Whats Your Schedule ?

[Mojo]

Just wondering what you guys schedule will be like through the holidays.

I am slammed with orders and backed up big time so I will be sewing Thanksgiving morning.
I will probably start burning the midnight oil on Friday and will sew all weekend. I have surgery scheduled for next Thursday to remove all of my upper teeth ( the chemo rotted them out of my head ) so will lose several days while I recuperate.

I am shutting the shop down December 22nd and loading the bus up and we are heading to Richmond for Christmas with my daughter and her husband. I think that last year I was sewing on Christmas Eve Day. Not this year. :)

I plan on kicking butt again after the New Year because I have more surgery to get the lowers done then. February starts the seminar / rally season and that will run till June 1st.

What are your holiday plans and schedule ?

Chris

[Mike]

im pretty crazy ive got a weeks work left on finishing that hatteras ,
and ive got sea cover pattern waiting to be made for those new pontoon seats upholstery and a new top some seat in storge for a 18 Larson and ive also got a 40' sailboat enclosure to do days off? :P I should work t day

[JDUpholstery]

I am overloaded myself...I have a drivers seat that I need to recover with leather, then I have a front and rear bench seat to do, 3 headliners and 2 dashboards...plus the boat that the customer said "no rush we don't need it til spring so work on other jobs if you need to" has suddenly decided he would like it done by Thanksgiving (possible, if everything goes right)

My wife works Thanksgiving day, so we are doing it Saturday, so working wont be a big deal for me, but I am definitely feeling the pressure!

[west coast]

After a year and a half of famine the feast has arrived with a vengeance. I am over booked until Christmas and quite happy! We will be working some weekends to get it done but we have a lounge for a cruise ship that needs to be in the can in three weeks so its a gonna be crazy. I like crazy every once in awhile !

[Mike]

I get to stressed I want to do it all at once to many irons in the fires.i likeit when im all caught up and wonder what comes next, that's what I had a few months ago then I strart getting worried again and stress all over again :o
once it warm up again im going to have to go fishing ive been too busy lately 

[kodydog]

Just gave a big cushion job to the guy I work for in Gainesville. After measuring and working up an estimate the customer said they need it by Christmas. Were booked solid through the holidays and scheduling into next year.

[mike802]

I am not taking any new jobs until after the first of the year, except maybe a snowmobile seat or two.  My wife's new scheduling method has help me space out my work so this year I can take off time for the holidays.  8)

[crammage]

I've got enough work to last until just before Christmas.  It has been my best year ever and since the upholstery work is considered the part time work I've been happy.  I'm finishing up two parson's chairs and will start working on two button tufted headboards today.  Then on Friday I get a chair and loveseat from a director of a local museum.  A couple of historic pieces I'm excited to get started on. 

And in the spirit of the week, I just have to say thank you to everyone for their expertise that you all are so willing to share on this forum.  It has been invaluable to me at different times.  I don't always post alot but keep up with the forum regularly.

With that said, keep on covering!

Clay

[sofadoc]

Technically, I don't really "schedule" anything. I'll give a customer an estimate for completion. But an "estimate" is all it is, and usually isn't too terribly accurate. I do a lot of repair work for regional furniture stores, which is unpredictable . So when it comes in, all jobs in process get put on hold. And I place a higher priority on high-profit jobs. So when they come in, the piddly jobs get moved to the back burner as well. Most of my customers understand and accept that. The ones that don't will soon learn to.

Fortunately, us Texans are known for being "laid back". Most customers really don't press me too much (except for the ones that moved here from outta state.......where apparently EVERYTHING has a strict deadline :D).

I guess you could say that I'm booked up into January. Maybe February. Can't really say, since I don't keep a schedule. ;)

[Mojo]

I do the same thing with dealer orders Dennis. They take priority over all other orders. I also will get an emergency job now and then and I fill that order immediately as well.

My orders are quick turn around's. I can kill many of the topper orders in a morning or evening. The two orders I have on this week are the Omega's and they take more time. I typically sew them in the evening when my wife is home to help me control the fabric.

I can have a stack of orders but if a dealership or emergency job comes in I bust it out right away. Most times these orders are for a customer who is sitting camped at a dealer waiting on me. The emergency jobs are for certain awnings that once the topper or awning rips they cannot get the awning to retract without calling out a technician. In the meantime they have to close a slide and leave it closed till they get my topper from me.

I am flexible but I do adhere to my schedule very closely on a typical week. My customers are very dependent on my coordination with their schedule. They are in Indiana one week and in Wyoming the next. I have one right now that I am coordinating with a customer who is in Seattle. I have to have the order done and ship it to their next stop in Yuma. They are there just for a few days before moving on to CA.

Alot of my orders are going to a customer who has a scheduled date with a dealer for install work. If I screw up and get off schedule by just a day I just screwed them up along with the dealer and in many cases this requires another nights stay at a campground.

Sometimes it is slow but during the busy season I get so many orders coming in sometimes that I cannot keep track of them so this schedule keeps me on point and makes things flow better. I wished I could take credit for my schedule system but it was the boss ( wife unit ) who designed it for me. She then demanded I use it. :)

Chris

[SHHR]

I'll be sewing all holiday weekend. I had it all planned to take a few days off, but my nieces car broke down and shes been borrowing my truck since Friday while her car is torn apart in my shop waiting on parts to come in. I finished her up tonight and hopefully get my truck back as soon as she's off work. Now I have to play catch up on the paying jobs.
Kyle

[forsailbyowner]

I'm on my fall sabbatical. Biannually I change locations and just cruise and hang out for a month or three. I'm in the keys now headed to tortugas next then Tampa bay area. Always looking for that trophy fish. This cruises best fish was a 60" 45lb wahoo caught offshore cape canaveral but hope to better that with a bruiser tuna from the grounds west of the tortugas.