Manor Cabinet was established just five years ago as a manufacturer of modular and custom kitchen furniture for face frame and lay-on doors. It has since added fitted bedrooms, home office and bathroom furniture to the range.

It began operations by handwriting cutting lists, a time-consuming activity that is prone to error. The Manor Cabinet management team had, at two previous companies, experienced the benefits and power of specialist woodworking software from Linkwood, the UK agents for Pattern Systems. Hence software was a high priority.

Shortly after its start up, Manor Cabinet purchased Product Planner and Cut Planner from Linkwood and today has a complete suite of interconnected software programs covering everything from product planning to optimisation of cutting and control of boring.

Product Planner, one of the first programs purchased, is a complete product analysis system that ensures the fast and accurate reporting of cut lists, doors and drawers both manufactured and purchased, as well as hardware and labour times with costs.

Product Planner, in common with other software in the Linkwood range, is parametric. All types of methods of construction for products and variations can be built using the program, facilitating the production of both standard and custom furniture without compromise. It computes all part dimensions, produces error-free cutting lists and automatically adds extra parts whenever a product requires such additions.

User’s needs

Job and product reports, such as cut part lists, hardware requirements, door requirements and similar information, can be created, sorted and presented to meet the needs of the user.

Cut Planner was introduced at the same time as Product Planner. Panel requirements for single or batched jobs are calculated by Product Planner and read directly into Cut Planner which computes the best cutting patterns, based on rules set by the user. Summary reports are available for material costs, yield, sheet stock and many other relevant items. Using the optimiser provided many major benefits over manually calculating cutting patterns, including accurate cost estimates, a dramatic reduction in waste and better machine utilisation. The saw operator no longer had to waste time working through manual cut patterns – the whole job became automatic.

Reduced costs

These programs have had a substantial effect in reducing costs and improving all-round efficiency. Overall, Manor Cabinet says that the introduction of software from Linkwood has eliminated errors and achieved at least a 20% gain in productivity.

As the business has flourished, the management at Manor Cabinet has transformed production with the purchase of a new computerised Mayer saw and two Busellato CNC machining centres.

The first saw at Manor Cabinet did not have CNC capability. Patterns were printed and the details entered manually into the saw. When the Mayer beam saw – with its computer control – was purchased, it was a simple matter to upgrade from Cut Planner 10 to Cut Planner 20 with its N/C capability; no other company offers more N/C connections to machinery than Linkwood and Pattern systems.

The Busellato CNC machines are fed with information from Drill Mate, the third link in the software chain. This generates all the information required by the machining centres.

The panel sizes calculated by Product Planner are read into Drill Mate and applied to templates, which are defined for each part. Drill Mate is also parametric, which means the exact position of all holes, grooves and routing are computed, taking into consideration any product variation. This information is downloaded over the network direct to the computer on the Busellato machines.

Manor Cabinet’s success can be measured by its growth. The original 30,000ft² factory has been virtually doubled with the assimilation of an adjoining property.

Another key factor in the success of the Manor Cabinet installation is the ability of the system from Linkwood not merely to link machinery but also to interface with its own and other software. The introduction of a Sales Order Processing program enables orders from the showrooms to be read into Product Planner from where jobs are scheduled, cut lists automatically created, optimised by Cut Planner and downloaded directly to the Mayer saw for cutting and bar code labelling.

At the Busellato machining centres the bar code labels on the parts are scanned into the computer, drill programs recalled, the machine is set up and the parts machined accurately. This whole process is now achieved by inputting the order, only once, in the sales office.

Easy handling

Production director Tony Porter, one of Manor Cabinet’s founders, said: ‘We have a lot of different sized components and panels for a lot of different cabinets. The way in which the system from Linkwood deals with them means they become as easy to handle as standard parts. Furthermore, every part has a label, so we know exactly where everything goes. Before we had labelling we needed to recognise parts – a nightmare when you have so many specials.’

Steve Rosendale, operations director, said: ‘The new production system, with machinery so flexibly interlinked and accurately fed with instructions from programs operated in the adjoining production office, is fantastic.’

Control, precision and quality are watchwords for many com-panies. At Manor Cabinet these key factors are guaranteed. In addition, production runs smoothly, which is remarkable for a company where custom-made cabinets are the norm. The fact is that, whatever the changes in sizes or machining patterns, software from Linkwood is designed to cope.

This level of organisation and control is imperative in today’s competitive markets: there is no time for lengthy prototype and design cycles.