Elegant Wood Creations

Jeremiah Halla needed to quickly become productive when he opened the doors of his custom cabinetry and millwork company, Elegant Wood Creations, in 2016.

Making the leap to entrepreneurship was daunting, but he hit the ground running by purchasing the machinery and software necessary to ensure he would be in full production by the time his first customer walked through the door.

“I got CABINET VISI

“I got CABINET VISION a few months before opening the business and now I can’t even imagine doing everything that we do here by hand,” said Halla, whose company is located in Turlock, California. “It just wouldn’t work without the software; I feel like you’re much more accurate with your CNC.”

Elegant Wood Creations produces a range of custom cabinetry and millwork, including kitchens, entertainment centers, vanities, closets, home offices, bookcases, mantels, and floating shelves, and meets a diverse array of one-of-a-kind demands.

Halla uses the CABINET VISION Screen-to-Machine™ (S2M) Center to perform all of the company’s design work, manage job details, and generate NC code that is sent to CNC machinery on the shop floor. The solution has helped the small company win jobs and produce a large volume of products with just two employees.

“I’ve had people tell me that they went with my company because I was able to show them a 3D picture,” said Halla, who uses the realistic rendering capabilities of CABINET VISION to help customers understand and visualize design details.

“There are businesses that come to potential customers with drawings on graph paper, and that isn’t a strong selling point. Most people want to see something to help them visualize — and I’ve had people think that CABINET VISION renderings are actual photographs.”

The solution’s graphics capabilities are an advantage when working with contractors, as well.

“Sometimes contractors want me to render projects to help sell a job,” Halla said. “I love that I can take plan views and elevation views and give them to a contractor to lay out all of their plumbing and electrical. With CABINET VISION, what you see is what you get, and contractors love that.”

In addition to its strong visual capabilities, CABINET VISION simplifies the process of making design changes, as the software automatically resizes all affected parts when adjustments to size are made.

“Unlike doing everything by hand, if I want to change the width of a cabinet, the system will do it for me. I don’t have to go in by hand and calculate changes to all of the parts, so it takes out a lot of the margin for human error.”

Before sending projects to the shop floor, Halla takes advantage of the CABINET VISION nesting engine to boost efficiency and maximize material yield. “I have little pieces of scrap wood where before the CNC and CABINET VISION, there was a lot more,” he said. “It’s awesome.”

Halla typically nests his parts automatically, but the software allows him to edit automatically-generated nests if needed. This combined programming flexibility and power enables him to automate as many tasks as possible while retaining control over the entire production process.

“CABINET VISION drills our holes, cuts our dadoes and, if we have a special hole or other special feature, it will take care of it for us,” he said. “It’s nice to be able to draw something and have it cut exactly the way that I drew it. I draw it and the guys cut it, paint it, and send it out. It makes everything a lot easier.”

Cut lists, material lists and assembly sheets are generated with information derived from project designs. In addition to reducing error, these detailed lists and instructions help Halla and his employees understand jobs at a glance.

“The elevation view is great to send out to the shop floor for the guys, “Halla said. “If there are variations in the CAD part, I can type notes into it. It makes it a lot simpler to communicate important job details, which helps us avoid making mistakes.”

CABINET VISION and CNC machinery ensure that shop time at Elegant Wood Creations is optimized, as the time that would otherwise be devoted to cutting projects by hand can be devoted to other tasks.
 
“The guys can be doing something else while the router is cutting a sheet, so it’s really like having another employee or even two,” Halla says. “This is a small shop, but purchasing the machinery and CABINET VISION was still less than what I would pay a monthly employee.”

About the Company

Name:  Elegant Wood Creations
Business: Custom cabinetry and millwork
Web: www.elegantwoodcreations.com

Benefits Achieved

• Generation of realistic drawings that help win jobs
• Increased ability to produce a large volume of products with a small staff
• Greater ability to quickly and easily make changes to designs