Bob of Small End

by David Hockey

  Chapter 28 The factory

  Bob filled the van’s petrol tank at Tim’s and was on his way to Salisbury by eight thirty Monday morning. Using the shortest route and eating sandwiches as he drove he was able to deliver sets to thirty seven shops before six pm. He stayed in the same tiny hotel the far side of Cardiff that he’d used before. The landlady recognised him and told him he could have the room at the front for the same price as before. “I like to do that for my regular customers if no one’s already taken it. It’s a better view and a bigger room.” Bob thanked her, thinking this might be his last stay there.

  He wondered what Maria would think of his poem as he ate his fish-and-chip supper, washing it down with a Guinness. He hoped she’d comment in her reply. He used the pub’s phone to call Ken after he’d finished, not to tell him that he had added more shops but to find out what had been happening in the shop.

  “The routers, sanders, saws and heaters arrived this morning and they’re already fastened to the bench. The router jigs will need a lot of adjusting before they can be used. I’ll do that tomorrow. Jack installed the ducts and the fan heater today and will hang the rails and form the plastic tunnels tomorrow. If we can get all of it set up I’ll have Craig and Jose or Luke run some wood through the line on Thursday. If everything works as it should I’ll ask everybody to try it on Friday. You’ll be here by then so you should join in too. That way everyone will have an idea of how the new system works and, with luck, it’ll be ready for July 8th when the new people come in.”

  “I see what you meant about keeping the weekend free. I’d forgotten about them starting next week.”

  “There are bound to be problems that’ll have to be fixed before they arrive. Oh, yes, Lori showed me the descriptions she’d written about the toys at the tea break. I thought they looked good and I passed them around so everybody could see. Luke suggested changing ‘bright colours’ to ‘brilliant colours,’ saying the acrylic looked that way to him and we agreed. That’s the only change we made. You’ll check it when you return, of course.”

  “I will. Did she make the signs for the doors?”

  “Yes, and she suggested we make two from wood, one for visitors, to tell them where to park, and the other to direct deliveries to the back. I told her I’d make them but not for a week or two.”

  “I can make them. This weekend, if you don’t need my help. I’ve been thinking about making another Small End Wooden Toys sign for the new shop but I don’t know if we should put one there. We don’t want visitors there.”

  “No, you’re right. We could have Small End Wooden Toys—Workshop, but let’s do that later. Another thing, if I put a second bench here I’ll move the office over. Then we might need another sign.”

  “We told Joe we’d be using his old parlour for a year Ken.”

  “Oh we’ll use it. Maybe it could be used to design new toys, set-up the jigs they’d need and run trials. It can be a research centre.”

  “I see.”

  “Well I’m off to bed now. It’ll be another busy day for me tomorrow. Goodnight Bob.”

  “Goodnight Ken.”

  Bob had one last shop to visit at five thirty on Wednesday but, even though he rushed, it was closed when he arrived. Bert or Greg would have to add it to their next delivery. Or the wholesaler. He didn’t know how frequently they delivered, or did they say they delivered every two weeks? He was tired and had forgotten that kind of detail.

  He was at Shaftsbury, less than forty miles from home. He could be there in not much more than an hour but he was so tired of driving he decided to take a break. He didn’t fancy driving home then making supper, even though it would probably be a pot pie, if there was one left. He was going to eat and rest before driving on.

  He drove through the emptying streets and eventually found a restaurant on the outskirts that had a big, almost empty, parking lot. He parked, walked in and was ushered to a seat. Some kind of classical music was playing softly in the background. He ordered salmon with a creamy sauce and a glass of their house white. That and a coffee made the meal. The bill surprised him, twice what he’d normally pay. ‘So that’s why there weren’t many cars in the lot, the place is too expensive.’ They probably lived on people celebrating something or tourists or people like him who didn’t know what their food would cost. He added a tip and paid with the company’s credit card, wondering if Lori would say he shouldn’t include the cost of this meal since he was nearly home. But she wouldn’t do such a thing although a man from the income tax office might.

  He felt refreshed and the drive home afterwards was easy for there wasn’t much traffic. He parked the van in the parking lot beside his house, not wanting to walk home from the shop, he just wanted to go to bed.

  Lori was there answering the phone when Bob walked into the office Thursday morning. She waved to him and he put his bills, credit card slips and the lists she had given him on her desk and sat in Ken’s chair, waiting until she had finished.

  “Hello Bob. How are you?”

  “Better after a night’s sleep. How’s things Lori?”

  “We’ve had lots more requests. There’s enough for another delivery this week but they’ll have to wait because Ken wants everybody here tomorrow, Bert and Gerry too, so he can show all of us how the new process works. Since I’ll have to be there too I’m going to ask him if we can buy an answering machine. Almost all our calls are from retailers wanting more sets so I don’t want to miss any. It’d be okay if I was sitting at my desk all day but that’d be a waste of time, there’s not enough office work to keep me busy there while waiting for a call.”

  “It’ll be much easier when We-Have-It handles the deliveries Lori. All the calls will go to them. Where’s Ken?”

  “At the Centre. With Jack.”

  “Okay, I’ll walk over and see what they’re doing. That last shop on the my list, there, the one I’ve not ticked—I couldn’t get to it in time, they were closed.”

  “Okay. I’ll add it to the list for next week.”

  “Have you received any cheques for last month?”

  “No, not yet. I’ve got lots of bills though. Nearly £4,500, things for the new workshop and meeting room. You know, their room is nicer than ours.”

  “Then maybe we should make this one better. I’ll ask everyone what they would like to have at the break. I’m off now. Cheers Lori.”

  Ken was dipping short pieces of wood into paint and running them through the first drying tunnel when Bob walked in. Jack was lying on the floor under the bench.

  “Hello Bob. Just a minute. Higher Jack. The heat needs to be a little higher.” He pushed the pinned holder carrying the wood he had just painted slowly through the tunnel with a long stick, withdrew the stick and laid it on the bench then ran to the other end.

  “Yes. It’s dry now. We’ll have to adjust the heat again when there are several blocks going through. Can you set the same heat in the other tunnels?”

  “I’ll try. It’s not easy. Changing it on one tunnel also changes it on the other two. I think we should have separate heaters for each one.”

  “Yes, you’re right. I should have thought of that. I’ll order them today. What do you think Bob?”

  “I can see how the line works now, better than I could before. It looks good Ken.”

  “The tunnels aren’t set-up properly yet. If you put your hand at one end you’ll find that it’s hot. We have to fold in the end plastic and increase the extraction fan rate.”

  “We’ll have t’adjust t’ heater again then,” Jack added.

  “Yes I know. Let’s do the next tunnel now.”

  Ken moved along the bench and Jack slid under the table next to the second duct’s heat control lever.

  “It’ll take a while to fix this Bob,” Ken said.

  “That’s okay. Can I do anything?”

  “No, not here. Just help in the shop, if that’s okay with you. We’ll do all the tunnels then join you for tea.”

  �
��Alright.”

  Bob helped wrap and box until tea break. Ken and Jack hadn’t turned up so, after everyone had filled their mug and taken their biscuits, he asked if they should do anything to make the room better.

  “You could change the chairs Bob. These aren’t very comfortable,” said Lori.

  “Okay. Anything else?”

  “More chocolate biscuits,” said Luke. “Other kinds, not just these digestive ones, although they are nice.”

  “Okay. Anything else?”

  “I can’t think of anything,” said Craig.

  “Well the new shop has a fridge and a microwave,” said Bob. “Do we want to have the same here?”

  “There’s hardly room for them,” said Bert.

  “If we had a microwave I could bring things like soup in the winter and heat it for lunch. It’d make a nice change from sandwiches,” Lori said. “We could get a small one. It wouldn’t cost much. But I agree with Bert, there’s not enough room for a fridge.”

  “All right. Chocolate biscuits, more comfortable chairs and a microwave. Could you order them Lori?”

  “Order what?” asked Ken as he and Jack walked in.

  “We’re improving the tea room Ken.”

  “Oh, I only heard ‘microwave.’ That’s a good idea, but you might have to put it in the office ‘cos there’s not much room here.”

  “And we’d like nicer chairs.”

  “And different chocolate biscuits.”

  “No trouble with the biscuits and microwave or chairs. I’ll ask Mary to look for the chairs and I’ll arrange their purchase. Can you order the microwave Lori? Who buys the biscuits now?”

  “I usually do,” said Lori, “and the milk. Bob’s mostly not here to do that any more. I carry them in from Big End. Can we have the milk delivered?”

  “Good idea. Yes, we could buy the biscuits, tea and coffee from the village store and have it delivered. We should do that for the meeting room in the new shop too. Can you look after that Lori?”

  “Gladly.”

  “But not right now. I’d like everyone to come to the Centre and learn how the new production line works as soon as you’ve finished your tea.”

  “What about answering the phone Ken? asked Lori. There’ll easily be another two or three shops calling before lunch.”

  “They’ll call back later. Don’t worry about that.”

  “Could we have an answering machine here?” she asked, “then they could leave a message and we won’t miss anybody.”

  “Why not. Could you find one Lori?”

  “Okay I’ll do that Saturday.”

  “Buy it if you find the right one and bring it in on Monday. Most of next week we’ll all be in the new shop, learning how to run the line. We have to be ready to train the new people when they come in. Okay?”

  “What about the deliveries Ken?” asked Gerry.

  “We’ll leave that until later next week. Perhaps we’d be good enough on Wednesday or Thursday. If so you could deliver after then.”

  They washed their mugs in the shop sink, everyone except Jose, who said that he didn’t see the need to do that every time he used it. His light blue mug had a deep-brown coating on the inside. Ken locked the shop’s doors and they walked to the Centre. Once there, Ken walked them along the bench, explaining the function of each part.

  “The only new part is the painting operation. I’ll show you how it’s done.” He pushed a piece of scrap wood onto the pins of a holder, uncovered the paint tray and dipped the wood in the paint. He then pushed the holder onto the end of the curtain track.”

  “See? Look at this holder,” and he held one out to them. “The hook-eyes that we have in the old shop have been replaced by these two curtain rollers. All you have to do is push the holder into this gap so that the rollers slide onto the rail. Push the next holder in and it’ll push the first one forward. That’s the way they move, each holder pushes the earlier ones along until they get to the end. Then they’ll fall off. Watch, I’ll do several and you’ll see how it works. Can you switch on the heater Jack.”

  Jack bent down and closed a switch.

  “We’ll put the switch on the bench later and you can work it from you chair,” Ken said, “although you’ll leave it on all the time, except for the times when the line is stopped.”

  “Chair?” asked Luke. “We have chairs?”

  “Yes. The painters and the sanders can sit on chairs if they want although they can stand if they prefer that. So watch what happens as I do several more. Now, you see, at the end of the track they fall off and drop onto the cloth ramp and slid into the tray.”

  “Then someone else gives them the second coat,” said Bert.

  “Yes that’s right. That one’s put one by a brush. Hedges will have their second tone-coat brushed on that way too.”

  “And the decorative lines are stamped on at the third place?”

  “Exactly. Then when they drop into the third tray they’re ready for gluing and assembling. The glue will take a while to dry and that’ll hold up the line a bit. I’m thinking of using a contact cement or a fast-acting glue. Until I find the best way to do it we’ll just use the glue we use now and put them on trays to dry. We screw on the wheels at the end too. So now let’s give it a try. Jack can get some wood and put it on the table; Jose you handle the router jig; Bert you look after the band saw and Gerry, you look after one of the sanders. Lori, you do the first painting, Luke you take the second one and Bob, you take the last one, please. We won’t assemble or glue any until we’ve run the line for a while. Craig and I will walk along the line looking for problems. Okay? We’ll go slowly to begin with. While you’re doing this think about how you’d train someone to do the job so you’ll be ready for next week.”

  “Can I have a chair,” asked Gerry.

  “Me too,” said Lori and Luke.

  “Sure. They’re stacked at the end of the bench. Help yourself.”

  As soon as everyone was ready Jose pushed the first long block through the router jig. Bert picked it up and cut it into house blocks dropping them into a tray where they waited until Gerry picked them up to sand. After sanding they were put into another tray and were ready for the first paint coat.

  The first trouble was dust. Ken spotted it as soon as he stood by the first painting tunnel. He watched for half a minute then said that they’d have to stop until the problem was fixed. “The blocks waiting to be painted have dust on them. I’ll have to fix that. Can everybody go back to the other shop. All except you Gerry. I want you to sand while we find a way to stop the dust from getting out. Okay?”

  “Sure,” said Gerry.

  “I like working on this line,” said Bert, as they were standing up. “Sitting down makes it much easier on my back.”

  Everyone left except Ken, Bob, Jack and Gerry.

  “Is the exhaust fan at maximum speed?” asked Bob.

  “Nay,” answered Jack. “It’s at half. I didn’t know wot to set it at.”

  “How many speeds are there?”

  “Five.”

  “Put it up one Jack and I’ll bend the plastic.”

  Even after increasing the rate to full speed the blocks were still covered with a film of dust. They all watched Gerry as he repeatedly picked up one of the cut blocks with his right hand and pushed it into the plastic-covered sanding booth. He sanded it, then brought it out with his left hand and put it in the output tray. Eventually Ken said “It’s mostly coming from you Gerry. Dust falls off your left hand and gets on to the block when you put it on the output tray. It’s sticking to the hairs on your hand.”

  “It might help if he wore gloves,” said Bob.

  “Yes, though I’ve another idea I’d like to try first. I’ll add a short plastic extension with an elastic ending to each hand hole and add a narrow output tunnel. Gerry can put the sanded block in that. The end of that tunnel will be open so air will enter and suck off any dust stuck to the block.”

  They got busy. Ken and Jack w
ired on a new front with two hand entry ports fitted with short sleeves. Bob built an exit tunnel and fastened it to the end of the sanding booth and Gerry went to the office and collected several elastic bands.

  Twenty minutes later Ken and Bob were satisfied. The blocks were sanded as well as they had ever been and there was next to no dust on the sanded blocks, even when they reduced the exhaust fan’s speed to half. They decided to run a strip of metal along the base of the output trough so the blocks would slide out better but left that to be done later.

  Bob went back to the workshop and asked everybody to return to the Centre for another try. Production continued, making modifications whenever needed, one being that they could lower the heat on each tunnel and the paint still dried.

  “I’m glad we were able to do that. I was worried about over-heating the shop in the summer,” said Ken. “Bending in the ends makes a lot of difference. What do you think about the way these blocks look now Bob?”

  “The paint job’s excellent. I’m surprised that it dries so quickly. It’s both the warmth and the air flow that makes the difference I suppose. It all seems okay to me Ken.”

  “I think it is. We’ll have to look at the gluing and assembly operations next. Once they’re sorted we’ll work on production speed. It’ll be a week or more before we approach our final rate. But, even now, I guess it’ll be four times faster than what we have in the old shop.”

  “Yes, it probably is,” Bob said.

  “Well it’s time for lunch,” said Ken. “we’ll have another go after lunch. I won’t need you this afternoon Jack. Can you come tomorrow? Just the morning I think.”

  “Aye, wot time?”

  “No hurry, about nine is okay.”

  During the afternoon everyone tried each station. By four thirty, having missed the afternoon’s tea break, Ken told every one to stop.

  “Thank you everybody. You’ve done a great job today. We’ll pack up now and have another go sometime tomorrow. Think about what we’re doing overnight and let me know if you see anyway to improve things.”

  Craig gave a cheer for some reason and everybody responded by cheering a second time. Then all but Bob and Ken left. They looked at each other, pulled out a couple of chairs and sat down.

  “Now we have the beginnings of a factory Bob. With this we’ll make enough money to repay our investments in a couple of months I think. Then, even without a second line, we’ll make a fortune.”

  “It’s still unbelievable to me Ken. From a hobby that earned me no more than three or four thousand pounds a year to this. I can’t quite see how it all happened. None of it would exist without you though.”

  “Nor without you Bob. We did it together. Pretty soon we can relax. I know I will. By the end of next week, if the new workers are okay and everything goes well, I’ll start thinking about my holidays.”

  “They’re not until September Ken. Why not take some time off before then?”

  “I think I might. After things settle down. Craig can look after things and you’d be here too, that is, if you wanted to be.”

  “Yes. Talking about holidays Ken reminds me that I want to visit my aunt this weekend. Can we drive to Basingstoke in separate cars then I could go on and you could return. It would save me three or four hours if we did that.”

  “Of course. It looks as if there won’t be anything to do here so Mary and I might go to London for the night. I’ll talk to her. Okay you drive yourself and we’ll meet at the warehouse.”

  “Good, thanks.”

  “Tomorrow I’m going to glue a few train parts, pig pens and the large houses before anyone comes in to see if I can think of a quicker way to do it. I can see we’ll need more shelves to put the trays on while the glue sets. Jack’ll make them. Do you want to help?”

  “Yes of course. At eight, then.”

  There was a letter from Maria on the floor when Bob arrived. In it she said how much she had enjoyed the weekend and how she was looking forward to the next one. “And here’s my poem. ‘I’m here. I’ll come.’ Do you like it? And it’s shorter than yours!” Bob didn’t have to think about his answer; he liked it.

  After supper he called Sally and asked if he could visit her this Saturday and Sunday.

  “Of course you can Bob. I’ll reserve the visitors room for you. What time will you get here?”

  “Probably in the middle of the afternoon. I have a meeting in the morning. And we can go somewhere nice for supper.”

  “No I don’t think so Bob. I’m not able to get out of my wheelchair without a lot of difficulty now. We’ll have supper here. I think you’ll like it.”

  “All right Sally.”

  A loud bell interrupted Ken, Jack and Bob at eight thirty Friday morning. “There’s some un at t‘back door,” said Jack.

  “It must be the wood,” said Ken. “I’d forgotten it was coming this morning.”

  They helped the driver unload, putting the wood into the stock room racks then returned to the bench. Jack was making a set of shelves that would be screwed onto the centre of the far end of the bench. Bob took pieces from the end tray and glued them together while Ken watched and offered suggestions. They continued until ten then walked over for tea. On the way Ken said “I’m not happy about how we glue. It takes too long. We either need a faster-drying glue or more space to hold the drying trays. Trouble is, we don’t have enough space for more racks.”

  “’Ow abat contact cement Ken,” said Jack. “I use it, but s’easy ter make mistakes wiv it.”

  “Yes I know,” answered Ken. “There has to be something else.”

  “We could ask the others if they know of anything,” said Bob.

  “Oh, Jack, I won’t need you for the rest of the day. You’re keeping a list of the hours you’re working?”

  “Aye.”

  “Well, have tea with us before going. You might have more good ideas.”

  When they explained the problem no one knew much about glues. Lori said she had an aunt who did a lot of craft work. “She often uses glues. I’ll see if she knows of anything.”

  After tea they took up the same positions in the line that they had Thursday afternoon and started churning out toys. Ken walked backwards and forwards along the line and took notes. They changed positions every half hour, stopped for lunch and continued afterwards until everyone had tried each position at least once. They stopped at three and returned to the workshop for their tea break.

  “Does everybody feel they could teach the newcomers how to operate the line now? Ken asked.”

  There was a general nodding of heads.

  “It’s interesting but I think it will become a bit boring after a while,” said Jose. “Although it’s nice to sit on a chair it’s working with each part of the operation that I like best. I wouldn’t want to just sand or paint every day of the week.”

  “No, nor would I,” said Bert.

  “Do most of you think that way?” asked Ken.

  There was more head-nodding.

  “Then how about changing places every week?”

  “It’d be better to change places every day.”

  “Changing could be done easily,” said Ken.”

  “Of course, all the new people would have to know how each job was done,” said Craig.

  “Okay, we’ll do it. Now how about training them, how should we do that?” asked Ken.

  “Like you did with us,” said Bert. “You or someone walk them along the line explaining what happens at each place then let them try it.”

  “But all of us already knew what had to be done,” said Jose. “The new-comers won’t know that.”

  “Then how about if we sat in each position and completed each operation slowly and answered questions as they watched,” said Lori. “They could see the whole line working and it would be easy to understand why and how things were being done.”

  “What do you all think about that?” asked Ken.

  “Sounds like a good idea,” said Craig.


  “Yes that would be fine,” added Jose.

  “Okay. Then that’s what we’ll do. We’ll pack-up now. Next week come here as usual because this is where the newcomers will come. We’ll introduce ourselves and then take them to the Centre and start teaching them.”

  “Will they come here for tea Ken?” asked Craig.

  “Er, will there be tea, coffee and biscuits at the new place, Lori?”

  “They said they’d deliver at nine. Someone will have to be there to put the milk in the fridge. I’ll do that if you like. I know what’s coming. But I’ll need a door key to let myself in.”

  “Here, have mine,” said Bob. “Keep it and have four more cut over the weekend, can you? You and Craig should both have a key now.”

  “All right. Thanks.”

  “Then we’ll all have tea at the new shop Monday. Lunch as well,” said Ken. “And we’ll work out what we do for the rest of the week at the end of the day.”