Storage and workspace solutions - Part 2

Another item we struggled with was the rolls of bubble wrap we use in our shipping room. They are big - and we didn't have a good way to keep it handy for packing.

We created a giant spool by taking a cheap round outdoor patio table and gluing a piece of PVC pipe in the middle. It sits next to the packing table and you can feed the wrap out as you need it. It's so simple, but it works perfectly.

Storage and workspace solutions - Part 1

(Okay, Gift Basket Guru - the next few posts are for you. :-)

This is a pic of our main production area that we just relocated to a bigger room. There are a few good, stealable ideas you can see in this shot:

1. The worktables: Most of us in the biz use those 6ft lightweight plastic folding tables for a workspace - but they need to be brought up to counter height. When we started, we used to put them up on cement blocks. It worked, but they were a pain in the butt to lug around and sometimes we are setting up and taking down tables when big projects come up and at Christmas. One of my seasonal helpers showed us a better solution - PVC pipe fitted onto the legs. You can get them at Home Depot or Lowe's and they will cut them for you - about 12inch lengths should do it. MUCH easier.

2. The work station: A "U" or an "L" shaped configuration is the most efficient, especially if you can manage an island in the middle. Its a basic tenet of lean manufacturing. .

3. Ribbon storage: Gutters! Lightweight, cheap, easy, and everything is right in front of you.

4. Shredded paper: We buy crinkle cut shred in 40 pound boxes. It's cheaper that way, but they are huge. We store them in those big plastic bins under the worktable (and we finally got around to labeling them).

5. Cleanliness: Make your life easier and put a trash bin under each and every table. You may think that it will be okay if it's only a few steps away - but trust me...your space will be much neater if you do this.

More improvements...

Every new year I vow to fix all the nagging little (and big) issues with the business, and this year is no exception. We solved a bunch of them this week:

1. Producing gift baskets creates all sorts of weird storage issues...like where to keep multiple rolls of shrink wrap so they are visible and don't roll all over the place when you're trying to use them. You can mount racks on the walls, but I didn't have enough available wall space and many of our walls are difficult to mount anything to because of the concrete. I figured out a cheap and easy fix - paper towel holders (see above). The are accessible and I can easily see what we're running low on.

2. I finally hooked up an iPod to pipe music into our showroom and production area. Now we listen to "smooth jazz" instead of some lame radio station...and no commercials! I can't believe I didn't do this sooner.

3. Our building is like a big shoebox - a long rectangle. There is quite a distance from the front door to the rooms in the back, plus there are a lot of concrete walls in between. We often didn't hear customers and delivery people when they came in despite our clumsy temporary fix - a set of wind chimes attached to the door. I was looking at door chimes in a retail supply catalog, but found a cheaper solution (30 bucks!) - a driveway sensor. It's meant to alert you when a car passes the sensor in your driveway, but it works great here - and I can hear it from anywhere in the building.

It's the little things that make me happy...LOL.

(I do realize that this is probably only of interest to someone else in the business - but I know we have a few who read this blog :-)

New sign

Check out our nifty new sign! I was looking for an "Open" sign that lights up to put in our front window, and ran across this.

Changes for the New Year

Well, we survived our first holiday season in our new location.

In some ways, the new spot on Erie Blvd is better - it's more visable and much easier access...WAY better for our customers. Behind the scenes, it was not so good. Our old space was wide open - we could divide it up however we wanted and change it as our needs changed. This building is split up into rooms, which turned out to a bigger issue than I had anticipated, even though we have more square footage. Being super-busy will amplify everything you are doing wrong - and we spent a lot of time running around in circles this year. It became very obvious that we needed to make some adjustments.

We made a minor change in the showroom to make it flow better, and some major ones in our workspace - we moved our production area into a different room, removed some doors, and came up with a better system for handling our shipping and receiving. I also acquired my new favorite toy - a shopping cart! Not for our customers (we're not that kind of store), but for us.

Back when she started with us, Laura suggested a shopping cart for collecting all the stuff that go into the baskets. I lost track of the idea until this Christmas when my boyfriend brought it up again after watching me take 10 trips into the inventory room just to collect everything I needed to make something. I found a company that would sell just one - and it arrived last week. I LOVE IT!