The biggest way our company has changed over the past decade has been the change from physical templating to a Digital Laser Templating System. Before using this system our skilled templaters would manually make a template of plastic strips on top of the installed kitchen units, cut around the walls, glued together with a glue gun and allowed to set on site. They would then draw a picture of the template. The templates were then brought back to the workshop where they would be checked against the templater’s drawing and the original plan drawings before manufacturing could commence.
Digital Laser Templating has revolutionised the way in which we work, no longer do we have to create a physical copy of the worksurfaces, the only thing our templaters need to take is a case containing the laser, meaning that they can drive cars instead of vans, reducing our CO2 emissions and carbon footprint. The replacement of plastic strips also has the advantages of not having to cut around angles and curves on walls and not waiting for glue guns to heat up or for the glue to set on the templates before they can be transported back to the workshop. The laser templating system also creates a digital drawing of the worksurfaces and has a built in digital camera for taking site photographs.
This substantial investment in the LT-55 Laser templating system has allowed us to employee skilled laser templaters based throughout the UK. A project templated any number of miles away can be emailed direct to the office from the PC that runs the laser via a hotspot on a mobile phone. This increases productivity as there is no need to drive back to the workshop to drop off templates.
The time it takes to template a kitchen is dramatically reduced, from up to 2 hours to being able to template a 60 square foot project in approximately 15 minutes, including set up and break down time. This means less disruption for clients who lead busy lives. It also means we can template a higher number of jobs per day and more intricate jobs with greater ease.
The improved precision and speed of the laser templating system and the accessibility of having all the information online has streamlined our production process and increased the amount of projects we can schedule with hugely positive results.
