Time-And-Motion Man

Last monday Ernest our time-and-motion man (isn’t that a great title? I had to look it up in a dictionary) signed his contract and started right away with preparing our first job. Later more on this. Ernest will be a man of many jobs, besides being a time-and-motion man he will be a planner, technical draughtsman, measure-man on location and if there is time left woodworker in the workshop. So a lot of responsibilities in his hands but I know he 'll cope.

Place of business

This week the contracts for renting our place of business where signed! The place we rented doesn't got the looks but it suits our needs. The workshop has daylight over the whole floor. The office needs some redecorating and personalisation but since this is in our DNA I think we ‘ll get that right. The place is located in Roosendaal which is in the south of the Netherlands. With only one week to go before the first of november the renter has some points to fix before we can move in which I hope he ‘ll have ready by that time. For now I’m happy we have shelter for the coming time. Later I’ll put some pictures of the place on this blog.

Alias Design

Today I had a very good presentation from Graeme & Robin of the UK about Alias - Autodesk. Which I must say is quite a remarkable piece of software. The way you can start sketching (Wacom tablet is a must) and then gradually move to 3D-modeling is unique. Off-course it looks all nice and easy when it is presented to you but I must say I was impressed.
A down side for me is the 90's look of the user interface - Although ... it's quite retro. I personally believe that if they fix this up in future versions they 'll have a killer app.
Nice to mention is that Autodesk (and Industrial design packages in general) is moving up to the Apple platform - they have some nice ideas about user interfaces ;-)

Want to try the software yourself, check out;

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/index?siteID=123112&id=12268904

Update

The first of november is getting closer and there are a lot of things to take care off in this short period. Just last week I signed the contract for our wood working machines which will be right in place by the first of november. Also last week I signed a contract with Ben the first employer of Solid Shapes™. Ben is a very enthusiastic person who is going to operate our upcoming CNC-machine and will be chief workshop. Ben right away obtained his BHV (first aid and fire security) certificate. Congratulation on that!

In the mean time the legal side of the business is being set-up and should also be ready by the end of this month. The last dot on the i (dutch expression) is being set on the contract for our place of business which should be signed by the end of this week.

Sabine my 'personal organiser' left for almost three weeks to China, talking about timing .... ;-) Where the heck are they when you need them ... just kidding. I hope you 'll have a great time there, I'll manage!

That's it for now.