Speeding Up The Making Process

[anester05]

Howdy,

What kinds of things do you do to reduce time without cutting corners?

I will be making general tack items, just looking for some advice so I can deliver a quality product in as little time as possible.

I will be hand sewing all items, if you have any suggestions where that is concerned.

Thanks,

Adam

[Ferg]

First thing I have done? I have bought two sewing machines. My old hands and fingers just won't take the strain from hand stitching. I still love the look of a great hand stitching job.

The time element involved with some stitching will slow your ability to make "time".

Make patterns.

ferg

Howdy,

What kinds of things do you do to reduce time without cutting corners?

I will be making general tack items, just looking for some advice so I can deliver a quality product in as little time as possible.

I will be hand sewing all items, if you have any suggestions where that is concerned.

Thanks,

Adam

[oldtimer]

Howdy,

What kinds of things do you do to reduce time without cutting corners?

I will be making general tack items, just looking for some advice so I can deliver a quality product in as little time as possible.

I will be hand sewing all items, if you have any suggestions where that is concerned.

Thanks,

Adam

A clicker would save much time

[Art]

Adam,

Hand sewing can really slow down production. Sewing machines are great, but try to adjust your workflow so that you are NOT changing thread sizes and colors all the time. I now have 9, or more regularly used stitchers which doesn't include the dozen or so the wife has. Is that extreme, well not really if you do a lot of different work. A good harnessmaker can get by with one or two (black and white).

Cutting is another time consuming function, and for harness and tack a clicker would be a godsend. Once you have the dies made, you can click out 15 bridles in 5 minutes or less, then there is just sewing and finishwork. A ten ton clicker is enough, I can do 12 iron (1/4 inch) sole bends without it even phasing the machine.

While not of a lot of use to a harnessmaker, a bell skiving machine can make a big difference to someone who is doing a a lot of it, like a shoemaker or saddlemaker. I had a saddlemaker tell me that if he had it to do over, he would have purchased the skiver before the stitcher. For the shoemaker, it is the other way around.

A slitter can be a useful thing if your work goes that way, e.g. beltmakers.

You just buy the machines to do the most labor intensive portion of your business. Time is indeed money. Or you can buy a machine to do the things you really hate to do, your sanity is more important than money.

Art

Howdy,

What kinds of things do you do to reduce time without cutting corners?

I will be making general tack items, just looking for some advice so I can deliver a quality product in as little time as possible.

I will be hand sewing all items, if you have any suggestions where that is concerned.

Thanks,

Adam

[bruce johnson]

Adam,

Good advice so far. Just adding my 2 cents worth.

Most of the time there is a time savings to batching things up but I learned a few things along the way. .

Plan your work so you get at least some items completed in a reasonable amount of time. Ten years ago right now I was looking for anything that paid. I had an order for 35 leather toilet lid covers for decorator working for a guest ranch. I cut all 35, stamped and tooled them all, oiled them, finshed them, tacked them on. It seemed like it took forever and I was bored out of my skull. After that I had an order for 80 hide-inlay spotted belts. I did the same thing - each piece a step at a time on all of them. That about killed me. I was sitting there out about 20 days on an order that was due in a month and I hadn't actually completed the first one. I did but man that ate on me that they weren't getting done. My small business advisor told me to batch things in some kind of numbers that could be completed in 6 days. That way I could have an extra day if something came up, but mentally I could tell myself that I had actually accomplished something that week. I had something tangible to look at. Most of the time that is how I scheduled my work.

I get to tweaking it around later for some things. I would cut one day, stamp half the next and leave them sit, oil those the day after and stamp the other half. Next day oil the second batch and line the first and so on. That way I wasn't doing the same thing each at each work session. Mixing things up but keeping the work flowing helped the sanity some too.

[anester05]

Thanks everyone for the replies, another question.

The halters I am making right now need to be black. I have cut several straps to the widths I need. Should I make each individual piece for the halter then dye then sew the halter together? Or should I dip dye the straps then do all the cutting and sewing?

Edited March 15, 2012 by anester05

[Sylvia]

Howdy,

What kinds of things do you do to reduce time without cutting corners?

I will be making general tack items, just looking for some advice so I can deliver a quality product in as little time as possible.

I will be hand sewing all items, if you have any suggestions where that is concerned.

Thanks,

Adam

I can't speak to leather production. I'm still figuring that out myself. But if I draw on my experience while working at a small clothing manufacturer.

1. On station one operation. So I imagine for you it would be a cutting station, a tooling station, a dying station, finishing station, etc.

2. Order Scheduling If you know you have 25 orders of the same thing in the same color. It makes sense to cut and make all 25 at once, even if 10 of those are going to another customer.

3. Standardize. If your bread and butter is from a single item make it the same way every time, using the same hardware and dye. Meaning instead of offering 16 colors and 4 colors or styles of hardware. Choose 1 or 2 styles and colors and make that your "standard" options. Anything thing else falls under custom and garners a higher price.

4. Time management: Make one or two days your shipping day.(s) Pre-schedule your pick up or have a set day for the shipping drivers to come pick up your items.... and prepare and pack the items for shipping have them waiting for the shipping service.

That's about all I can think of at the moment.

Good luck.

[busted]

The first thing you need to so is buy struck through leather not Herman Oak natural. You are wasting time and money on the bye and on the material. Good luck

Thanks everyone for the replies, another question.

The halters I am making right now need to be black. I have cut several straps to the widths I need. Should I make each individual piece for the halter then dye then sew the halter together? Or should I dip dye the straps then do all the cutting and sewing?

[anester05]

Is struck through leather just drum dyed?

[Art]

Yes, just left in a little longer.

Art

Is struck through leather just drum dyed?

[anester05]

Well if my business picks up a little I will certainly start buying drum dyed. What about hot stuffed? Does Drum dyed work just like veg tan but just dyed already?

Well it looks like I will be looking into my first machine purchase, which I think will be a splitter. Any suggestions?

Where is the one I am looking at.

http://www.sdtradingco.com/Splitters.htm

The heritage one because I don't have a-lot of starting cash and I think right now, besides a sewing machine, this will save me the most time.

When carving a belt how much time does it take you to do a 38" belt? What things do you do to save time while carving?

Thanks for all the great answers, they are pointing me is a better direction.

[dirtclod]

Get the one on the right !!! Yes it cost more but it is a lot better machine. I have both and know what i'm talking about.

[JustKate]

Most of the time there is a time savings to batching things up but I learned a few things along the way. .

Plan your work so you get at least some items completed in a reasonable amount of time. ... My small business advisor told me to batch things in some kind of numbers that could be completed in 6 days. That way I could have an extra day if something came up, but mentally I could tell myself that I had actually accomplished something that week. I had something tangible to look at. Most of the time that is how I scheduled my work.

...

<agreeing...> It does not take twice as long to make two of something than it takes to make one. I started cranking out a lot more work when I started doing more items that I planned to sell a lot of in batches of 4 or 5 at a time.

[Art]

Drum dyeing is just a finishing process as is hot stuffing, they are done to hides that are tanned already. Hot stuffing drives tallows, liquors, or whatever into the leather under steam heat and centripetal force. The liquors and oils they use in hot stuffing are determined by the finisher at the tannery, which ultimately determines if the hide is bridle, harness, etc. The drum dyeing just determines the color, they can do it a lot easier than you can, so if you are getting them to do a lot of work for you for basically nothing, go for it. Keep an airbrush around (Badger 250 for big jobs and a 150 for detail work) so you can be creative when you want to.

If you are going to carve or stamp, you generally don't want anything hot stuffed, and drum dyeing doesn't allow you to do shading, resisting, antiquing, or other decorative applications where color and or shading is part of the work.

Get a splitter if you want, but what I would recommend is the Osborne 84 or Campbell-Bosworth Keystone. In my opinion, you don't need one if you can learn to skive. Go to one of the shows where Paul Zalesak or Terry Knipschield are selling their knives. Learn to skive from either, they both make excellent product and you can buy a knife to do more than just skive. Get your leather split to the thickness you want by the tannery. Or buy a band splitter for $16,000 and it still won't skive.

What a volume beltmaker needs is a Slitter not a splitter, or you can get Weaver to slit hides for you if you buy from them. If you are doing double and stitched belts you will need a sewing machine, as handstitching those gets old fast.

I do borders and geometrics, ask Bobby Park how long to carve a belt and then figure times 3 or 4.

Art

Well it looks like I will be looking into my first machine purchase, which I think will be a splitter. Any suggestions?

When carving a belt how much time does it take you to do a 38" belt? What things do you do to save time while carving?

[Bluesman]

Lot's of good replys here, from Bruce and build quantities to Sylvia's station setup. I can tell you from my personal experience, manufacturing assembly and now sales it's all the same. Setting up work stations is an absolute must. You waste time in cleaing off a table or an area to do something else. This is known as setup and needs to be removed from your schedule. Bruce has a perfect sense for this. If you get an order for 30. Tell the customer that you will ship 6 a week for 5 consecutive weeks. That way he gets something, you are accoomplishiong a task and everybody is happy. I have been in manufactruing for over 40 years and I can tell you one thing. Making a product is just like making a pizza. Go to your local pizza joint and watch them. Order comes in, order is made, order is baked, order is bagged, order is sold. Next order, one at a time. You can batch, but make them small, unless there is some setup requied as with a slitter, clicker die or sewing machine. Here you want to batch to take advantage of the time spent changing over.

Good Luck

Jon

[anester05]

What is a slitter?

[Art]

Slitter, better known as Strap Cutter.

Art

What is a slitter?

[anester05]

That would be awesome, so I guess I know what I need to save for. How much does the hand crank one cost from weaver?

[dirtclod]

Are you going to double stitch the halters and headstalls ? If you are i would get a sewing machine and a skiver before i spent 2000.00 on a strap cutter or a bell skiver unless you have a ton of business already lined up with cash in hand for your products. Over the years i have made a bunch of headstalls and halters and they both need skiving and a halter needs to have ever piece on it skived. You can get a wooden strap cutter and cut out all of your pieces as long as their are no curves.

[Art]

$1400 or so.

That would be awesome, so I guess I know what I need to save for. How much does the hand crank one cost from weaver?

[Art]

I thought we were talking belts, not harness. I guess we went off the tracks somewhere.

Art

[anester05]

Both. I have a customer lined up who wants some head stalls made, and I wanna make belts to sell. Thats why I would like to have a skiver because the head stall I am making requires a whole-Lotta skiving. I figure I'll buy a machine when my leather work has paid for it. First up is a skiver and then a sewing machine. I guess a sewing machine might be first.

This is the head stall I will be making.