According to the radio on the way to work this morning, ‘Gordon’ is an unfashionable name that’s not being chosen for new babies – I would blame Jilted John for much of this decline…
The world’s supply of Gordons is decreasing.
One of these Gordons is one of my ex-employees; who retired a couple of years ago. Thankfully, he still likes to dabble and comes in to help when I get some tricky, or sticky, problem with a machine. I’ve worked with Gordon for years (in fact, he came to work for me on a short term project of 6 weeks and stayed over 15 years…..) – I’ve yet to come across a machine he couldn’t fix. His knowledge of machines and electronics is encyclopaedic and irreplaceable!
While the graphite market isn’t seasonal, there are periods of the year when risks to my production capability and capacity increases above normal operations. Christmas and New Year is one of these periods and we’re now in the middle of the other production squeeze.
Summer holidays are upon us, though you wouldn’t know it with the weather in the UK, some years the summer has been and gone before you realise that was it… This is one of those years!!
The team deserve a holiday, and summer’s obviously the time to go, but it’s a risky time for companies with continuous production facilities and obligations. That’s why some companies enforce a shutdown period; making sure everyone is away at the same time. This can also be risky, if you are not open you can miss that opening opportunity that you have been prospecting many years to secure.
Otherwise, your whole production capacity is stretched. Having prolonged periods of absences, even if they are planned, increases the risk of impacts to your production schedule.
There are always activities that you’re unable to plan for. Unexpected customer visits or trips, new customers to onboard, complex new components to quote or machinery failures all take up time; for the team as well as me. These don’t go away over the summer. Any production slack that is lost due to staff absence, placing greater demands on the team remaining at base, or the essential maintenance is postponed until a slack window of opportunity occurs.
I’m very fortunate to have the support of Gordon to deal with machine issues. Skilled resource to maintain the hardware and software of CNC machines is increasingly difficult to find. Most people with these skills are like me, long in the tooth, so it’s a dwindling pool as they retire (hopefully to warmer climates).
As I said, we need more Gordons – when will the trend for university degrees be replaced with upskilling time served apprentices, who little do they realise at the time of their training are taking on skills that will be valued the whole of their lifetime.
That’s it for now, I’m off to sunny climes – going on my own holiday! Ill be back refreshed and well rested ready to meet the challenges our customers need to have solved.
David