Wow what a few weeks it has been here at The Solve! Late November saw 2 huge orders placed for over 500 LITETITE® and over 250 STOPLITE® screens; that is on top of all the SOLASOLV® screens we already had to prepare. It got so busy that both Julie and John had to help out in Production, office staff member’s Paul Hopkins (Sales & Marketing Executive), Ian Ratcliffe (ICT Coordinator) and yours truly have been in Production since the last week of November. Both Ian and I are originally Production Technicians having moved into office based roles within the last few years, so it was old hat to us. Thankfully all staff are multi-skilled at Solar Solve, so after a basic refresh for Julie, Paul and John it was all hands to the pump!
Around 900 screens have been prepared for dispatch today (Friday 19th December) on top of the regular orders that we have received for dispatch daily throughout the month. During December we had to increase our lead time on quotations to around 7-10 working days, this was a first for us as we can usually get orders out within a few days. But even with the increased lead times we had to give, the majority of the orders went out much sooner than anticipated running at around 4-5 working days and none went out later than quoted. So it was never in doubt that we would not have all these extra screens ready (I once made 99 screens in a regular 9-5 day, a record that still stands – I just like to remind the current Production team of this fact from time to time, much to their annoyance!). It was hard work and it took its toll, poor Paul had blisters on top of blisters! But I am glad to say that the decks are now clear… Well at least until the New Year when we already have numerous orders ready to process!
We are off out for our Christmas Party tonight and we will all be having a well earned drink to celebrate all the hard work that has seen us have our best year to date!
We finish for our Christmas break on Tuesday, but I have so much to catch up on that I won’t get chance to post this next week, so may I take this opportunity to wish all readers a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!
Before I sign off for the year I would also like to offer congratulations to Carl Johnson our Operations Director on his marriage last week to his long term partner Jacqueline – he is away on his honeymoon on Christmas Eve! We hope you have a great time!
You can see some of the screens ready for dispatch with some of team here.
