CabinetMaker+FDM - March 2010

PRODUCTION

Medical cabinetry like this dentist examination room is the specialty of Unique Woodworking in Weymouth, Mass.
Although Unique Woodworking does projects that include solid wood accents such as this reception desk, their real strength is plastic laminate and melamine cabinetry.
Three cells for more options

Before
the shop was automated with CNC
equipment, all parts were cut on a Striebig
vertical panel saw. Medeiros swears by the
machine and still uses it regularly, but today
he sees it best for smaller projects, such as
those requiring fewer than 10 boxes.

“We get better yield on small jobs with the Striebig,” he says.

When the job requires more than 10 boxes but less than 50, Medeiros turns to his SCM Practix CNC router.

The unit has a sweep system so it slides a completed sheet of parts to an outfeed table, allowing the machine to be reloaded and start cutting immediately. Then, while it is cutting the next sheet, a worker can be unloading the parts and sending them onto the Gannomat Index 130 Trend dowel machine and the Holz-Her 1317 edgebander. For the really big jobs requiring

Long the main cutting machine in the shop, this Striebig vertical panel now is mostly used for smaller projects requiring fewer than 10 boxes. Medeiros says he gets better yield on those jobs with the Striebig.

At a glance

Who: Gary Medeiros

What: Unique Woodworking

Problem:
How do you manage efficient
manufacturing across a wide
range of job sizes?

Where: Weymouth, Mass.

Employees: 6

Where once upon a time a shop set up for large projects could sneer at little jobs and let them go, today’s shop needs to be able to profitably handle any job of any size or it will lose out on work.

That was the case at Unique Woodworking in Weymouth, Mass., which specializes in melamine commercial cabinets. Owner Gary Medeiros realized he needed to set up his shop for maximum versatility and efficiency regardless of the size of the job. And while most of the jobs now may be smaller, he also knows he needs to be ready for when the economy improves and jobs start growing. His solution was to set up three separate manufacturing cells that could work independently or together.