Vivacity Spirits runs like a Swiss watch. A place for everything and everything in its place. Everyone is on the ball and we are firing on all cylinders!
Alas that may be the Facebook version of our life but it is not the reality. A business is about herding cats and putting out the various fires before they get too of control. Everything in its place? I’m lucky when I can remember where I set my coffee cup down 5 seconds ago.
So what do you do when the proverbial fecal matter has impacted the rotary oscillator? You improvise, you find a way to fix the problem or you wait it out. Obviously fixing the problem sooner than later is preferable to waiting it out but waiting is usually involved too.
If you don’t have a supply of something, like your custom corks, what do you do? You order your custom corks and do an emergency shipment of generic corks so you can keep production rolling or you can send what you have, in house, to the distributor and wait for your custom corks to come in and hope you can meet all your demand.
Just ran out of labels? Find a printer who can do a quick label run for you. (They are out there.)
Missing an ingredient for your next batch of gin? Again, order from your regular supplier and find someone local who can fill your immediate needs.
I have had pumps go down, miscues in production, power outages and no water supply. Are you dead in the water? Do you just call it a day, go home and have a drink? If you have the time and inventory to spare you can do that. If, on the other hand, you are crunched for time and you are just starting or in the middle of something you will need to fix the problems ASAP and get back to work. This means borrowing equipment, buying equipment if you have to or doing a MacGyver and getting something to work just enough so you can finish what you are working on.
The take away is that once you fix a certain problem you now have the answer to it and like problems so the next time something unexpected happens you can expedite the fixing of it. Remember that in an emergency good enough is as good as it is going to get.
Cheers!