The most confounding part of this crazy business is lead times. Not only are designers forced to worry about getting their clients to actually make a decision but then they have to enter the lead-time-labyrinth to coordinate fabrics, furniture, shipping and finally delivery. When I ask our designers what we can do to make their jobs easier – the answer is always the same – improve our lead times!
While I wish I could tell you that I’d waved a magic wand and made our lead times perfect (Let’s be honest, if I was waving a magic wand – I would be much better looking and would have a winning lottery ticket in my hand but I digress…) but I am pleased to announce that we have made significant strides in improving our lead times and will continue to do so in the future.
Before we can really dig into this subject we have to clarify a couple of things. First, there is a difference between lead times for “catalog items” – those are items that are unaltered from what you see in our catalog, versus customized (when you change an item from our catalog) or fully custom items (when you send us a doodle or a photo and say ‘build this.’)
Let’s get the nasty part over with first – custom and customized. Anytime we are asked to build a custom item it has to flow through one dedicated team that does nothing but build custom – It is that unique of a skill. They do not have any patterns to use as reference so they have to build-as-they-go, sometimes building then tearing down and starting over which only delays the program. Not only are custom items slowed down from this process, but they are also dependent on the orders that came before them. If we allocate 1 day to build a custom item and it takes 2, there is no way to make up that time. All following orders simply get pushed back by a day or two. We are delighted to offer custom builds, but buyer beware that those lead times are simply going to be what they are – a little painful.
But where we are making strides is in our catalog items especially our beds and headboards and other super popular items. We have made a number of strategic investments to greatly improve our lead times on our most popular items..
First, we have finally been able to hire a coordinator. I know that seems like a silly milestone but until this position was filled, one of our upholsterers had to come off the line to organize work, pull frames from the frame shop, hand out work orders- you get the picture. And if that person is doing all of those things then they are not building furniture – double edged sword.
With our new coordinator in place, our upholsterers are able to stay “on their bucks” and just upholster all day. Additionally, we are starting to be able to provide more “bits and pieces” to the upholsterers such as pre-fabricated foam for the inside back and arms and pre-cut deck pads. Being able to provide these items to the upholsterers instead of making them get or make their own can result in 1 – 2 additional pieces of furniture each week coming off the line from each upholsterer. That’s significant!
As you may know, there has been a down turn in residential furniture this year which, sadly, has resulted in some really talented folks being out looking for work. Luckily for us, a couple of those top notch upholsterers have found their way into our plant and are adding much needed capacity.
Lastly – we have slowly been investing in building stock on frames for our most popular items especially beds and headboards.. The longest step in the furniture building process is the frame room – so having those frames on the floor, ready to upholster can speed up an order by weeks if not months! This also allows the frame room to have more time to focus on custom items which is helping to soothe those lead times just a bit.
It’s been a long road, a lot of tears, words that your mother should never hear, threats and prayers but we feel we are finally turning the corner on lead times. To our incredible designers that have stood by us – thank you! We have heard your pleas and are very hopeful that these investments will allow you to delight your customers and increase your profits!