Smoothworks for Kitchen & Bathroom Builders
We offer an end-to-end business improvement service to help you work more
efficiently, make more money and deliver better service to your customers.
Our solutions work for kitchen and bathroom builders, commercial shopfitters, solid
surface fabricators and other custom manufacturers.
Common Challenges for Kitchen & Bathroom Builders
Your time is a major limiting factor. Many business owners manage every aspect of their business because processes are complicated and undocumented. This hands-on management style forces you to work long hours and makes it difficult to hire new staff.
Skilled staff members are poorly utilised. This includes qualified cabinetmakers doing low-skilled work, or using two cabinetmakers to perform tasks instead of one plus a labourer.
You may not know the true cost of jobs. Most quoting spreadsheets are complex, difficult to use and
inaccurate. Some jobs are profitable, others are not. Do you know which ones are which?
Scheduling is difficult…. especially in a custom-manufacturing business. You need to factor in delivery dates, availability of work centres and skilled staff - all while juggling multiple jobs at a time.
This complexity makes scheduling time consuming, and means it must be done by the business owner.
Our Services
Simplify and improve your business processes
By simplifying and improving the way your business runs, you’ll be able to delegate a lot of the work that can only be done by you right now.Not only does this save money, it also allows you to work smarter so you can manage a larger team (or spend more time with your family).
Implement software solutions
We can improve your quoting, production, scheduling and finances.This allows you to deliver every job on time and on budget, while reducing your admin overhead.
Assist with outsourcing solutions
Smoothworks can help you source the right providers to help you outsource some aspects of your business so that you can focus on what you’re good at.This includes Bookkeeping, Marketing & Lead Generation, and Live Receptionist services.
Case Study - TKIC Solid Surfaces
One of our experienced cabinetmakers resigned at the start of our busy season last year and I thought we weren’t going to be able to deliver our jobs on time.
With help from Smoothworks, I turned this challenge into an opportunity by making four critical changes to my business:
- 1. We changed our manufacturing process to allow us to cover a lot of our work with lower skilled labourers. This was critical because there was no way of hiring and training a new cabinetmaker in time
for the Christmas rush.
This change allowed us to increase our production output while cutting costs.
- 2. We stopped accepting the jobs that were costing us money. Some clients always pay late, while
others regularly disrupt our shop floor through poor planning and endless changes.
This change allowed us to better serve the profitable customers who appreciate what we do.
- 3. We took a more realistic look at how much jobs cost to deliver. We were missing too many hidden
costs, causing some of our quotes to be artificially low.
This change allowed us to make more money, but also to win MORE of the high-end jobs that we had
been missing out on.
- 4. Smoothworks implemented a software system to improve our manufacturing operation.
- It covers everything including quoting, inventory, scheduling jobs/operations and accounting.
- Our quoting process is now fast, simple and based on REAL costs and operations
- The software schedules operations in the right order to allow on time delivery of every job
- My team members can now self-manage their work
This change has allowed my foreman to quote jobs and run the shop floor without me. Our production capacity has also increased.
What Our Customers Say.
Compared to this time last year, production is up by 25%,
costs are down by 15% and profits are up by 50%.
I now spend more time with customers and my family
instead of constantly having to manage the shop floor.
Compared to this time last year, production is up by 25%,
costs are down by 15% and profits are up by 50%.
I now spend more time with customers and my family
instead of constantly having to manage the shop floor.
