When is a shop a factory?

[Tim2723]

In reference to a couple of very interesting recent threads about hand carving and wood preparation, I began wondering:

At what point does a 'shop' become a 'factory'? Is it a certain volume of instruments produced? The methods used? Machines vs. men?

[Schlegel]

Difficult to say. There is a lot of range between one person/one mando and one person/one task, which is what I would consider the platonic ideals for shop and factory respectively.


Certainly an assembly line arrangement pretty much defines a factory seeking high output. But then again, if you have a hundred guys who all make mandolins like a solo luthier, but are in one firm, I have to call that a factory too, if a much less efficient one. Think of all the tool duplication! I have to conclude that technique cannot define a factory, but scale of production can.

[mando.player]

I want a nice hand made solo builder instrument as much as the next guy/girl. With that being said, I think the devil lies in the details. You might have a single builder whose output is inconsistent. On the flip side, you might have a company that is clearly a factory that puts out a lot of high quality and consistent instruments (Taylor Guitar comes to mind).

To further complicate matters there is a huge middle ground. Companies that put out a fair number of instruments, but have refined their techniques to bump production and quality. For example, Collings, Rigel and Breedlove all spent the time to figure out their own way to effectively execute a bolt on neck. In the long run the time spent doing this saves time and money. It also allows them to put out a more consistent product. These are factory techniques, but the end product (quantity and quality) doesn't reflect what many would consider a factory instrument.

[sunburst]

9 employees is a shop, 10 employees is a factory.

Actually, there's no distinct line drawn, one side of which we can say with conviction "that's a shop" and the other side of which we can say "that's a factory", but here are the extremes;

One guy/gal working alone using all hand tools and building instruments from trees he/she cut and dried, mixing his/her own finish materials... you get the idea. That's a shop.

10,000 workers sitting by sleek, loud machines, watching computer screens and punching buttons until strung up instruments slide down a little shoot ready for the retail store. That's a factory.

OK, neither one of those has much to do with reality, but from those extremes it becomes easier to see the difference.
Number of employees is part of the equation, but I think it has more to do with what those employees do. The more specialization, the more the work place looks like a factory. If you have 9 people doing repetitive specialized tasks, you have a small factory. If you have 10 employees all working more-or-less independently on varying tasks, with some input into the design and construction decisions, that's a large shop.

In general, the larger the work force, the more automation and specialization, the higher the production, the more the workplace resembles a factory. The fewer workers, the less specialization and automation, the lower the production, the more the workplace resembles a shop.

Where the actual line between the two lies is impossible to pin down, and is different for different people. I've worked at places that were straddling the line between shop and factory, and to me a lot of it comes down to how it "feels" to work there. To me, "factory" starts well before it does for many people. If I build batches of three or more instruments I can save time by setting up a tool and "batching" things through, but the repetitive nature of that makes me feel like a factory worker at three instruments, and I don't like feeling like a factory worker. My mind starts to wander, I find myself wanting the job to be over rather than enjoying the experience, in short, it starts to feel like a job, so I usually work in batches of two.

A couple of examples;
If I were to walk into Hans', Michael's, Dale's, or many of the other members here shops I would see a shop, definitely.
When I tour Martin or when I'm in Nashville and stop by the "bluegrass aquarium" and see the folks in there doing repetitive tasks I see a factory, definitely.

[Big Joe]

There are three of us in our shop. We have a retail area, and we mostly do repairs. We want to have more time to build, but that will come in time. Often one person works on a particular instrument all the way through, though there are exceptions. When time is an issue we have Josh do the fret work because he is so fast at it. Or we may have JT do the finish work or ??? We are not what I would call a factory, though we do have quite a bit of equipment to help us with our work. We work on all kinds of stringed instruments so you may see an upright bass, banjo, electric guitar, electric bass, acoustic guitar, and mandolins all in the shop being worked on at the same time. I should say multiples of each. Still, it is not a factory but a shop with a few guys who work very well together to accomplish the very best we can. We also have the others check our job before we put it in the finished rack. Sometimes one set of eyes can miss something another will pick up.

When we begin building we will use our machinery as much as possible to get us to the point where the handwork is critical to the finished product in tone and playability. I have no interest in hand sanding from 80 grit to 120 grit to 220 grit to 280 grit to 400 grit,etc. by hand if I can use a sander or timesaver to accomplish the rough sanding.

In any case, the concept of factory is really hard to define. If we build five instruments a year are we a small shop? If we build 100 instruments a year are we a factory? Same few guys doing the work the same basic way, but the production numbers are different. Of course, we don't build very many at this point. Probably five instruments in the last year is a pretty good number. We did an acoustic, and three electrics, and an electric five string bass. We have several partially completed right now, but who knows when they will be complete. Our goal is to have a few mandolins this year as well. Still, I don't think I have a factory by any means.

[foldedpath]

My $.02... I think one of the big dividing lines between shop and factory is in how a builder handles custom orders, if they're available at all. As a general rule... the lower the production volume, and the fewer the number of hands an instrument passes through, the more options a buyer will have on a custom order. Those options will tell you a lot about the build process.

A "factory-made" instrument implies zero input from the customer. You can choose from a series of catalog models with different features like nickel vs. gold hardware and different levels of trim, but that's the limit of your choice. This is as it should be, to allow the lower prices and high efficiencies of the factory system.

At the "small factory" or "large shop" level of Collings and Weber, or the Gibson or Martin custom shops, you can place a custom order with more variations in tonewoods, finish color, hardware, etc. But the builder still isn't going to deviate very far from the underlying model you're ordering. It's like buying a new car as a factory order -- you can specify many superficial options in color, trim, and accessories, but you can't alter the horsepower rating, or make the car a little bit shorter in length. There is still a certain amount of lock-in at this level, due to the instruments passing through a series of standardized stages during production.

When you get down to the level of the solo luthier (or master luthier with a few helper elves), the customization options can be much more extensive. It can be a one-on-one relationship where the luthier works with the customer to achieve a certain tone quality, maybe even creating a one-off design. There are exceptions, of course. A solo luthier with an established name and reputation for building a certain type of mandolin might not want to deviate too far from a signature model his or her reputation is based on. But generally speaking, there is a level of "one on one" interaction you can get with many solo luthiers that simply isn't available from larger shops/small factories that are constrained by assembly line production through many different hands.

There are other ways to draw the dividing lines, like looking at total production during the year. But this is how I think about it, anyway. How closely could I work with the builder on a custom order, if I ever wanted to? That's the difference between factory and shop (with all sorts of gray areas between the two).

[Schlegel]

I think Sunburst is right that feel is going to have a whole lot to do with the actual dividing. Here's a question I thought of just now that may tell a lot about the feel the workplace will have: Is the "General Manager" on the floor making instruments? If the answer is no, I'm pretty sure you're looking at a factory. If yes, you may have a shop.

[OldSausage]

When its PR company says it should be.

[ColdBeerGoCubs]

Well, lets look at this from UPS' point of view. In which a factory would have daily pick ups, continuous product going out and a shop may not see anything leave for weeks on end.

[jefflester]

I think it is safe to say the number of mandolin factories in the US could easily be counted on one hand.

[mandroid]

I like FP's analysis, Standardized .. if the instrument came through a POE, filled container of boxes, on a container ship , it was a factory product.

If you can talk to or write to the builder or at least the office people that answer the phones,
and have your individual requests answered , then it's not.

[allenhopkins]

Dave Stutzman of Stutzman's Guitar Center, (http://www.stutzmansguitarcenter.com/) along with former Guild employee Tom Lockwood, started the American Acoustech guitar company in the early '90's, in Brockport NY. I think at the company's peak it may have had eight employees, none really full-time. They made some really good mid-price (around $500) guitars; I bought each of my sons an American Acoustech for a high school graduation present. They used "off" woods like walnut and cherry for rims and backs, bought "seconds" fretboards and bridges from Martin, renovated and used them. Doubt they were in business more than seven or eight years, before they shut down due to distribution problems, Dave's need to concentrate on his main store, and Tom's making a career move.

They did a lot with computer-controlled cutting of tops, rims, necks and sides, but binding, fitting and finishing was all hand-work. There was definite "division of labor" within the shop, mostly dictated by aptitudes and skill levels. I would say, despite the small size, that American Acoustech had some attributes of a factory -- current technology, division of labor, employee specialization. No one sat down and built a guitar single-handed from scratch. Had the business achieved more long-term success, it might have expanded into a real production line.

In any case, if you ever run across an American Acoustech guitar, I recommend them. Both my sons still play theirs, and are really happy with them.