Why Do I Have To Wait So Long For Bespoke Joinery?
Monday 21 March 2016
As a nation that benefits from internet shopping and high street shops that are open seven days a week, we’re used to being able to buy what we want when we want it. So clients who have not purchased bespoke joinery before are often disappointed when encountering lead times between 12 – 16 weeks. Because of this, we thought it might help if we discussed some of the reasons behind these lead times.
DEMAND vs SKILLS
The demand for bespoke joinery products is seeing a big increase across the UK as people begin to recognise the benefits of wood based windows and doors over generic UPVC products. While this is a great boost for the industry it means that the skilled craftsmen able to produce these products are frequently being overtaken by high demand.
What are we doing to address this? For the industry as a whole to keep up with demand, we need more young people entering into the woodworking industries and individual companies need to encourage this and invest in the workers of the future. At the moment we have two first year woodworking apprentices that we hope will stay on with us long term once they are qualified. We want to find more local apprentices to invest in but this means generating more interest and getting more young people into training. With that in mind we have contacted local schools and hope to attend local careers conferences to help more young people learn
As a nation that benefits from internet shopping and high street shops that are open seven days a week, we’re used to being able to buy what we want when we want it. So clients who have not purchased bespoke joinery before are often disappointed when encountering lead times between 12 – 16 weeks. Because of this, we thought it might help if we discussed some of the reasons behind these lead times.
DEMAND vs SKILLS
The demand for bespoke joinery products is seeing a big increase across the UK as people begin to recognise the benefits of wood based windows and doors over generic UPVC products. While this is a great boost for the industry it means that the skilled craftsmen able to produce these products are frequently being overtaken by high demand.
What are we doing to address this? For the industry as a whole to keep up with demand, we need more young people entering into the woodworking industries and individual companies need to encourage this and invest in the workers of the future. At the moment we have two first year woodworking apprentices that we hope will stay on with us long term once they are qualified. We want to find more local apprentices to invest in but this means generating more interest and getting more young people into training. With that in mind we have contacted local schools and hope to attend local careers conferences to help more young people learn about the opportunities available to them in the woodworking industries.
A LABOUR INTENSIVE PROCESS
Joinery production makes use of a lot of machinery but every machine has to be hand fed, sometimes requiring two people per machine – one feeding and one receiving. And for every process that can be done by machine, there are two more processes that can only be done by hand. It would be wonderful if we could run more processes on low maintenance machines and cut down on the man power required, but it just isn’t possible. There aren’t machines available for a lot of the processes used in joinery production and even when they do exist it’s often still more efficient, and results in a higher quality product, for the work to be carried out by hand.
What are we doing to address this? What we do is invest in our workforce, giving them the training they need to become more efficient and adaptive. Rather than run a production line where each person has one specific job, we encourage our workers to learn all of the different skills needed through each process. Not only does this keep our workforce more interested in their job, it also means they can react a lot more effectively to keep up production levels during times of sickness and holiday. It’s all good and well having someone that is an expert in one field, but it’s not very useful if they decide to move on, leaving a skill vacuum behind.
On top of this we have also invested in our own in-house spray shop, with guidance and training from our timber and paint suppliers. This means that we are able to provide a high quality paint finish on all products without incurring the delays associated with sending products off site to be sprayed.
BESPOKE CANNOT BE MADE AHEAD
When creating generic products, like furniture, you have the opportunity to get ahead in times of lower demand, but creating bespoke joinery means that no two jobs are the same. Old buildings and private new builds all have one thing in common and that is that they’re all different. They’re each built to different specifications; the doors and windows are different shapes and sizes and clients have different requirements for style and production materials. This means that nothing can be made in advance to get ahead of the game because nothing is generic. Even when working on bigger projects that will require large numbers of the same products, the majority of joiners are small businesses and don’t have the storage space available for pre-manufacturing during quieter periods.
What are we doing to address this? In the background of everything we do, a lot of thought goes into the way we work. We are constantly trying to identify processes that can be improved, and develop more efficient ways of working – from the way we plan our workloads to the way each individual job is done. This is an ongoing part of everything we do with view to improving the service provided to our customers.
IT JUST ISN’T A QUICK PROCESS
Ordering bespoke windows is very different to buying a sofa. You can’t pick what you want from a show room or catalogue and have one shipped to you from the warehouse. Each job has to be quoted, sometimes several times when plans are not solid and clients are not yet firm on the best option for them. Even once an order is placed there’s still a lot of work to do before work can begin. A final measurement and site survey has to take place, materials have to be calculated and ordered from several different suppliers with differing lead times, and the work has to be scheduled in alongside other ongoing jobs. The different parts of each product then have to be manufactured and assembled before the wood is then primed and painted, then the paint needs to be set before it can be exposed to the elements. When an order is approaching completion it has to be scheduled for fitting. This part of the process is strongly influenced by the weather – fitting timber products and carrying out glazing in wet weather can cause problems with windows and doors further down the line and it just isn’t responsible of us to go ahead and fit in bad conditions. Because of this, the unprecedented wet winter we have just experienced has caused a lot of scheduling delays for joiners all over the country.
What are we doing to address this? We are focusing more and more on our work planning processes to identify better ways of managing each process. A closer relationship is being formed between management and workshop staff to identify when different jobs can be run through machines at the same time. Most importantly, we are focusing more and more on the time each proposed job will take to ensure we are planning effectively and not taking on more work than we can handle. As for the weather problem – we’re still working on that one.
We really hope this information is helpful in allowing you to understand our processes better, and the many different aspects that affect lead times for bespoke joinery, especially if you have an upcoming project.