Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2024 - 13

other tools used later in the construction
process will be hung in order of use and
necessity: hammers, pliers, pry bars, etc.
This ensures that I can always find what
I need at the beginning of a project and
eliminates wasted movement during the
project as well.
A case study: When I set up my shop
in Florida, my peg board was organized
similarly, but I had items sorted from
closest to the door to furthest away. This
meant that I could grab a square without
really stepping foot inside the tool
room. By taking the time to organize my
tool wall, I saved myself tons of time by
not having to look for tools or walk to
other storage areas. With shelves, I work
through a similar process. My least-used
hardware takes positions of less value
than my most-used hardware. Every shelf
should be meticulously planned.
Please also consider a related system
called First Order of Retrievability, devised
by Adam Savage. The basic principle
he discusses in his book Every Tool's
A Hammer was that " any tool you will use
should be immediately accessible from
the place from which you work " (Savage).
This system has been instituted in several
shops that I have organized, and the
positive results were immediate. Moving
tools out of the tool room and closer to
the work area reduced wasted movement
and allowed the worker to retrieve tools
quickly and spend more time working on
the project.
This principle might be easy for someone
in a small shop to implement; you're
probably only a few steps away from
whatever you need anyway, but how do
you make it work in a large shop? Tool
carts. These tool carts are not large carts
stacked with every tool that could ever
be needed; rather, these are job-specific
carts. Part of my workflow is to stop and
think through my project. I gather everything
I need and I bring it to my work
area. To make this possible without cluttering
my workspace, I had a lovely little
cart that could hold anything I needed.
It even had a built-in air compressor.
Building a simple tool cart can give you
a place to gather and store your tools out
of the way of your work. It can allow you
to make tools accessible while you work
and speed up your project and make it
easy to clean up at the end of the day.
Taking the idea of tool carts to an extreme
could mean that carts are made to
hold specific tools, such as a disc sander
belt sander combo on a cabinet that holds
all the handheld sanders and sandpaper,
or a router table that holds all the routers
and router bits. This can make finding
tools easy and can eliminate the need for
a large tool room. Granted, some people
like to walk to retrieve tools because it
helps them slow down and think through
projects. But, if the idea of First Order of
Retrievability sounds interesting to you,
try it out. The system does not require
any huge investments; instead, just try
bringing everything a little closer for a
few projects. Maybe make a small cart
out of scrap plywood and spare casters
to see if it works within the workflow of
your shop. Or, Harbor Freight sells little
red carts that work great as tool or paint
carts and they are relatively inexpensive.
Regardless of the shop layout
decisions made, if you take the time to set
your workspace in order, then you'll never
really have to look for anything again.
Also, it is apparent when something is
missing. You'll never have to send an allstaff
email about the missing $100 fabric
scissors again, because you'll know
where they are supposed to be. Sorting
is all about decluttering, and Setting in
Order is all about getting your space
ready for work.
Step Three: Shine
Now that everything has a place, it's time
to clean the work area and make it shine.
By cleaning the shop, you'll identify more
ways to increase efficiency. Grabbing a
broom and sweeping is only part of the
process. When sweeping up dust (or
scraps of fabric), remember Kaizen and
be vigilant in thinking about where the
dust is coming from and how changes
can be made to reduce the amount of
dust that will need to be cleaned in the
future. Maybe you need to do a better
job keeping scrap fabric contained in a
specific area on the worktable, or maybe
the dust collection in the shop needs to
be tuned up or optimized to prevent dust
from collecting around the shop and in
the theatre.
A case study: At the University of West
Florida (UWF), Technical Director Phil
Brulotte wired the miter saw in series
with shop vac. This meant that anytime
the miter saw was used, you had to turn
on the shop vac. We saw an immediate
drop in the amount of dust produced in
the shop. This is a perfect example of
Shine. Brulotte identified the problem
Phil Brulotte's miter saw station from the University of West Florida. | Photo by
Jerre Brisky.
A wide shot of a tool cart with air compressor and related tools. | Photo by John J.
Rawlings.
ISSUE 1, 2024 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY | 13
Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2024

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