Bench Ph.D.
A Bench Jeweler’s Guide to Organizing their Bench
Do you have your bench Ph.D.? No, I do not mean a doctorate from some university. What I am asking is: Do you have your bench Piled Higher and Deeper? Is it piled high and deep with tools, parts, debris, or other clutter?
I have found there are more misunderstandings over this issue than on anything else I speak about. We have become very defensive about our clutter. The left-brain world has really deceived us into thinking their way is the only way to organize something, and as right-brained creative bench jewelers we want no part of it. When jewelers hear the subject matter, they naturally assume that I am there to pour on more guilt and their resistance goes up.
A Cluttered Bench is a Sign of a Cluttered Mind. A Messy Bench Produces Messy Work. And on and on the sayings go. The truth of the matter is A Messy Bench is a Sign of a Messy Bench. Period – No More, and No Less! A messy bench is NOT a reflection on your intellect, talent, or ancestry.
I really don’t care what your bench LOOKS like. What I’m concerned about is if your bench is organized or not. To maximize productivity it is important to have an organized bench. A Disorganized Bench is an Un-Productive Bench.
I’ll let you in on a little secret. A neat bench may not be any more organized than a messy bench. Neat does NOT equal Organized. You can have a bench that is neat as a pin and you can still be disorganized. We can clean everything off our benches so they look like the new benches in the tool catalogs, but if all we did is move the piles from on top of the bench into the drawers so that the drawers look like Fibber McGee’s closet, we have not changed the situation. In fact, we may have made matters worse. Even if all the bench drawers and shelves are neat and orderly, if we cannot find our tools when needed, nothing has improved.
Managing space efficiently, whether it’s your bench or the entire shop, does not necessarily mean making it neat. Rather, it means making it functional for you to use.
A so-called “Mess” in itself needn’t be a problem. Keeping things out in plan view so you can ‘see’ where it is and make it easier to find later, is not a bad thing. However, when layer covers layer and the clutter begins to take on a life of its own, it can seriously affect our productivity. Excessive clutter can cause additional stress and aggravation. As we become more stressed we become less effective in our work. This causes even more stress, as our work does not get finished on time.
In addition, chaotic workplaces can be very distracting, especially if you are visually oriented, as most bench jewelers are. Every time we see something in the midst of the clutter, we are tempted to do something else, instead of focusing on what we are already doing.
Excessive clutter also affects shop profits. It takes more time to clean a cluttered shop. Because of this you’re less likely to clean-up bench and floor sweeps. The result is that precious metal literally walks out of the shop on the bottom of shoes, and on workers hands and clothing.
Organizing Their Bench continued