There were some very clear messages received from the many joinery businesses we spoke with at AWISA in August 2014 that are worthsharing.

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Manufacturing is not dead

The reality of the industry is a far cry from the negative media messages of the past few years. Joinery manufacturing is alive and well and, in fact, many businesses are struggling to keep up with demand. The much touted threat from cheaper imports has had an impact but not to the extent the media would have us believe. Clients are valuing local suppliers who can deliver quality product quickly. Yes, the industry has rationalised but it is far from dead!

Need for flexibility

The nature of many joinery businesses has shifted over the past few years. They are now competing in an environment where there is a need to be flexible and act quickly to meet the changing needs of clients.

Successful businesses act quickly, deliver within tighter timeframes and extend beyond their traditional markets to meet emerging or niche market needs. The ability to work within many different markets, where clients place value on quality, is now paramount to remaining successful.

Process is king

Successful businesses recognise that process improvement is the key to remaining profitable in an ever changing environment. Their ongoing focus is on streamlining processes to become more efficient but at the same time remainin gflexible and reducing time to market.

Businesses that focussed on removing manual processes and investing in the tools to work faster and smarter have gone from strength to strength.

Technology is anongoing investment

Technology has been the key for businesses that have been successful in improving processes. These businesses recognised that if they were to continue to work with the same tools as 10 years ago, they will produce the same results as 10 years ago –and this was simply not good enough in the current market.

Our industry is able to easily access state of the art technology from a hardware, software and machinery perspective. Successful businesses have been, and will continue to be, those who stay ahead of the technology curve and continue to invest in new technology that will support their business now and also into the future.

These businesses view technology not as a cost to their business but an investment – one that is repaid many times over through increased productivity and profitability.

Change is necessary

Change is a hard but necessary part of business life. And it is even harder when faced with the challenge of meeting busy production schedules. But successful businesses have understood that investing inchange is, in fact, investing in their future.

Outgrowing current technology

We heard many times at AWISA that businesses feel they have outgrown their current technology, particularly their CAD/CAM software. They are recognising that rather than assisting them it is restricting them.

Those businesses who have already taken the step to change their CAD/CAM software solution recognised that it was better to make a major change now that will take their business through for the next 10 to 15 years rather than continue to invest in current technology that is simply not performing to current industry standards.

Successful changestrategies

Many businesses we spoke with highlighted that they know they need to make changes, particularly with their software. Some were struggling with how to implement new technology and processes with their current tight production schedules and staffing levels.

Change, such as implementing a new CAD/CAM software solution, does need to be thought through carefully to ensure i tsucceeds. There is little point investing in new technology only to have it sit on the shelf gathering dust.

TopSolid’Wood, your solution for the future

TopSolid’Wood is quickly becoming the CAD/CAM solution of choice for the industry. Since bringing the solution to Australia and New Zealand a little over 12 months ago we have been working hard to meet the high demand from the joinery industry, with over 70 licenses already in use.

Advantages of TopSolid’Wood

• Increased Productivity

Businesses are seeing that TopSolid’Wood is quickly repaying their initial investment with increased productivity. Some businesses are reporting a 30 to 40% increase in set out productivity allowing them to take on more jobs with their current staffing.

• Removal of set-out bottlenecks

TopSolid’Wood is an integrated software solution which supports a more efficient process model, where a number of processes are done at the same time.

The concurrent process supported by Topsolid’Wood allows each set-out operator to take control of an entire job from design right through to generating code to send to machine. This improves the efficiency of the set-out department, removing a key bottleneck for many joinery businesses.

As you have one setout operator assigned to a project from beginning to end you substantially reduce the amount of double handling for the project. You no longer have to brief multiple staff on each job, you minimise miscommunication and reduce the time to fix errors or make changes.

The method supported by outdated, non-integrated software requires each process to be completed one after the other, rather than at the same time. This is due to the need to export through to multiple different softwares – an outdated and inefficient process. 

• Minimise double handling

With TopSolid’Wood, production is an integral part of the solution. Machining can be safely assigned from the beginning of the design process as you are not exporting through to another software solution to apply machining.

As all dimensions have advanced parametric functionality, the production information is automatically updated should changes be made to the model.

This makes for reduced double handling as you do not need to redraw or reassign machining when clients make changes.

• New Markets

A key to success in the current market is being able to quickly adapt to market trends and new markets. With TopSolid’Wood you have all the advantages of advanced library functionality for standard, repetitive work and the functionality of a true 3D modelling system for those custom projects. This allows you to say YES to more projects with confidence.

• Committed for the long term

TopSolid’Wood is backed by a large global corporation, providing the security that your investment is protected for the long term. You are backed by a team of 85 plus developers whose sole responsibility is to keep your solution at the cutting edge to keep your processes improving.

• Joinery Specific

TopSolid’Wood – the name says it all. It is designed by joinery experts specifically for the joinery market. It comes with comprehensive in-built joinery functionality designed to speed up your processes.

Integrated Joinery Solutions

Integrated Joinery Solutions may be a relatively new company, but it is made up of a team of experienced industry professionals. Our goal is to partner with our clients for the long term to assist you to build your business, increase productivity and profitability and reduce errors and wastage through the use of automation products and services.

In addition to our superior software solutions, we also offer a range of after sales services to support your business. We stand by our software solutions by offering these services with in-house employees.

We do not outsource our training, support or other services to a third party company or offshore. This ensures we will always be held accountable to our clients.

Check out this testimony from Meloz Manufacturing, Mascot, Sydney - an IJS customer :

“January 2014, a decision was made bring the product design in-house. After a comprehensive market investigation, TopSolid was selected based not only on its flexibility but also on its ability to produce output suitable for our machinery eamlessly. A key factor in the decision-making process was the knowledge and expertise of the IJS consultants that we constantly leverage off.”

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