The leather product assembly line.
There were usually 3- 4 spots, the glue machine, the sub assembly positioning person and the 2 fin al assemblers.
For mass production it was a 4 person team.
For leather product assembly it was a 3 person team.
Mass production was making the same product over and over.
Leather production were separate orders of wallets, each job order came complete with all parts and instructions in one box.
The glue machine
The person at the gluing machine had to learn how to apply glue by running a small edge of the material through a gauge. The gauge could be adjusted to any width. The person also had to learn to apply just enough glue to be sticky, but not too messy. The amount of glue could be adjusted on the machine, but it the amount was also controlled by how a person runs the material through the guide and wheels. If a person is too slow or gets the material stuck, too much glue is applied.
When there is too much glue, the glue doesn’t dry before getting to the assembly person, the part is almost impossible to work with right away. Glue will squeeze out of the corners. The glue will make the assemblers hands sticky and make it harder to assemble.
The excess glue will make the product harder for the sewer to sew, making the needle get sticky.
Excess glue affects the appearance of the product. The dried glue has to be cleaned off by the inspectors. Some glue does not come off so easy. The excess cleaning sometimes affects the appearance.
It is very hard to teach a person how to use the glue machine. It takes a lot of patience and a lot of practice.
There were tricks in dealing with the glue. The glue dries out in the tray. The gluer had to keep the tray full of glue and stir it up once in while. Sometimes clean the gunk off the wheels.
Vaseline was a good way to help keep glue off the fingers, but couldn’t use too much on the fingers. Too much Vaseline would make parts of the materials not stick. (Little finger spots on the material.) That is how one can tell someone had too much Vaseline on their fingers. Those little finger spots would keep popping up!
The gluer is the person leading the team. The gluer controls the glue and the speed of the assembly line. When there is a problem, stop the gluer and get the person to come and help out on the line.
The gluer applies the glue and places the part on the conveyor belt; there is a heated dryer that is supposed to help dry the glue on the part. (Where I worked couldn’t really rely on that, the dryer didn’t always work.) Eventually stopped using the dryer altogether.
The assembler
The part comes down the conveyor to an assembler. This assembler has liners, or pockets, and other parts that might be needed. This person aligns everything for the next step. There is an imaginary line, to where the parts should be centered.
If there is anything sticking in that imaginary line, the next person at the final step will have trouble completing the assembly. The edges will be uneven and unable to secure all the parts properly for sewing.
The turner
The next step used an edge turning machine; the machine turns the edge of the leather over the linings and pockets to secure them. The machine was manually operated with a foot pedal, with some heat. When there is poor assembly it sometimes slows this assembler down. This person deals with it, adjusts it or sends it back to the previous assembly person.
Rotating: each person on the team took a turn at each position.
Many times I have dealt with people who just didn’t see that imaginary line. Many times I have dealt with people who just don’t care. And they get mad when the sewers sent boxes of product back to be reassembled.
I was once one of those people who didn’t get it and didn’t care too. Until I tried sewing and found out what it was like to sew junk.
I spent the first few years not really caring. I wasn’t too happy being picked to learn the assembly line, then being picked to train people in. I didn’t think I had the skills to train.
When I was first brought on to the assembly line, the team didn’t want to stop and teach me everything. I was dragged along. We were working on mass production items. The team was more worried about keeping the line running to make the production rates. I knew how to glue and position the parts, but I didn’t know the turning machine and I didn’t know how to go fast.
That was my first lesson in training. When I teach someone I stand there until the person gets it. I walk the person through it until the person gets it.
After much complaining from the assembly line workers, they didn’t like stopping to train people. The supervisor picked me to train people in on separate assembly lines. I didn’t know how to deal with people at first. I had no idea how to show people what I know. Slowly, I learned.
I hated what came with it. The supervisor came to me when the team was making sloppy work. The supervisor came to me when the production was slow.
Many times the supervisor came back to see me stand there next to a person while I was training. I was accused of standing around, not working. I would get pretty mad. There were a couple of time s a person didn’t speak much English. I would have to go to the person to show the person what to do. The supervisor would always have a few words for me.
My department switched to all leather production. I had to relearn everything.
I started out really slow, a really experienced person came on board to show me how assemble leather products. This person wasn’t too happy training in. When I was a the turner position I used to let parts I couldn’t catch fall into the garbage when I was mad, instead of saying something like, Slow down or come help me!
That is when I learned more. Stuff falling into the garbage turned out damaged and had to be thrown out many times. The line had to stop and do those parts anyway. That was a big waste of time and materials.
I was tired of not really knowing my job.
The parts came in a box with a sheet of instructions or job order. I never really paid attention to that sheet for a long time. I got tired of asking the supervisor questions. I finally took the time to read the sheet, and found out everything was on the sheet the glue, to use, the thread, stitch size every thing was on that sheet. Every step was on that sheet.
Then I start showing my team what I learned from that sheet.
I was terrible at the second position on the assembly line, positioning the linings on the wallet parts. I had to learn how to do it while the parts were coming down on the conveyor. Before with the mass production, I was used to taking the part off the line. Assembling the lining on the line, kept line going. I eventually, learned how to do this with parts doubled up.
There were many times I was working with the designers to work out bugs in working with certain materials. There was a leather that was like cardboard. Then there was pig skin and goat skin.
Pig skin and goat skin were the worst. By the time all parts were produced and final assembled the leather would be so stretched out. Sometimes the wallets had to be trimmed into wallet shapes.
There were forms designed to keep the pockets from being stretched out. The forms were made for the sub assemblers who were putting on the vellum, for the slots of pockets. At first the forms were made of cardboard. That was a bad idea. The forms needed to be cleaned once in a while from all the glue. That damaged the forms then pockets were back to being stretched out. Finally, someone made the forms with a material that could be used over and over without damage from cleaning. I played a role in getting the forms to be changed.
There was a leather that looked like alligator skin. The department responsible for cutting it could not see the holes, until we got the parts on the assembly line. The assembly line was white and the parts were black. As soon as the part hit the white, there was the hole! There was a lot of wasted material until there was a solution. Nobody in that department could really see the holes until the parts got to the assembly line.
The crew in the cutting department finally started to screen this material before cutting and started to cut around the holes.
The linings sometimes come stuck together after the cutting process. This made positioning of the linings harder, making the assembler slow down by fumbling to get the linings apart while the parts came down the line. We found out by banging before each job, the stack of linings loosens up the linings. The assembly line was able to keep going at a good pace.
I worked on a project making leather owners manuals for motorcycles. The folder was huge; I don’t know where the biker would store this on a motorcycle. The cover took up the width of the conveyor and about a yard long. The edge turning machine was too small for all the edges. It was so hard to the apply glue too.
Then there was a folder for a store display for a bathroom showroom, for samples of ceramic tile. I never saw the final product. When I did I had to change the way the folder was assembled. The way we were assembling, the edges were not strong enough to hold the slot material with the tile samples in it, even when sewn.
I worked in a tool and die shop, just before I was hired at the wallet company. This woman was training me to operate machines where she worked. She came to work on the assembly line. I became her trainer. She impressed how I trained her. She was able to learn the steps I showed her easily.
I seemed to be stuck on the assembly line all the time, but when there were slow periods. I was moved around to where the work was.
I spent time in a department where ladies clutch wallet parts were assembled. There I learned how to insert zippers, attach handles, and insert the folds that help open pockets, all the little stuff that can’t be done on the assembly line.
I learned how to prepare every part, assemble every part, assemble all the parts, attach the hardware, and attach the accessories and the final assembly.
I made coin purses, bikers wallets, ladies clutch wallets, checkbooks, folders, car owners manuals, key fobs and all styles of men’s wallets. I did work with famous name brands. Stetson, LL Bean, for example.
The only process I didn’t learn was the edge painting. I was in the shipping department, where products were boxed and the price labels were put on, readied for store display.
I learned how to operate many machines:
- Hot foil embossing machines, sometimes embossed multi colors.
- Hot embossing machine, uses heat to emboss logos, etc on products
- Hole punching machines
- apply fasteners with riveting machines,
- K bar machine, presses a decorative line on pockets.
- Automatic edge turning machine, push a button the machine turned all the edges at once.
- Skiving machine, shaves off some leather to help the edges turn over easier, it’s a lot like scoring.
- Hydraulic Die Cutting Machine.
- Leather splitting machine, makes the leather thinner and easier to work with.
There was one week I tried to stop being the boss of the assembly line. I let my co-workers try to police themselves on quality. Whenever I was the gluer, I always stop to check on my people and offer suggestions how to improve. I checked the quality before sending the work to the sewers. I kept my mouth shut, for one week.
There was a supervisor that had there at the factory most of her life. I was given this advice. When there is too much talking the workers are not paying attention.
The supervisor was right. My team was having fun back there. But we weren’t having fun the next week. We had to rework all the jobs.
I went right back to policing my team. I slowed down. My team was happy with slowing down and not making the production rates. I said slowing down was better than fixing everything the next day. The team doesn’t make money when stopped to fix everything.
Rework is very hard. Sometime one would have to tear everything apart to attempt to realign everything. The product or parts can become damaged and thrown out. Some parts would have to be thrown out and reordered to replace the parts. The whole job order could be on hold until the order is complete.
This is why I always check the work before sending the work to the sewers. Once the part is sewn bad there is no going back to correct it.
After a really, really long time on the assembly line. I was having a difficult time dealing with one person in particular. I was having a difficult time in communicating with this person.
I started out kindly asking this person to stop gluing and come down to help out. I was trying to prevent the whole line from stopping altogether. I was actually trying to get the person gluing to come down to where I was working so I could tell her what to do and solve a problem with the parts.
I kept asking this person over and over, please stop gluing. The person kept on going and the work kept piling up because we were unable to work with the parts.
Finally, I yelled at the top of my lungs, loud enough for the workers in the basement to hear. I looked up I saw everyone looking at me. I wanted to crawl under a rock from the embarrassment I was feeling.
I marched into the supervisor’s office and said I want to try sewing.
I tried sewing. I had not been on a sewing machine, since sewing class in the 7th grade. The sewing I learned was mostly straight line sewing. I sewed the sub assembly. Sewing paper backings on wallets, leather strips on cells and pockets.
I found out, what too much and not enough glue meant. Too much glue jams up the sewing needle and machine, not enough the paper doesn’t stick.
I found out what it means when the papers are not lined up properly, too low the papers don’t get caught, too high the paper can pop off. The paper not aligned and sewn that way will affect the assembly, leaving a bump or the edge just won’t close.
I thought I was doing great. I knew how to do all the basic sewing and was completing jobs. But I really wasn’t improving as fast as my supervisor wanted me to.
I was reassigned to the assembly line.
I went back to and started to show my team how to improve and how important alignment was.
The results were better assembly, faster sewing, and reduced number of inferior quality parts and products. Less down time for rework.
Reduced 3 barrels of waste in 1 week to 1 barrel a week.
I found myself training again. There was a brief order of mass production. I was assigned to train in. There were 2 teams of 4 people. I had to go to each person and train them at each position.
For the first time things were different. I had the support of the supervisors. They were talking to me like a colleague.
My old assembly line trusted me and were asking me for advice!
The new people learned the techniques quickly. The 2 new assembly teams were working together smoothly.
I had 3 assembly teams and the supervisors trusting me!
Then there were more changes.
My old long time supervisor was fired.
The company was restructured.
There were barrels placed in the lunch room to collect the wasted materials and products. 3 barrels were filled in one week.
Every department was put on one line, on one floor.
Everyone was trained to work in every department. I helped to train people in on the assembly line. Even the supervisors. Even the senior workers.
That was fun, trying to teach my supervisors. I pushed them really hard.
The factory was reorganized and began a start to finish process. At the beginning of the line, were the material cutting and processing. In the middle were all the assembly operations, at the end of the line, products were in packages ready for shipping.
Since, I had both sewing and assembly experience, I was assigned a position that combined the two.
A part would come down the line to me after glue was applied. I placed a lining on and sealed the edge in an edge-pressing machine and quickly sewed the part. Then I cut the excess off and placed on the line for the next operation.
I learned how to change a bobbin and trouble shoot a sewing machine and keep up with the flow of production.
In the beginning of the restructuring…
There were barrels placed in the lunch room to collect the wasted materials and products. 3 barrels were filled in one week.
After people experience what each job was like and how each department affected each other. The waste started to go down.
After the new line was running the waste was eventually, reduced to one barrel a week.
I went through the barrel every week and learned how improve and point out to others where the were problems to be solved.
How this has helped me to the present.
These on the job training experiences, have helped my with my latest job experiences. I also believe having children and teaching them have helped me mellow out.
When I was at my first Plastics Injection Molding position. I was on the job only six months. I felt comfortable going up to the new people and help them train in. I wanted the new people to adjust right away. I watched people give up before giving the job a chance. The work was actually easy, once someone shows you how do the work. I helped some new employees adjust in 2 hours.
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