Last updated on
July 10, 2009

CUSTOM KITCHEN PLANT - FRAMELESS CABINETS

Background: UltraCraft was founded as a division of Alside, a major producer of vinyl siding and windows.  The objective was to sell kitchen cabinets through Alside’s distribution channels as an add-on product to their traditional home improvement items. 

Situation:  In 1985 Alside began construction of a 126,800 ft² building in Liberty, NC, to house the UltraCraft operation. Alside established a project team on site to complete building erection, equipment installation, product development, and plant start-up.  

A machinery distributor specializing in equipment for frameless, 32 mm. cabinetry, provided initial product and process concepts.  The original product was a laminated cabinet available in a single color and in limited configurations with laminated doors/fronts.  Based on this concept process machinery was ordered. 

Further market research indicated that significant product additions / modifications were required to satisfy Alside’s customers.  These changes included hardwood doors/fronts and additional cabinet sizes / configurations.  In addition cabinets would be built per customer order to minimize finished goods inventory and enable customization. 

The project team determined that the plant’s process must be changed to suit the new, expanded product line and service requirement.  UltraCraft employed A. G. Raymond & Company to produce a master plan and detailed plant layout to handle the new process requirements.    

Solution:  Mass customization – the ability to build a customized product in relatively high volumes – was the best solution for UltraCraft.  The machinery already purchased by Alside was most efficient producing cabinet parts in large lot sizes.  However building a kitchen at a time was the best solution for customer service. 

The initial solution was to build a sizeable inventory of ready-to-assemble parts.  This buffer enabled machining cabinet parts in large lots and supplying the assembly line with kits of components one cabinet at a time.  A process layout was implemented to accommodate this philosophy.  The layout included a small finishing line for wood doors/fronts. 

Since the plant opened in 1986, growing product offerings have compelled the plant to handle more cabinet configurations and door styles.  The plant has achieved a higher output of the more complex product line without additional parts inventory.  This performance was accomplished by adding flexible machine cells dedicated to low volume, special parts in lot sizes of one.   

The plant is currently achieving superior labor and space productivity performance vs. cabinet industry norms.  In addition, all core products are delivered within 14 days of order.  

A. G. Raymond & Company has assisted UltraCraft on all major process and layout modifications since the plant opened.