SWOOD - Woodworking CAD/CAM

We have several routes to market at Utopia, one of them being contracts. That is quite time sensitive where we'll have an inquiry come in from the customer and we have to design and react in price, back to the customer within a small timescale and then if that price is accepted, we have to react with it and get it through production and out to the customer within a short time-frame. SOLIDWORKS and SWOOD has helped us do that, by having everything set up already so as soon as we get an order come in we can find the right units, change its size and shape and issue the data that's needed quite quickly.

One of the areas where we could look at is bespoke bathroom furniture, where we have customer specific design so they they'll come in and visit our showroom. We could then use the visualise software to develop visuals for them in order to finalise the design. Once that has been done we can use the software then to program the machines downstairs, turn around concepts quite quickly in order to give the customer the furniture they want in a short timescale.

First of all will generate the 3D model in SOLIDWORKS and then use wood to do all the programming of the panels themselves but also the CAD model will have associated data so everything for the MRP system, we can use that then to feed the MRP system within within the CAD Data. Once we've got the 3D assembly and from that we can create a bit of materials within SOLIDWORKS. We then use the design report function within SWOOD to generate an automatic spreadsheet which is then used to import into our MRP system so it removes a lot of the manual intervention which eliminates or can reduce human error within data. Data becomes more accurate, more consistent throughout the business as well which obviously helps within other departments of the business. We also use the software to create production drawings, detailed production drawings, both of the panels and the assembly. So as we introduce new furniture into the business we can use those assembly drawings to go down and explain to the guys on the assembly line how the furniture goes together to give them a visual but also a list of parts that go into the furniture as well.

One of our biggest challenges was to pull all that data together, to make it consistent,so that it helps improve manufacturing efficiencies. Another big challenge that we had was the link between our CAD data and the MRP system. So it was quite labour intensive to get the data into the MRP system. We now can bridge that gap or resolve that by automating that process from the CAD data.

The machines that we have downstairs, the majority of them are NC controlled but the way we had the programs created was manually. So a guy would take our drawings if they were available and manually create the programs. One of the issues that we have downstairs is that some of our machines have different operating systems so it means different file formats etc. So it was quite a task to manage all of those different file types from a manual perspective. We overcame that with the SWOOD environment because we have several post processes developed for each machine downstairs, so using the CAD data we can generate the report for almost any machine downstairs now automatically straight from the CAD data so it's all managed. Any changes that we do. We can quickly update the machine programs and by a few clicks of the button rather than waiting for a guy to have to go down and manually update them.

We introduced SWOOD and we have some training from Solid Solutions and then we quickly picked that up and found our feet quite quickly really. And since then we've developed it by using more of the advanced techniques by creating our own connectors, our own SWOOD boxes, frames and things like that as well. So the transition was relatively painless I would say.

The training and support we've had from it has been fantastic. We send an e-mail and often within an hour we either get a phone call or an e-mail back. We use team viewer quite a lot so they can share screens to see what issues we're having firsthand and almost fixed the problem there and then if it's possible, but if not the guys will go away and we'll get an answer relatively quickly and certainly as quick as we would expect it. It has been really good support.