Panels & Furniture Asia July/August 2020

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38 | FURNITURE MANUFACTURING July / August 2020, Issue 4 | Panels & Furniture Asia Transforming and modernising end-to-end operation for flat panel furniture production By Graham Rutter, International Business Development , Cabinet Vision In the current digital age, reinventing and transforming a business into a modern operation can seem like a move that is more challenging than what most businesses are ready to face. However, it does not need to be. For a business to stay ahead of competition, it should focus on improving the overall process from the point of the initial sale to receiving the final payment for a completed project, with minimal mistakes and defects. One common mistake made by businesses is investing in different technology separately, be it hardware or software, and adding them to their existing operations. What is often not considered is that these systems, processes and manufacturing methods are created with different manufacturing processes in mind. They may require a higher level of manual labour when added to an existing operation or are not as compatible with the existing machines and systems in their plants. The outcome? Available manpower is taken up by the many manual processes that range from costing, raw material list (BOM), cabinet list, part list, cut plan, CAM programmes and 3D illustration which are often completed in different spreadsheets and systems. These processes also rely on a great amount of manual data entry, further upping the chances of human error. A BETTER APPROACH An important first step to take is to conduct a comprehensive review of the entire process in your business. Changes must be considered holistically but approached systematically. Starting with the end goal in mind, you should be thinking about where you want to see your business in three years’ time and then work backwards. For example, from reviewing your business, you may conclude that you want to make an investment in updating your machinery in a year’s time. Leading up to this investment, you will need to take steps to prepare your organisation and staff for the changes ahead. It should be emphasised that the investment needs to bring transformation and improvement to your business, as no smart investor wants to invest money just to have updated machinery in their factory. A greater return on your investments should be anticipated and should be the aim to work towards. Utilising a system that allows your staff to start the digitalisation process will allow for a smoother transition into the digital age
July / August 2020, Issue 4 | Panels & Furniture Asia FURNITURE MANUFACTURING | 39 Furthermore, when a piece needs to be reworked and ‘jumps’ the queue as it is of higher priority, staff may be interrupted in their production flow as they have to look for the information about the part, size, location of holes to be reprogrammed by the cam operator. Time is thus lost in production, further adding to the production costs and delaying future projects. In contrast, a concise system can easily be referenced and the required parts for rework can be produced and added to the current production run seamlessly. COMMON CHALLENGES FACED BY BUSINESSES When planning for business improvement, one common problem to highlight is miscommunication. Miscommunication can waste a huge amount of valuable time and it can happen anytime in the sales, design or production process. Miscommunication can arise due to a lack of concise information provided from the design team to the production team. This is because many businesses have not established a proper system to channel the information flow to different departments, coupled with too much reliance on the paperwork – a hindrance to smooth information flow. WHY WAIT? But my question is: Why wait until you update your machinery to review your software? Utilising a system that allows your staff to start the digitalisation process will allow for a smoother transition into the digital age. One of the advantages is bringing consistency to how the documentation, details, BOM and other information are produced and presented. You can also consider this as taking the first step towards entering into a system that compile your common methods of construction. This will ready your business for the next stage of automation. More importantly, this will prepare your company for the changes and transitions that need to happen to bring about the desired improvements. How so? All it takes is a simple typing error and the error will snowball and cause an issue further down the chain. The longer it goes unnoticed, the greater the value the error will have on the project. Another common problem is that an increase in staff to keep up with the workload does not necessarily generate a greater profit margin. While a normal reaction to workload surges is to hire, in hope that this will lead to an increase in the company’s financial turnover. However, the real story told is often one of increased wages, working overtime, defects and rework but no improvement seen in the profit margin. Another issue is ensuring effective communication between the designer and the production team. Often, designers may be using a variety of software to clinch a project, but the production team would have to work through the information to produce the work. This proves to be a challenge and unless there is a good system in place to collate all the information in a central location that can be accessed by everyone involved, miscommunication may continue to occur. Also, when errors, reworks and delays happen, many businesses do not have a system in place to allow these areas to work and fix issues together. In such cases, software will allow staff to systemise the process from design to production. Only with a proper system, will the chances of error from misinterpreted plans and details be substantially reduced. Additionally, by linking the same system for the generation of machine files and production details for all staff, the company will be able to drastically increase throughput and save time, as data does not need to be re-entered into the machine software multiple times. Many businesses, over the years, invest in machinery and software at the same time. Admittedly, one disadvantage is that some staff may feel stressful and anxious due to the increased pressure of adapting to a wave of new changes while coping with their current workload. One suggestion will be to invest in a software system, which is compatible with the machinery you are planning to purchase (most good software will work with majority of machines, if not all, available in the market). This can be one way you can start utilising the information: for example, you can consolidate information from sales and production; the Panel Saw operator can access panel optimisation data to find the optimised plans to cut; staff from the logistics department can produce checklists of items and products to be shipped… etc. All the information will then be gathered and entered into a central software system which everyone can access quickly and easily thereafter. This may just be the change needed to get the transformation process started for any business. Of course, my point of view is biased, having been involved with CAD/CAM software for more than 20 years. I have seen firsthand the benefits reaped by businesses that are determined to take the time to review their manufacturing process and adapt their furniture construction methods to suit the current technology, instead of sticking to outdated methods that were developed many years ago. Last but not least, I cannot stress enough the importance of a wholistic approach to improving your business systematically. P Shutterstock image provided by Cabinet Vision
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