Cabinets Fly at Kitchen Kompact

Producing thousands of cabinets is all in a day's work for the Indiana-based firm.

Four thousand cabinets assembled daily. That's the current production rate at Kitchen Kompact, one of the largest cabinet assembly plants in the United States. 

Based in Jeffersonville, IN, Kitchen Kompact provides low-cost, value cabinetry for distribution throughout North America. But what sets the family-owned Kitchen Kompact apart from other cabinet companies is its business model: Not only is the company a pure assembler, but it also buys material and builds to inventory versus the more common practice of just-in-time production.

According to John Gahm, vice president of manufacturing, this enables Kitchen Kompact to meet the needs of the marketplace while providing fast lead times to stock distributors [like American Cabinet & Flooring]. "We buy to inventory, work-in-process to inventory and produce finished goods for inventory," Gahm says.

It's no small inventory. Kitchen Kompact currently stocks approximately 40,000 finished cabinets, with a capacity for 100,000. "This has allowed us to adjust quickly to market fluctuations," he adds. 

The business model has proven highly successful for Kitchen Kompact, while enabling it to keep an estimated 200 employees busy producing cabinetry for sale to single- and multi-family residences. 

"The company was founded on keeping things simple -- and simplistic," Gahm says.

Simplistic refers to Kitchen Kompact's niche as a pure assembler. Components are purchased already cut to size, leaving the company to focus its strengths on finishing and assembly. And as a side benefit, the company has essentially eliminated the cost and production justifications needed for large amounts of manufacturing equipment, particularly during slowdown periods. 

Recognizing that it "cannot be all things to all people," Kitchen Kompact keeps things simple by offering a compact line of cabinetry. The five standard styles of face-frame cabinetry are: Glenwood Beech, featuring recessed panel doors; Bretwood, with maple flat panel doors in a warm tone; Mellowood, featuring natural maple flat panel doors; Richwood Lite, with oak raised-panel doors and a subtle woodgrain pattern; and Chadwood, the company's oldest and best-selling line featuring oak flat panel doors. The select style and colors, the company says, "represent the volume segment, or approximately 75% of the market."

Glenwood Beech

Bretwood

Mellowood

Richwood LiteChadwood 

Production Detail

It was 1955 that Dwight Gahm purchased a small custom cabinet company and changed its course forever. His philosophy then, as now, drives the company's success: "We will offer a quality product at a reasonable price and, most importantly, deliver these goods in the most dependable lead time in the industry."

It starts at the 750,000-square-foot plant where processing of the wood components - doors, drawers, upper and lower cases - is done in departments located throughout the plant. 

"We just do sanding, finishing, drilling and then assemble with hotmelt and staples. We keep our costs down as loo as possible - that's what keeps us competitive," John Gahm says.

Thousands of cabinet components fly through the shop on miles of overhead and automated floor conveyors to the appropriate areas. The movement throughout the plant is continuous due to the large volume of products being readied daily for inventory, plus the high production of cabinets constructed by Kitchen Kompact each day. 

A combination of solid wood and CARB compliant composite cores are used for the cabinetry construction. The company says hanging rails, corner blocks, toe kicks, face frames and drawer fronts are made from solid wood. The frames are ¾-inch solid oak, maple or beech, and the end panels are a three-ply construction, with a ½-inch thick core and hardwood veneer. Plywood drawers are standard. 

The components are assembled using a combination of mortise-and-tenon joinery, adhesives and stapling. All wood parts are stained, sealed and topcoated in-house in a four-step finishing process. 

Among the equipment used in the plant are Graco and DeVilbiss  HVLP and air-assisted airless sprayers, Carlson Systems assembly machines, as well as custom machinery. The company also utilizes sanders from Timesavers and Northtech Machinery.

Recently installed, the Northtech industrial widebelt sanders are arranged in a line as a two-head calibrator plus three-head finishing sander, with a tie-in conveyor, for face-frame processing. In other areas, Timesavers sanders, including the 3300 Series variable feed-speed widebelt with electronic belt tracking and double infeed and outfeed hold-down rolls, also are used in tandem.

Quality control is a plant-wide endeavor and finished cabinetry is ANSI/KCMA A161.1 certified. 

Sustainable Initiatives

In addition, since 2007 Kitchen Kompact's products have been certified sustainable under the Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association's Environmental Stewardship Program (ESP). Gahm adds that ESP's holistic approach to sustainable manufacturing ties in with the company's environmental initiatives.

Kitchen Kompact continually looks for ways to improve processes and reduce waste in the operation. Among its efforts are the collection of woodwaste for an alternative fuel source, the installation of a cardboard compactor and increased recycling of other materials.

A CARB-compliant product, Kitchen Kompact's cabinetry also can contribute to toward LEED credits through points earned under: MR 2 Construction Waste Management, MR 3 Materials Reuse, MR 4 Recycled Content and MR 5 Regional Materials.

Its sustainability also provides the cabinet company with a marketing edge. Kitchen Kompact promotes its certification and other initiatives on its website, KitchenKompact.com, in literature and in conversations with customers. 

(You are reading an article origianlly published in Wood Products magazine May 2013)

Sustainability in Floorcovering

The concept of sustainability had not reached the floorcovering industry in 1992. Sustainability was first defined by the Brundtland Commission of the United Nations in 1987 but it took several years to impact the flooring business.

During the early 1990s, many companies had aggressive environment management systems (EMS), but none had taken the steps necessary to move EMS from a tactical management tool into a strategy that integrated sustainability as part of the overall business strategy. This time was one of regulatory compliance and cost containment. The focus was on conservation of resources, energy consumption and costs, water consumption and processing, and compliance with clean air acts. No one was looking at sustainability as a driver for the industry over the next 20 years. However, change was inevitable as the industry leaders began the journey toward sustainability that thrives today.

The landscape of sustainability began a rapid transformation in the mid-1990s. Companies began to publicize their efforts in environment impact reduction and publicly share their goals of environmental stewardship. During this period of time, meaningful steps were made in educating the industry on the impacts that materials, processes, transportation and reclamation had on the environment. Many organizations attempted to use sustainability as a marketing tool. The greenwashing associated with these efforts resulted in the creation and implementation of standards by which products could be rated as sustainable. Through these times of rapid change in the sustainability arena, the floorcovering industry was positioning itself as the sustainability leader in the interiors product segment. 

One of the early drivers that brought focus to the need for a deeper understanding of products and their impacts was the concern over indoor air quality. This issue brought the flooring industry together in an effort to dispel false information and to instill confidence into the marketplace that flooring was not a contributor to sick building syndrome. From this effort, standards for indoor air quality were developed. These were leading standards for the interiors industry. In later years, this success contributed to the cooperation among manufacturers in crating sustainable flooring standards. These holistic product, manufacturing and social responsibility standards served as a template for numerous other industries. Today, most flooring has been subjected to some type of environmental measure - a lifecycle assessment study (LCA), an environmental product declaration (EPD), or some of the many other certification and standard evaluations. 

Another watershed moment for the industry was the United States Green Building Council's (USGBC) introduction of its LEED green building certficiation. This standard and others to follow reinforced the market's demand for sustainable products. Today, many of the products manufactured provide all the credits available to flooring under these standards. 

Leading manufacturers realized that just making sustainable products was not enough; the manufacturing of these products must also be made utilizing sustainable practices and processes. The adoption of ISO 14001 as a leading measure of manufacturing facilities became standard. Resources were committed to the development of new processes for manufacturing to reduce the environmental impact that manufacturing bore. Products changed from heavy weights for performance to lower weights with tighter constructions. A key tenet of sustainable products - make more with less and make products that last longer - became commonplace. The industry realized that you cannot make green products in brown factories. 

While the key focus of the industry was on sustainable products, manufacturing and processes, it was realized that tons of potentially valuable resources were being landfilled at the end of a floorcovering's useful life. The challenges of transformation of products engineered to perform for extended life to products engineered to perform for extended life to products with components easily separated and recovered were many. The industry continues to work on the transformation of materials that meet the requirements of performance, cost and ease of reuse/recycling. Through the leadership of the Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE), the carpet industry sought alternative uses for products that were reaching the end of their useful lives. Since CARE's beginning in 2002, more than 2.3 billion pounds of carpet had been diverted from landfills in the U.S. Not only has CARE been influential in the diversion of carpet from the landfill but by doing so had helped fuel a new industry to recycle and renew old carpet. 

During the last decade, the triple bottom line had been adopted as the overall approach to sustainability by leading companies. The phrase was coined by John Elkington in his 1997 book, Cannibals with Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business. The triple bottom line is a balance of environmental stewardship, social responsibility and economic viability. The approach towards sustainability to include more than environmental stewardship has expanded the boundaries of sustainability for every company. Now we must mange the social responsibility challenges along with environmental impacts, all while being fiscally responsible. Companies are rising to the commitment to be good neighbors as well as creating jobs. Using the triple bottom line idea allows industry to balance doing good with a cross-sectional approach.

As we look into the furture, sustainability will continue to be an important part of the product and manufacturing landscape. It is proven that with sustainability filters in place, products can be produced more efficiently, materials can be chosen that are better for the environment, and it has also been shown that green products and manufacturing do not have to cost more. As we continue our journey toward sustainability, predicting what is around the next corner is difficult, but the flooring industry had proven it is up to the challenge and will continue to lead in sustainable practices. 

Twenty Key Elements in Flooring Sustainability

• Bio-based Content
• Green Energy (solar, wind, hydro, etc.)
• Recycled Content
• Third-party Certifications
• Cradle to Cradle Philosophy
• PET Reuse
• Landfill Methane
• Dematerialization
• CARE (Carpet America Recovery Effort)
• Closed Loop Recycling
• LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)
• ISO (International Standards Organization)
• Rapidly Renewable Materials
• LCAs (Life Cycle Assessments)
• Green Installation Systems (click systems, LokDots, water based adhesives, TacTiles)
• Waste Reduction
• Waste Water Reuse
• EPDs (Environmental Product Declarations)
• Cogeneration
• Local Manufacturing

Mastercraft Cabinets

How Mastercraft Cabinets Contribute Towards LEED® Certification Points

Whether you're striving to achieve LEED certification for a project or you're simply interested in practicing good environmental principles, Mastercraft, as a responsible manufacturer, utilizes sustainable processes that may contribute towards LEED certification points.

Mastercraft may help your building or project acheive LEED certification by contributing towards credits in one key area: Materials and Resources.

Materials and Resources Credit 4 - Recycled Content

Mastercraft cabinets constructed from particle board are manufactured with at least 20% recycled material by weight and can contribute towards earning up to 2 certification points. 

The Mastercraft cabinet products mentioned above may help you achieve LEED certification by contributing towards overall certification points, but the use of our cabinets alone will not qualify your project for LEED certification. Mastercraft cabinets are only a part of the building process and therefore need to be included in the project's total calculations. The project's total calculations will determine whether or not the project qualifies for LEED certification. 

For a great online resource, visit the U.S. Green Buidling Council website at: www.usgbc.org. We recommend their 'frequently asked questions' section. 

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