Examine Your Business technology - Very Important!

[baileyuph]

What is the situation -- Are you running your business with essentially the same technology in use when you started business?

Important question because while growing a business is tantamont to success, the work, especially additional work, needs to be completed fast - efficiently!!

Growing a business needs to include efficiencies that mass production - at the time include.  In review of my business there is more than ample sewing equipment for many services offered from A to Z.  The equipment is in great condition and provided with more than ample feet - the equipment ranges from standard arm to long arm walking feet (fairly expensive BTW) and in several copies. 

But, the most important question about equipments is; does the set up (equipment array) stand in line to provide the efficiencies of manufacturing????  Again very important!

For us planning to grow our business - need to realize that a shop equipped like mine, great machines all in good working order, even some near new; need to realize that the technology we use is essentially over 50 years old.  Hard blow but true!

Keep this important fact in mine while thinking of growing a business.  Growing a business is bigger than that, one needs to turn the page and start looking at state of the art technologies available today - even used by current manufacturing - and make that issue equal in plans to "growing the business". 

In a word, grow your business, but to be successful, going forward MUST include current effiencies offered and used by your competitors.

Of course this will bring the computer assisted items available and used today; these are the ideas that must be equall included in all business decisions.

For example, this week while reupholstering traditional arm chairs, close examination revealed of upholstery removed, that the cushion boxing had been sewn by boxing machines - machines that cut, then fabricate the cording to both edges of the boxing strip in one pass... out comes the boxing ready to be sewn to the two cushion plates.

Compare that operation to that I do on my machine which requires a number of passes, not one.

Get the point?  Now ready for this:  that boxing/with cording capability is far advanced to my shops capability and it is already over 50 years old.  That comparison alone, is only the beginning to suggest that, while I said my equipment runs like a dream -  simply isn't efficient!

That is only one example of importance - the importance of equipment efficiencies we use - and should use in our business.

Moving forward, if your business is doing things that are or could be repetitive, get in step if you plan to succeed!  Times have and are changing. 

Get your patterns to the digital level, get your cutting to the digital level, and get your sewing to the efficiency level the manufacturers use to do it well and fast comparatively - major success will follow.  Price is what things are all about in the market today, we have to compete with efficiency or we won't compete at all.

Technology is marching on -- put these thoughts in your plans.  It can take place, even implemented slowly to great advantage.  Want to make more money - all do!!

Lot's to think and plan around.

Doyle   

[Mojo]

We have just about maxed out our machine capabilities. Our twin needle machines are less then 2 years old, we bought a brand new long arm a month or so ago and our Chandler is 5 years old.

Where we are hurting is in the computer technology department. We are starting to get a good handle on this as Mindy, being as young as she is, has a good grasp on computers. She is bringing us up to date on Quickbooks but we are still lacking on a work order system. I know quickbooks has the means to be able to take a quote, generate a work order and then generate an invoice without multiple inputs along the way.

All three of us have tried and cannot get it to work. We have one member here who has this system down and working for them and I am going to see if he will work with Mindy on getting us up to speed. ( Hello Gene, are you there ). There is something we are missing and it is driving us insane.

Other then that I cannot see any place we can add technology with regards to machines in our business. I should say that I cannot think of any machines we could adapt that we could afford. :)

Chris

[SteveA]

I'm wondering where a customer goes other then to you for re-upholstery ?  These machines that mass produce are more likely found in factory workshops doing high production.  Your customer isn't going there to recover a chair or sofa.  Who would they speak to - no personal service.
I don't know how a small company gets away from the usual labor and machinery most use.  I do like the idea of keeping the machines in good repair as well as replacing the aging ones. 
SA

[brmax]

The many thoughts in the postings are great, I do see a big change to advance to if and only if you have a repetition of task or materials to fabricate. It seems many jobs I see with everyone here is general same areas but not hardly a same movement in each daily job, makes me struggle thinking of efficient ideas.
Just curious on QB have any of you linked or whatever any pictures to a work order, estimate or any job for present and even historical reference.
Good day there

[baileyuph]

Chris,
In your awning business, is every awning you make unique to only one vehicle?  If you are making an awning that fits several vehices, that is the area that is ripe for digitization of patterns and cutting of same.  Your office work is a great candidate for saving time, so go with the new technolog.  But, where you do the patterning (do you measure every pattern, then cut and sew)?  Then repeat that process for the next vehicle that takes the same awning? 
If so, get that pattern in a computer, available for reuse on the next vehicle calling for the same size awning.  This ends manually patterning, cutting, (forever).

Then, going forward, a keen mind will see where there is considerable redundancy in sewing.  Let the computer determine the length of seams.  This can apply to top stitching very handily, for cameras are already guiding sewing through machines to achieve accuracies that manual efforts just can't do.

Pattern making can be accomplished by digitizing pattern components, which can be stored on a disk or stick or where you wish.  Then, the next job like that one, reuse the digital.  No more manual layouts, cutting, and faster sewing.  That is what manufacturers use, they are directly or indirectly a smaller industry/shop's competitor.

This is the direction I am referencing.  It is not dream world engineering and that is why small shops are losing reupholstery work, new is cheaper and more profitable than doing everything manually as we do in a small shop.  Sure small shops are loaded with work, but they can't move it out the door fast enough to make the profits for all their hand work.

When Kia makes upholstery for a specific year/model auto, they don't pattern for every piece of upholstery, pattern once for that seat and let the computer drive the cutting and assist in the sewing.  That is merely an example of where the state of the art is and it also applies to any upholstery or canvas product manufacturered today.  OLd school methods cannot compete with this type of efficiency, that is doing a new pattern , manually, for every requirement.

Another example, a supplier of Mustang convertible tops, will use the same digital pattern for as long they are in business in the out years.  Imagine how much time is saved in the concept.

There are engineering firms who will provide consultant services to accomplish capabilities just described.

Doyle

[gene]

Hey Chris, aka mojo. Have Mindy email me and I will try to answer her questions. My email is here at home and I do not have data on my phone. I check emails in the evening and just before I head out the door in the morning. Also, in a previous post Minup, aka Paul, who lives down in your neck of the woods, asked about creating a shop work order, or someone else did, but I remember him saying he understood what I was describing and he would give it a try. He may be a good source for your inquires also.

Good post, Doyle. One rule I've been going by is if I cannot determine exactly how something will help make me money, I won't buy it. I've got a list of neat stuff that I'd love to have in my shop.

example: SofaD has a blower that he uses to re fluff batting in cushions. I've had the one from Harbor Freight bookmarked for years. I just don't do enough of these types of jobs to justify buying one. I use my shop vac which makes the process easier. I just need to tear the batting into really small bits. The shop vac sucks the pieces into one big canister for easy stuffing back into the cover.

When I started my business I went to classes at SCORE. One big issue they preach a lot is that a small company cannot compete on price only. They say the bigger fish will eat you every time. I think this is true.

I'm still thinking about a way to remove staples with a pneumatic tool. A single shot pneumatic punch is what I've been thinking about lately. Awhile back I actually googled ways to use acid to melt the metal staples. Didn't have much luck on this one. Doesn't it sound good though: no staple puller, no rubber mallet, no pliers. Just a small glass bottle and an eye dropper.  :)

gene

[baileyuph]

Good tip Gene on handing loose stuffing going into cushion.  Oh, and Dennis, would you explain your technique, I bet it is good!

Maybe an overview of your loose stuffing technique?

For installing foam into a tight cover, I have technique that sucks the air out to facilitate that requirement.

Again back to Gene, you say Harbor Freight has a something, is it hard to describe?

BTW, I am on an efficiency movement, If I can cut time 10 percent it could add several thousand bucks a year.  Of course, needless to say not at the expense of quality.

You and the school is right, but the effort towards better efficiency is not to keep busy, already busy, get more through put!  Bottom line thing!

With my array of machines, I have been impressed with how much time I save by setting up a machine for all task with the same sewing requirement.  Then, set another machine up for another.  I use the long arm almost exclusively for marine cover work - that pays also. 

Bottom line, at the end of the day, more work accomplished and not as tired.

Doyle

[Mojo]

Doyle:

We do no pattern. Our products are all standard widths and lengths according to the RV.

We do get into some customization and there are a few things we do differently then our competitors
that gives us a better fit with our products. To date they have not figured it out and I do not plan on handing this technique over to them. We have been plagiarized, copied and had innovations taken from  us so much over the last two years that we keep alot of what we do now under wraps. Screw em, let them do all the testing and make the prototypes. In a nutshell no machinery other then what we have would help without a major investment in equipment. We are talking HUGE investments. I doubt our sales will ever reach that point.

Gene, I will pass your e-mail off to Mindy. What we are looking for is help getting our work order and tagging system set up to where we print off the work order and the tags associated with each product we sell for that particular order. Thanks for your offer of helping us.

Chris