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Workroom Operations

Leave Nothing Open to Misunderstanding
Communication between the workroom and the designer
is important to get the job done right!

by Ethel Mahon

Editor’s Note: Kitty Stein, who usually writes this column, has taken a temporary leave. She will return to Workroom Operations after her brief hiatus.

In this day and age of e-mail, fax machines, pagers, cell phones and high-speed Internet access lines, workrooms still depend on written work orders. The work order is instrumental for information between the workroom and the designer. When the job is brought into the workroom the designer can discuss what he or she wants done with the fabric, but the chances of the workroom doing the work the minute it is brought in is highly improbable. After it has been in the workroom for a few weeks, and a few jobs have gone out in front of it, how is the fabricator to remember what the designer wanted—by a written work order, that’s how!

We cross-train our employees to better serve our customers, and in doing so we discovered each designer used his or her own work order form. Not only did they use their own forms, but they also would write upside down, sideways and all around the paper! Then they go back and highlight all the areas they considered important. This does nothing but help create errors on the workroom’s part.

“Why,” questions the designer, “can’t your people read?”

THE PROBLEM

Yes, we can read! The problem is that the work orders we receive are extremely difficult to read, it takes an actual rocket scientist to figure out what some designers are actually trying to have fabricated.

This usually involves the workroom putting the job on the cutting table, reading and rereading the work order and then having to stop to make a phone call and ask the designer questions. Then, if we get an answer right away, we can go on with the job. However, if the designer was not answering the phone or was out of the office, the workroom would have to roll the fabric back up and wait until someone hears back from the designer. This wastes a considerable amount of time in a workroom.

The way the workroom makes money is by completing jobs as quickly and efficiently as possible with the quality that’s expected.

THE SOLUTION

It is well known that we learn by repetition, and in some cases it takes a lot of reminding. Familiarity is another learning tool that works for many of us. Placement recognition is what we call familiarity in a work order. So to incorporate all of these learning tools in a way to make our jobs easier, we have created a set of work orders. We have a set of 36 different work orders, one for each of the different treatments we do.

Why so many work order forms? Each work order is for a specific type of treatment. This is where all those learning tools we talked about previously are put to use.

1. Repetition—Because everyone in the workroom will be using the same work order, repetition is built in. The more they use them and only them, the more familiar the workroom and the designers will be with the forms.

2. Reminding—We have asked the pertinent questions required to complete the fabrication on each work order. If the designer fills out what is requested, no one can miss anything.

This will save the workroom and the client lots of time. No more chasing down customers to remeasure or ask another question. The workroom will have everything necessary to get the job done. (It’s the workroom’s way of reminding designers to ask questions.)

3. Familiarity, or Placement Recognition as I call it, in this case is when everyone uses these standard forms and you get used (familiar) to them, enough to know to always look in the same place for FL (finished length), for example.

This alone should help eliminate errors. The workroom saves time knowing where to look for information and time is money.

Another reason to use so many forms in a workroom is due to the fact that different people in a given shop may do different treatments, and if one person is working on the top treatment, the one working on the drapery has to run back and forth to read the work order. If top treatments and draperies were on one work order, it would be possible for a job to get marked complete before all parts of the job were complete. Again, the purpose is to eliminate errors.

We realize some clients are going to look at these work orders and say, “I need to fill out one of these for each part of the job?” Yes, the workroom needs this information, and these work orders will ensure we have the measurements and information we need, and the designers get the products they are requesting.

Our work orders are two sided, the back allows for special instructions and a space for diagrams. (Here, designers should attach a photo or sketch.) Fabric samples also are required, please staple samples about two- by two-inches to the front of the work order. If a designer is using any trims, fringes or contrasting fabrics, a sample of them should be placed on the work order as well. This prevents the work order and the fabric from being permanently separated if the work order should fall off the fabric.

Attach a copy of the measures with each work order. Remember, it is the designer’s responsibility to make the workroom understand what he or she is trying to achieve. The designer should specify all the necessary details. Leave nothing open to misunderstanding.

I am not trying to sell work orders here, I am just trying to stress that good communications between the designer and the workroom are very important to get the job done right.

There are some nice work order forms available from Minutes Matter (www.minutesmatter.com), Workroom Professionals (www.workroomprofessionals.com) and Kitty Stein (www.workroomconepts.com), if your workroom does not have good forms. If a workroom has a form they would like designers to use, they should use it; it will save both parties time and money.