Over the past few years, education sessions at events such as StonExpo have begun to include open “Forums,†where participants can pose their questions to a panel of industry experts as well as the audience as a whole. StonExpo 2005 in Las Vegas, NV, included the “Countertop Fabrication Forum,†with speakers Kevin Padden of the Marble Institute of America, Mark Blanda of Stone Interiors and Robert Smith of Great Lakes Granite & Marble. The forum - which was a lively question-and-answer session on countertop fabrication and installation issues - was moderated by Stone World Editor Michael Reis. The following is a synopsis of that session:
As far as a second shift, it really should be a skeleton crew in its first conception. You have one guy to run the saw, one guy who is responsible as an overseer, a fabricator and a gopher. That's it; four or five tops for the initial starting point of a second shift. And you need someone you can trust in the evening hours, because you as a business owner or manager don't want to have to go out there at 10 p.m. each night to make sure everything is getting locked up. But maybe a couple of times each week, you're going to have to pop in unexpectedly. The last thing you want is complacency, and you're thinking a job is being done by the second shift, but you come in the next day, and it isn't done. So you need to do these pop inspections, but never do them on a routine schedule. Pick out times that they don't expect you to show up, and they'll always know that the boss can be there at any time.