Bench Tip #2: Make a Plan to Improve Productivity at Your Workbench

GIA's Jewelry Manufacturing Arts instructors

Success as a bench jeweler depends on many factors, but having a plan to continually improve your business is one of the most important ingredients for long-term success.
 
Try these steps for continual improvement:
 
1. Start the day with an affirmation: “Today I will make an improvement that will benefit me every day for the rest of my career.”
 
2. Use a timer, alarm or scheduling software to signal a “continual improvement” break.
 
3. Each time you get the signal, stop for a moment and jot down observations about things that have hindered productivity.

  • Ask yourself: “What irritated me?” “What wasted time?”
  • Examples of your answers might be: I couldn’t find my barrette needle file. I had to walk into the other room to ask a question. I had trouble holding on to the item I was working on. My 5.2 mm setting burr is dull.
4. Find the time of the day when you usually feel creative and motivated to evaluate your notes and search for solutions. Try to organize the information into patterns. You may find, for example, that there were several times throughout the day when you couldn’t find a particular tool.
 
5. Organize your list of “issues” by priority. Which causes the most trouble? Which would yield the most benefit if improved?
 
6. Pick the highest-priority issue and brainstorm solutions. Ask for suggestions from others. Do some research. Find something you can do TODAY to improve the situation, then take a few minutes to act on your idea. Make tomorrow work better!
 
If you can embrace the concept of continual improvement, you will see dramatic changes over time. At 250 work days a year, you could potentially come up with 2,500 improvements in the next 10 years!