A Place For Everything and Everything In Its Place
So where are your snippers right now? Have you lost them again? Are you spending more time looking for stuff than sewing stuff? Does answering the phone mean abandoning your machine? Feeling a bit spaced out? Perhaps its time to do a bit of shop re-design.
No matter how small your enterprise is, the efficiency of your production is dependent on the layout of your work area. It’s critical that your workflow is smooth and continuous in order to maximize your output. Every minute of unnecessary downtime can add up to a significant loss of revenue.
For example, if a single-head shop that is running production at 850 spm (very reasonable for most jobs) loses ten minutes worth of production per hour due to inefficiencies of work flow, that equates to 8500 stitches of lost output. If the average job price was $1.00/1000, then $8.50 worth of revenue was just tossed out the window.
On a higher level, a 6 head production shop, which should also be running in the 850spm range, would lose 51000 stitches of production during the same ten minutes worth of unnecessary downtime. If the going rate was $0.50/1000, the loss would equal $25.50 per hour.
Of course, it’s impossible to sew for 60 minutes out of every hour, but every effort must be made to maximize sewing output. Therefore, you must work towards reducing any work flow barriers that may be presented by your shop layout.
Initially, most Embroiderers focus on placing everything at arms’ reach, with the concept being that they will spend less time wandering away from the machine(s). This train of thought is valid, but sometimes overdone, the danger being that an overabundance of clutter is created that actually interferes with proper workflow. Suddenly, important items such as work orders, scissors, and snippers are disappearing beneath assorted stacks of garments waiting to be hooped or trimmed. Cones of thread are lying around everywhere, slowly unraveling or falling onto the floor. An assortment of hoops are scattered haphazardly along the tabletops and under the machine(s). Though all of your production tools are nearby, you can’t find what you need due to the chaos.
To overcome such a scenario, you must carefully plan your shop layout so that you have easy to access to everything you need but not necessarily everything that you own. The focus should be to store the items most frequently used within the easiest reach, while less importance things are positioned further away, so as not to clutter the area.
To get started, identify all the things that are necessary for you to run production. The list probably looks something like this:
- Threads
- Backings
- Toppings
- Needles
- Tools
- Garments
- Scissors
- Snippers
- Bobbins
- Marking tools
- Hoops & frames
- Hooping fixture
- Garments
- Work Orders
- Design files
- Computer
- Telephone
- Notepads
- Machine oil
- Seam rippers/thread removal tools
- Steamer
- Spare parts
Of course, some of these items are optional and your own list may be different, but this is a good start.