The Red Herring in the Process 

If you’re an engineer using Cabinet Vision, I bet you can relate to the following statements: “This is dumb”, and “there’s got to be a better way”, but also “I can’t think of a better way, so I’ll keep doing this…”

It’s not just you. But it’s not the software, either. It’s the process.

Our seasoned technical consultant, Dennis Barg, was on the phone recently with an engineer struggling with a function that wasn’t working. Let’s call him Dave.  Dave, like you, had for some time been using a long, manual and repetitive process to save on wasted finishing and materials.  A small thing, like adjusting the width of a panel on an applied end for a Euro construction without changing any other properties, had turned into a multi-step manual process (change width, change in/out, change positioning, part mirroring), that had been working just fine for a while. Until it didn’t.

That’s when our friend Dave called Dennis, just like you might do, and said: “the mirroring isn’t working.”  Well, Dennis is a clever guy, and he’s gotten pretty good at spotting a red herring.  Dennis and Dave went over the steps that lead to the mirroring error, and Dennis knew to ask what Dave’s actual objective was.  By back-tracking to the source of the long, manual procedure to what Dave was actually trying to accomplish, Dennis was able to say, with confidence, that the problem wasn’t really the problem – the process was the problem.  That’s when the magic happened.

“I can automate that for you.”

Those 6 words are why Dennis loves his job as much as he does.  If you have that nagging there-must-be-a-better-way feeling, then there probably is. After the call, with less than an hour’s work, Dennis identified the correct steps, automated them, and provided for Dave a User Created Standard (UCS) that will allow him to accomplish his task with a simple drop-down (None, Left Only, Right Only, Both Ends).

Dave knows the processes in his shop inside-and-out and is well on his way to becoming a Cabinet Vision power user.  He may choose to learn how to build his own UCSs or continue to rely on our team – either way, he now knows that there is no need to repeatedly suffer through a long process.  That is the real power of Cabinet Vision, and the true strength of our team of experienced technical consultants.

Dennis takes you through the original process, and the creation of the UCS in this 6-minute video. Watch it now!

If you’re using Solid Advanced or Solid Ultimate, you can try out the UCS Dennis made by copying the text you see in the video. As always, send us an email at tech@planitcanada.ca with your red herrings – we can help you sort out the process and automate it to save you time.