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Continuous Improvement

Greyloch opens a marvel of automation, seven years in the making

One of the most automated cabinet facilities in Northern America just opened, and as the best woodworking businesses do, it started in a garage. Shaun Fickes created Greyloch in 1991 as a passion project. Today, Shaun, his wife Dianne, and their four children have opened a 97,000 sq ft. shop. With a longtime dream realized and nothing but growth on the horizon, Greyloch has kept sight of their humble beginnings. They are managing to keep family and community at the center of all they do.

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Continuous Improvement

Is your business in “spa mode”?

If you go to the gym, you go there because you know that by being temporarily uncomfortable, you can improve your body. In contrast, at the spa, you're there to be pampered for short term satisfaction. While both are worthwhile in the correct quantity and timing, I encourage you to look at your business like a gym, not a spa.
 
“Spa mode” is everywhere. Spa mode exists in government, in people, in food. Spa mode is the reason gas pumps are so stupid and slow. Spa mode is the post office line.

Continuous Improvement

Can You See Your Business?

What’s the ‘thing’ that really sets you and your employees into action? When “X” happens, we go to work… For an employee at the machine, it’s usually something like “When the cutlist is put on my clipboard, I cut it out”, which is pretty simple. What about you, though? How do you know what to do and when to do it? What is ‘it’ that makes you act? Does the person on the other end of the phone determine your day? Is it that quickbooks report that you glance at once a month? 

Systems

What is "The cloud"?

In very simple terms, the cloud is the remote set of tools and data that live in the Internet. For example: the cloud version of movie rentals is Netflix, the cloud version of a checkbook is PayPal (Square, Stripe), and the cloud version of Walmart is Amazon.

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Compounding advantages in labor savings

Companies that are pulling away from the pack are using the technology to re-allocate labor, because nobody likes to fire employees. There are some things that machines and algorithms just can’t do, and humans should stick to those things!

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The simple secret that changed my company, forever

We've been taught that woodworking companies have their typical location, products, services, way of talking to the world, and so on. But you get paid more when you're an outlier; commoditization is what happens when everyone in an industry pretty much does/sells/has the same thing.

Systems

Give me my money (6 steps)

When it comes to collecting our money we seem to be stuck between (but accustomed to) two worlds. Most of us understand the effective “new” way, yet seem oddly resigned to employing the "old" way in our own businesses. Let's examine the two.