During the peak season we would have 3 lines running and canned that as a very bad idea as it became too chaotic. Space is your enemy as you will see from some of the other photographs.
The other day I was thinking about the bicycle assembly part I used to run and what a well oiled machine it became. When we finally shut the doors due to new import taxes making it not worthwhile to import as parts and rather just bring in a complete bicycle we had more than 120 employees. Another great government decision not knowing the impact this would directly impact jobs.
Over the years I have had a love hate relationship with employees because they can surely test your metal and push you to breaking point. When I took over the plant it was more about individuals and definitely not a team effort. Then they were assembling between 200 and 300 bicycles daily depending on the models.
Once the order numbers were increasing the entire assembly plant had to adapt and we went automated meaning everyone had one job, but also had to know all the other roles incase employees were fired or just did not pitch to work. The peak of the production was one bike was coming off the line every 15 seconds so somewhere between 220 and 240 bikes every hour. These were bikes fully assembled and then tested before being partially disassembled for packaging purposes so not just a once off build.
Getting to this point was not easy and was more about understanding every particular role knowing which staff member had certain strengths and maximizing those special areas. We formulated two teams having a prep team who gathered all the parts for each station and an assembly team that needed to produce the numbers.
When you are tuned in running a large project you notice things like a certain noise when things are running smoothly, but that takes years of experience. Working hands on with the employees knowing the job each one does and the role they play makes it easier to understand because the employees know you know. There is no bluffing as knowing the numbers means they cannot play games because you will call them out.
I have to be honest and was the happiest guy around when the plant shut down as I only stepped in to help and this was never my forte. It became my forte because it turned out I was good at doing this. The problem is when you take something from 240 per day to 2000 plus per day the expectations get more and more demanding and no one else understands because they actually do not want to know or get involved.
The staff is what kills you because they are always on a different page and over my time had go slows, sabotaging the automated assembly line by breaking things and just a pain in the back side to work with. We took years to get the right crew assembled with many weeks and months of frustration with late nights due to them wanting to earn over time. The games within a game rooting out the bad elements and finding the right people which takes time and is a working project.
Those years nearly killed me as it did put me in hospital and I got lucky and why these days I have no problem working with tried and tested people and reluctant to start a fresh. The staff we have now are remnants of my assembly plant with 70% having worked for me before and know how I do things. They have been trained and are all trusted members because they have proven themselves and rightly earned the trust. The respect is mutual and if and when another business opens I will pinch one or two knowing they will be a pleasure to work with which is rare.
When I see other businesses in my travels you naturally look for things and observe because that is what I have or was doing for so many years. Things do jump out at you, but these are thankfully not your problems which tells you how a business is run without having to dig any deeper. If you do not know the job your staff do then you can only blame yourself when things do not work out as planned.