvement needs to be done at the end of the day and not at the start. You want guys coming in with a fresh slate and hitting the ground running. This game and most are about momentum. Don't start them off by slowing them down.

Good luck-

6/9/16       #8: Getting a grip on chaos ...
Derrek

Lastly, while I like Derrek's list clean up and improvement needs to be done at the end of the day and not at the start. You want guys coming in with a fresh slate and hitting the ground running. This game and most are about momentum. Don't start them off by slowing them down.

I have found just the opposite is true. 1st by starting early it becomes a priority and gets done, where as at the end of the day people are tired and want to go home and it usually gets done half a... 2nd there is a mental excitement that occurs with cleaning up and organizing happens that is more motivating that results in better productivity. 3rd, this is the way many successful lean companies do it and they do it that way for a reason.

6/9/16       #9: Getting a grip on chaos ...
Gary Balcom

I'm with Derrek, we spend 30 minutes every single morning sweeping, sorting, and standardizing. We've finally got it where there is no questioning it, it's accepted that it gets done before any "normal" work. It's been great, and I think it sets the stage for a good day of production.

6/9/16       #10: Getting a grip on chaos ...
Pat Gilbert

There is also Paul Akers' morning meeting.

6/9/16       #11: Getting a grip on chaos ...
rich c.

Didn't you think it was odd that the top two positions in the shop were open at the same time? Did you ask any questions about production schedules, percentage of met deadlines, and maintenance programs during the interview process? I've never been in your position, but really seems odd that all these things hit you as a complete surprise when you started.

6/10/16       #12: Getting a grip on chaos ...
Larry

You need to have a talk with the head guy, owner. Come prepared with a print out of the problems faced and your proposed solutions. If you can't get buy in from him, it will be forever hopeless. Find a job where you have a chance of being appreciated.

6/11/16       #13: Getting a grip on chaos ...
Jon Giordano  Member

In the past when I found myself in similar situations I simply put a "road block" into a future job so at least one would be on time.

In other words, the other jobs are already late or you are playing catch up, so I figured what job or two I could do easy that was a week or so in front of us and made it my "road block" which means at least that 1 job was going to be on time!

I also figure by closest to finish and how much they owed me, so if I had a job that was 2 days to done and was 14 grand for delivery only and COD, I'd do that before the job that was 5 days to done for 4 grand and installed at net 30. At that point I'd have money, so I could use it to sub out some other items and play catch up or fix my damn machines.

I'd thirdly figure out which was for new customers, which was for repeat customers and figure who I could "screw around" for lack of a better word. If it's a repeat guy and he knows your work, you might be able to "buy a day" which means tell him you'll be a little late, and if he balks and complains, tell him you'll install for free or knock $500 off etc. Don't do this too early though, because some jobs are behind schedule anyway, so if you can have someone make site visits for you to "double check" a dimension and do some recon, which means see if there's sheet rock and a floor in, you'll know who you can screw with. Contractors will always tell you're they're ready and 9 times out of ten they're not.

Forget the every job is equal idea, and quantify by time and money and relationship, you'll have a path.

The Office people and sales people need to start inventing dopey questions they need answers to on future jobs, slow it down a bit so you get a break in 2-3 weeks until you hit a natural slow point and can catch up.

This works with the accounting people too, they need to call the customer who is behind and go with the no money/no workie attitude instead of just throwing orders in on credit. Worst case scenario, they pay via credit card and you money to work with.

Keep in mind "The Goal" is still to make money, more importantly to get it in hand where you can use it as quickly as you can. The whole company is needed to help out with a "manufactured slowdown" while you catch up. No all jobs or all customers are equal, some of them you can avoid or afford to lose. This needs to be worked out with sales and accounting.

I wear every hat, so it's easy for me to play a combination of those games as well as work some overtime and I'm generally never behind schedule since I've learned how to see if coming and pull my tricks ahead of time.

I have myself and 2 guys in 8,000 sq. ft. with a mayer beam saw, brandt bander and a busellato, and we do over a million a year now, on track for about 1.2 mil this year. Installs and countertops done by us as well in house and that's laminate and melamine commercial work.

Vs. residential wood it would be about 2 million as it's about 1/2 the price if not more and closer to 3 mil like when I used to do residential and conestoga doors.

My Average lead time is a week and a half or 2 weeks.

My Gross per man is almost 400 grand which is the only number that matters.

If you have 40 guys I'll bet you're grossing 4-5 mil a year and you're in between 25 and 40,000 sq. ft.

Good Luck

Jon Giordano

6/11/16       #14: Getting a grip on chaos ...
cabinetmaker

At some point you are going to have to start putting some systems in place and get a couple of assembly lines going for the repetitive work.

I would highly recommend a daily walk of the facility and just start fixing stupid time wasters, like the non reliable machines and get them serviced properly and install a daily check sheet by the operator for stupid crap like the filters are clean on the air intake of the controllers, it's amazing how stupid minuscule oversights add up to explosive problems.

Question- do you have staff that are actually prepping materials for the jobs ?

Or, are the machine operators and assemblers scrounging around for materials and hardware ?

Are the materials arriving timely for the proposed jobs ?

6/11/16       #15: Getting a grip on chaos ...
Derrek

My main shop guy for the last 4 years left and it exposed some stupid stuff when we were training new people. The main one was multiple items that were fixed with duct tape and how many times they had been fixed as evidenced by the multiple colors of tape. A main one was the safety beam arm and support on the cnc. The lights were constantly getting out of alignment and stopping the machine. I looked at it and in under a minute assessed the problem. In 5 minutes we had 2 parts off the machine, in 20 they were welded up, painted and back on the machine with it working. We haven't had to adjust them since.
The previous guys excuse was always he didn't have time to fix it right, but he had time to adjust the lights 10 times a day. It took about 5 minutes more to fix it right than it did to duct tape it and will actually save hours of production over the next year.

Don't duct tape your fixes. Take the time needed and solve the problems.

What was said earlier about meeting with the boss is spot on. If he's not all in, have an exit plan because nothing will stick if he doesn't value improving things.

6/13/16       #16: Getting a grip on chaos ...
cabmaker

Jon Giordino,

Glad to have you back!
We missed your pithy interpretation.

6/15/16       #17: Getting a grip on chaos ...
Jon Giordano  Member

Hey Cabmaker,

Glad to be back! I wondered if I'd be here 3 years ago when I was flooded out in Hurricane Sandy?

5 feet of water in the shop, not a nickel in insurance since I couldn't have flood as our building is located in what was never considered a flood zone by FEMA.

If I can pull out of no machines, no money, no employees and no customers 3 years ago, he can pull some damn duck tape off his sensors like Derrek said~!

LOL

Jon Giordano

6/15/16       #18: Getting a grip on chaos ...
KMAG YOYO Member

I'm sitting in the ER with one of my craftsmen for the second time in two weeks. Obviously the priorities here are a little out of whack.

What I need help with at the moment is a way to track work and schedule it on the micro-level. My boss is working on the larger scheduling system but that one is per-job and many of our jobs are over $100k.

Safety and maintenance obviously need to be addressed at the same time, and I think the owner agrees with that but anytime I'm not focused on the immediate deadlines I'm firmly redirected.

6/15/16       #19: Getting a grip on chaos ...
Puzzleman Member

Give each employee a piece of paper and to write what on it what they accomplished during their working hours. At the bottom of the page, have them list any items that need restocking or repair.

Doing this will focus the employees on that you are paying attention to what they are doing and what needs attention. Use those sheets to determine who is getting the work done and directing people to restock and/or repair and/or maintain machines.

Like stated above start small. Programs do not need to be grand to be good. The main key is to start one, however small it is. Pay attention to it, nurture it and it will grow. Have regular meetings at minimum once per week with everybody to make sure everyone is on the same page. This will be hard at first but it really does work in pulling everyone together as a team.

Items to be discussed is the backlog, what ownership is doing, what is the schedule for next day / week, accident safety, shipments late and why, etc.

Just take crude baby steps and get SOMETHING started. Just complaining about it will not get it started. DO SOMETHING. The results will not start the next day but your problems didn't start yesterday. The problems took a long time to create and it will take a while to untangle the mess. When you finally do, you will be surprised at how easy it was and why you waited so long to get it started.

6/15/16       #20: Getting a grip on chaos ...
Derrek

Doing the same thing over and over expecting different results is the definition of insanity.
Good luck with it, but if the boss ain't in on it,then nothing will change.

6/15/16       #21: Getting a grip on chaos ...
cabmaker

Safety glasses.
Make safety glasses a condition of employment.

When you are blind you end up trying to make a living selling pencils on the side of the street. That might have been a viable safety net in the past but is a much harder sell in the culture of instagram.

6/16/16       #22: Getting a grip on chaos ...
KMAG YOYO Member

Well, this has all been moot, got fired yesterday. I did achieve a few changes, got them started labeling parts (!!) and got a lot of the scraps and detritus cleared off the floor. Introduced the CNC guys to the concept of feed rates and chip load (!!). I did have daily morning meetings with the supervisors.

If the owner expected me to turn a $700k/mo shop into a $2.2m/mo shop in 4 weeks, I guess the joke's on him. Even my boss didn't think I got a fair chance.

So, on to the next! I'm looking forward to working somewhere with some achievable expectations. I do like a challenge, that's why I took the job in the first place.

6/16/16       #23: Getting a grip on chaos ...
Pat Gilbert

Sorry to hear this, the next job can't be worse.

I suppose that was to be expected, i.e. the owner created (through indifference) this situation in the first place... Hubris gets in the way of reality.

Managers are often times the scape goat.

Regarding the scheduling thing, IMO there is no magic it requires someone in charge of the schedule with a magnetic dry erase board, doing the work.

As far a micro tracking of the labor, the opportunity cost is too high for the benefit gained. This too is best left up to a foreman.


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