Software Aids Custom Wood Shop's Growth

Starting out as a small custom cabinet shop in 2005, husband and wife team, Kevin Tan and Sarah Chen had to be creative every day to come up with beautiful solutions to meet their client's unique woodworking demands.

Today, their company, Kingswood Interiors, Ltd. resides in a 16,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility with 60 employees and annual revenues topping ten million. Growing their business in the face of a sturdy economic downturn required them to be extremely adaptable, resourceful and strategic in their choices for manufacturing growth and the technology partner that would support it.

Adaptability

"In the beginning, we had smaller machinery that was just suitable for custom cabinetry. We were using a popular design software to show the customer the designs, and were figuring everything manually," says Co-owner Sarah Chen. "We used Excel for our pricing and nothing was automated. We wanted to move into cabinet production and streamline everything, so we added a Flexicam CNC router to start, and discovered that for whatever reason, the design software we were using just wouldn’t talk to it. The Flexicam manufacturer suggested we try KCD Software and in January of 2008, we switched over. KCD allowed us to automate everything from design and pricing, through production."

Technology and efficiency

“Before we had KCD Software, we were manually calculating the door sizes, box sizes, cut lists and other pieces. This is very time consuming and very easy to get wrong. After we implemented KCD in our process, we found that waste costs dramatically dropped due to the automatic calculations of the materials. The nesting function also minimized the usage of the board we use for our cabinets."

Innovation and new initiatives

By the time the economy began its landslide, Kingswood already had a reputation for manufacturing quality products. They were able to secure two exclusive contracts (comprising about 90% of their revenue) with local building companies doing cabinet production for all of their residential work. The new software integration had streamlined their production and they began to offer a more diversified product line.

"Besides standard cabinets, we began manufacturing other cabinetry such as closets, built-in entertainment centers and custom furniture," says Chen. "The results were great. We could draw out exactly what we would build for the customer [using KCD]. Customers are very happy to see visualized pictures of their new kitchen. And on the production side, KCD produced door lists, cut lists and more. These reports are very convenient for our production and the software is very compatible with all the machines."

Strategic technology partnership

During those crucial months in 2008 when production had to be fulfilled, KCD’s Rapid Response Team supported the successful software integration, minimizing downtime and eliminating extra consulting fees.

"I really appreciate the free technical support that KCD provides. The people working there are very knowledgeable. They customized the cut list according to our own building process so everything is very efficient. When we have questions or need some additional customization, they will usually solve the problem for us within 24 hours. The service is great and quick."

In business for 30 years, KCD Software has an excellent industry reputation and powerful technologies for integrated production that support the cabinet manufacturing, door manufacturing and closet manufacturing industries.

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