Organizing yourself and your family for a successful week likely begins with a good amount of preparation up front. At our house, Prep looks like (this) Mom at the kitchen table with a large, desk-sized monthly calendar; color coded by kid and revised Sunday night, then inputted into the computer. Maybe you have a list on the chalkboard or a white board or you rely solely on your computer. Regardless of your method, looking ahead and preparing can be the best way to make sure that the To Do list is completed and that the week runs smoothly.
Each of our shops within the plant operate in the same way throughout each day; with a team lead organizing work orders as they arrive at each team printer. Prep is critical, helping us to pull product in advance and complete each order efficiently.
However, nowhere is Prep as important as it is in our Prefinish facility.
Our inventory comes to us from a variety of sources, some of it called, “finish-ready.” We’ve come to realize that none of it is truly, “finish-ready,” by the time it reaches us. Handling marks come in all shapes and sizes, many of which cannot be seen with the naked eye until stain has been applied. For that reason, we prep every surface of every item we finish, whether it’s made of steel, fiberglass or wood.
Handrail, balusters and newels all have to be hand-sanded by our specials team. Mouldings travel through a sanding machine made specifically to handle the varied profiles and species we stock. Doors are sent through a beveling machine and then viewed under Inspecto lights, hand-sanded where required and then travel through a sanding machine containing eight heads specifically calibrated to the door species on each work order, its panel configuration and sticking style. When Prep is complete, any doors and mouldings going through our Waterborne UV lines will be sanded no less than three additional times, after each water based coating has been applied.
Call us meticulous, detail oriented or just crazy…but we know from experience that the key to a beautiful finish is all in how the product is prepped!
-Holly Bayer, ASID