The holiday season is a busy time of year in the jewelry findings industry. The past few months at Nina Designs were intense as we processed time-sensitive holiday orders, managed inventory levels with volatile silver costs, prepped for our biggest trade show of the year in Tucson, and all of this with less staff than usual thanks to a particularly nasty cold season. Our days were about working as efficiently as possible and focusing only on the essentials that had to get done (like processing orders), not on things that we wanted to get done (like designing new styles). A big exhale could often be heard around 5 pm, in relief and thanks that we’d successfully made it through another day!
Clara and Anna dwarfed behind stacks and stacks of Tucson 2010 stock prep.
One “aha” moment lead to systems changes that will save us 2-3 hours a week of tedious data entry. Scrambling to get orders out the door, we realized that some of the product labeling could be done efficiently during production, another huge time saver.
Under normal staffing circumstances, we would have continued with our standard processes, but when pushed beyond our capacity, we began to question the process and ask “why am I spending 45 minutes on this task when I have so many other things that have to get done? There MUST be a faster way to do this!” Working beyond capacity forced a shift in perspective, opening our minds to different possibilities and allowing an innovative solution to bubble to the surface. The time we saved can now be spent on doing the things we want to do, like sketching new designs!
