A monthly people review for furniture and wood product makers: ten questions for the owner

Furniture owners usually learn of people trouble late, and second-hand. The polisher's resignation lands halfway through a hotel lobby order. A homeowner rings about an installer who smoked on her balcony. Three earlier rework tags on that same fitter went unread. A brief monthly sitting catches such murmurs early enough to act. No software or boardroom is required. Ten blunt prompts, answered truthfully, will do.

1. Which tasks does only one person know? (mock-up building, colour matching, veneer layup, CNC programming, spindle moulder set-up). Has anyone else practised them this month?
2. Who joined this month, and has each one got a mentor and a skill sheet with dated sign-offs?
3. Who resigned or served notice, from which bay, and what exact words did they use?
4. How many rework tags were raised, in which section, and what was the most frequent fault?
5. How many site revisits did installers make, and how many traced to measurement, factory or fitting errors?
6. Did any client complain about an installer's conduct, timing or cleanliness? What was done?
7. How many near-miss slips came in, from which machines, and which were closed?
8. Whose names top the overtime sheet, and do the same few shoulder every rush?
9. How many temporary or seasonal hands are on the floor, and were they all inducted before machine work?
10. What pay or grade questions were raised with supervisors, and has each one had an answer?

1. 1

   Final week: facts collected

   The production supervisor brings rework tags, near-miss slips and the skill sheets. Whoever handles HR brings joiners, exits, overtime and pay queries. The site lead brings revisits and complaints.

2. 2

   One sheet, written answers

   Beside each prompt goes a plain answer plus a traffic-light mark. Green means settled. Amber means keep an eye on it. Red means act this month.

3. 3

   Owner reads and asks

   Sixty minutes with the sheet and its authors. On each amber or red mark, the owner probes for causes, not just counts.

4. 4

   One action per red

   Every red earns an owner, a deadline and a description of finished. Next sitting opens by ticking off those promises.

Some questions matter more in certain months. Before school furniture tenders or the Diwali kitchen rush, question 9 on temporary hands and question 8 on overtime deserve the longest look. After a heavy installation month, questions 5 and 6 on site work tell you whether the factory's good work is reaching the client. Question 1 matters every month. A shop with one person who can build a mock-up to the architect's standard is one illness away from a lost order.

• Patterns beat single events. One rework tag is noise; the same edge chipping fault three months running is a blade, a habit or a training gap.
• Leavers' own words. 'Personal reasons' explains nothing. Ask supervisors to jot down the exact phrase used at the gate.
• Empty slip boxes mislead. Zero near misses over a month suggests nobody bothered writing, rather than a perfectly safe floor.
• Pay queries left hanging grow. An unanswered grade question in March becomes a resignation in May.

In the panel bay, prompt 4 usually turns up chipped melamine from a tired scoring blade or banding lift where the glue pot ran cool. In the solid wood shop it shows up as open mitres, dowel holes drilled off-line, or teak frames that cup after a humid week. The finishing booth throws up blush, runs and dust nibs. Upholstery reports staples showing under piping or foam cut short at the arm. On site, prompt 5 collects filler panels that do not fit, skirting clashes and wall cabinets hung out of level. Knowing where each fault lives tells the owner whether to talk to a person, a supervisor or a supplier.

Bloat kills this habit. Refuse the urge to add prompts monthly. Should one stay green for a full season, retire it. Swap in a fresh worry for a quarter, perhaps moisture meter readings on incoming teak or mask discipline in the sanding bay. Keep the twelve monthly sheets together. Laid side by side, they show how people issues rise and fall with your order cycle.

Numbers for prompts 3, 4, 5 and 8 can sit in a basic spreadsheet or an HR system. We build such monthly reports for units; a door shutter shop's version appears on this reporting page. Prompt 1 starts from a grid of who can do what in a joinery shop.

Print the prompts. Hand them to your supervisor and site lead with a deadline of the month's last Friday. Then give the answers one hour. Perfect data can wait. Blank boxes on that first sheet reveal which records you never kept. Wider patterns across cabinet, door, plywood and school furniture units sit on our furniture trade hub.