Carcasses everywhere
It is Thursday. Three sets of kitchen cabinet doors, a sideboard and a pair of bedside tables all need spraying before next week's deliveries. The spray booth can only take one job at a time, and lacquer needs time to cure between coats and before handling. The drying racks are full. The person who does most of the finishing is also the one who needs to be on site fitting on Monday.
Earlier in the week, the bench makers were waiting on the panel saw because a sheet material job had it booked all Tuesday. Nobody planned any of this. It just happened.
Planning people but not resources
Workshops usually plan who is working on what. They rarely plan the shared things everyone needs: the spray booth, drying space, the wide belt sander, the CNC, the assembly area.
- Finishing is treated as the last step, not as a limited resource.
- Drying and curing times are not built into the plan.
- Big machines are used first come, first served.
- The finisher's time is shared with fitting and deliveries.
- The plan is a whiteboard or a group chat, updated when something goes wrong.
What the pile-up costs
Jobs that are finished at the bench but waiting to be sprayed are money tied up and space used. Rushing finishing to catch up is where runs, dust and rework happen, and rework in finishing is slow. Deliveries slip, which puts fitting days at risk. Makers stand around waiting for machines while other work sits.
A workshop schedule with shared resources
- Your shared resources are set up: spray booth, drying racks, key machines, assembly space, and the people with specific skills such as finishing or upholstery.
- Each job is broken into its main steps, with rough hours, which resources each step needs, and wait times such as curing between coats.
- The schedule places steps into the week, respecting resources and waits, and shows where jobs will queue.
- Deliveries and fitting days are on the same schedule, so the finisher's site days are visible alongside booth time.
- You drag steps around to rearrange the week and see the effect on delivery dates straight away.
- A screen in the workshop, or the phones people already carry, shows each person their day.
| Resource | Planned today? | In the schedule |
|---|---|---|
| Bench makers | Roughly | By person and day |
| Spray booth | No | Booked per job step |
| Drying and curing | No | Waits built in |
| Panel saw, CNC, sander | First come | Booked where it matters |
| Site fitting days | Separate calendar | Same schedule |
A week that holds together
You see on Monday that Thursday's spraying will not fit, and can move a job forward or book extra help. Bench makers do not wait for machines. Finishing is paced rather than rushed. Deliveries are planned with the booth time behind them. Over time, the schedule also shows whether the spray booth or the finisher really is the limit, which is useful when deciding what to invest in.
The schedule does not need to be perfect to help. Even rough hours per step and a booked slot for the booth show you the Thursday pile-up on Monday, which is early enough to do something about it. As you record what actually happened, the estimates get better, and the week you plan starts to look more like the week you get.
Does your finishing hold everything up?
- Finished carcasses wait days for the spray booth.
- Finishing is rushed before deliveries.
- The same person sprays and fits, and both suffer.
- Makers wait for big machines.
- The workshop plan changes daily in a group chat.