Saving space

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Whitewallframers
Posts: 19
Joined: Sat 16 Jul, 2016 8:13 pm
Location: Bolton
Organisation: The White wall gallery and framers
Interests: Collecting memorabilia and framing

Saving space

Post by Whitewallframers »

Hi,

I know im not the first and certainly not going to be the last, but our shop is quite small and so we have limited space for storage.

Has anyone got any tips or solutions to saving space other than moving premises?

Is there certain machines that are best suited to a smaller sized business?

Thanks Matt
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prospero
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Joined: Tue 05 Jun, 2007 4:16 pm
Location: Lincolnshire

Re: Saving space

Post by prospero »

I am having a good old move round at the moment. :roll:

It's amazing the amount of kelter you accumulate. Stuff that you think will come in handy and twenty years later
is still bunging the place up waiting to come in handy. Be ruthless. Chuck it out. You won't miss it and if by chance
you do ditch something and later found a use for it it's not going to be an enormous tragedy. Without a lot of crap under
your feet you can work more efficiently and make a nicer working environment.
Watch Out. There's A Humphrey About
Not your average framer
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Joined: Sat 25 Mar, 2006 8:40 pm
Location: Devon, U.K.
Organisation: The Dartmoor Gallery
Interests: Lost causes, saving and restoring old things, learning something every day
Location: Glorious Devon

Re: Saving space

Post by Not your average framer »

I'm down sizing my stock at the moment, mostly to make life easier and also to create much needed space. First of all, you don't need too many mouldings that you aim to stock all the time, but there will be a need to have some versatile and useful mouldings which you can grab to do a quick rush job, when a customer is just passing through and is not planning on being around at a later date.

For myself I don't like to pay any more than I need to for such mouldings and tend to focus on price and quantity discounts, some of these I get from Simons and buy 100 feet at a time to get their 20% discount. So don't go over board about how many different mouldings you are going to stock and try to remember that you want to save space.

Next there will be a few mouldings that you will want to have some stock of, but you can manage quite nicely with just a couple of lengths at a time. O.K. there aren't any discounts going for such small quantities, but if you can time ordering such mouldings to create order values which come up to the carriage paid order value, you are still saving some money by doing this. There is a lot to be said for limiting your number of suppliers that you regularly use, when it come to trying to order above the carriage paid order value, also unpacking and checking orders is unproductive time, so less orders to unpack each month makes good sense.

A lot of frames try to make up ready made frames from their waste mouldings, but be careful about doing too much of this. If you spend time making up too many frames, not only many of these become dead stock, but it cost you time and money to produce them. Avoid making small frames which you can only sell for peanuts and stick to the frames which will be seen to be worthwhile to the customer at prices which are also worthwhile to you. These days customers have an idea of what is fashionable and good quality, these are the sort of frames to be making up as ready made frames. Don't feel too bad about getting rid of small bits of moulding, dead stock is the thing to avoid at all times.

Left over mountboard scraps are something you have to be ruthless about. Some colours you will already know simply are not popular and are only worth keep for undermounts if they are big enough to be worth it. I buy certain colours in quality to get a good price, I've already got a few sheets of these colours in stock, so there are not any adverse reasons for keeping much at all in terms of small scraps of these colours, so only hang on to bits of a decent size and just bin the rest.

Finally, make sure that jobs which are a lot of bother are priced to deter too many people bring you too many jobs like this. Jobs like this, take more time to do, hold up the flow of work and use up more space storing other jobs which are being held up waiting for such jobs to be finished, so you can start these other jobs. Jobs held up and waiting again mean less available space - worth remembering when you consider taking on such jobs.
Mark Lacey

“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Experience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer
Whitewallframers
Posts: 19
Joined: Sat 16 Jul, 2016 8:13 pm
Location: Bolton
Organisation: The White wall gallery and framers
Interests: Collecting memorabilia and framing

Re: Saving space

Post by Whitewallframers »

Thanks for the input guys,

We've only had our business for 18 months and have had to have a few clear outs already, its hard to just throw away off cuts and mountboard but like you say its probably going to end up sitting there for years.

Im really trying to prepare for the christmas rush, as i wasnt prepared last year and over ordered far too many times rather than trying to sell my stock.

Again thanks for your wise words.

Regards Matt
Not your average framer
Posts: 11014
Joined: Sat 25 Mar, 2006 8:40 pm
Location: Devon, U.K.
Organisation: The Dartmoor Gallery
Interests: Lost causes, saving and restoring old things, learning something every day
Location: Glorious Devon

Re: Saving space

Post by Not your average framer »

I really struggle trying to clear out old stock. Many of us know what needs doing, but to me it's always a big struggle. I've throwing off loads of old stock and off cut for about a couple of months now, to me it seems like there's still almost as much still needs doing as when I started.

I think that the answer is to get rid of the off cuts as soon as they are created, I even try to do a bit of that, but somehow it never seems to work. Not only that, but I thought that now I'm a pensioner, I could take life a little easier. I'm still trying to figure out how to get there on that one as well.

Oh well, there always tomorrow. :head:
Mark Lacey

“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Experience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer
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prospero
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Joined: Tue 05 Jun, 2007 4:16 pm
Location: Lincolnshire

Re: Saving space

Post by prospero »

I am truly blessed in having a huge shed which makes the perfect dumping ground. There are 1000s of feet of
moulding in it, most of which are left-overs from a big 'job-lot' I bought a few years back. I cherry-picked the choice
stuff and the rest went in the shed. :P Half-inch brown spoon? I'm your man. :yes: Some of the rammel actually comes
in useful now and then, but mostly I'm never going to use it. As well as full lengths there are stacks of offcuts and old frames.
It's not that the offcuts aren't perfectly useable. It's finding them. Makes more economic sense to grab a new bit.

Behind the shed is an old galvanised water tank full of bits of glass. If I ever got an order for 1000 little frames I'll be quids in. :clap:

But do I really want to make 1000 small frames? :roll:
Watch Out. There's A Humphrey About
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prospero
Posts: 11492
Joined: Tue 05 Jun, 2007 4:16 pm
Location: Lincolnshire

Re: Saving space

Post by prospero »

...... One thing I did get with the job-lot was some weird stuff. Flat, with a bit cut out. I think it was for front-mounting
laminated prints in the manner of a tray moulding. Gesso'd, but not finished. Had maybe 2000ft. But it makes a perfect
'bridge' to set a thin moulding inside a wide one. The little step holds the thin moulding in just the right height . I just had to
rip it down a tad. (Table saw :yes:). I do so many of the particular frames that I am now getting to the end of it. Looking to get
some more milled up. :)
Watch Out. There's A Humphrey About
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