It’s About Time
A Bench Jewelers Guide to
Increasing Productivity in the Jewelry Repair Shop
A mother of preschool children was working in the house one morning while her children played in the backyard with the neighbor children. She realized that the children had been quiet for an awfully long time, which is not a good thing. So she went to the back window to see what the children were up to. She saw all the children huddled together sitting in the center of the backyard. Curious as to what they were doing she snuck up behind them and exercised her parental prerogative and eves dropped. As she got closer she saw the children were playing with some small furry animals. How wonderful, she thought. The neighbor’s cat had her kittens and the children are playing with them. However, as she got closer she realized that the children were playing with a family of baby skunks! Run, she screamed. Run children run! Not knowing what their mother was screaming about, all the children jumped to their feet, grabbed a skunk, and ran into the house.
That mother standing in the backyard at that moment was feeling like many of you do while trying to run your shop. Just when you think everything is running smoothly, in walks one of your best customers to pick-up her ring. You look in the finished jobs and it is not there. You go back to the shop and not only is it not ready, it has not been even started, and up goes the skunks tail!
Everyone seams to be working harder, but you don’t seem to be getting anywhere. Running the shop seems like running on a treadmill. It does not matter how hard you run you end up in the same place you started.
You hire another jeweler, but it does not help. The only results you can see is that cost have gone up. The work in the shop is still behind, and the skunk’s tail keeps going up. As one wag said: “Having lost sight of our objective we have re-doubled our efforts.”
I have good news for you. If you have ever felt like that mother, I have one word for you, Productivity.
Now I know I’ve just lost some of you. You know what productivity is and you want no part of it. To you productivity in the shop is achieved by your jeweler working faster, and leaving out steps along the way. This result in lower quality and you want no part of it, and for good reason.
For you that feel this way, I have even better news for you. That’s not what I’m talking about. Any attempts to increase productivity that results in lower quality of the finished product should always be avoided. Haste makes waist. Trying to hurry through jobs usually has a reverse affect on productivity and profits. Hurrying through jobs often results in more mistakes causing re-work or damaged stones. When items have to be replaced, it cuts into the profits of the shop. When work has to be redone, it slows productivity. If you do not have time to do it right, When will you have time to do it over?
In addition any jobs that do get by, is shown all around town. The customer tells everyone you did the work and your image slips. Up goes the skunks tail again. That is not productivity; that is just doing sloppy work, and doing it fast.
Productivity in the Repair Shop continued