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Help! My draftsman is leaving!

4/27/17       
Stewart Member

Let's just say I'm in a dilemma. I've got a backlog of work with lots of promising things bearing down and I just found out my draftsman is leaving for family reasons. We are a small shop doing primarily residential and some commercial and are running CV9 with S2M for the cnc. No one else know how to run this program. The control side of me wants to jump in and take over although I think this would compromise my performance in all the other areas I'm wearing hats for. Plus it took him a good 5 years to be where he is now - I've got 1 month. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated. I was thinking of hooking up with a freelancer - has anyone tried this? What has your experience been? What are the benefits and pitfalls? Would any of you have a good recommendation for a freelancer? I have to admit, I'm sweating this one a bit. Thanks for your help!

4/27/17       #2: Help! My draftsman is leaving! ...
Alan F.

I wood start looking on Woodweb and expand your search; ask your CV salesman if he knows of either a free lance or someone that is looking.

Most placement agencies get between 20 and 35% so you are better served with someone you can find.

you and also try woodjobs.com

You could also hire a local firm to search and qualify

WoodWeb sorted by seekers

4/29/17       #3: Help! My draftsman is leaving! ...
Pat Gilbert

It seems unlikely that you are going to find anyone in that time frame.

You might be better off learning it yourself. So that when you do get someone, possibly from your shop, you will better be able to put some one in that position.

4/29/17       #4: Help! My draftsman is leaving! ...
cabinetmaker

Get some help in hurry Call Planit and get some training hours in

Sit with your draftsman and have him show you, no matter how long it takes, to draw and post to code and send it to the cnc

It's fairly simple, but I will tell you, as the owner of my shop, I can send a lot of jobs out in a hurry and set up a protocol to constantly keep the machines going, all the while taking on more work and inserting small jobs from the cash cow customers

Get trained, and learn to truly manipulate the software and s2m for the best results

4/30/17       #5: Help! My draftsman is leaving! ...
Brian

WOW! Got yourself in a pickle this time. Several things, first why no backup, second a freelancer can and will "walk" when conditions are not right and without notice.
third, why were you not paying attention as there were probably indications several months ago.
Thirty days? There will be a learning curve to fit into your system.

4/30/17       #6: Help! My draftsman is leaving! ...
Gary Balcom

There is always two challenges to every problem. First is short term (how to get past this immediate mess), then how to prevent this from happening again. I'm with Brian on setting up a system to prevent this again, but you need to live through this first.

I suggest you both get setup for training personally with CV, and make your current man show you his entire process until you understand it. I highly recommend you screencast his work. Jing is a free software that will record up to 5 min of screen time. You'll need this after he walks out. There is no way out of this at this point other than rolling up your sleeves.

After you yourself have learned to be productive, then you can setup someone else in that role.

5/1/17       #7: Help! My draftsman is leaving! ...
chipbored

Whilst it's true a backup should have been in place I'm not going to drag you over the coals about it. Your already hurting and dealing with the immediate problem is more important then hindsight.

I agree with all thats been said. A freelancer may be good to get you out of the mud, and maybe even creating a relationship to act as a backup in the future when your back on your feet.

I have one of my guys acting as draftsman and I'm also capable of filling the role as backup. It will be better for your business if you are an expert in this area even if you don't do it day to day. So why not take this as an opportunity to have some GREAT MOTIVATION to learn the craft. I don't know how much you know about it but you have obviously been around it long enough to be familiar with it.

Gear yourself up for some late nights and early mornings drafting like a mad man. Get EVER piece of expertise you can out of your draftsman while you can. It's a steep curve but once you get it, a boss drafts faster, better & stronger than anyone else can.

Have you got another staff member who would be interested in being promoted to draftsman? might be easier to fill a shop floor position than finding a draftsman, between a freelancer, yourself and the promoted you should be able to keep the ship on course through the transition.

One last thing. Do you receive architectural drawings from your clients? Have you got any jobs coming up that you might be able to work directly off of supplied drawings, or marked up by hand after a site measure? I'ts not ideal but it will keep the shop floor busy and the pressure off you while learning the drafting.

5/2/17       #8: Help! My draftsman is leaving! ...
Stewart Member

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your input! I agree, it would be nice if I knew the program but I am already wearing so many hats, that even if I did know it, I wouldn't have time to implement it. That said, I can see the value in learning every aspect of this business so that if someone leaves, we can still at least function until a replacement can be found. So, that is my long term resolve. In the meantime, I have to get through this "crunch". He's been with me for nearly 20 years and, yes, there were some signs. He is not disgruntled at all - in fact, it was not an easy decision for him. Just suffice it to say there are other personal issues at play that I won't go into out of respect for him. He has agreed to work remotely on an as-needed basis to help with the transition. That, in and of itself, is a huge relief. I'm not out to reinvent the wheel but just wanted to hear your thoughts - or criticisms - on how to best handle this. I'm sure I'm not the first one this has happened to. Out of curiosity, what is the going rate for a drafting person with at least 3-5 years experience? Obviously, I haven't had to address this in two decades.

5/2/17       #9: Help! My draftsman is leaving! ...
chipbored

Great that you have him on board for off-site work. That will be a huge help, and hopefully will help him with his situation also.

Keep in mind I am in Australia. The going rate in AU dollars is anywhere from 70k to 120k for a draftsman. Our industry is running pretty hot so that 120k is pretty mind boggling, for that top tier you seem to get someone who is an absolute beast and also capable of running a team of juniors.

I have heard many stories of guys being hired and coming in without the skills they should have, I would be very sceptical of hiring someone who hasn't come from an "on the tools" background unless they had many years experience doing exactly what you do. This only applies if you are drafting in a Cabinet Vision or similar where constructions techniques need to be detailed (which I believe you are doing), but again that could be the industry running hot and skilled labor in demand.

When I was at a stage of requiring someone to take over the position from me I promoted internally, and whilst that has it's own challenges it has slowly worked out well. That person understands HOW you make things. The tricky part for them is how to make that happen on paper, but they can still communicate that verbally to staff in the interim while they are finding their feet. I assume an external hire would be the opposite situation.


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