ScopeRoller, Moving Forward

One of the reasons that businesses that start or expand during recessions--even bad ones--often do well, is that they can take advantage of temporarily inexpensive capital, both equipment, and human capital.  I am now training two people (very, very part-time) to do manufacturing for me, and building up a bit of inventory of the most products as I fill orders.

The advantage is that I can pay both of these people better than they get anywhere else at the moment, and it is still a bargain compared to my own, now very unavailable labor.  I am also seeing some opportunities to improve my COGS (cost of good sold) and improve the product lines at the same time.  This is quite exciting.  Increasingly, I am working on training, and building jigs to speed up the accuracy of the components, and reduce manufacturing time. 

For example, cutting some 3.430" long blocks means that I have something to more precisely rough cut material on the chop saw.  The final production size of the part is 3.360" +- .003".  The chop saw necessarily produces a part that needs to be squared first, then cut down to size.  By having a gauge that lets me produce parts that are .070" too long, it substantially reduces the time required to get these to size.  (There is enough inconsistency with the chop saw that I probably cannot go much shorter.)

I am going to have to start doing some advertising again, in the hopes of turning these into consistent part-time employees.