Life is a learning curve

Note I am trying to sound philosophical
Trying not to stomp my foot and grind my teeth!
We make everything by hand
Hand woven cloth, block print is a hands on process, much hand stitching on garments and the garments are all constructed by people bit by bit.
Anywhere along that chain things can go astray.
Now if that happens and we alienate a client we don't earn an income.... and guess what everyone in the workshop is potentially out of a job.
Not just me and Sir who loose out , is it  happy clients who are paying the money that pays EVERYONE'S  wages.
If I am in the workshop- a thousand times a day someone askes is this Ok?
Generally if they need to ask then the answer is no and it is changed.
I say "you can see this needs changing believe yourself" or "what do you think?"
We keep on top of quality control.
Well I was away when a small order was done.
Turns out the block print guy was off his face... print quality poor.
It went into production and no one thought to query quality of print.
If I was there they would have seen things and asked because I was away the things they could see don't matter????
WTF!
Yes strong words are necessary
Went through the workshop yesterday like a dose of salts.
It is not good enough saying "I thought it was Ok because the guy before me passed it on"
What a lazy excuse
All of us are in it together and our livelihood depends on every member of the chain being vigilant about all areas of our manufacturing.
BLOODY HELL

We have been working hard at training up people,
I don't know what it is like in other parts of the world but in the Indian village culture no one takes on responsibility they are in a pecking order in the family and then it seems in the village a lot of hierarchy exists as well. Thinking for yourself not high on the to do list.

***
Funny aside: village life women cover their face with a veil when around certain people.
In the past I have given a few of my ladies a lift home in the car... I know them in the workshop no veil, as we drew close to our village they disappeared under the veil I laughed and said what happened? They said village politics just easier to draw the veil and look respectable on the street.
Well we have had workers in and especially Indra our tea lady was in a tizzy. Now she has settled into the workshop they are family and if seen as her side of the family ok no veil.
First guys in were obviously of wrong status so on comes the veil and she is wandering around like a wet cat all day out of sorts.
Guys that came in yesterday to dig holes must be a lower caste or something but they were ok and she did not have to cover up
Seriously ????
****
Back to rant
Trying to instil a sense of THIS IS MY RESPONSIBILITY in staff.
You can learn the system and apply it. You do not need to always seek approval.
I have been refusing to answer questions I know people know the answer to and trying to get them to think it through and work it out.
Anyone seeing a problem needs to alert the supervisor to it and make sure it is dealt with not just let it drift along with an " oh well I thought the other guy would see it"
Block printer is out of a job, too many times he has played this game, our junior printer is doing well and Praveen and I are making sure he gets the full idea from the start.
He is very responsive.
We started 2 young women last week, one is looking good for production clerk and my samples assistant, the other one went into the storeroom to help Nandu with checking and collating inventory but she isn't proving so capable or motivated.
She has said a few times she likes to print so we are moving her to the print room and we will see how she goes.
Fingers crossed we can't keep her if she can't pull her weight.
We have a new woman in the machine room, seems happy, needs to be trained up which she recognizes and is willing to do.
Hopefully
Hopefully
Thanks for listening to my rant.
We do try very hard to be reliable and some days it slips through our fingers.
Clear systems so everyone knows how it happens and everyone taking some responsibility to keep our ship sailing is what we need
I hope.
I live in hope
Oh my goodness, some days