Superior Cabinets Grows with Insight

While most North American manufacturing companies have struggled during the economic slowdown, Superior Cabinets has not only been able to reduce costs by 25 percent, but also maintain steady revenue growth.

The Saskatoon, SK-based kitchen cabinet manufacturer accomplished this by using the slowdown to evaluate its processes and make the business better, says CEO Scott Hodson.

“We had 14 systems, mostly manual processes around them, and we couldn’t launch a new product line because our systems and processes were so bogged down,” he says.

The company worked with 20-20 Technologies to develop an end-to-end solution which centered on 20-20 Enterprise inSight. “This wasn’t so much a software implementation as it was a business transformation,” says Hodson. “Our strategy is centered on three principles: expansion, scalability and the customer experience.”

With 20-20 Enterprise inSight at the manufacturing plant and 20-20 Design at the stores, Superior Cabinets now has synchronized catalog and order data throughout the company.

“The designer creates a design with the customer, then imports it from 20-20 Design into 20-20 Enterprise inSight. That information goes directly to the plant,” Hodson says.

The engineering configurator automatically processes the data and creates the CNC programs and manufacturing specifications. The configurator also handles customized products, allowing the company to design and build to customers’ specifications, as well as launch new product lines — all without adding new staff.

Hodson adds, “We no longer require order processors at the store nor at the head office. We were able to reduce order management resources by over 80 percent. It was a huge cost savings.”

Superior Cabinets has since added three locations and doubled its portfolio, including a new closet line and European-influenced kitchen line. “You can either sit and wait for the recovery to happen, or you can figure out how and where you can invest, so that when it does come, you’re ahead of everyone else,” Hodson says.

Click here for the full story