How to speed up small boats production?

There are some types of small boat here in my working place,like 17ft,19ft. The profits of these boats is too low, sometimes just enough for workers' salary.If we want to get more money on them, we have to speed up the production, as price rise is unacceptable to our customer.
The production of these boats is simple, gel coat, chopper gun spray, demould. The thing holds back production is gel coat quality. We are not very clear about the definition of good gel coat quality. Half of man hours is on polishing gel coat, really absurd in my side.
We are using #8 wax of meguiar, when we release the boat, the surface has some whirl prints which comes from mould whirl polish, and it it not very shining. Then we keep polishing the gel coat to a very shining surface. What i heard from others is they don't need to polish gel coat when the boat is released.
Can anyone give me some advice on my situation? Is it acceptable when we have some prints on gel coat? Cause it is not obvious if you don't look very hard.
I am thinking of using those liquid wax which gives us a very shining surface, but if we use it inappropriately, pre-release problem will kill us.

 

You shouldn't have to polish the finished boat at all. If your mold is polished and shiny, a very thin release coat of wax should be applied and allowed to dry to a haze and then hand buffed off to leave a shiny surface. Do that 3-5 times. The mold has to be very shiny when the gelcoat is applied for the hull to be shiny when it is released from the mold.

 

Take pride in what you do !!,because quality cost less !!

I have been in places where we made 2 to 3 products every day of the week and the moulds were waxed between every product , every product was 110% perfect every time never failed ever .

I had the honour of being workshop manager of a company making smaller power boats ,1 x16 foot and 1 x18.6 foot cabin boat everyday and with a staff of just 10 workers .
These were special and the best made boats of there size in New ZEaland 95% were for the local market only . We had a 2 year waiting list for the 16 foot boat and a 18 month list for the 18,6 boat . To maintain there standard of being the best the company would not speed up there manufacture in any way .Consistantcy and there Quality way of thinking was never allowed to fall ever in any part of the manufacture or assembly . .
It was well organised right to the minute almost , you could look at you watch and know where any person would be at that time .
During the day we made and glassed in the evening the guy releaseing and putting the products into special stands . all dont by one person . then the gel coater would arrive and the two of them would do the waxing and polishing . then they would both be invloved with the gel coating and parking the moulds in the glass shop ready for the next morning when the gel coat had hardened over night in the warm room . along with the hull and deck there were 4 smaller mouldings as well all gel coated at the same time .
During the day the assembly crews were doing all there owrk and the actual join was near the end of the assembly plus the plug in of wireing of looms . everyone could do everyones jobs so if one person got a little behind anyone could step up and help till that person caught up !! every week 10 trailers would arrive and the transporters would load with the boats from the previous weeks . They would go to the dealers to do the motor fit up and batteries and power up with what ever outboard was to be fitted ,All the deallers had a pre set of instructions and a predelivery check and a 2 hour test drive with every boat that was made . When the new owner picked up his boat and it went in the water , turn the key and the boat started first time every time . All the time i was at this company not once did we ever have one single problem . To be the best and stay the best every one takes pride in there work and what they did .
Remember this was 1980s even to this day as second hand boats they still sell for more than any other boat in the same size range of the same year . Quality counts !! A 30 year old boat is still selling second hand and fetching a high price these boats are an investment and still highly sort after in this day and age !!

 

I tend to think that they are not removing the wax after application, it is essential that it is removed with soft natural cloths, rubbing well to obtain the gloss the mould will reproduce. Any crap left before gelcoting will be present on the boat after it is released.

 

Dont you think that the guy has more problems than just rubbing off wax ?? wheres you head at ??

 

Landlubber is right. The problem might be in the application of the release wax. More time (and skill) spent applying the wax, could save real time down the line.

This is were to call for some technical support.

Meguiar's Customer Care Specialists are available to assist with your product related questions six days a week.

Meguiar's Product Assistance:

Phone: 1-800-347-5700

Hours: M-F 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Pacific)
Saturday 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. (Pacific)

Email: customercare@meguiars.com

 

Pictures of the mold would do wonders. It really does sound like there is a problem in the release schedule. Any imperfection on the molded surface will be transferred to the part, as you may know, including non-polished paste wax. Your spot on as well with being skeptical about semi-perm liquid releases. Very slippery stuff, i wouldnt recommend it for anything but high-temp applications, or flat panel stock. Although, one good thing about liquid release is the ability to save time on the release schedule by eliminating the paste wax build up with liquid, and finishing your release schedule with paste wax, simply for the necessary surface tension needed for curves. Good labor saver in short.

 

That's what it sounds like to me, poor mold prep to the point where it sounds like they put the wax on and don't buff it off before molding the hull.

 

Thanks for all your guy's replies.
The truth is we do clean the wax we apply on the mould, use clean cloth to wipe it off.
Picture won't show us the problem, the print is too subtle. And mould surface is very smooth, we are trying to get rid of print by polishing.
The mould does have some print beneath surface, i wonder it is mould making problem. We are producing boats having smooth surface but with print in gel coat.
It is all mould problem, maybe i should sand off mould gel coat and redo it.

 

To speed up production this waxing thing is a non issue .Get real its organising and creating a to do list in the right sequance of events and practical times for each Phase to be done in . Going outside for a smoke and spending hours talking and long lunch breaks and tea breaks is a no no . its a do first and rest after mentality thats has to be introduced and bestowed on the workers . There is no such things as not knowing what you are doing everyone has to be able to do any job at any time . check lists and signed by the person doing the job !! that get attention . all of a sudden someone is accountable fore every job they do and if there a problem then you can point the finger and aske why !!

A practical worth while incentive needs to be introduced that is achieveable but only with effort from the whole team and not just one individual . Everyone needs to work as a team all cooperating with each other and watching and helping and getting the job done . It works and works well have introduced this in some places and the quality and harmony went up . its for every one sure there needs to be team leaders but they work as well and organise the next step and do the work .
Nonworking supervisors are 9/10ths of problems and create ill feeling in the manufacturing enviroment . there should not be offices to go and shut the door to hide !! a manager should be able to do any and every job and should spend hours working on the floor with the differant teams not standing looking but hands on !! if they see a need or find a better way then it can be implimented it and if theres shortages of equipment or break downs then you will be on the spot and see what the problem is and fix it straight away and for good . As factory manager i doned over alls one day a week and worked alongside the guys . you get to know who is good at there jobs and who isnt . You can organise the less skilled workers to learn and do there jobs better .
Also introduce women into the work place and this instantly creates competition amongst the males .
Any stand over asian male and the putting down of women in any way shape of form i would never tolerate and if a women worker is a better worker than a male doing the same job she steps up the ladder in the chain of command .
Failures and having to do repairs all comes back directly to skill levels and exspectations of what is meant to happen and bedone !!

Check your private mail !!!

 

Um what? How exactly did this post come to this? I think the original poster wanted reasoning has to why his parts aesthetics are sub standard, not an analysis of production or work ethics...

 

That would seem to imply that you aren't applying it correctly or buffing it off correctly. You don't want to apply it too thickly, as then it won't buff up smooth.

You might also just have a wax build up over time that has to be removed.

Anything you see on the mold will be in the boat. If there is print through on the mold, it will show up on the boat. I would first try stripping the mold of wax and use a few successively finer grits of sandpaper and polishing compound and try to lightly sand and then polish the print through out of the mold without removing the old gelcoat and then re-wax, before aggressively sanding off the old gelcoat and starting over.

 

read the post !!!how to speed up production !!!

 

I'm thinking that's the problem.

 

I picked that up too...... & what's bugging the OP, the "Whirl" marks sound unusual, when I apply wax its by hand & usually have & work through 3 rags on the go, as one get waxy I retire that one & grab another, maybe they're applying by machine or something, something is amiss in Xiamen, maybe too fussy, if the buyers are so price sensitive maybe they don't deserve so shiney maybe sell every boat with complementary cleaning & polishing material............. or just run the buff along all the edges/rollovers down to the chine & apply some fast polish like "Nu Finish"(no rub no buff) as they roll out the door. Jeff.