Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Re: Auriou shuts doors, with full order book
Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX
>We started Pinehill in late 1981 and did so because micros became capable of being development machines. We consulted on most any hardware, including some windmill farm control software that Jack wrote for Apple II's. Before that we did mainframe work.
Our products were written for Macs and Newtons.
Pam
Re: Two practical questions
Joel
>Wilbur,
we are only showing sizes that we still have stock for. About half the sizes are already gone. I figure that after the rush of the next few days things will settle down and the popular sizes will be all gone but the odd sizes will stick around for a few months.
Pam brings up a good point
Patrick Gibbons, Houston, TX
>If business is good why don't you hire/train more workers? It is the custom in Europe to close for August. Why close then? Most businesses would tell their distributors that their orders are backordered and keep on manufacturing and shipping as ready. I've had over 20 years experience selling French-made goods (as well as wares from other European countries) and it has always been expected that shipping would be irregular. Many of my customers would cancel their backorders, others would wait for shipment and all of us would bitch and moan over lost business. There's a piece or two missing from this puzzle.
Re: Pam brings up a good point
Greg B�tit, Vergennes VT
>I'm pretty sure you don't hire a file stitcher right off the street. I can only speculate that there is a long learning curve involved, and if so, hiring new people doesn't address current demand.
What if the current raft of orders were made before the US Dollar tanked? They could have a lot of product committed at bargain prices for the buyer. The owner would realize that he now has to raise his prices, and would logically expect that next year the number of orders would consequently decrease. If he ramps up staffing now, next year he would have more trained staff on board with fewer orders. That's a rock and a hard spot.
greg
Skills
Jim Shaver - Oakville, Ontario
>Greg,
You make a good point about hiring unskilled vs skilled. I would also wonder what will these "skilled" file makers do now?
Most processing in any manufacturing system is built on the control and predictability of variation within a product and between "like" products, as a supplier and a consumer we want them all the same, from file to file in this case.
I would share that given these desired controls and outputs that a Skilled focus is not what is desired, but a trained response to manufacturing that produces the same quality product every time, even if the tool is made by hand.
As others has stated, we do not know the whole story here, but share the same disspointment in it's result. We need to take care in jumping to conclusions on this and allow it to tell us the story.
What ever the story is and speculations are I would stomp on the terra and get thee to a supplier and get them while there is still some inventory....the true story will play it self out in time...but what ever that is, holding and owning one to use in your work is a better option that wishing you had one and having none to buy.
Take care,
Jim
As a small business owner
dave jeske
>I had the pleasure of meeting Michael at the L-N hand tool event here in Oregon. Our booths tables were side by side in the cellar area of the Chehalem winery. He was a passionate man and seemed to really love his work. It was fun to watch him instruct onlookers and let them have a try at making a rasp. He also had a workbench set up with blocks of wood and about 20 or so different types and styles of rasps to try out. In discussions with Michael it seemed like business was growing and he had many plans for the future. My business is currently much smaller but in the end, the botoom line is the bottom line. I do not know all of the business laws and HR laws in France but even if you are taking lots of orders, if the bottom line is not big enough than the business will not work in the long run. It would be nice to know the "rest of the story" but for now it must be a very sad and frustrating time for Michael and all of his distributors.
Dave Jeske
Blue Spruce Toolworks, LLC
Skilled vs unskilled and making rasps
Dave Anderson NH
>I had the chance to meet Michel Auriou and his rep last year at a L-N event in Marlboro MA. My understanding is that it takes almost 2 full years to completely train a worker to stitch rasps. I watched as Michel sat at a somewhat shave horse looking bench/seat and demonstrated stitching a rasp. It is far more difficult than it looks, particularly getting the size of the stitches consistent in width and height. Then there's the issue of of even spacing between stiches and getting them appropriately random. The final difficulty is in getting to the point where you can do this at a reasonably productive speed and do it day in and day out.
Re: Auriou shuts doors, with full order book
Philiip Edwards
>I was speaking with a major importer of these tools back in August - he said they Michel was having terrible problems with staff. French employment laws are terribly outdated and really hold back employers - I was told that he had members of staff off "sick" for extended periods of times as well as "working to rule" problems that were holding back production.
Can you imagine the investment in time and money that he must of made in his staff to train them to a suitable level? Then to be held over a barrel and ultimately have to cease trading. very sad :(
All I can hope is that he can somehow re-start his business and continue practising his trade.
Best regards
Phil
Re: Auriou shuts doors, with full order book
Paul M.
>This entire subject is very puzzling. I don't understand how too much *success* can ruin a company. The natural laws of supply and demand state that if you cannot possibly ramp up production to meet the need, then you are charging too little for your product.
If the goal is to only produce as much product as the current work-force can support, then the natural way to do this is to raise proces. You suffer the danger of overshooting your mark and undercutting production. If that happens, then lower the prices again. But going out of business because of too much demand for the product? That's crazy talk.
Re: Skilled vs unskilled and making rasps
Jim Shaver - Oakville, Ontario
>Thanks Dave,
When it takes you 2 years to develop a skilled file maker it makes you wonder how you manage personal turnover, that is a very long lead time...and it also makes you wonder where these people are going to be working with these skills...
I watched one being made a year ago at teh Woodstock Woodshow at Rob Cosmans booth, it was very interesting.
I love the files I have, they are a joy to use....being an Aerospace design process Black Belt I look at this differently....processes that are repeatable and proven produce desired results, the source of Auriou's variation is only in part to the long lead times to develop his work force....plus all the other variables we don't know
Take care,
Jim
Re: Auriou shuts doors, with full order book
Paul Kierstead
>Yes, something is amiss in the whole thing. Assuming his profit per rasp before demand increased was suitable, it violates logic that the increase in demand should put one out of business. Max out production; so long as you don't irritate customers to the point where they quit ordering, you will happily go along an make a reasonable profit.
Whatever the reason for the business failing, the workers failure to work OT (with pay) in order to meet demand was most certainly not the only factor in the business closure, and it defies logic to even see how it could be any factor in an established business with a per-item profit.
Is this REALLY happening on WC ? ? ?
steve mackay
>
No, it's happening in France.
Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX
>
Re: Auriou shuts doors, with full order book
ThomD
>In small craftlike businesses, the main reason for a stuffed order book is because you aren't making the stuff fast enough, it doesn't necesarally mean you have more business than you could ever dream of. It's two sides of the same coin. But labour problems and full order books are not necesarilly a contradiction, or a happy picture.
Just one more thing to make in China.
Re: Auriou shuts doors, with full order book
Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX
>Just one more thing to make in China.
Exactly. Sounds like that is highly likely to happen.
Pam
I'm glad I learned to stitch & heat treat my own.
David Barnett - SW Florida
>And they're okay, but they'll never be 13, 14 or 15 grain Auriou wood rasps! That's one maker I hoped would be around for a long time.
A. Weygers, page 256. Not a lot but a place to start.
Re: Auriou shuts doors, with full order book
Paul Kierstead
>In small craftlike businesses, the main reason for a stuffed order book is because you aren't making the stuff fast enough, it doesn't necesarally mean you have more business than you could ever dream of. It's two sides of the same coin.
Absolutely agreed, but this is an established business that was formerly profitable enough to survive. More orders and refusal of workers to work OT would -- not in itself -- decrease productivity. The stated reasons do not hold up to scrutiny. I don't doubt there was a labour dispute, but it goes beyond a refusal to work OT.
Many Facets
Hank Knight
>Labor disputes have many facets and are often aggravated by hard heads on both sides of the table. It's hard to know what happened to Ariou, but it's certainly sad to lose a craft-based business that has been around for a hundred years or more.
Auriou - a new division of Veritas??
Tim Caley - North Litttle Rock
>Maybe Michael would like to move to Canada? Rob Lee seems to have a good team of workers available to him.
Could be a business opportunity for Rob Lee.
Re: Auriou - a new division of Veritas??
ThomD
>I'm sure it isn't an easy business to automate, but it looks possible.
Re: Auriou shuts doors, with full order book
Greg B�tit Crown Point NY
>Once again: The dollar has tanked. If there was a lot of product committed to pre-tanked prices, the profitability has gone out the window. Enter labor problems. *Poof*: "I've had it!", quoth the proprietor. End of excellent product for the North American market.
If only these highly skilled rasp stitchers were Chinese, willing to work for cents per hour. But they're not, they're French.
I'm not willing to sell my work for cents per hour, and I bet my work ethic beats anyone in the ex-Ariou workforce by a mile. (Thank you English for putting Charles B�ttille ashore in North America after stealing his cod fishing ship in the 1750's.)
greg
Re: Auriou - a new division of Veritas??
Tim Caley - North Litttle Rock
>What automate it? Let Michael run the manufacturing and Rob and Co. provide management.
Re: Auriou - a new division of Veritas??
Tony Zaffuto
>Tim,
I believe you accidentally hit on the core reason for the shutdown: management! Before I go any further, I own a manufacturing business and know first hand the trials and tribulations of ownership.
Blame it on the employees all you want, but at the end of the day, you are the one who must write the checks! Management cannot go a year, or a month, or a week, or even a day without knowing precisely what the pulse of the business is. This knowledge gives you the ability to change and change can take many forms, be it the addition of new employees with sufficient time to train properly or being able to talk to creditors before problems arise.
Quite frankly, events like this give rise for opportunities for others to fill the void. Look at the number of "boutique" toolmakers in existence today versus five years ago. There are many fine business owners that post on the various forums as there are business owners who posted years ago and are not in existence today. In the end it is a combination of items that permit a business to remain a viable organization, but at the center of those items is management. Auriou knew the burdens of manufacturing in France. He chose to ignore timely preparations for the continuation of his business. Yes I feel bad that I may not have the opportunity to buy another Auriou rasp (have one, don't see the need to buy another right now), but I truly believe that someone else will fill the void, especially after that person sees that opportunity after reading all the concern on every WW'ing forum.
T.Z.
Re: Auriou shuts doors, with full order book
Paul Kierstead
>Once again: The dollar has tanked. If there was a lot of product committed to pre-tanked prices, the profitability has gone out the window. Enter labor problems. *Poof*: "I've had it!", quoth the proprietor. End of excellent product for the North American market
Well, I see you get my point: the the proprietor is full of crap, blaming something on his work force that is actually a problem which lies elsewhere; the workforce is just the straw and would not actually solve the fundamental problem in any case.
My whole point was that the *stated* reasons do not hold up to scrutiny. Perhaps it was the dollar, perhaps it was mis-mangement, perhaps it was mis-fortune, maybe it was a combination of a whole lot of things. But for sure it wasn't just some labour unrest.
Re: Auriou shuts doors, with full order book
kees
>don't think he will come back. Bankruptcy in Europe is not the same as US. He will be responsable for it and lose all his properties and also revenues in the future. Moving to the USA an option?