How small manufactures related to interior finishing industry waste time and money?

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    How small manufactures from construction industry waste time and money?

    Paul – one of Prodio’s partners, author of the majority of the code and our CTO has recently finished a removal project. In the process, he was able to see for himself, that things we are describing in a series of articles are terrifyingly real…

    There were plenty of examples of totally chaotic work on the side of suppliers, where companies made the product badly (starting from doors, through fixture modifications, fitted furniture, kitchen worktop), but it was enough to choose ONLY 3, which show clearly how much time, profit and reputation lost those companies.

    It turns out, that the problem isn’t in poor quality or efficiency but mainly in huge losses made due to chaos in communication.

    1. Case study – kitchen worktop

    Who: small company with modern technology, employing about 15 people

    What:  Fitted kitchen worktop with an under-mounted sink.

    Although the correct technical drawing was delivered, Paweł received a worktop about 1-meter shorter, which made impossible kitchen fitting. 

    Costs for the company:

    1. A 3 meter long customized worktop had to be re-made. (raw material + production)
    2. A sink had to be again under-mounted.
    3. Collection of mis-measured worktop in order to dismount a sink 
    4. Large-dimension delivery to Pawła 
    5. Reputation loss

    Cost of approximately 400$, not including loss of machines and employees occupancy, plus additional reputation loss.

    How would it look in Prodio: 

    When writing an order on the list of orders the employee would attach a PDF file from Paweł, and the file could be displayed on the shop floor.

    When offered Prodio software the company responded:
    WE DON’T HAVE TIME!

    If they had one less complaint a month, Prodio would pay off after one week.

    2. Case study – bathroom countertop

    Who: small carpentry workshop

    What:  Impregnated bathroom countertop

     

    After completing the order with a salesman at the company headquarter, writing measurements and choosing the right models, and assembly team delivered the furniture. It turned out that both beds have 20 centimetres gap between a frame and the matterrace. Some of the bed elements were from the model with a headboard, on top of that the drawer which was supposed to be under the bed was placed on the wrong side.
    The complaint was filed TWICE AND EACH TIME, WRONG PARTS WERE DELIVERED.
    It hasn’t been solved yet.

    Type of discrepancy:

    After choosing a desired colour and model on the website Paweł placed an order by e-mail and received (with quite a delay) a countertop in a different colour than the one ordered. After sending it back and waiting a few more weeks HE AGAIN RECEIVED A WRONG COUNTERTOP AND THE PACKAGE WAS SENT TO A DIFFERENT CITY. Not having more time to spare he decided to give the countertop to a different carpentry shop, which will invoice the provider for extra sanding and re-painting. As we are writing this article, we don’t know if the second carpentry shop successfully completed the task.

    Costs for the company:

    1. Collection of faulty countertop
    2. The countertop had to be re-made (once again sanding and painting) 
    3. Protection with special oil
    4. Sending a countertop to a customer (Paweł)
    5. Cost of service in a local capentry shop.
    6. Reputation loss

     Cost of approximately 1000 zł PLN, not including loss of machines and employees occupancy, plus additional reputation loss.

    How would it look in Prodio: 

    When writing an order on the list of orders the employee would write in additional boxes “Color”:  Biscuit and information would appear on the print out passed to production, together with delivery address, etc.

    When offered Prodio software the company responded:

    WE DON’T HAVE TIME! And 89 $ seems a bit steep.

    3. Case study – beds

    Who: small furniture producer employing – 40 people

    What:  Beds

    Type of discrepancy: 

    After completing the order with a salesman at the company headquarter, writing measurements and choosing the right models, an assembly team delivered the furniture. It turned out that both beds have 20 centimetres gap between a frame and the matterrace. Some of the bed elements were from the model with a headboard, on top of that the drawer which supposed to be under the bed was placed on the wrong side.
    The complaint was filed TWICE AND EACH TIME, WRONG PARTS WERE DELIVERED.
    It hasn’t been solved yet.

    Costs for the company:

    1. Part of elements for both beds had to be re-made 
    2. Two additional assembly team visits (a truck-drive 80 km one-way + 2 employees working time) 
    3. We’ll see what’s going to happen next…
    4. Reputation loss 

    Cost of approximately 250$, not including loss of machines and employees occupancy, plus additional reputation loss.

    TO SUM UP

    Even assuming, that Paweł was exceptionally unlucky each of the above examples shows that ONLY because of mistakes made in his case the companies lose the equivalent of 3 months access to Prodio software – so that would sum up the money-saving excuses…

    …because the biggest loss is time and energy, wasted on working under pressure, in chaos trying to fix mistakes made under pressing deadlines, adding onto general confusion. 

    All mistakes came from the same source – broken communication which resulted in information not getting to a production hall. It could be easily avoided, by investing less than a minute of time in introducing Prodio in orders, thus information would automatically get where it is supposed to.

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