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Router Table Depot Archive Page
Thursday, September 24, 2009
I have read a lot of product reviews over the years. I also offer product reviews for the products we sell, as well as use them on blogs and articles to help people with buying choices. It did occur to me that sometimes people can be skewed towards buying or not buying something because of the way the product review is written. When I sat down to look at some factors that I take for granted, I was compelled to put this article together. I hope you find it helpful. It is slanted towards the woodworking industry, particularly routers and router tables. I think you will find that the mindset or theme will work for any type of product. When reading a review right off the bat I think of these main areas of the person that is leaving the review. These are the main areas in which we will discuss.
Shipping This is the first subject that usually gets a lot of comments on. Let me begin with this statement. “I really understand the shipping process” I have worked in this industry at one time and I have seen every aspect from a package getting from point A to point B. If there is one thing that is a constant in the universe it is this, shipping companies damage boxes. There is no way around it, and sooner or later it will happen to you. Manufacturers design their packaging around the fact that it is rough world when your package gets picked up and on to your destination. You have to consider the sort facility and the way things get handled. Speed is the ultimate theme and shippers go by how many packages they sort out each night. Being careful is a goal but not always the golden rule. So when an item comes damaged, most vendors jump through hoops to help you replace the item or fix the problem. It is a headache, and if they can design a box to relieve that headache, they most certainly will because it reduces their replacement costs. So any comments on shipping damage really need to be taken with a grain of salt. Experience/Inexperience This is a sensitive area, since it is closely tied to emotion. I will try to tread lightly, but I will be blunt in some areas in order for the reader to get the most out of this content. When it comes to power tools, some people just do not have any experience and some have extensive experience. It is hard to figure out who is who when you are reading a review. To be honest, some people have no business owning a power tool, yet they go to great lengths in leaving some scathing reviews. Others have a perfectionist type of view that can give you some great insight about the product. Some are Engineer types that can go into great detail and offer design changes that they think would make the product better. So how do you approach this problem? I think the best way to evaluate it is by simply knowing the fact that there are different levels of experience out there and everyone is entitled to their opinion. You just never really know who you are talking too when reading a review or getting advice from someone, you just have to use your gut feeling. Expectations Some reviews are written in sense of an expectation of that product that has either been met or not. If you expected a product to be of a certain design or quality and it is not, your expectations have not been met. Most people draw from this and use it in their review. Another avenue of this thought is that people write about their experience based on using the item right away. Perhaps the tool met their expectation right away but then they quickly grew out of it or moved on in their skill level. The media also has tremendous influence on what our expectations are for products. Most of the time this is based on mass appeal and it’s designed to do one thing and one thing only and that is to sell you the product. Just because someone says they are an expert does not necessarily mean it is true. Customer Service Customer service is often commented on but it has some bearing in some instances. For example if you are speaking directly to the manufacture themselves, then customer service can be influential. If you are speaking to a distributor of a product, then how they handle your service situation is up to them and only reflects on their company, website or business, not necessarily the product. This can skew some reviews. Of course good customer service can always be a positive factor, it is really the product you are reviewing not your buying experience. Someone should make a service about that! Emotion I choose to add this section because I have seen overtones of this that leak into reviews. Emotion is powerful and sometimes it is hard to shake a pre conceived concept. That concept is from the old “mail order” days when the industry was brand new. Most “mail order” companies sold junk and it was all about conversion ratios and quotas. Today most companies and vendors realize that Internet sales are a huge part of their business and a great way to reach out to customers from all over the world. So here is a concept that I and most good companies embrace. The sooner customers and the general public figure it out the better. (This is the blunt part I was talking about) Companies want and need to take care of their customers for a very good reason. If you become a customer once, there is a good chance that you will buy from us again. If you buy from us again, you reduce the cost of acquiring a new customer and that improves the amount of money a company makes. Bottom line: if you are my customer, I want you to buy from me over and over again. This is how we stay alive. I have no interest in making you mad, or delivering a poor product, that would be stupid and go against the business plan. If you are happy, then my life is easy. If you are mad, my day sucks. I like stress free days, so it is in my best interest in doing a good job so that you come back. Assembly I thought it was worth mentioning that assembly can be part of the product review formula. Let’s face it, there is a new problem alive and well today and it is most irritating. That problem is the lack of good clear and concise directions. Remember when software use to come with a book on how to use it? Now day’s vendors think it is ok to be vague. I am not sure who thought this was a way to save money or not, but it is irritating. I think directions are an influence but not always the deciding factor. It is worth noting that not everyone is good at the obvious. (Blunt I know) but I am amazed at how often that putting Tab A into Slot B eludes some people. Manufacture Mindset Product companies have a mindset of selling product and making goals. Part of the goals is keeping replacement costs down by good design and good techniques. It is just about as simple as that. Some Brands are better at it than others; those are the ones that last in the industry. Look for manufacturers that embrace this concept by developing their authority. Most good companies really enjoy happy customers. I hope this has helped you with interpreting customer reviews. It was intended in teaching you how to write one, but more of an education of how people write them for the world to see. The one thing about the Internet, comments stay forever and reputations are made and broken over time. Getting a good assessment of a product can sometimes be harder than you thought.
by: Router Table Depot 0 Comments 
Thursday, September 10, 2009
By Tim Bryce
Manage more, supervise less." - Bryce's Law When I got into the work force back in the mid-1970's it seemed everyone dressed in a suit and tie, drank black coffee, smoked their brains out, and worked their butts off. Today, golf shirts have replaced suits, herbal tea and bottled water have replaced coffee, nobody is allowed to smoke, and rarely does anyone work beyond 5:00pm. More importantly, we used to care about the work we produced; there was a sense of craftsmanship, regardless of the job. My Brother-in-law in Cincinnati conducted me on a tour of his company's machine-tool shop years ago and showed me how he could take a block of aluminum and convert it into a high-precision machine tool. It was a pleasure to watch him work, as it is to watch anyone who knows what they are doing, be it a waitress, a programmer, a laborer or a clerk. Quality and service used to be considered paramount in this country. If it wasn't just right, you were expected to do it over again until you got it right. We cared about what we produced because it was a reflection of our personal character and integrity. But somewhere along the line we lost our way and craftsmanship has fallen by the wayside. Why? Probably because we no longer care. In today's litigious society, employees are acutely aware that it is difficult to be fired due to poor performance. They know they will still get paid and receive benefits, regardless of the amount of effort they put forth. Consequently, there is little to encourage people to perform better. Money isn't a motivating factor anymore. People now expect bonuses, raises and other perks to be paid out regardless of how well they perform during the year. We've also become a nation content with doing small things. America used to be known as a powerhouse that could tackle large projects, such as building skyscrapers, designing innovative bridges and tunnels spanning substantial bodies of water, engineering transcontinental railroads and highway systems, conquering air and space travel, and defending freedom not just once but in two world wars. If you really wanted something done, you talked to the Americans and no one else. Now we get excited over iPods, cell phones, and other electronic trinkets. Many believe Craftsmanship is in decline due to the general apathy found in today's society. Maybe. I tend to believe it is due to an erosion of our moral values. Let me give you an example. Having a child in college, my interest was piqued recently by an article describing the pervasiveness of cheating and plagiarism in our schools. It is not my intent to make a political statement here but many of the students mentioned in the article rationalized their cheating on the fact that one of our past Presidents cheated and lied under oath, and got away with it. They figured if it is okay for the Commander-in-Chief to act this way, it was an acceptable form of behavior. Arnold Toynbee, the famed English historian, observed, "Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder." If the moral fabric of our society dies, our story is told as evidenced by other great civilizations that long preceded us. Our perspective needs to be realigned: Our personal and professional lives must be viewed as one. As Toynbee remarked, "The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play." By doing so, we identify more closely with our work and assume a greater pride in workmanship. We do not need to hear this from our boss, but rather from within. As strange as it may sound, I see Craftsmanship as being patriotic in nature; doing a good quality job is part of leading a good and honorable life and builds on the individual's esteem, the company he works for, and the country he lives in. The biggest problem though is that we have forgotten how to manage people. The manager's primary goal is to create the proper work environment for employees to produce the desired work products. This is different than a supervisory capacity that directs how each person performs the various tasks of a job. In fact, I encourage managers to manage more and supervise less. I cringe when I see a manager try to "micromanage" either a Fortune 500 company or a non-profit organization. Yes, people need to be trained in order to properly perform their work but following this, employees should be mature enough to supervise themselves. In the old days, management stressed discipline, accountability, and structure; three ugly words in today's workplace. Understanding Craftsmanship Some might say craftsmanship is a simple concept that we should intuitively know. Not true; most people today have no comprehension as to what makes up a good craftsman; they have either forgotten or it has simply passed them by. Craftsmanship can be found in any field of endeavor imaginable, be it in the product sector or service industry. Craftsmanship, therefore, is universally applicable to any line of work. Craftsmanship is not "workmanship", nor is it synonymous with quality, although the three concepts are closely related. Let's begin by giving "Craftsmanship" a definition: "The production and delivery of quality goods or services from highly skilled workmen." Quality relates to the absence of errors or defects in the finished product or service. In other words, finished goods operate according to their specifications (customers get precisely what they ordered). Such products are normally durable and require minimal maintenance. Craftsmanship produces quality products. In the absence of craftsmen, a rigorous methodology or assembly line process is required to produce quality goods using workers without the expertise of craftsmen. Such processes detail "Who" is to perform "What" work, "When", "Where", "Why" and "How" (5W+H), thereby assuring a quality product or service is produced. Such is the underlying rationale of the ISO 9000 certification as used by many companies today. The point is, quality is not the exclusive domain of the craftsman. Craftsmanship is also a human trait. Some might argue a computer or industrial robot can produce quality products and are, therefore, craftsmen. However, we must remember these devices are programmed by human beings in accordance with the rules of the craftsman. As such, they are an extension or tool of the craftsman. Craftsmanship can be found in either the overall work process or a section of it. For example, there are craftsmen who are intimate with all facets of building furniture, such as a table, a chair or desk, and can implement the product from start to finish. However, as products grow in complexity, it becomes difficult to find people suitably qualified to build them from the womb to the tomb. Consider military weapons alone, such as the complicated ships, tanks, and airplanes we now use, with thousands or millions of parts to assemble. Such complexity makes it impossible for a single person to have the expertise to build the whole product. The same is true in the service sector where different types of expertise and capabilities may be required. In other words, craftsmen have a specific scope of work. The scope of work may relate to other types of craftsmen through a chain of work dependencies, e.g., Craftsmen A, B and C concentrate on separate sub-assemblies which are eventually joined into a single product. Attributes So, what are the attributes of a craftsman? What makes a craftsman a craftsman? There are three basic attributes described herein: 1. Possesses the necessary knowledge and skills to perform the work. The craftsman is an expert in his field of endeavor; so much so that he could easily serve as an instructor in the subject matter. But the craftsman is also smart enough to know that education is not a one time thing, that his world and field evolve as new tools and techniques are introduced. As such, the craftsman is a student of his profession and is constantly looking to improve himself. This is exercised through such things as continued education, routine certification, studying books and trade publications, and industrial groups. The craftsman willingly participates in trade groups, often at his own expense, in order to network with his peers. It is Important to note that the craftsman does not need to be told he needs periodic training to sharpen his skills. Instead, he takes the personal initiative to stay on top of his game. Further, the craftsman has no problem with a periodic job review; in fact, he welcomes it for it might bring out a weakness in a skill he needs to sharpen. 2. Attention to detail. The craftsman understands and respects the process of building/delivering a product or service and is acutely aware of the penalties for cutting corners. Earlier we discussed the need for a methodology that specifies 5W+H. The craftsman is intimate with all details of his scope of work, so much so, he could probably write the methodology himself. Further, his intimacy of the work process means he can produce a reliable estimate of time and costs to perform the work. Although many of the craftsman's tasks may be repetitive, it doesn't mean he easily falls into a rut. Instead, he is constantly looking for new tools and techniques to improve the work process. As such, he plays the role of Industrial Engineer who is normally charged with such a task. The craftsman's attention to detail also means that he demonstrates patience in his work effort. Again, wary of cutting corners, the craftsman must possess such patience in order to produce the product the right way. 3. Views professional life as an extension of his personal life. The craftsman identifies with the end product which is where pride in workmanship comes from. In his mind, the craftsman has been charged with the responsibility of producing something, and wanting to satisfy the customer, puts forth his best effort to produce it. In other words, craftsmen take their work personally. This is a difficult trait to teach particularly in today's society where the focus is more on financial compensation than on the work product itself. It may sound naive, but the craftsman believes he will be suitably compensated for producing superior results. Years ago, Dick Butkus of the Chicago Bears (NFL) confounded sports writers who could never understand why Butkus played as hard as he did year after year for a losing football team. True, Dick loved the game, but beyond that, the sports writers didn't understand one thing about the seven time All-Pro linebacker: Butkus took his job personally. It was important to him that his opponents know that they had been tackled by the best player; as he said, "When they get up from the ground I want them to say 'it must have been Butkus that got me'." Dick Butkus was a craftsman. The craftsman has a burning desire to produce a superior product/service because he sees it as a reflection of himself. As such, the lines delineating their personal life and professional life are blurred. This is a significant characteristic that clearly separates a craftsman from the average worker. The craftsman's work is his life. He does not shirk responsibility, but rather embraces it with confidence and embosses his name on the finished product. Conversely, making a work related mistake of any kind pains a true craftsman. Job titles are normally inconsequential to the craftsman who is more interested in delivering a quality product/service enjoyed by the customer. Instead, the craftsman takes pleasure in being touted as the best in his craft. He appreciates recognition; when someone makes a compliment about a product, the craftsman views it as a personal compliment. This too runs contrary to today's corporate world where people desperately seek recognition through simple job titles. Want someone with an inflated ego? Give them a title. Want something done right? Call a craftsman. Productivity "Dependable", "professional", and "resourceful" are adjectives that aptly describe the craftsman. He is not one who fabricates excuses but, rather, always finds a way to get the job done. The craftsman is typically your most productive employee. He is mindful of the concept of productivity that we have touted for years: Productivity = Effectiveness X Efficiency Most people fallaciously equate productivity with efficiency, which simply gauges how fast we can perform a given task. Effectiveness, on the other hand, validates the necessity of the task itself. There is nothing more unproductive than to do something efficiently that should not have been done at all. An industrial robot, for example, can efficiently perform such tasks as welding. But if you are welding the wrong thing, then it is counterproductive. Going back to our description of a methodology, effectiveness defines "Who/What/When/Where/Why", efficiency defines "How." The craftsman is well aware of the difference between the two and knows how to apply both. As such, the craftsman is in tune with his work environment and corporate culture. So how do we make craftsmen? Not easily. Because of the human dynamics involved with the craftsman, you will need to be a pretty intuitive manager or industrial psychologist to make it happen. Selecting suitable candidates is the logical first step. Devise an aptitude test to determine the candidate's suitability to become a craftsman. After all, "you cannot make a silk purse from a sow's ear." Aside from specific knowledge and experience in a given field (e.g., programming, woodworking, construction, accounting, etc.), here are some other important traits to look for:
Certification Teaching the elements listed above probably cannot be done in one fell swoop. Further, companies simply don't have the time or money to wait for the craftsman to be produced. Instead, they must understand the human spirit needs to be cultivated and be allowed to grow over time. Because of this, it is strongly recommended that an in-house certification program be devised specifying what the candidate should know and what skills and talents he should demonstrate. This should be divided into classes of progressive expertise; e.g., apprentice, intermediary, and craftsman. The ancient builders in Egypt, Rome, and Greece understood this concept and devised such classes of workmen. Other disciplines and schools follow similar tactics (the various degrees or belts in martial arts for example). Each degree is based on specific prerequisites to master before moving on to the next level. An in-house certification program has the added nuance of making people feel special which greatly enhances their self esteem. If they are made to feel like a vital part of the company, regardless if their work of a large magnitude or trivial, they will strive to do what is best for the company overall, not just themselves. Consequently, their work adds meaning to their life. There is one pitfall to all of this; today's "go-go" management style fails to see how craftsmanship adds value to the company. In fact, there were companies back in the 1980's that shut down such programs simply to reduce costs. As a result, quality suffered, repeat business was lost, products were more in need of repair, absenteeism on the job escalated, etc. Want value? How does a loyal customer base who has confidence in your products or services sound? And what effect would employee harmony have, particularly if they believed in the work they were producing? It would be mind-boggling, all because we had faith in the human spirit to produce superior results. A final note: craftsmanship is not a one time thing. After it has been instilled in people, it has to be cultivated and perpetuated. If a manager slips even for a moment, it will go right out the window and it will take time to bring it back to life. As for me, I like to post motivational reminders kind of like the one recently spotted in the Hickey Freeman manufacturing facility in New York, "Excellence is Tolerated." Tim Bryce is the Managing Director of M. Bryce & Associates (MBA) of Palm Harbor, Florida and has 30 years of experience in the field. He is available for training and consulting on an international basis. He can be contacted at: timb001@phmainstreet.com Copyright © 2006 MBA. All rights reserved. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tim_Bryce http://EzineArticles.com/?Craftsmanship:-the-Meaning-of-Life&id=210848 by: Router Table Depot 0 Comments
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
By Nick Walgen
Hinges may seem to be a no-brainer when it comes to a woodworking project, but they really are important. How do you select the right hinge for your project. You'd be surprised by the variety of hinge hardware. They vary by size, by weight and by shape. They are available in a variety of materials, such as brass and steel. They range in style from small, delicate and simple to heavy and ornate. Of course you would not use the same hinge on a delicate jewelry box as you would for the exterior doors on a trucking garage.You may not have thought about it, but the direction your door opens can be confusing, rather like the stage directions stage right and stage left. If a door opens away from you to your right side, you need right-side hinges. If it opens away from you toward your left side, you need left hinges.While most hinges can be mounted in either direction, some are for use in a single direction. For instance, a loose-pin hinge, used on hanging doors, the pin must be kept at the top. In selecting a hinge, think about how much of it will show. For a dresser or cabinet, you may want its design to show. Other hinges can be simpler or even hidden.Among the most common hinge in use today is a butt hinge, which is used for mounting doors on structures and on furniture. This is a fairly simple hinge, while the ball-bearing hinge is fairly complex and is used for exterior doors. The ball-bearing hinge is permanently lubricated so it can withstand a lot of use. Another variety of hinge is the pivot hinge, which can be found in recessed doors. It can be used without a door frame. There are also double-acting hinges that can move in either direction for folding doors. These are just a few of the many types of hinges available. When you go to a hardware store, you will be astounded by the variety on hand. If you have any questions about which ones to select, ask hardware store personnel, who will be happy to assist you. You can also search for hinges online by using your favorite search engine.Installing a hinge is a fairly easy task. Simply read and follow the directions on the package. If more than one hinge is needed, be sure to space them evenly. Also read the packaging to find out if the hinge needs to be lubricated and how to do it. Gather all the parts you need before you start. Hinges are not often thought of until you need them. But if you take a few minutes to examine the many types that are available, you will be astounded at the variety.Nick Walgen's short articles can be found on lots of web publications related to woodwork routing and woodworking jigs. You might see his work on woodwork jigs at http://www.insidewoodworking.com. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_Walgen by: Router Table Depot 0 Comments
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