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.

trying to keep up

We have been so busy that I haven't had time to write any post in the blog since 12-29-09. It is a good time to busy given the economy, I think I might have sold some jobs at artificially low prices to make sure I had work that now we are to jammed out with out the ability to hire additional personal. Although some clients don't want to here that I have hired additional personal, they want me to do the install regardless. That is a compliment to my ability but really unnecessary, I have to respect the wishes of my clients. I don't think that I am all that good at install, maybe I am just immune to it and don't see it for what it is, perhaps I am really good at it and it just seems easy to me. we have hired some help for our install needs, his name is Paul Ferrier out of Stoughton, he is really good and comes in only on a part time basis, 2 or 3 days a week. He runs his own company as a cabinet builder and installer I would recommend him to anyone.

who helps us

eagle woodworking is where we buy our drawers, that is Patrick sitting at the desk in the photo below, I guess he counting the money or something. no just kidding Patrick we love you here at KBWC. never, ever have I gotten a drawer the wrong size from Eagle. There is something happening at Eagle in the quality assurance department. if they even have departments at Eagle, they are a progressive manufacturing facility so they may not have departments, but either way all the drawers are made to order and always in the time frame the say. Which is a huge help to me, I can order drawers and know when they will be ready, and I can rely on the quality. In this photo you see the front office and also where I pick the drawers up. most folks get the drawers sent to them, but me I like to pick them up. I like to talk to Patrick about production issues, and general economic issues, and just see how they are doing. Behind this office is a huge wood shop that makes only drawers and drawer inserts, I marvel at their success in building just one thing.

drawers

here is where i get my drawers. they are the only thing we out source. this business is called eagle woodworking, it was founder is still involved with the business. it is one of my favorite place to go. It is a true wood shop manufacturing facility. right hear in Massachusetts. That is Patrick in the photo he is the general manager of the business. In over ten years of buying drawers I have never returned a drawer for any reason.

door stock

the picture below is taken from the top edge of a door. You can see clearly how the veneer is on the wide surfaces and the solid wood is on the short faces. This is how it is done throughout the industry, Although Doors of Distinction in Wisconsin still only uses solid wood for their styles and rails. the center material is some kind core, in this case it is strand lumber, I have never used this type, usually we use solid wood core such as poplar or pine, small pieces finger jointed together, I would like to try this strand lumber as I have seen some warpage in the finger jointed stock.
Also in this door one side of the veneer is thicker than the other side, I am not crazy about that, Gagan says it's no problem but I wonder about the effects of an unbalanced stick, ie the thicker veneer will absorb more moisture than the thinner side of veneer.
We didn't make this door, I just took a photo because I am interested in the strand limber core.

cirles vs parabolas

I was on the moda cocina web site today. they are a primarily a cabinet maker in Hyde Park, although it looks like they are making flooring and are willing to do Mill work as well. I have to say that is a very good web site, I spent alot of time there it shows that much thought went into it. they seem like a very good company with loads of skill and experience, they have a CNC machine and do thick highly polished finishes.

I attended an NKBA meeting today at the design center in Boston, it was very interesting being the first time I have been there. It is much bigger than I thought, and it looks like the business opportunities for me there are endless. I spent some of my own time looking at the cabinet makers there, all the big name guys have showrooms there. I was attending the student chapter of the NKBA meeting. that is students of the Boston Architectural College. there is another NKBA meeting that I hope to attend Oct 27th, it is a seminar focused around estimating in a bad economy, that one should be interesting.

The work kept going at the shop, Esteban is working on job 119, that is the mahogany library, he is building the panels now but not gluing them up just cutting the parts and getting ready for the glue ups, which we will start to do next. Marlo our newest hire has been working more with the finishing, sanding, priming. Gagan started working on some curved top cased openings for job 99. WE use a vacuum press for doing the laminating. We are making a elliptical top cased opening for this same job. We have made several samples of the ellipse for the client to approve. the first one was a perfect ellipse and it looks kind of stale, perfect circles and ellipses do that when you incorporate them into a design. SO we made another sample with a French curve or better known as the parabola. All the samples are up on the wall where they will be going in full scale for the client to approve one of them. DOing all the samples was is how we provide our clients with better service, we are actually trying to exceed the expectations of our clients.

our way

today we were working job number 115, it is in Cambridge, and is a decent size job. It is the first one with this customer. We are doing our best work. I am heading up the install, and so far have been very successful it is not a kitchen but instead many other cabinets laced through-out the house. We have been pretty successful about executing the way we intend. We are trying to mimic how a restaurant serves food. I take the order from the customer and the shop or kitchen prepares the food or cabinets. I bring to the customer exactly what they want in the amount that they want it at the time they want it. I do this by monitoring the progress of the job sites myself. my hands and head are involved. I can maintain several jobs at one time and still make each person feel like they are my most important client. We are trying to execute each cabinet install in a 2 or 3 phase strategy. so I don't bring the items needed for phase 3 until we are in phase 3. when we bring an item to a job site we have a specific intent of installing the item.

single piece large face frames

this next set of pictures is how we install a wall cabinet that has walls on both sides and a face frame that needs to be scribed to both walls. first I hang the wall cabinets. then you can see the face frame setting on some cabinets, it is all one piece with backer boards that slip in around the boxes and to which I screw into to hold it in place. I can put the frame up one side at a time to scribe it against the plaster. And then push it in after cutting away the scribes. I use hollow wall anchors to pull the plaster tight to my scribe cut. In the end you have a perfectly installed tight fitting wall cabinet and a joint free face frame that is eight feet long. This is the best way I have for installing such a cabinet.

re-org phase one

Gagan and i have spent the last two days re-organizing the shop. WE still have more work to do but we made a good dent. WE have moved the table saw, plywood inventory, and the edge bander all to one section or wing of the shop, where as it previously was in the center of the shop. The idea is that the work in progress will be in the center of the shop now. Our work in progress at the moment is scattered and unorganized. Making it extra challenging to track everything. The re-organization of the shop will make our process work better and help us add value to the product line. One of the benefits of the slow economy is that we have time to do things like this. At the end of this recession the buisnesses that survive will be so much better than before. At the other side of this recession consumers will want more value for their money, and buisnesses will have to show how and what they are doing to add value. in the woodworking shop we add value by streamlining our process and looking at how we do things.

hungry coyote cabinets

Staff meeting today was difficult. the awkwardness of it still resonates among the team members. I think we really grew as a team though. it is the difficult meetings where the growth happens. the meeting was longer than normal, and there was more than normal participation. i suppose I demanded participation. By focusing on the negative I was able to get participation, that is my only hang-up with the meeting is that I focused on the negative. I tried to not get emotional, but it happened anyway. I want you guys to remember that when conflict happens it is a good thing and although awkward it is necessary. We need to have the confidence that we can call each other out on stupid unproductive behavior. Remember that conflict comes and ebbs and goes away, with out it we have artificial harmony. I give you guys that kind of feed back with the expectation that you will give me the same feed back back. this is professional conflict, not to spill over into personal life. We have a professional dependency on each other because we are an effect work group. And this dependency will yield conflict. conflict is good and we should heated discussions more often.
Do to a bear economy I am going to start a side project. So many people are asking for an economical solution to California closets, a slightly more pricey alternative to pottery barn cabinets, and an economical solution to wooden desk tops. We already have the clients and existing machinery, and we are investing in some new machinery to make all this possible. We are acquiring a beam saw which will increase our speed, accuracy, and safety of cutting panels. Also we are acquiring a machining center which will process the panels after they are cut. The plan is to introduce this line of cabinets to our existing clients and see what is possible from there. how will we compete in this price structure? for one the line of cabinets will be fixed, the client will have to give over all licensing to us relative to means and methods. with our skill set and knowledge of products we will bring the best at the best price by controlling means and methods. the product will speak for itself. We will have a predetermined material offering, a slight up charge for any color you want, slightly less for primer only, and offer the cabinets installed or delivered only. the side project is called hungry coyote cabinets, focused around 100% lean, where every fiber of the project is towards keeping cost down through value engineering. think about a hungry coyote, is it concerned with frills, no, just value, just function, it is not focal point cabinetry.

rigid standards

this past week we brought our vacuum pumps out. We had to buy a new bag and make a new base board for the bag but the pumps that we have are in fine shape. We are gluing up some curved panels for job 77. They are valances over the sink and the hood, the hood itself has a curved front and two curved sides. the use of the vacuum has not been existent for a few years in my shop. the primary reason was I never had the time to get it set up. Gagan took the reins on that and spent some time this week going thru our system and buying what he needed from the manufacturer. It is a system that is made locally by "quality vac" in Concord. It is a great business. The owner Ed started the company in his basement and now it is considered the best in the industry. The assembly of the units is still done in Concord. We are going to be using the system much more. I want to make a table that we can glue up panels of different sizes. being able to glue up a 30" by 120" piece would be very handy. I think that as I develop closet cabinetry and office cabinetry to compete with California closets a veneering operation system is critical. particularity for the desk tops. People always ask me to price out there wood tops with plywood and solid wood nosing. The problem with that is that the veneer you get is usually shabby and the plywood is warped. but being able to control those items I can create wooden tops economically that meets my rigid standards.

loyal opposition

this past weekend I attended the home show at the Shriners auditorium. It was a little smaller than the build Boston shows I have been to in the past. I was there primarily to get to meet the owners of General Contracting firms in the vicinity. There is simply no other way to meet the owners of these companies. I try to get know these companies as well as I can at the show, try to get a sense of weather or not I want to do business with them. I look for the companies that are well established or young and show promise. Most of the GC's at this show already have cabinet makers that they use and many of them have showrooms where they cabinet displays of the lines that they carry. I call that loyal opposition. They are loyal to there respective cabinet companies and there fore opposed to doing business with me. It is my job help them look at me as someone who can do a variety of mill work, like custom doors, paneling or shelving that is not available from a big cabinet line. Sure I want all there cabinet business but truth is that I can't compete with the national cabinet brands. Not yet that is.

There were two companies that I was really interested in. Foxhill out of New Hampshire and All construction out of Sagus Ma. Foxhill is the established leader and All is the young company with "mojo".

On the horizon we have the RDC show coming in Boston in April. This year I will be working in the seminar suites. Last year I focused on the exhibit floor this year I will be doing my note taking and prospecting in the seminars. Many GC's pride themselves on being unnoticed not in the lime light and they won't do an exhibit, but they want to attend the show to see the new products and attend seminars to learn about marketing and trends, which is very smart. That is who and where I will meet them.

What makes us different

One of things that is hardest for our clients to understand is how we operate our shop and the creative process behind it. During the bottle neck of q4 08 one of my clients came to me shouting "I thought all this was built already". To a degree we do in fact build as much as possible before hand. But some of it has to be built as we go. Truth is generally speaking the job site can change with out me knowing, and I am expected to accommodate those changes, which is fine, but to do that I leave some ends unfinished. I know where my variables are and I wait and see what the job site will dictate. This is frustrating for the client but also it is where the highest value is obtained by the client. This is where my cabinets look like they grew in place as opposed to 6" fillers and the such.

We have been working on job 77 the past few weeks, I have been doing the install this week and I am very pleased with how that has been going. We started with the top first, that is we installed a pedestal of sorts at the ceiling and then we are working down. WE installed the soffit his week and it is at this point proving to be a very good idea, as the bottom of the soffit is co-planer and all the inside and outside corners will be perfectly square. We have one last piece to install and the frig panels and I will be able to install all the upper cabinets. Once that happens the kitchen will take on a level of completion.

Gagan's mahogany doors are coming along very well. All five of them are glued up and they will be sanded and molded ready for finish next week. Esteban will make the moldings, Ventura will install the moldings.

My team is working very well right now. Last few weeks we have brought our "a" game. I know this by productivity and quality. I hope I can keep this existing team together, we are putting out the best work ever right now, in very fast turn around times, I know that some of my clients would beg to differ with me on that (the timing thing that is) but you just don't understand the quality and how long it really takes to do what we do and the amount of work that we need in order to stay in business. One of my clients said to me of Gagan who was working on there project, "he really cares about what he is doing". I would present to any of my clients how hard it is to find anybody who "really" cares about what they do, I mean some one who serves the cause. At KBWC we really care, it is not a sales con, fact is we really do care. That is what makes us different.

how am I rewarded

we had a annual staff meeting this past monday. It went as well as could be expected. one of the most important changes that I am making this year is connecting the Kaizen events to a bonus. So for all the employees if they want to get their year end bonus they must lead four kaizen events, that's one every quarter, and we have them every two weeks so there is plenty of opportunity. I don't think they liked it that much, I guess it is just rules in general that people don't like. I tried to explain to them that all I am really asking for is 5% of their time that I employ them for to be spent on making shop improvements. Shop improvements help everybody the client and the employee. I don't think that my staff really thinks that kaizen events are important. so to help them understand I have attached a monetary reward to it. In essence I am rewarding the behavior that I want. I want employees that contribute to making the run book, which kaizen events are. the run book is how we do what we do.

As far as the bottle neck of q4 08. I have been thinking about that and trying to understand it. One of the things that I learned is that it began in July of 08. We were supposed to start to install a job in the beginning of July, but due to the job site not being ready for us we couldn't start until end of August. that put me back 6 weeks at least. Now people might ask why don't you just hire more people to get the work done. It is just not that easy, it take a person 6 months to get up to speed to how we like things done. Not mention the financial commitment of another employee, which is a risk I don't feel comfortable taking now let alone last September or any time during q4 08. So from that I learned that one thing I need to do is explain how important the schedule is to the clients, and possibly state in the beginning of a project that if installation schedule is not maintained then we will run late, we will not be able to adjust our schedule. the schedule is a very real thing and there are consequences if your job site falls behind. Those are strong words, I try to be everything I can even more to my clients. It is not a perfect world and adjustments need to be made. Truth is I don't want to sound like a pre-madonna, I want to come across as flexible and able to accommodate any situation. But I have to look at the limits of my company and its staff me included. There is more that I have learned from the bottle neck of q4 08 I will share later.

On a positive note, as I get caught up and am starting to progress on the jobs that I really fell behind on I am getting a new sense of energy and excitement about my work. Seeing the jobs come to completion and the new ones starting to take shape is so very rewarding to me.

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.

survival steps

at todays staff meeting we talked about how kidder blaisdell is going to survive if the economy really slows down in the next three business quarters. I certainly don't know what is going to happen with the economy, but I want a plan if things get bad. I feel like I should share my plan with the staff.

Step one: regulate hours available to work. By controlling the amount of over-time hours that an employee can work we can reduce our biggest expense, payroll. Now, each person is only allowed to work 10 hours over time each week. Our next step would be to cut out OT completely, Then to reduce hours down to 32 per week per person, then to ask for volunteers to take time off.

Step two: continue to build the cash reserve account. Now we automatically save 2.5% of all sales.

step three: to try and get to a COD basis with all of our suppliers. Currently we pay cash with a few of our suppliers, and it really helps us to buy only what we need and to pay closer attention to how much and how often we buy. What happens is we spend like crazy for a month fall behind with the vendor go a month with-out purchasing, then pay extra fees, and the cycle starts again.

step four: Do more with existing assets. This is where the kaizen events come in. To continue to try and improve our system of doing things. Good systems with decent machines out perform bad systems with the best machinery. We are all going to have to do more with less.

If the economy continues like this or gets worse I want to learn as much as possible from the experience. It may be difficult but it won't put us out on the street. With an aggressive strategy in place we can actually come out a better company ready to handle adversity now and in the future.

We started to install 77. We have started at the top and are working down, on this job. I think this is going to be a very good move, one of things that always happens is that we start the install at the floor and when we get to the ceiling we realize that we have misaligned something and it is to late to fix. And the ceiling line is the focus, people tend not to look at where the cabinet meets the floor.

staff meeting

tomorrow's staff meeting. tomorrow morning we will take a look together at the goals for the week. What do we have to accomplish, what is urgent vs. what do we only need to maintain. The staff meeting hand outs also doubles as the time sheet has changed significantly over the years of use. IT started out pretty simple, it has become something very powerful. It has become the main flow of information in the shop, both inbound and outbound information. Everyone has the same goal sheet, and they are expected to have it with them at all times, so they can at a glance see who is doing what and who may need help to get their tasks done. It primarily spells out who is to do what in the upcoming six days. I am trying to change that, I don't want to have to spell out who does what on a constant basis, rather I want to spell out team goals. With the theory being that each person knows what his strengths are and also knows what is expected of them, knows what others weakness are. By knowing what the team goals are they can focus on what their contributions are to the team.

The effective work group doesn't need individual direction, but instead group goals, and the members of the group just know what needs to be done, and they help each other. So on the goal sheets and the staff meetings we are focusing more on group goals and less on individual goals. How the team is performing as a whole is what we talk about at the staff meeting.

passion as fuel

I lost the spirit there for a week. I think the spirit was taken from me by some angry clients. The clients have the right to get angry but it doesn't do any good to get emotional about it. In fact when you are dealing with some one like me who is passionate about his work it can be very diminishing. Crafts people are sometimes fragile because our work is out their in the open to be examined and criticized. Look at the leaning tower of Pisa. Did any one notice how many straight towers where built, no people just focus in the bad one. For me there is no back up plan, pioneers didn't go east I can't turn back I have to press on and go forward, when you work from passion you know that there is nothing else for you to do on this earth but fulfill your destiny. When the angry clients rain on me I have to revert back into the shop and work on infrastructure. I make lean material tags, or work on the next kaizen event, or try to analyze the value stream in the shop. Those types of things make it all seem worth while. Angry emotional clients are the worst, the make me want to leave the business and I know I can't. This industry chose me, it is how I have always felt. And so I serve the cause and the cause serves me.

We are not perfect. We will make mistakes, we know we are going to make mistakes, and we work on being able to fix them right away. How we handle problems is more important than the problem itself.

Dealing with the negative. It is what I heard about the blog before I started. How will I address the negative. My answer to that was "well dealing with the negative says something about the kind of company I am". So far it hasn't really been an issue because no one has ever commented on this blog before. My answer to that is "Learn". What can I learn from my angry emotional clients, what can I take from the experience and use in the future.

One last comment about working over 40 hours a week. I was talking to a friend of mine and he said that there is a diminishing return on working over 40 hours a week, you actually become less productive. I was telling someone the other day that I dream about my work at night in my sleep, they said ughh you must hate that. Actually I like that. It is my unconscious at work. I get answers to my work dilemmas at night it is like a free resource. That unconsciousness only come from working lots of hours for long stretches of time and working so passionately.

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.

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.

estimating madness

Time flies by and I have been too busy to post. I am busy with estimating work. If I get all the jobs I have estimated(never gonna happen) I would have to much work. In this dubious economy I have had to branch out and try to develope some new contacts. I have been sucessful in that, but with it came a whole lot estimating. A long time ago I asked the owner of an old second generation buisness how many jobs he got out of what he bid. His answer was 1 in 10. I was dunb founded, if I ever had ten jobs to bid at one time that would be miraculous. Still, today I am no where near that ratio. I am probally 7 out of 10 that I bid I get. That tells me that my prices are too low and I don't have a broad enough flow of work coming in that I can bid. So I am always prospecting. It is a good buisness practice, having a constant flow of work is another reason I am always prospecting. Keeping my company of a sales rollercoaster.

B80 is coming together very well. I will have photos soon. Gagan is working very hard keeping a steady hand. These parts are very difficult to make, they are large and invovle many curves, some with radi 20' long. Gagan had to make loads of templates. We are building the parts out of Okoume plywood. very expensive material cheaper than wood and easier to work.

Estaban has begun working on b77 our next kitchen, it has a corner sink. I have a sweeping tyoe of curve coming into the edges of the sink. typically the corner sink have sharp corners, this design should soften the look. The counter top guys will moan at the increase of thier work, they are making the sink which is the best way to do a farmers style sink if you ask me.

Ventura has been painting b67 non stop since we got the paint. It is loading up nice and we are anxisous to start the install.

my position

things are going great for the company now. The team is working as seamlessly as ever, we are able to obtain all the materials that we need, our infastructure is holding up, and the phone continues to ring. We took a fast track job this past week and completed it in 48 hours. Only because we work together as a team can we do that. Doing small quick jobs is a big part of our position in the market place with general contractors or construction managers. Some times design changes come up quickly and their man power is otherwise occupied, and you can't always build everything on a job site. That is where our shop comes in. It is important to remember that we can only do this if we are ahead of schedule in our production otherwise we wouldn't have time.
Our position in the market place is varied. We have different positions going at the same time. We don't view the homeowner with a cabinet job the same way that we view a general contractor who uses us over and over again. Both of these positions are equally important, and I can see this business surving on either one. I have chosen to build both positions for this company.
The painting of b67 is coming along very well. Esteban will be making all the pedestals for those cabinets next week. I will start to formulate the install lists and delivery order. I was at the job earlier this week for a look see. The plastering is underway. The floors would be the next thing to go in before the cabinets but we will have to see how the client wants it.
B58 really could use my attention. I have got to get going with the remaining parts and assembly. But you know I cannot I ma held up right now by the hood not being connected, and I can't close in the hood. So we wait. also the electrician needs to connect the in cabinet lighting at the desk, he may have done that by now. I will need to stop by next week and check it out.
That could be one of my biggest challenges. I don't get up to date info on job progress. I could really use video of the job site so I can see what is happening and make my install plans accordingly. That will never happen. Having someone on the road making deliveries and checking the status, that I see, that we would call the expediter. Just like in big restaurants. That is the model, my shop is the kitchen, job sites are the tables. One person is in charge of the kitchen, and one person is in charge of the tables.

touch-up problems

The 10 gallons for b67 has arrived and we will start to paint all the cabinetry, and ready for installation.
We have to buy more paint for b58, bummer because the second batch can be sometimes a little different than the first batch, We have painted most everything that is together and all that is left is the molding and some other cabinets that are across the room.
We should start building b76 by the end of this week. that is a job that we haven't talked to much about other than design. It is a very attractive kitchen designed by Jackie Whalen of Whalen interiors. I would call it English country style, it will have a glazed finish which has always been a challenge for us. Now I think we will handle it better because we are actually ahead of schedule. It is easier to do things when you have more time. We work well under pressure and I think I excel when the pressure is on. When we have the comfort of time we drop the ball less.
We did some touch-up on a job in Cambridge today for an a rated client. It didn't do to smooth. I should have put it off until today but chose to do it today and we ran out of time because we had to h ave our bi annual meeting. Sometimes i feel like such a loser why can I plan better. I need to spend more time working up my plan of attack. The bigger mistakes today were this: The paint was supplied by others and we were not used to working with it, We didn't bring all the right tools, I chose to buy a spray can that we could spray any paint through, the device was a joke it through out a hideous mix of paint with no room for adjustment. We need a portable spray device that is professional grade. And then on top of that the finish that was on the cabinets to begin with poor. These are manufactured cabinets, the gc my a rated client(new mind you)should have used us to build the cabinets. I think he'll use us next time.
Then we had our bi-annual meeting with the staff. it was awkward as usual. My guys are shy and don't seem to have anything to say. I think that I need to do something different next time to get these guys relaxed to the point where they will open up a little bit. The weekly staff meeting is better than the bi-annuals. The bi-annual has a weird feeling to it. We are all craftsman and in some cases anti-social, creative types. I take it all to personally, I shouldn't. I have got some ideas on how to relax things for next time.

still forgetting

I took all of my dimensions for the fronts of job c78. It went very well, although I did forget to get the drawer box dimensions. So I will need to return to the site for that, kind of a pain, but that is life. The finish color for b67 has been chosen and now we will order ten gallons. Sondu has started doing some administrative type of work here at the shop. We are very lucky for that, typically the administration person is not that familiar with the operation, which can cause some confusion. Sondu is very familiar with the operation and already knows who the vendors are and how they relate to the business. He also knows how to input the data from the time sheets. So it is very handy.

buying hardwood

A very common scene in my life. I am at the hardwood dealer buying lumber. I am there buying two different types of wood, cherry and soft maple. Both are four quarter material. That means that they are 1" thick and they are unfinished meaning not smoothed. when I surface plane and true up their faces they will yield a thickness of 7/8" or less definitely 3/4". The measuring tool can be seen laying across the lumber, this is the tool the tally man uses to measure the amount of board feet in a particular stick of wood. Look at the close up. The SM means wood type here soft maple. The 10 means the length of the stick, and the 7 is the quantity of board feet which for the maple I will pay somewhere around $3.50/bdft making this stick around $25.00 check my math on that. On the tool, the first column of numbers indicates the lenght of the board. As you go across you can see the opposite edge of the board falls in the seven square. That tells the tally man that their are seven board feet in this stick to charge the customer. What I want to point out is the area of margin here. So I try to buy boards that are on the wider side of that 1 inch margin. This board is also tallied prior to going into a shelf in a lot when their is a greater chance for error, so this needs to be monitored. Also you can see that their is no row for an eight foot piece of lumber, which is very common. The tally man has to divide the 16 row in half in his or her head when tallying the stick, yet another chance of error. And what about boards that vary in their widths as you go down the lenght. The following is why I buy the wood myself at Kidder Blasidell.


1. buyer has to be able to spot quality wood, and know when to buy what by seeing the quality of what is on the shelf. I compare it to a tobacco buyer walking through a warehouse and selecting the bails of tobacco.
2. buyer needs to know what wood is most needed for what we are to build next, so he can chose to not buy a wood that is of poor quality and wait until next time when the available selections might be better.
3. buyer needs to be able to identify straightness in boards
4. buyer needs to be able to chose widths that are on the larger side of the widht margin
5. buyer need to be able to spot mistakes in the tally mans calculations
6. buyer needs to know how to see through the fuzziness of the rough cut to see and understand grain pattern. especially with cherry and other woods to be in clear finished cabinets
7. buyer needs to be able to load the truck in a way that cares for the wood and keeps dry and clean and straight
8. Now fair is fair and we should take our fair share of the scuds or at least look like we do, we will lose the respect of the vendor if we simply take all their choice boards so it needs to be done delicately. And the bins must be returned to a clean neatly stacked condition after we have rifled through them.

there are 8 reasons why buying the wood is so important, the obvious one is that the quality of the finished product depend greatly on the quality of the beginning product, it is the old adage garbage in garbage out.

our core values

The phase two of c78 didn't go quite as smooth as phase one. There are some very challenging site conditions that we didn't fully anticipate. Gagan was able to overcome them with ease but just not totally smooth. After today we will be 100% complete with phases one and two of c78. Also we will be 100% complete with the a61 pool box.

the oven cabinet for b58 will be ready for install on wed. hopefully. Perhaps as late as Thursday, but only because of the companies fun event tomorrow. this is maybe our sixth fun event, I am personally really looking forward to it. At our staff meeting today I went over the first four essential steps of becoming an effective work group. I think they could possibly be our core values, creating an effective work is a core value of kidder blaisdell so it's only natural that the steps to being an effective work group are also core values, and here they are.

1. A sense of dependency, that means team members are dependant on me, and I am dependant on them.
2. A sense of structure and organization, that means defining what we do and defining how we do it.
3. A sense of inclusion, that means that everyone one the team feels included
4. constructive conflict, it surfaces and goes away quickly

those are Kidder Blaisdell's core values. I am not going to proclaim that we will deliver unsurpassed products, because that would be a con and everyone knows it. It is impossible to please everyone. Our values are in providing a living for ourselves a sustained living that we can depend on through any economic climate. We deliver fantastic cabinets and mill work that we work very hard on and we offer a great value by focusing on how we do what we do. Hence the effective work group. Now this is easier said then done, so all the time I go over these first four steps. Any one of my employees should be able to recite these four steps with out hesitation, and that takes repetition, repetition, repetition and to the new guys you need to hear it more and more until you start to see how powerful being in an effective work group can be. Also how rewarding and satisfying it can be, personally.

Gagan couldn't make it to work today, so I had to cover his shift. So I installed the rest of phase one cabinetry for c78. And it went smooth. It is all due to thye fact that I came to the job and took real time dimensions of the plaster walls. The cabinets went in one after the other poerfectly as planned. I think that says alot. The job site at c78 is a little scatterd and out of control. The Contractor though is a really noce guy and has all really nice guys on the job site. It has been such a pleasure to do job where everything fits smoothly. I got into the shop early to day and got everything that i needed for the install today loaded up. I installed today only what I needed and only what I brought with me. just as we planned. It is a good representation of my vision for my buisness. Where there are installers installing cabinets and an expediter who is bringing the cabinets from the shop to the jobs on a daily basis, Modeled after a resteraunt expedtier who brings the food to the tables as it is prepared. No need to have food sitting around no need to have cabinets sitting around. Tomorrow Gagan will return and the two of us will load up all the wall cabinets and head to the job tomorrow in two vehicles. I will brief Gagan on the job and leave it to him to complete the phase 2 of the install. When I return on Monday I will get to the job and get my dimensions for phase three.

B58 is lagging behind momentarily. Althought it does appear that Esteban has begun fabricating parts for the oven cabinet. That will make the cabinet ready to install sometime next week.

I went to another home building seminar at Van Millwork today co-sponsered by Desing New England magazine. It was really great, the Classic Group spoke and interior desingers that they work with also. I really liked everything that they had to say. Both organizations have done some amazing projects in their careers. I posted earlier on my blog about these seminars. Personally I think they are a good idea, mostly in the audience are home owners who will have projects of their own, who need to get info about how Construction projects opperate.

what is manufacturing

We had problems today with the plans for c78. When I sent in the revised plans to be printed I accidentally sent over the originals. So I wasted a trip to the printer. When I delivered the a61 cabinet I forgot the doors and the shelves. a61 is a beautiful pool box type cabinet that Esteban finished,which Gagan started on Friday. A great example of how we are manufacturers and not just craftsman or artist. You see one person started the cabinet and a different person finished it. And then the boss dropped the ball on delivery. A classic, but no that defines manufacturing, one person starts what others finish. my First point is why didn't I spend more time thinking before I left the shop to make sure I was fully loaded. Why didn't I spend the few seconds thinking before I email the wrong plans.

Anyways, c78 install is going to happen tomorrow as planned, I will start the install in the afternoon.. Thursday morning I will brief Gagan and lead him to complete phase 2 of the install. Then I will go in and confirm my specs for the fronts and all parts for phase 3 install where we bring it home. We have two weeks to get ready, stay tuned. I'd like to point out here that Esteban built the cabinets, myself and gagan will install and Ventura will apply the finish. Again manufacturing as a effective work group. People with different skill sets working in harmony, handing off goods, aligning people's individual strenghts. This is what we are working at all the time.
The oven cab for b58 won't be ready until Friday minimum. So Gagan will have to install that cabinet by himself this weekend, and may need help from Esteban or Ventura. I am out for the weekend, although, I will have my laptop with me.

3d rendering

Wow last night I started messing around with Solid works. In a short period of time I was able to create a 3d rendering of an L scribe, which is a standard part here. Pretty exciting, I don't really know what i am doing but, I did it. We initially are going to use the software for in house operations. Some day we will have computers on the shop floor and the bench men will be using them for building specs.
We have a training event scheduled for this week, maybe I should use that to begin teaching about the companies computer directory and how to get and open autocad files and solid works files.
We should be completing the next a61 job today, and delivering tomorrow. I put of the install of c78 until late wed. afternoon. I will get an afternoon jump start and then be able to hand it off to Gagan on thur. morning. I am concerned about the oven cabinet install. I may have to leave that up to Gagan for Friday. This is of course assuming that it is built and painted by then.

Solid Works

Last night I loaded solid works onto my pc. It is a three dimensional drawing tool. It is made by the same people that made autocad so I should be able to open an autocad file in solid works and turn it into a three dimensional. That is pretty advance to start with I will probably just be making images for in house purposes and training. The software interest me because of how it integrates so easily with cam software, which is post processing software for a cnc machine. Which I am hoping to purchase sometime in 09.

I have completed the shops for c78. That job is a small kitchen. We look at it as a opportunity to practice our technique. I broke the job down in the shop drawing phase. it has 11 cabinets, 4 pedestals, and some standard items. I made a list of all the parts and also I made an installation order. So on the first day of the install I will have exactly what I need to install. And then the second day and so on. I am figuring a three to four day install period. where phase one is taking two days phase two takes one day and phase three one day. With a small job like this we can easily see what makes sense to be installed in phase two or three.
We have already started build c78 so our install will begin this coming week.

I went to b67 this week which was scheduled for install mid June. I think we will be holding finished cabinets for a little bit there. Luckily we have the room so its not a problem. But it is a good example of how the schedule in residential constructing is so fluid. Time lines are always changing and being renegotiated. We really have to be flexible with our installation schedule.
I have alot of new work to bid out this week, and a meeting with a potentially new client FBN Construction. I am excited about that, they are in the fantastic 12 that I mentioned earlier from the RDC show. Also, I should be hearing about some other work that I bid out, that is weather or not I got the jobs.
I have the shops completed for the oven cabinet at b58. I could not complete them because I couldn't get the exact specs of the appliacnces when they were combined. This is a oven, warming drawer stack. When they are combined up it gets complicated to figure on how they assemble. For me it is much easier to just get the appliances and measure them directly.

Venting

The latest teak counter top was installed today. It went OK. I put the first scratches in it today. Not to happy about that, kind of ashamed. I didn't give it my best I was focused on the install and everything. I really should have had another person there to help me. It is a replacement top and I thought I would be able to handle it myself. Which I did just fine, it is that if I had another person there than I would not have scrathed it. I haven't heard from the client. That may be why I didn't give it my best I just have never really felt appreciated at this particular client's house. And I don't mean to blame anybody for the scrathes(which are very negligle I am a perfectionist) I just think that no appreciation leaves its mark on moral. The teak is drop dead gorgeous, and I don't think that any one will ever notice other than me. People will notice but they won't tell me. You know who will get the credit it's the contractor and the interior designer. which I suppose is the way it should be. It is the client who makes a difference by saying that they appreciate the work. To the contractor and the designer its just another job, I don't think their heart is in their work the way mine is. Going out to the job today alone was a mistake on my part, maybe that is why I don't have the jobs that I want to have now becasue I am viewed as an amature by the market place. Unrelaible enough to install a wooden top scratch free.