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Cabinet Vision Bridges The Miles For Higham
When quality kitchen manufacturer Naked Kitchens suffered a workshop fire, Cabinet Vision software assisted in getting them back into production with minimum time loss.
A high-end kitchen specialist uses Cabinet Vision software to ensure that designs created in their London studio are accurately manufactured 65 miles away on the South Coast.
Higham Furniture have six licenses of Cabinet Vision Ultimate, from Vero Software, and an Advanced Screen-To-Machine module to drive their nesting flatbed SCM Pratix router.
They use the CAD functionality to maintain their reputation of creating kitchens without compromise, whether a customer has unique ideas, wants to make a design statement or simply requires a personal made-to-measure kitchen. And with Screen-To-Machine being the most powerful automated CAM solution in the woodworking industry, they have been able to dramatically reduce material usage and labour time by streamlining the manufacturing processes.
“Cabinet Vision is a massively important tool in making sure we achieve what we do, especially on the intricate jobs. Everyone in the studio can create a Cabinet Vision component in London, that all 24 of us in the workshop here can fully understand.”
Tim Higham, Owner
Company owner Tim Higham says: “Before investing in Cabinet Vision three years ago it was difficult to make sure that what the customer and designer wanted was the exact end product coming out of the workshop.” But now, Cabinet Vision provides the essential link between the six designers at their Fulham studio and the workshop, which is near Portsmouth. The software is used to create the initial 3D designs which helps them to make a sale, and produces the necessary NC code to cut the components accurately.
Once a customer decides on a traditional or contemporary style, Higham’s designers use Cabinet Vision to create an initial design with standard cabinet and door assemblies, adding beading if required. “It’s just an outline layout at this stage – drawers and racks come later. Some customers only expect 2D plans, and are fascinated that we can show them 3D images, not only of the cabinets, but the whole kitchen space, showing how everything fits in. Cabinet Vision gives us the depth to be able to do this easily – getting the beading and end panelling correct. It makes the difference between putting a fairly standard design together with plain shaker doors, and accurately presenting cock beaded framework and moulding on doors.”
He says the software also gives them the ability to produce complex parametric chimneys and mantels, along with ancillary parts and curved units, producing a far superior final visual for the customer, helping them to make a sale.
“We spend a lot of time up front with Cabinet Vision to get the design absolutely right, but it ensures the workshop produces it accurately first time.” Using the software means they go from their bespoke design to the cutlist automatically. “Before investing in Cabinet Vision we had a number of issues with spreadsheets and the manual process of converting attractive designs into cutlists. But now, once we’ve got the walls accurately dimensioned and the kitchen fitting accurately to those dimensions, along with correct doors and cabinets, we simply push a button to create assembly sheets, cut lists and parts.”
Providing a full design-through-manufacture-to-installation service, Higham produce their kitchens from tulipwood, maple, and European and American white oak. Carcases are generally lacquered oak or birch ply, with Cabinet Vision being used in some capacity on around 95 per cent of finished products.
The designs are emailed to Workshop Manager Jason Frizzell who strips the job down into individual components. “We have separate cutting lists for the doors, cabinets, drawers and framework. Cabinet Vision gives me a full set of information, providing exactly what our craftsmen need to manufacture each kitchen.
“Before installing the Pratix NST-48 CNC router and Cabinet Vision we cut all the components on a dimension saw, which was labour intensive. Now the operation is around 20 times faster.” It also saves him considerable time in his own job, as he used to go through everything on the cutting list manually, to ensure it was correct.
“Cabinet Vision is a massively important tool in making sure we achieve what we do, especially on the intricate jobs. Everyone in the studio can create a Cabinet Vision component in London, that all 24 of us in the workshop here can fully understand. If we need to change a dimension or where a panel is positioned, we can do it here…it doesn’t need to be sent back to Fulham.”
Tim Higham also makes full use of Cabinet Vision’s support service. “As well as an annual maintenance contract which means we always get the latest release, I have a special arrangement for one day’s consultancy a month. I sometimes don’t have time to create a new parametric chimney or mantel, or to work on a new style, so a Cabinet Vision engineer comes in once a month to handle the parts I don’t have time to do. This ensures we utilise Cabinet Vision to the full, to get the very best out of it.”
About the Company
Name: Higham Furniture
Business: Kitchen Specialist
Web: www.higham.co.uk
Benefits Achieved
- Helps produce a far superior final visual for the customer
- Saves considerable time and money
- Can easily produce intricate parts
Comments
“Cabinet Vision is a massively important tool in making sure we achieve what we do, especially on the intricate jobs. Everyone in the studio can create a Cabinet Vision component in London, that all 24 of us in the workshop here can fully understand.”
Tim Higham, Owner
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