I don’t know a more resourceful group than woodworkers. We don’t have a lot of money to throw at things, so we find weird and wonderful ways to make what we need. I’ve seen some unbelievable jigs and fixtures, and even tools. 

So why, when it comes to processing are woodworkers so far behind the times? About 99% of shops are still doing large batch processing. Almost all their processes are disconnected, and there’s work in process all over the place.

I believe this stems from the fear of experimentation. Some psychologist would tell you it’s rooted in the fear of failure. Ironically, we watch our businesses fail for years and years because of it.

Moving parts
On our Kaizenify.app lean forum there was a lengthy conversation about conveyors or carts to move parts between workstations. The simple fact that there was debate, means you need to prove it to yourself through experimentation. Even if you believe the person giving you the counsel, you have to entertain the possibility that they’re wrong based on your particular situation.

Also, if you just make the switch on a recommendation, there might always be this little seed of doubt in the back of your mind. Why not put it all to rest with an experiment? 

Other than advances in automation, have you heard of a new manufacturing principle in the last hundred years? Me neither. Everything we’re doing is based off of the experiments of the manufacturing greats before us. Henry Ford, Shigeo Shingo, Taiichi Ohno, Eli Goldratt. None of these people are even alive anymore. If we don’t start experimenting, who will?

Putting it to the test
And why is it so critical for you to run experiments in your shop? Because you probably won’t believe it otherwise! Boy, oh boy, are we stuck in our old beliefs! 

We all think we are so custom that there can’t possibly be a better way. I have heard that no less than a million times. “Lean is for automotive; we are custom, so it won’t work.” 

Anyone who says something like this is shooting themselves in the foot, missing out on the power of lean thinking. It boggles my mind how we cabinet makers can say our products are more complicated than vehicle production. I challenge you to a race. I will build a kitchen, you build a car. Let’s see who wins.

I did an experiment that I thought would be likely to break the Internet.  I raced a finishing line to process 20 doors from start to finish.  I was using a sanding robot and spraying by hand.  The finishing line was fully automated with sanding robot, panel cleaner, spray, machine, and infrared drying.

I won this race by a landslide, at under 1/4 the capital investment just using a better process. To this day many people tell me I’m wrong. Despite the fact, the entire thing was documented and put on YouTube. You can watch on YouTube, “Finishing line vs. hand spraying. Can a different approach to the work yield a better result.”

One experiment leads to another
One of my favorite parts about experimenting is that one experiment often leads to another. In the case of the finishing line, it was the question, “Is there a better way to run that piece of equipment?” With the help of a friend who has a finishing line, we ran the experiment!

Usually people load the table of a finishing line with as many parts as possible. Sounds efficient, right? I wondered what would happen if we did single-piece flow and ran one door at a time! Crazy, right? We thought so, too. Right up until we saw the results. 

Productivity skyrocketed with half the labor. This is also fully documented and on YouTube. How many people do you think are running their spray lines like this? I bet zero. You can watch on YouTube: “Single piece flow using a finishing spray line and Cosmo the sanding robot.”

See for yourself
Even when evidence is overwhelming, if you don’t experiment yourself, you might not believe it. Don’t be afraid to experiment. One of my favorite sayings is: “Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn!” Both are worth their weight in gold.

Make sure you are running your production timer and monitoring progress closely. If you can’t stand there with a stop watch for a week, then monitor your Kaizenify.app dashboard. The production timer will give you all the data you need.  

Our sloppiness unnecessarily applies a tax on our customers. We can get away with it only because everybody’s doing the same thing.

P.S. The right answer is conveyors.