| Presenter |
Session |
| Mike Carson |
Customer Service: Providing a Stellar Experience to Win Repeat and Referral Business |
 |
Finding ways to exceed your customers expectations and developing memorable events that will take your customer through a unique experience is very important to the growth of your company. This session will present ideas and techniques you can use to that will have your customer buying more and actively referring everyone they know to your door. You will learn how to:
- Create memorable events that will turn your prospects into customers
- Find inexpensive ways to exceed your customers expectations
- Get your employees to act like owners
- Turn a cold lead warm
|
| Tom Dossenbach |
Lean Manufacturing and Continuous Improvement – Keys to Success! |
 |
To remain competitive today, every company must improve productivity and hold costs down. Creating a Lean Culture that fosters Lean Manufacturing and Continuous Improvement to eliminate all waste in a company is the key to long-term success in the cabinet industry today as well as in the future. This pragmatic session will include plenty of opportunities for questions and interactive discussions and will incorporate two round table workshops where you can discuss your most pressing manufacturing issues and discover how to solve them through a culture of lean in your company.
You will learn how to:
- Create a culture of lean in your company
- Get 100% of your employees involved in continuous improvement
- Increase productivity in your shop or plant
- Reduce costs and improve profitability
- Shorten your lead time from order to shipment and installation
- Implement “Lean” in a practical way
- Make your job easier
|
| Pete Fisher |
Job Costing: Are You Really Making Money? |
| |
People who enter the cabinet business are often master craftsman who enjoy working with their hands and creating beauty with wood. These same skilled woodworkers may not always possess the skills required to run a successful business. One of the most important ways to measure how your business is really performing is to analyze whether or not you actually made money on specific jobs. Job Costing is therefore one of the best tools you can use to evaluate your business, and find out if you are really making money. |
| John Harris |
How to take Nested Based Manufacturing to a Higher Level |
| |
Nested Based Cabinet manufacturing is one of the most active applications going on in the CNC router industry today. The session will review the evolution of Nested based cabinet manufacturing and will focus on the following:
- Basic machine configuration
- Recent machine enhancements
- Machine justification
- Software overview
- Questions and answers
|
| Steve Lawser |
Increasing Profitability Through Outsourcing |
 |
To be competitive in today’s tough global marketplace requires a review of all manufacturing processes, including determining whether some production should be outsourced to increase profitability and output. This session will look at all aspects of outsourcing including the opportunities for outsourcing components and products from outside suppliers as a way to expand production capabilities, add new products, reduce costs, and increase profits. A review of a recent comprehensive study will identify the latest trends in outsourcing. A discussion on outsourcing from domestic and offshore suppliers will be included.
|
| Tony Noel |
The Custom Woodworking Business Guild |
 |
Professional woodworking guilds meet so artisans can share achievements and troubleshoot technical challenges. Through structured problem-solving activities and spontaneous discussion, this forum brings that same cooperative spirit to management issues. Led by CWB columnist Anthony Noel, this “guild meeting” will give participants a fresh perspective on issues including hiring and training, sales and marketing, purchasing, project analysis, and time management. |
| Anthony Perno |
Cost Estimating & Bidding to Maximize Profits |
 |
Get out your scale and find that calculator. Be prepared to discover estimating like never before. What should I estimate? Why should I estimate it? Can I make money on it? What is the biggest 4 letter word that we all seem to end up avoiding and shouldn’t? In this setting you will see first hand when given all the same information how different the end results can be. Whether you are a beginner, novice or old timer at estimating you will walk away with something that can improve your bottom line. |
| Dave Strickland |
Planning for a Smooth Shop Automation Transition |
 |
Automating your shop can be a smooth process if and only if you do your due diligence in your research. The popular cliché “Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance” rings especially true in the case of shop automation. This hour we will discuss what questions you need to be asking and what areas will be affected, including:
- Understanding automation; What does it mean to my business
- Due diligence (research)
- How long will the implementation process take? ROI
|
| Bill Weaver |
Environmental Stewardship: An Expanding Role for Cabinetmakers |
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Environmental stewardship is important to today’s consumers. Positioning your business as a good environmental steward can help you increase sales and help the environment. This session will present the Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association’s (KCMA) new Environmental Stewardship Program. Learn the following details of this exciting new program and how it can help your business grow.
- The history of the Environmental Stewardship Program.
- The five areas of focus for a “holistic” approach to environmental stewardship.
- Learn how to identify your existing good environmental practices.
- How to qualify for certification.
|
| Status of the Cabinet Industry: What the Future Holds |
| Over 10 years of continuous growth for the residential cabinet market, can it continue? What will our future housing needs be? What will the environmental movement mean to our products and markets? How will imports affect us? Where will we find workers trained for our industry? How will we get enough workers? What will government regulations hold for us? This session will give a look to the future and help you adapt to a changing world. |
| Tim Woolery |
Cabinet Finishing 101 |
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The Cabinet Finishing/Coatings 101 class will discuss the many types of coatings used in today’s finish shops. The composition, advantages, and disadvantages of nitrocellulose to UV curable coatings will be focus of this open discussion. Get your questions answered on the wide variety of coatings available to you. Coating choices and troubleshooting the problems associated with these coatings will also be addressed. |
