In terms of the customer’s experience of a timber yard, that customer arrives at the yard, tells the staff at the yard what their requirements are for timber, the timber is located and cut to the customer’s requirements, the customer pays for that timber, and then they leave the yard. From the outside of the timber yard, it looks like a retail operation with an unusually large stock of timber products. However, from the inside of the yard, it is a daily operation of balancing the needs of the timber yard’s inventory, the environment in which the yard is located, the equipment that is available within the yard, the knowledge of the staff, and the requirements of the timber yard’s customers.
The day starts early, outside. Stock management in a timber yard is not a passive exercise. Timber responds to its environment, absorbing or releasing moisture depending on the humidity around the timber. The staff who check the stock at the start of each day must assess what the overnight conditions have done to the timber. For Timber Merchants Bournemouth, visit https://www.timbco.co.uk
The machinery needs attention before it is used. A timber yard relies on its saw bench, planer, moulder, bandsaw, and other equipment to produce timber that can be used in its workshops. If the saw bench is slightly out of alignment, the timber that is cut will also be slightly inaccurate. In joinery applications, inaccuracy in the timber can cause problems in another workshop.
Then the customers start arriving. The knowledge component of the job that is not seen in the management of the stock becomes apparent here. A timber yard is staffed by people who have the ability to have technical conversations with joiners, builders, and self-builders regarding the suitability of various species of wood for various applications. These conversations happen dozens of times a day. They require the accumulated knowledge that develops over a period of years. It is not possible to replace this knowledge with a price list or a website.
The afternoon is spent performing deliveries of the company’s products. Orders that were prepared in the morning need to be loaded into the delivery vehicle and accompanied by the necessary paperwork for the delivery of the products. Also, any deliveries of products from suppliers need to be checked for quality and then unloaded from the delivery vehicle and positioned in the company’s yard for later use.
