Workshop last month; some way to go…

This week saw the final stage of The Great Tidying, which has been happening off and on for a while in preparation for an external health and safety inspection. Last month saw the final eviction of all the dangerous and pointless items in the storeroom, which was a good step forward but the intense clearing has meant the Workshop became something of s dumping ground for bits and pieces we’d certainly need but hadn’t time to sort out immediately.

Of more pressing concern to the manager was the three carpets thrown down some years earlier as cheap anti-slip mats. These were now filthy and curling up at the edges making them the sort of trip hazard that features in “What is wrong with this workshop?” training examples.

The removal of the carpets immediately improved the atmosphere from “dingy living room” to “vaguely professional workshop” mind you, you’d have to squint and ignore things like the slowly disintegrating cupboards. In particular the backs of these cupboards, not designed to hold heavy bike parts, were breaking away from the sides and top.

Being short on time, I put the cupboards along the wall, which wouldn’t solve the problem but would hide it, so I could pretend it wasn’t there for a few weeks.

Being too lazy to empty the cupboards, I borrowed a pallet wagon and rolled them into place.

Now things looked a lot better, but I knew the floor would be dangerously slippery as soon as I used any oil. A few minutes in the store with a donated carpet and a cutting knife and I had three new “anti slip mats”. Hurried application of yellow and black warning tape and they looked halfway professional and not at all like some old carpet placed on the floor upside down.

By the time the inspector arrived, the workshop looked like this:

The inspector was happy, the boss was happy, There was even cake at the staff meeting…

Now I need to show all this tidying will bear fruit in terms of repaired bikes and turnover…