“The wastage is down to 13.6 percent,” the manager said.

“That is a good number,” the owner said.

“It is a very good number,” the manager said.

“Does the number include the client?”

“The client is not on the spreadsheet,” the manager said.

The manager looked at the report. The report was printed on white paper. The paper had columns. The columns showed the cost of plywood. The columns showed the cost of glue. The columns showed the cost of labor. The report was very detailed. The report showed that the factory was efficient.

The factory used the wood well. The factory did not throw away much wood. The manager was proud of the report.

The Invisible Cost of Waiting

I missed the bus today. I missed the bus by ten seconds. The bus was moving when I reached the stop. I stood on the pavement. The pavement was grey. I watched the bus go away.

I had to wait twelve minutes for the next bus. Those twelve minutes are gone. I cannot get the twelve minutes back. I cannot buy the twelve minutes. No one tracks the twelve minutes I spent on the pavement.

The bus company does not have a report about my twelve minutes. They only have a report about the fuel. They have a report about the driver. My time is free to the bus company. Because my time is free, the bus company does not mind if I wait.

I am a bridge inspector. My name is Iris A.-M. I inspect bridges for a living. I look at steel. I look at concrete. I used to think the bridge was the only thing that mattered. I measured the cracks in the concrete. I measured the rust on the steel. I wrote long reports about the rust.

I was wrong. I was wrong for many years. I forgot the people in the cars. I closed a lane on the bridge to look at a bolt. The lane closure caused a traffic jam. The traffic jam lasted three hours.

Ten thousand people sat in the traffic jam. I wasted thirty thousand hours of human life to check one bolt. My report said the bolt was fine. My report was perfect. But my report did not mention the thirty thousand hours. I did not value the time of the drivers. I only valued the steel of the bridge.

Plywood Decimals and Small Flats

The factory measures the board. The factory uses plywood for the furniture. The plywood is E0 grade. The plywood is strong. The factory wants to use every inch of the plywood. This is called sheet efficiency. When the sheet efficiency is high, the profit is high. The company tracks the plywood to the decimal point. They know where every scrap of plywood goes.

The homeowner is in a flat. The flat is in Kowloon Bay. The flat is small. The homeowner wants a new wardrobe. The homeowner wants to save space.

The homeowner buys 訂造傢俬. The homeowner pays for the furniture. The homeowner also pays with their time.

The wardrobe arrives at the flat. The wardrobe is missing a handle. The installer says the handle is not in the box. The installer leaves the flat. The homeowner calls the office. The office says the manager is in a meeting. The homeowner waits for a call.

The phone does not ring. The homeowner calls the office again. The office says the handle is at the factory. The homeowner must wait until Monday.

The Real Wastage is a Friday Night

It is Friday evening. The homeowner sits on the floor. The floor is near the wardrobe. The wardrobe has no handle. The homeowner cannot put their clothes in the wardrobe.

The homeowner spent two hours on the phone. The homeowner spent four hours waiting for the installer. These six hours are wastage. But these six hours are not on the factory report.

The Friday evening is gone. The homeowner cannot get the Friday evening back. The company did not pay for the Friday evening. The company thinks the Friday evening is free.

If the plywood was free, the factory would throw the plywood on the floor. But the plywood costs money. So the factory saves the plywood. The client’s time costs the company nothing. So the company spends the client’s time.

I see this in bridge inspection. I see this in furniture. I see this when I miss the bus.

We count what we buy. We do not count what we take for free.

The company measures the board but the company does not measure the evenings. The evening is the thing the client will remember. The client will not remember the 13.6 percent wastage. The client will not see the spreadsheet.

The client will see the missing handle. The client will see the empty Friday night. The client will feel the weight of the wasted hours.

A homeowner in Hong Kong has very little time. The homeowner works long hours in an office. The homeowner travels on a crowded train. When the homeowner comes home, the homeowner wants to rest. The homeowner wants the flat to be finished. The homeowner wants the project to be easy.

In a standard renovation, the homeowner talks to many people. The homeowner talks to the designer. The homeowner talks to the contractor. The homeowner talks to the electrician. The homeowner talks to the factory. Each person has a different report. Each person wants to save their own materials.

No one is tasked with saving the homeowner’s time. The homeowner becomes the bridge. The homeowner is the thing that connects all these people.

The homeowner has to explain the plan again. The homeowner has to call the electrician when the designer changes the drawing. The homeowner has to call the factory when the contractor is late. The homeowner is the coordinator. The homeowner is doing a job. The homeowner is not being paid for this job. The homeowner is paying to do this job. This is a strange way to do business.

The Person with a Name

Hohome uses a different system. Hohome uses a single point of contact. This is a person. The person has a name. The person is responsible for the whole project. The person talks to the factory. The person talks to the installer. The person talks to the designer. The homeowner only talks to the one person.

When you have one person, the time wastage is visible. If the homeowner has to call five times, the person knows. The person feels the weight of the calls. The person wants to stop the calls. To stop the calls, the person must fix the problem. The system is designed to protect the time of the homeowner.

The factory in the grounding notes has a 50-year heritage. This is a long time. It is a lot of days. A factory with a 50-year heritage knows about wood. It knows how plywood behaves in the humidity of Hong Kong. It knows about the E0 grade. It knows about the ENF grade.

These are technical details. They are important. But the heritage is also about the people. If a company lasts 50 years, it is because people come back. People do not come back if their evenings are wasted. People come back if the wardrobe fits and the process was quiet.

Learning from the Old Bridge

I looked at a bridge last week. It was an old bridge. It had been there for sixty years. The bolts were thick with paint. I did not close the lane this time. I used a camera on a long pole. I stayed on the footpath.

It took longer for me to do the inspection. It was harder for my back. But the cars kept moving. The drivers did not know I was there. The drivers went home to their families. They did not waste their evening because of me.

I felt better about that report. The report said the bridge was safe. The report did not have to say that I saved ten thousand hours of human life. I knew I saved the hours. That was enough.

The manager in the factory still looks at the spreadsheet. He still likes the number 13.6 percent. It is a good goal for the plywood. But the owner is looking at the phone. The owner is looking at the completion guarantee. The guarantee says the project will be finished. This is not just about the wood. It is about the end of the waiting.

The Product is the Evening

If you are a homeowner, you should ask about the report. You should ask who tracks your time. You should ask what happens when a handle is missing. If the answer is that you must wait and you must call, then your time is being used as a free resource.

I waited twelve minutes for the next bus. I sat on the bench. I watched a bird. The bird was small and brown. The bird did not care about the bus. I tried to be like the bird. But I am not a bird. I am a person who has things to do. I have a bridge to inspect tomorrow. I have a life to live.

We must stop treating time as a resource that costs nothing. We must price the evening. We must value the silence in a finished flat. When the wardrobe is built and the doors are straight and the handles are all there, the homeowner can stop being a coordinator. The homeowner can just be a person in a home.

That is the goal of the design. That is the goal of the factory. The plywood is just a tool. The real product is the evening that was not wasted.

The manager put the report in a folder. The folder was blue. He put the folder in a drawer. The office was quiet. Outside, the sun was going down. The sun was not a predator. The sun was just light that was leaving.

People were leaving their offices. They were going home. Some would go home to finished rooms. Some would go home to boxes and half-built cabinets.

I hope they all caught their buses. I hope they did not miss them by ten seconds. Ten seconds is not much wood, but it is a lot of life.