Research Brief #17

Increasing Productivity in Cabinet Shops
Louisiana Forest Products Development Center
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA

Research Objectives

To make cabinet manufacturers aware of cabinet design software which will ultimately increase productivity of their work.

Synopsis of Results

This study describes the increase of productivity that cabinet manufacturers gain from using cabinet design software.

Software

• Cabinet Vision, AutoCabinet, Cabinet Ware, Kitchen Computer Design, WoodWrite are some of the cabinet design programs that small cabinet shops ranging from 1 to 10 employees in Louisiana use successfully. The price of these programs ranges from $1,000 - $7,000. They generally run on 486 PC computers.
• Most of the mentioned programs feature custom frame or frameless cabinet design, 2 or 3 dimensional drawings, parts and cut lists generation, assembly sheets and drawings. Some of the programs feature panel cutup optimization and cost estimating functions.

Case Study

• A frame kitchen and bathroom cabinet shop with 8 employees has been using Cabinet Vision for 6 years. The order is first drawn and discussed with the customer. Changes, if any, are quickly made, and a list of parts to be cut is printed together with detailed drawings. All projects are archived in the memory for future reference. It took the shop owner about three days to familiarize with the program. He reduced designing and drawing time from one and a half hours to 30 minutes. If changes are made, he doesn't need to redraw everything by hand, instead, he makes changes on the computer. Designing errors are greatly reduced. The owner does not use the pricing and estimating feature of his program because he can do it just as quickly in his head, but he finds all other parts of the program very useful. He receives frequent upgrades and good technical support from his dealer, too. The program runs on a 486 computer.
• A two-man shop run out of a garage producing mainly kitchen cabinets is using AutoCabinet. It took the owner about 2 weeks to learn the program. He also receives good technical support from the company. The owner estimates that on the first project the program reduced his design and drawing time by 50%. Cutting all the parts at the beginning of the manufacturing process from the generated cutting list dramatically reduced wood waste and improved organization of work in his shop. Assembly was made easy by utilizing exploded assembly drawings that were printed by the program. Overall, time required to complete the order was reduced by an estimated 20 percent. The owner likes his program, mainly designing and drawing modules, libraries of pre-designed cabinets, generating of cut parts list and assembly sheets. Features which he would like to see in the future are pricing and ability to draw corner cabinets. The program runs on a 486 computer.

Conclusions

The most commonly heard complaint of small secondary wood manufacturers is the time pressure under which they work. A solution to this problem is increasing productivity of their work. Productivity can be increased several ways, one of them being purchasing faster, more advanced, sophisticated machinery and equipment. This is capital intensive and therefore not suitable for small shops. Another way to increase productivity is to utilize existing resources more efficiently. By changing the way the job is done - reorganizing, taking new approaches to the old problem - the productivity can be dramatically increased without spending a great amount of cash. Computer tools exist that can help small shops work more efficiently. Two of these programs were presented in this case study. These programs enable quick estimating of material and labor cost of producing an order, computer designing of the product, producing all the drawings, list of parts to cut, assembly sheets with drawings and specifications, panel cutup optimizers, reducing errors etc.

Additional Information

Many woodworkers are already realizing these benefits. If you would like to join them, the Louisiana Forest Products Laboratory can assist you in selecting the right hardware and software to suit your needs, as well as help you get started with the program.

Researchers

Rado Gazo, Post-Doctoral Researcher
Louisiana Forest Products Laboratory
LSU Agricultural Center

Target Group

Kitchen and Bath Cabinet Manufacturers