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Brian Emerson, president of Top Drawer Components, took his need for custom, dovetail drawer boxes and turned it into an opportunity.
In 1989, Emerson, who then owned a cabinetmaking company, was working on a project that specified dovetailed architectural flat files.
"I searched all over the country to find somebody to make me dovetail drawers for these units, and I couldn't find a single manufacturer to build drawers to my specifications," Emerson explains. "I found every other variety, but didn't find a company eager to make a drawer box the way I wanted it."
At the time, Emerson says, the largest drawer box manufacturer was in Italy, and was only willing to do certain things. Since its drawers were shipped overseas in advance, the Italian company's drawers were only offered in specific heights and in one material.
"If I wanted anything else, they wouldn't do it," he explains. "So as I looked at that, my thought was: If we couldn't compete with a company bringing [drawer boxes] over from Europe and remarketing them here in the United States, then we're doing something wrong."
After that experience, Emerson left cabinetmaking and threw all of his energy into founding Top Drawer Components (TDC), an Apache Junction, Ariz.-based dovetail drawer box manufacturer that could — and would — take on any drawer specification.
"At the beginning, I was banging on doors and creating a desire for dovetail drawers," he says, "something we've done quite effectively in the Phoenix market."
Today, TDC is an outsourcing partner for cabinetmakers, commercial and fine furniture manufacturers, home builders, architectural millwork firms, closet installers, store fixture companies, interior designers and architects across the United States.
In the company's 24,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing facility, TDC produces drawers out of numerous species of wood, plywood or melamine. Wood materials are available in three grades: Natural, the color or sap is not considered a defect; Select, wood with good coloration on one side; and Premium, with quality color on two sides of the wood.
Drawers are offered in RTA, assembled, finished and unfinished options. And drawer types include: Standard, the low-end; Select, the mid-range offering; and Premium, the high-end, finished option.
Lead time, from order to ship, is one week.
In addition to the dovetailed drawer boxes, TDC's Specialty Department creates a variety of custom drawers, ranging from archeology trays to humidors, jewelry boxes to multilayered silverware/knife drawers — or anything a customer desires.
Materials are processed a day/batch at a time. Drawer boxes are assembled in three work pods, with three employees in each pod turning out 35 drawer boxes per hour.
In the spring of 2006, Emerson implemented lean manufacturing on the shop floor, dropping labor three points, raising dollars, or production per man minute, from less than $1 to $1.45 to $1.55.
In addition to lean, the introduction of a new finishing system changed everything.
Cefla/Sorbini finishing system
According to Emerson, the finishing department has always presented TDC with the most problems.
"When we got into producing drawers, the biggest part of our process was sanding and finishing the outside of the drawer after it had been assembled," Emerson explains. "For years we had four to five people with hand sanders sanding the drawer boxes, and then sending them to the spray booth and then sanding them again, and then sending them back to the spray booth for a final coat.
"We looked for years for ways to get away from the all this hand work because it was a huge amount of labor and a huge mess," he says. "[The work] wasn't consistent because it was hard to consistently produce the same product by hand with the labor we have here."
After years of discussing finishing solutions, Cefla/Sorbini approached Emerson when it began designing a one-of-a-kind finishing system for another U.S. company — a line that the suppliers believed was going to do exactly what Emerson wanted.
Designed and built by Sorbini of Italy, Emerson was invited abroad to see how the machine functioned once the prototype was built and operational.
"I was quite impressed with how it performed and how it was designed," he says. "So I made a list of the changes and improvements that it needed to fit into my manufacturing process, and crunched the numbers on labor and ROI... and it flew."
About a year after he previewed it, TDC had the 100% solid UV finishing system installed in the plant.
About the system
Along with a UV edge coater and flat line, Top Drawer has one of only two "Drawer Box Coaters" in the world. The Drawer Box Coater automates the sanding and finishing of the dovetailed side of a drawer box — a task that had previously been performed by hand.
"The unseen benefit of the system was that the quality and consistency of the product was dramatically enhanced because we are no longer relying on human hands," Emerson notes.
The Drawer Box Coater executes the three processes necessary to finish the side of a dovetailed drawer. The first station sands the drawer side with a dimensioning head, followed by a pad sander to produce a smooth finish. The second station applies a 100% solid UV sealer and lamp cures. Finally, the third station denibbs the sealer coat and applies and cures a top coat.
The custom machine has three carriages and four carriage transfer stations that move the drawers through the system. Each carriage moves the drawer box through one station/process and unloads it. The carriage then returns to pick up an additional drawer while the drawer in process is reloaded onto the second carriage.
The machine keeps three drawers in continuous process — completing 100 drawers per hour, or 200 sides, which is roughly a drawer every 25 seconds.
It also has the ability to process drawers of different side thicknesses contiguously by remembering the thickness of each box and adjusting the process head to the required position for each drawer as it is transferred. In addition, the machine can accurately determine the overall amount of sanding, which results in consistently sized drawers with a perfect finish on all sides.
By the time an unfinished drawer is ready to be loaded, a finished drawer is being unloaded at the other end of the system.
The machine is completely automated, with the exception of the loader and unloader at either end of the line.
Ninety-five percent of TDC drawer boxes are finished on the Cefla/Sorbini system, but boxes over 12 in. in height are too large for the machine and must be hand sprayed.
Since switching to UV, TDC has reduced its VOC emissions by 95 percent — from 8.6 tons down to less than 1 ton.
The efficiency of the system has allowed TDC to double its capacity.
With TDC's recent investments in innovation, Emerson projects the company will grow from $5 million to $10 to 20 million in the next five years.
author: By Jackie Roembke