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At Corsi Cabinets, where both face-frame and frameless cabinets are produced, "good information in equals good product out."
This 33-year-old company serves the high-end of the market with each unique order. The company runs two plants, with Corsi Cabinets located in Indianapolis and Greenfield Cabinetry in Louisville.
The Indianapolis facility produces both face-frame and frameless "Euro-style" cabinets, while Greenfield specializes in face frame exclusively, with its "predetermined package of detail" offerings.
Corsi was founded in 1973 by Pat Corsi, who remains the sole owner. The company began serving a national designer base in 1979. Today, Corsi has approximately 125 dealers in 29 states. These dealers are serviced by 10 groups of independent manufacturer representatives.
Corsi specializes in custom doors, unusual wood species and specialized cabinet configurations, with a focus on "stylish finishes."
"Premium finishes comprise 70 percent of our total annual production and strictly one-of-a-kind custom finishes comprise nearly 25 percent of production," says Corsi.
In order to control its vast product diversity, Corsi emphasizes preproduction engineering, using AutoCAD, Ardis and Microvellum software packages. Every job, whether it's a face-frame or frameless order, gets the attention of a staff of eight specialists, all of whom have considerable experience in construction engineering, finish technology and outsourcing.
According to manufacturing technology coordinator Joe Reitz, another area of focus is "after part" production.
"As with any unique design and construction product, our clients commonly require additional parts that are needed for completion of the job," Reitz says. "That's why we have a dedicated staff to facilitate an effective order turnaround on these items."
Additionally, Corsi has developed a unique pricing package providing dealers with the ability to price complex projects accurately and quickly.
"Using the CorsiQuote software and our easy-to-use price book, we're able to provide, we feel, the most accurate and expedient pricing system in the custom segment of the industry," Corsi says.
Corsi and Reitz were asked a number of questions relative to their success and their ability to produce custom face-frame and frameless cabinets.
Wood Digest: What is the specific difference between the Corsi and Greenfield lines?
Corsi: Corsi is a product that is true luxury cabinetry with unlimited choices. Greenfield is true luxury cabinetry with selected custom choices. There is no limit to the detail that is offered in Corsi. Greenfield is positioned to offer a predetermined package of detail. Both product lines provide customers with luxury fit and finish.
WD: You produce both frameless and face-frame cabinets. Why do you choose to do this rather than focus on one type or the other? Is there a marketing advantage to offering both?
Corsi: The top-end marketplace requires selection in every possible area. Of great importance to our dealerships is our ability to provide both types of cabinetry. In today's luxury marketplace there is growing interest and demand in contemporary styling which requires, for best execution, a frameless cabinet product. Of sustained interest in the top-end is the classic kitchen interpretation, which requires a framed cabinet product with inset door profiling. Additionally, many specifiers and consumers have preferences for one type of casework or the other. Our abilities in both areas provide a clear marketing advantage for our dealerships nationwide.
WD: Your customers are kitchen design specialists, interior designers, architects and homeowners. How do you interact with this varied group of customers from a sales, design and service standpoint? Do you have specific people or departments focusing on each or some of the customer segments?
Corsi: Our customer is the independently-owned, top-end, design-driven, kitchen dealership. Both Corsi and Greenfield interact with our customer base through a nationwide team of field sales reps, an in-house Customer Service department, and a marketing office. A combination of value added services provided by all three groups delivers the total framework supporting our dealerships. Dealers enjoy comprehensive support in such areas as product education, order engineering, order editing and after-sale job completion services.
WD: With every project considered a custom job, how do you interact with your dealers regarding getting design and manufacturing specification information? Is there a direct electronic link between the dealers and the home office? If so, how does that work?
Corsi: The relationship between the dealer and our project managers is very personal. The project manager analyzes the order from the dealers' floor plan, elevations and an order generated on Corsi's pricing software. Our project managers communicate both verbally and through our pricing software to the dealer. The project managers are in constant communication with the dealer regarding finishes, design and cabinet specifications throughout the entire order confirmation process. The dealer reviews the acknowledgment as well as any AutoCAD-based detailed drawings for non-standard custom pieces. The cabinetry order is manufactured once the dealer, as well as the project manager, are confident with the content of the acknowledged order. This in-depth process assures the dealer of a smooth final installation.
WD: Approximately how many kitchen cabinet/vanity jobs do you complete on a monthly basis? What is your typical order-to-ship time frame?
Reitz: We complete approximately 175 orders combined between Corsi and Greenfield on a monthly basis. Our typical order-to-ship time frame is eight weeks for Greenfield product and 10 to 12 weeks for Corsi product.
WD: What is the typical order entry to ship process, including manufacturing cells?
Reitz: Our manufacturing procedure at both plants on framed product is frame cell — cutting and building of frames; door and drawer cell, including fitting of inset doors. In the machining cell, it starts with panel saw (Selco EB90 at Corsi and Selco EB108 at Greenfield), edgebanding (Brandt KD 85-F at Corsi and Biesse Lato 38 at Greenfield), machining center (Biesse Rover B 4.35 at Corsi and Biesse Rover 15 at Greenfield), then various single-purpose equipment, including an Accu-System HPJ CNC horizontal boring machine at the Indianapolis plant.
The Greenfield facility utilizes a TigerStop with Optimizer-Stop for cutting solid wood. The product is then checked — 100 percent for quality and bill of material completion. Following that process, all products are white sanded and denibbed with a combination of hand and automatic equipment.
In both plants the finishing follows with hand-wiped stains and glazes, a tow line for inter-coat drying, and a flat line for the application of catalyzed sealer and top coat. All products then receive a second 100 percent check for quality and bill of material completion. At Greenfield, where most products are finished as flat parts, the next steps are assembly, trim and final inspection. At Corsi, the framed product is finished as an assembled unit because of the need to "butter in" the finished ends to the front frame. Frameless products at Corsi are finished as flat parts and are then assembled. All Corsi products then go through the same trim and final inspection process. Final inspection at both plants includes massing of all the cabinets under specialty lighting to check for overall color uniformity.
WD: Do you see swings in these percentages? If so, what causes customers to move from one style or the other?
Corsi: Over the last two years in the Corsi line, sales are split about 50-50, framed and frameless. 2006 saw an increase in frameless cabinetry inquiries and quotations, which will translate to some increase in frameless sales in 2007. Greenfield Cabinetry is available only in framed construction.
WD: Do you see regional differences as far as strong frameless area vs. face frame? Where do you see frameless as strong? Face frame?
Corsi: Coastal metro markets have long been the areas of concentration of frameless cabinetry. Midwest, Southern and Southwest markets have been more of a destination for framed construction product.
WD: What are the major style differences (besides the obvious lack of a face frame on a frameless) between the two?
Corsi: Frameless product is the only way to properly present a true contemporary design. Additionally, when it is important to maintain very tight tolerances across the front plane between doors and drawers on adjoining cabinetry, frameless construction affords the optimum appearance.
WD: Do your doors vary from one variety to the other? Do you believe "the door sells the cabinet?"
Corsi: In our market segment, the cabinetry and the doors are part of a room concept that embraces and integrates a combination of design elements, space utilization, and doors, cabinetry, moulding, appliances, surfaces, etc. We believe the total design and the designer sell the cabinet.
WD: Do your hardware choices vary from face frame to frameless? For example, you say on your website that the "Euro" style cabinets feature the soft-closing hinge. How about the face-frame cabinets? What brands of hinges do you use?
Corsi: Neither Corsi or Greenfield offer decorative hardware. At the luxury component of the market, the choices that are demanded by designers and consumers have moved decorative hardware supply away from the cabinet manufacturer to the specialty provider. Construction hardware is sourced from Amerock, Cliffside, Häfele and Blum. All drawer slides for both companies are full-extension BluMotion slides.
WD: Are the face-frame cabinets and frameless items manufactured on the same line or do you separate some or all of the manufacturing processes? For example, is your frameless line strictly a flat panel operation, or is there some integration of what typically might be termed solid wood and frameless?
Reitz: At Corsi, where we produce a mix of framed and frameless product, many of the same pieces of equipment are utilized for both. The cut lists for framed and frameless are separately generated to utilize our optimization programs to their full ability. Even though frameless product requires more machining, it flows more smoothly through that process because of our ability to better utilize both information and manufacturing technology. In finishing, both products flow through the same system. A major challenge in our scheduling is estimating our finish hours required as our product mix varies.
WD: You offer so many different styles and options. How are you able to accomplish this, in light of the fact that you're a frameless and face frame manufacturer?
Corsi: We have an excellent manufacturing workforce including our project and product engineers. The saying that "good information in equals good product out" are words by which we live. We pride ourselves on the excellence of our engineering staff, who not only work with the customers on every specification of the product, but also work with our shop floor team. As in most wood product manufacturing operations, finishing is the constraint. This is especially true with our companies because our luxury products must demonstrate an artistic value that can only be accomplished by the eye and the hand.
WD: What design software do you use, and how do you integrate programs with the manufacturing process?
Corsi: Our in-house software will soon be linked to our interactive specification manual. Our in-house created pricing software is designed to communicate with Microvellum, which creates cut lists and machining details and communicates those to our CNC equipment. The Microvellum software is also capable of tracking inventory and guiding purchasing. CAD drawings are supplied at both plants to the shop floor when pieces reach a high level of customized engineering specifications.
WD: With such a broad and deep offering of products, how do you deal with the issue of "mass customization" in a high production environment? When you throw in the fact that your finishing operation is manual, how do you meet production and delivery goal, particularly when you don't inventory a large amount of common parts?
Reitz: The Greenfield product, while luxuriously finished and customizable, is offered within narrower parameters when compared to Corsi. Therefore, manufacturing and information technology such as Microvellum and Ardis can facilitate significant gains in productivity and control. At the furthest edge of custom capabilities, Corsi must rely on intense levels of communication in both the preproduction and production phases as well as a dedicated and highly trained group of craftspeople.
author: By Steve Ehle