Case Studies

Centreline Shopfitting

For Screen to Machine nothing beats
Cabinet Vision

With a customer base that extends from the UK’s largest DIY chain store right through to individual private residences, and covers everything in between, the demands placed on Centreline Shopfitting are varied to say the least. However, with its skill and expertise and the help of advanced CAD/CAM systems from Planit Software, the company always surmounts the challenges it is presented with.

Basildon-based Centreline Shopfitting was established 17 years ago, described by managing director, Darren Smith, as ‘one man in a van’. However, it grew steadily through previous business contacts and by word of mouth. Soon after the company set up its own 1500 ft2 workshop it was quickly outgrown, and successive moves and expansion have culminated in its current facilities. These feature a main workshop of 25,000 ft2, a spray shop and a new storage and distribution unit, adding up to a total of 45,000 ft2. A high staff retention rate has kept its skills and knowledge base growing, with a core of 30 people that are very capable of taking on the different tasks required.

Darren Smith says: “As you would expect with a client base of around 500, the demands placed on the company are varied. For high volume production we have manufacturing procedures in place, making products for household names such as B&Q and Bathstore. For commercial customers we are often asked to make prototypes for showroom display and point of sale units, which could hold electrical appliances or central heating boilers, for example. The customer tells us what needs to be housed and we will design and build the display to hold everything required, often within the least amount of space. Once the design is finalised we will produce and install the units in the customer’s facilities.”

As well as commercial customers and private domestic work, the company also supplies joinery to other shop fitting businesses. “Other fitters trust us because they know that when any item leaves these premises it is complete and will assemble correctly on site,” says Darren Smith.

To meet its customers’ demands Centreline Shopfitting has invested in different machines and the latest addition is a large Routech R200 KX 5-axis router installed around two years ago. Built to meet technical manager, Lloyd Bobin’s exact specification, with a 7500 mm by 2250 mm bed it is equipped to deal with anything the company can throw at it. At around £300,000 and with a lead time of 18 months it represents a significant investment. “It’s an exceptional machine and thanks to Routech’s post-sales service manager, and Planit Software we put just about everything through it,” Lloyd Bobin says.

Planit Software is used throughout the company. Every cabinet produced by Centreline Shopfitting comes out of Cabinet Vision and non cabinet parts are produced via Alphacam Ultimate. Lloyd Bobin states: “Cabinet Vision is the best program for making cabinets. In my opinion, there is no software available that can work from screen to machine as fast as Cabinet Vision. And, it’s not just a good bit of software but it is also exciting to use. It is always being updated and, as users, we are helping to make those changes with new features added to address our needs.”

Alphacam Ultimate is used for any items outside of the cabinet environment, such as solid wood parts, intricate fret work and mouldings. Wreathed handrails are a perfect example of the geometrically complex parts produced using Alphacam.

At Centreline Shopfitting Cabinet Vision and Alphacam are used in conjunction because of how well they work together. “No matter how complicated a job is,” Lloyd Bobin says, “my goal is to get the project finished. So, I maximise the use of Cabinet Vision, and then, where necessary, I output the files into Alphacam to work on any complex elements. Together they form a great manufacturing tool.

Cabinet Vision has changed my working life, it saves me so much time compared to how I used to work, and it does exactly what I ask from it without compromise.  When I investigated  the cost of the initial system, I was concerned  that it would take ages to pay for itself – and then delighted to report to management that it paid for itself easily in less than six months as its automation speed is unsurpassed.”

As an example of this he points to the sets of doors the company recently produced for the  Grand Masonic Lodge in Great Queen Street London. With fine fret work and mouldings the doors are more representative of pieces of artwork rather than woodwork.

Every job is different and designs arrive in many different formats, from rough sketches to very precise CAD drawings. The company always has to produce drawings to manufacture to and Cabinet Vision is often used to create customer visuals. Unusually it does not hold a library of cabinet designs in the software because jobs are started from scratch. Explains Lloyd Bobin: “There are so many permutations of what exactly a cabinet can be. For our needs it is easier to start fresh every time. That said we do have complex jointing systems with hundreds of different options in the program.”

The manufacturing code generated by Cabinet Vision is placed on the company server by Lloyd  Bobin and it can then be pulled down to the machines by the operators. Rather than follow the traditional way of producing cabinets with panels sawn to size and then set up on various drills and routers to machine joint holes and other details, wherever possible the company loads the raw sheet on the 5-axis machine and cuts everything in just one set up.

Lloyd continues – “All customer visuals/drawings/manufacturing information/reports & NC code is generated by Cabinet Vision in record time.  For example we can go from screen to machine including the completion of the initial design of 20 different sized cabinets complete with all manufacturing data/drawing and NC code in under 1 hour - well that speaks for itself!  We are pushing the software hard and keeping Planit’s people informed of what we can get it to do.”

Other Planit software used by Centreline Shopfitting includes the Part Modeler 3D solid modelling package, which is used for projects that require 3D free forms machined on the 5-axis router, and, Alphacam Windoor package for the efficient production of window and doors.

Lloyd Bobin says: “The team behind the software is first class, they are exceptionally knowledgeable and always provide us with a solution to any problems. I feel this is very important, because any advanced software is only as good as the support you get, no problem is ever too much for them.   We also had great support from the post writer/technicians, which was  significantly helpful in getting the most from our machine tool.

Additionally, our customers are very conscious of looking after our environment, and Planit’s nesting          strategies help keep waste to an absolute minimum therefore having great savings on material utilisation,  landfill charges and  waste disposal.”

With such a strong mix of experience and production capability, it is not really surprising that many of Centreline’s customers rely on the company to solve project problems. “When customers come to us with a problem we will find a solution. We have the flexibility, experience and with Cabinet Vision and Alphacam, the software to find an answer. We have certainly done some interesting work but have never come up against a job that we could not do,” concludes Darren Smith.