Stop running in to the same brick wall

Why use such a title? Well, I am determined to learn from mistakes – mistakes are a good thing as long as they do not cripple you and you learn from them I find.

Increasing productivity is an ongoing project and one that there is less and less areas where we can now ‘trim the fat’; never the less, it has been a good week and one where a further change in process has yielded favourable results.

Last week I tried to group all the weeks order tasks (making of button brooches, making of bookmarks, making of lavender bags &c) together, but when it came to packing 10 or so orders on the Monday many things had been missed so Ruth spent practically the whole of Monday filling holes from the previous week – not good.

This week I divided the tasks in to orders comparable to the size of production I wished to achieve each day; but I always leave the lavender bag and notebook sleeve production for all the orders for Friday when Ruth and I have a day off; there is little freehand embroidery required for these tasks so now do not necessitate any input from Ruth. This new process has worked much better, we could see completed orders earlier in the week and these completed order trays were put to one-side; mentally it helped us all as we could physically see where we had come from and where we still had to go.

So seeing we have a problem and changing the process has helped tremendously; we have stopped running in to the same brick wall.

Other things we have changed include:-

• documenting an order on receipt rather than when it is to be dispatched, we now give every order an order number which corresponds to the invoice number, all the paperwork is completed up front;
• informing the stockist (by email) at each change of status of their order – when it is WIP, when it is dispatched &c. This means that the stockist spends less time chasing us.

Another proposal I am considering is to pre-empt orders from stockists who order the same (or very similar stock) very regularly. We can build stock of our button brooches and store them in boxes but it is quite difficult to do this with bookmarks, handbag mirrors &c. So pre-empting is going to be my next tool to improve productivity for our very regular stockists so when they order and state delivery asap, they will get it within a day or two.

This weeks productivity matched last week but I think that tomorrow (Monday) we will see the result of the benefit of the new processes when it comes to packing.

We gained two new stockists this week, the first being the Bessemer Gallery in Sheffield; they contacted me when I was still in Sweden (some months ago) asking for trade info, I replied immediately providing the login and password to the trade section of our website but heard nothing for a month (I always flag trade enquiry emails for a one month follow-up, in case the enquiry goes cold), I followed up and again heard nothing, so this week I thought I would give it one more go before I let it go completely; this time round I received an immediate reply and an order followed later that day. Polite persistence does sometime pay off, it seems.

The second new stockist is the Quilt Museum here in York; I contacted them last week asking if we could swap leaflets so they held leaflets for Sumptuosity and Sumptuosity held leaflets for them. The museum director agreed and suggested I contacted the commercial director, which I did; we met on Wednesday morning and Wednesday lunch we received a surprise order! Apparently, a record time in which a prospective Quilt Museum supplier being reviewed and approved! We are pleased. We have created some “I love quilting” & “I love patchwork” button brooches and handbag mirrors specifically for the museum.

I had to design a quarter page add for the Top Drawer exhibition catalogue this week, I spent a couple of hours on this and was extremely pleased with the result. First of all I collated all the information and looked at examples in a comparable catalogue; I was surprised at how BAD many of the advertisements I looked at are, filling every bit of space with text and image.

We have decided our brand image and we always stick with it, and I love negative space, it is so decadent. So now we have our colourway and I have decided our typeface to be ‘courier’ the basic form is so appealing.

This layout will follow-on to a brochure/catalogue too.

We have a post student placement starting this week – Alanna, I think she is with us for a couple of weeks. We have had student placements with us before (before I came into the business full-time) and it always hindered productivity; so, I am determined this will not happen this time around, Alanna will get a rounded overview of the business and will contribute in all areas. The one change this time around is that I will plan her duration with us as much as I plan the weekly production.

More insight to crafting a craft business next week