Repeat orders are manna to a job shop

Oversized stainless steel funnels.

Job shop work is ever-changing, with most jobs never returning to your worktable. Repeat orders are a blessing, especially when your processes to produce them are fine-tuned. We have a few customers that provide us with these types of orders, and we’ve found that their cyclical ways are mostly seen with experienced eyes.

Having worked at Barnes MetalCrafters for more than 12 years, I have seen repeat orders come at different times of the month and year. We have walk-in customers that like to come to the shop right before the weather breaks from winter. They are getting ready to fire up their grills and have to patch a hole or make a new burner cover. It’s funny that these people always come at the same time every year. We get quite a few of them. Although these small orders don’t pay the bills, we can help these customers keep their grills alive for another season or two.

We also have some customers with certain part numbers that repeat monthly. When we see these orders come up in the shop, we almost don’t need a print to make them. We always do grab the print, but we can get most of the order processed without even glancing at it. These jobs are nice, but they don’t come easy and we are very fortunate to receive them!

Other companies like to stock their inventory annually or semiannually. One such customer that comes to mind is one that I associate with cold weather. When I have to start wearing my jacket in eastern North Carolina, this customer always seems to email or call. Their orders repeat at the same times every year, and our experienced workers make them flow quite nicely. The job often fills up the shop for a couple of months. Work like this really helps keep small shops like ours alive. Everyone here knows how important it is to keep work in the shop, and they do their best to make sure this job returns every year.

Another customer seems to order custom carts from us every four years. While the job is new to some employees, many of us have seen it a few times. It comes from what was once a local company that has since moved across the country to Washington. The company probably could get the carts made somewhere closer, but the job returns to us because the customer knows what it will receive.

Repeat orders that are spread out like this often are the result of wear and tear on a product. This is a nice type of project to have. We always want to produce a quality product, but oftentimes, it isn’t indestructible.

Working with repeat orders comes with many perks as long as you take advantage of them. Many changes are made on-the-fly, and they must be documented and regurgitated.

Different customers run their business differently, so you never know when you may see the same order again. Our press brake programs and drawings are updated with bullet points to make the process that much easier on the next go around.

Jigs are labeled and photographed, but sometimes reach the dumpster before they are reused. Brushing off the dust can be applied in more ways than one!

Repeat orders get easier, and you are able to turn out a better product over time with refined processes. Having good drawings and notes is a must, but the real advantage is having the same people work on them year after year. Finding these orders and the employees that can make them easily is the tricky part.

All images courtesy of Barnes MetalCrafters.

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