Hi all

looking for some advice on procedures at the assembly bench.

In an effort to minimise the back and forth when moving from assembly to set up I have asked that individual cabinets be treated as a finished product. Drawers in, doors on, cleaned ect. Ect.

The main feedback I got was that it makes setup difficult as the guys then have to pull drawers out and doors off again to put the cabinets together (frameless), and becomes difficult for one person to manage with heavy cabinets to move around.

I didn't see this coming but it makes sense, my thought was that we treat the cabinets as an individual job besides doors and then treat the doors as a buy in order, sanded, hinges drilled ect. As far as they can go without being hung.

Any insight would be much appreciated.

My $0.02

Drawers should be in the cabinet as they just take up way too much space in the shop and the delivery vehicle to keep them separate.

Doors, arguments can be made for either on, or not on. If we were to ship them loose, we would still attach them in the shop to check for fit, then take them off to be wrapped and shipped separately. As a result, no time is saved, it just means the assembler takes off instead of the installer.

We leave them on. It literally takes 3 seconds to take a door off at the time of install and they can be placed sequentially
up against a wall in the house so you dont need to try and figure out where they go. If doors are shipped separately, you need to spend some time sorting and figuring out where everything goes.

I ship and install empty boxes. The doors and drawers are installed after everything else is done. In a euro situation there is no need to "see if they fit" they do. There are many benefits to this approach. My last project I held the doors for over a month, wanted my final check before I installed them. There was a little grumbling because the project was't done, not my fault.

"In an effort to minimise the back and forth when moving from assembly to set up I have asked that individual cabinets be treated as a finished product. Drawers in, doors on, cleaned ect. Ect."

what does the above statement mean what is assembly vs set up ? are you talking mock up ?

One piece flow or small enough batch, complete the product 100% less booth work, then ready to ship to the the next dept or jobsite.

Crucial to do all work on the bench @ assembly

We make some lead lined cabinets for Radioisotopes, we build them on a pallet and set in a truck or in the holding area We can not move them back and forth

Hi, thankyou.

Assembly is being at a bench with all relevant tools
- Parts organised in trolley behind you
- Hinge borer 3 steps away
- Hardware organised in a rack behind you
The activity of this space is to assemble the cabinets, put all drawers and hardware in the cabinets, labelling stickers off, cabinet cleaned.

Set up is about 10 steps away from knock up bench
- setting up levelling bases on factory floor
- laying out cabinets on top, joining cabinets together
- putting on substrates for stone benchtops
- cutouts for sinks and cooktops, test fitting of appliances
- check measurements, basic adjusting and Q.C
pack up and either directly onto truck or in storage area.

In an ideal situation the cabinet would go directly from knock up bench straight onto levelling bases of the setup area. However this isn't always possible as we may have the set up (mock up) area full.