Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Changes at the Farm

We are working on some posts to share with you some interesting projects that we completed in 2008. Watch for them in the coming weeks.

For the past 2 years we have been steadily investing in the back-end infrastructure of Fire Farm to enable us greater capacity and transparency into the future. This is why you haven't seen much of me personally at some of the shows and events during this time. I have been focused on building the infrastructure to enable much greater quality, capacity and client confidence and satisfaction.
Here are some of the improvements we have implemented:
  1. We have revamped our manufacturing software to more adequately address the unique needs of the rapidly growing segment of custom fabrication.

  2. Our project and client management systems have been fine tuned and expanded to facilitate project management and client communications and support from first-contact to post-placement follow-up contacts.

  3. We have acquired an additional 35,000 square feet of working facility and upgraded lighting and made significant physical plant improvements.

  4. Additional tooling and equipment have been acquired to expand our capacities, and new relationships with local subcontractors have been established to increase our offerings.

  5. A large photo studio able to handle large chandeliers has been integrated into the final production and finishing hall to allow fixtures to be photographed immediately upon completion, with final packaging occurring directly in the studio.

  6. We have made improvements in our website architecture to allow immediate and easy uploading of new products and projects. We hope to take those images of finished products and have them up on the site for immediate visibility. So much of what we produce has never made it to our catalog or our website. We look forward to being able to share it with you in a timely fashion.

  7. If you have ordered from us in the past year you will have experienced some of the client-relations improvements we have implemented. For example:
  • For larger-scale custom projects you will receive an email the day of shipment that includes a plethora of data, including tracking information as well as images taken during the packaging process showing the internal packaging structure and of the labeled containers ready to ship out. This allows you to compare the incoming package upon receipt to its portrait going out--a key way to spot potential damage or loss immediately.

  • Attached to these emails you will also find instruction sheets that we might have created for this project and even unpacking instructions to maximize the success of installation, starting with the receiver. By sending these electronically before hand we hope that this information can be put into the hands of those preparing to receive these valuable shipments. All of these documents will be attached to the packaging as well.
Perhaps the biggest change will come in the coming year as we begin to implement the new technology tools we have developed for the website. Expect to see many new projects posted regularly on the new site. This is the most exciting development as it is the point to which all other developments have been pushing towards. With the facilitation of the entire production process through posting on the web, we hope to open up time and opportunity to explore and prototype the many new and unusual materials and engineering structures we have been holding back on over the past couple of years. We really hope that the foundation we have laid will provide a springboard of creativity that we can immediately share with you.

-Adam Pollock

Why Blog?

For years we considered creating a regular newsletter of interesting things that go on around Fire Farm but always ended up intimidated by the scale of such a project with regard to regular management in light of daily production requirements.

Well, it seems that the technology has come around that may allow us to finally create that connection in a more bi-directional and casual way than a formal newsletter. Hopefully with more dynamic and varied content possibilities as well.

Because of the collaborative nature that is Fire Farm you may see posts from a variety of staff members here. We want to create diversity in our blog content reflective of the diversity of ideas the staff brings to our product development.

This blog is intended to be a casual and regular window into the daily happenings at Fire Farm. We are really lucky to have evolved a company culture that is rewarded for its exploration and creative problem-solving work. We hope that we can share some insight to the discoveries we make along our path of creation with those of you outside the walls of the factory. And also the challenges we face in our explorations.

And so, with that being said, Let's blog... (who came up with that term, anyway?)

-Adam Pollock