SRI aims at providing the local community of Okana with employment and activities. As mentioned before, the carpentry workshop currently is the first, and only, initiative that has been launched and where people from the community are seriously involved in.
A team of professional carpenters with the required skills from The Netherlands (i.e. Flying Carpenters) realized this carpentry workshop in collaboration with SRI. Employees of the workshop are always inhabitants of the village. However, often these workers are not in possession of the knowledge that is required to deliver proper products. The carpenters from the Netherlands teached the employees the necessary skills, so they could run the carpentry workshop by themselves. A point of attention is to maintain this knowledge within the carpentry workshop, as a shift in employees sometimes occurs. When new employees start at SRI, they must be trained to gain the required knowledge. Therefore, there is one teacher appointed to take the lead. He will show the new workers how everything is done.
Unfortunately, the carpentry workshop is not operating as it should be. An important explanation hereby is that not enough orders are being collected. Until now the carpentry workshop has not put much effort in improving the marketing aspect. Currently the customers are often acquaintances or friends of the manager. This isn’t leading to a constant stream of orders. Also, a certain number of orders of one product is required for the carpentry workshop in order to keep the workers engaged. When new a new product design is delivered, the teacher will show the workers how to make that specific product, so they can produce it by themselves. Therefore it is necessary to set a minimum order size, so the carpenters of the workshop have the possibility to make those products on their own. Practical skills are taught best by gaining experience. It would not make sense if a newly learned way to manufacture a product is no longer required, because the size of the order is low.
A more fundamental problem is the lack of a proper mind-set among the employees. There is lack of motivation and dedication, because there is isn’t a lot of pressure and their confidence level is not that high. It is also not in the culture of the local people to show initiative. For example, when the lead carpenter isn’t available and they have to deal with an unknown task, the employees don’t see themselves capable enough to work on their own. In this situation they wait until the lead carpenter has returned and in the meantime they will do nothing, simply because they don’t know what to do. However, there must come a realization point that in order to make money, work has to be done. The whole foundation, on which SRI is structured, focuses on the locals. It is therefore important that the local workers become aware of the fact that it’s for the growth of their community.
In summary it comes down to two main issues that the carpentry workshop faces:
- A deficiency in the continuity of orders results in a lack of development
- The mind-set of the workers isn’t focused on showing enough initiative, due to an absence of confidence and involvement
In order to provide a solution to these problems, a number of targets have been set for the period that we are present. By expanding the customer segment, we hope to bring in a more continuing stream of orders. But along with more orders, more structure in the business is desired. We will also focus on this part. For without a clear structure in the cash flows and management, the project could fail.
By involving the employees more and giving them more responsibilities, we suspect that they will feel more dedicated to the workshop. Through this dedication, we feel that the carpentry workshop can grow positively and eventually run on its own.