Pre-production tips for a large order

You may have seen Teak & Twine shipped a HUGE order of graduation gifts for George Washington University this spring. It was SUCH a fun project and SO incredible to see our hardworking team rock a big, new challenge!

This project, more than any other, really pushed us to refine some of our production processes and get serious about our pre-production processes, too… you know, all the little things that need to be done before you can truly get started on making and shipping a product (whew, there can be so many!)!

Many of you have shared about the big, exciting orders you’re working on, too, so I wanted to share the things we focused on during pre-production that I think could really help streamline your projects and help your team feel equipped for a challenge. You can check out the video or read on below!

Training

Whether you’re planning for your largest candle order ever you’re shipping out a new line of ceramics, every order has its own intricacies. Even if your team is full of seasoned veterans who have been with you for years, it’s so critical to take a little time to train on the specifications of a particular order. This will give your team the confidence they need to nail all the unique details of an order.

2. Using the right tools

Having the right tools – Is there a new piece of equipment or a different tool you could purchase that would make things easier for your project? For our recent huge order, we knew we needed a way to create a more effective assembly line– and that meant the addition of gravity rollers to our production space (see them in action above).

I cannot even begin to tell you how game-changing this one piece of equipment has been for us– we’re never going back to not using gravity rollers! Was this addition an added expense? Yep. But it paid for itself time and again by adding efficiency when we finally got to the production phase of the project.

3. Kaizen

Kaizen is a concept that means “a spirit of continuous improvement” and was popularized by Toyota in the 1980s. I like to think of Kaizen as the power of tiny, micro-improvements and how they can have a huge impact as you scale. During the pre-production is the perfect time to take a close look at how your team is operating down to the smallest details, like how they place supplies in their workspace, to identify where improvements can be made. You’d be shocked how the seemingly littlest improvements can really boost efficiency and morale! I talk more about Kaizen and how we applied the concept in our recent order in the above video.

What big orders do you have coming up? If you give one of these pre-production tips a go, I’d love to hear if it works well for you!

xx,