When outsourcing fails... you DIY
Part of the legacy of COVID is that many of our suppliers fired skilled workers during the shutdown periods in order to avoid bankruptcy. They are now lacking skilled personnel, and the quality is poorer. One place we've seen that is in paint-work, which (for wood) has been impossible for us to get at a quality we will accept.
Our woodturning supplier doing everything by computer-controlled lathe, so the quality is unchanged. However, these handles then went to a painting company, who three times did an unacceptable job and ruining the batch of handles. In the end, we lost patience, and told them to “just sent us the raw wood handles, we'll finish them ourselves”.
Alfred, our recent hire from a few months, is a Albanian who worked as a general home builder in the UK for 6 years, and seemingly can do most anything. We've given him a room to convert into his own shed, and a budget to replace all the mediocre tools with good stuff. And he's really tidy! Luckily for us, he married a HK Woman in the UK, and they moved here.
I asked Alfred to trial several different varnish products and present me with samples. In the end, I really liked the natural color this choice produced. Alfred coats them once, lets them dry, then sands them, and then applies a second coat.
He's done about 400 handles this way now, so that we finally have natural wood handles in stock that I can be proud of.
Sometimes, you just have to do-it-yourself.
#COVID #DE1history #factory #manufacturers
Updated 2021/05/03