| .. Resources .. Management .. Production .. Paul Faix, Organize Production Sign Shop |
How to Organize Production in the Small Sign Shop |
Paul Faix, Signtrade, Australia |
 |
Small sign shops face much more challenges than medium to large businesses. One of the reasons is a lack of resources or if you like work forces to operate the business.
The Owner is often dragged into the production process and the business suffers. I have heard on many occasions that the owner should work on the business rather than in it. It is easily said but very hard to achieve.
Perhaps the first step could be to get organised. Organise processes in the business so that people know what they do and when. You do not want your employees to stand still and always wait for your next instruction.
You need to setup up your business in a way that when you are on the road seeking new business opportunities and looking after the clients or perhaps fishing, your business will operate smoothly. Today I will give you a few ideas on how to start to organise your production.
Is my production disorganised?
How do you recognise that you need some improvement in your organisation? You need to watch the warning signs such as:
- amount of work coming in and out
- atmosphere in the company
- redoing
- production delays
- customer satisfaction
- absence
- effectiveness
By being alert and being able to recognise the warning signs, you may identify the problem in early stages and will be able to fix it easily.
Choose the right people to lead your team!
Your production manager must posses a variety of skills. On the one side, there would be a technical set of skills such as how to produce quality signs - materials knowledge, sign shop procedures, installation skills and many others. On the other side are his/her managerial skills and experience so he/she is able to estimate how long each task would take to complete, how many people should perform this task.
The production manager must be well organised, possess leadership qualities to lead and motivate his/her team and constantly move everyone out of their comfort zone. The production manager must be able to recognise weaknesses and fix them, organise additional training, talk to suppliers about late delivery and recognise the unhappy team player.
Tell your team what business you are in.
Communicate the values of your business and your market position to your team. All team members must know what type of business you are in. Whether it is a high quality sign shop charging premium prices or a quick sign shop delivering signs the next day or perhaps a budget safety signs manufacturer.
People in your team must be able to consolidate their views with the company views. What is the point of your production person spending 1 hour making small safety sign? Constantly remind your team what business you are in and what is important to achieve your goals.
Put processes in place
People feel secure if they know what is expected of them. In order to achieve that, you need to create processes in the business that everyone will follow.
In my opinion the sign business is one of the most complicated businesses that you can run. Why? All your products are custom made and all are different. Of course unless you specialise in the production of safety signs or similar products only. So the challenge is to define processes which are the same and production can follow.
You need to concentrate on the task not on the material or time. The amount of material always varies and time is also always different. In the standard sign shop you have the following production processes:
- design
- approval
- order
- delivery
- manufacturing
- cutting
- printing
- weeding, applicating
- making a sign
- delivery or installation
These are your basics that you can start working on. Work on your requirements for each task and communicate them to the production person. Set some goals; the first draft of design for small jobs must be done every day before lunch. Be very specific what you expect and be realistic of your expectations.
Organise your production
Once you have goals and processes in place you need to setup daily or weekly (monthly) routines. Once a week you should have a company meeting with all employees and discuss your achievements, have an educational 15 minutes about company goals and how close or far you are from reaching them. If someone from the team did an extra step or you received a positive feedback from a customer praise them in front of everyone.
Give everyone an opportunity to express their opinion and open a discussion. You should also have daily production meetings early in a morning so you can distribute the work and assign the tasks. During your monthly management meetings, you should review your previous months, discuss the targets and set new goals.
Be fair
The last but not least thing I will mention here is the importance of being fair to your people and expect the same in return. The sign business manufacturing process is a time consuming process and production staff often leaves their workplace as the last.
It is essential to recognise that; do not oversee the fact that people work long hours in your business. You do not need to pay them necessarily for overtime, there are other ways; you can tell them that you see it and compliment them, give them some incentives, send them early home if business is not busy and so on. Just be fair!
|
|
Login
None