CAD Drafting Services for the Woodworking Industry

As outside drafting services come of age in the woodworking industry, outside drafting subcontractors are a developing phenomenon who come in all sizes and flavors. Some are CAD based, some are not. While metropolitan areas often have individual subcontractors who are part of the fabric of the industry, there are a limited number of firms who do business both regionally and nationally.

Outside CAD services can provide distinct advantages to the woodworker. They offer increased drafting/engineering muscle at peak periods without the additional costs of training or increased overhead. CAD libraries offer cost savings over time when you maintain a relationship with the same service. Details developed in-house can be exchanged with the service if your department is itself CAD based. Lastly, you can realize modest savings on a job-by-job basis if you work on a fixed bid basis and have a realistic understanding of your own drafting costs.

The growth of outside CAD drafting services in the woodworking industry is in part an outgrowth of developing financial and structural conditions in the wider manufacturing world. Their presence reflects the trend to down-size and out-task, the new corporate buzz-words. On the technical end, CAD has become the coin of the realm in the drafting world, but non-engineering oriented manufacturing industries, such as custom woodworking, have lagged behind in this development.

This article will look at outside drafting services for the woodworking industry through the following issues: history of the trade, why to consider it (operations), cost benefits, and company preferences.

History
In the United States, unlike Europe, there has been scant education for drafting as specifically tied to the woodworking industry. There is certainly some training in high school level tech programs, but it often leaves a great deal to be desired. In general, hiring woodworking draftsmen means training a craftsman to draw, or vice versa. The pool is pretty thin, and as any department head can attest, hiring and training is often an exasperating experience.

American woodworkers have various relationships with drafting. Small shops don't use it; architectural woodworking companies depend on it grudgingly; the kitchen cabinet and related trades reference stock drawings; and production furniture manufacturers tend to use highly detailed parts drawing to help rationalize production.

These wood manufacturing niches have very different types of in-house drafting departments, and will have different needs of outside services.

Why Look to the Outside?
Custom outside drafting services work primarily with custom shops. This is because of the feast or famine nature of the business, and the lack of drafting staff in smaller shops. A mid to large size custom shop might consider going to a drafting service the way it would consider farming out plastic laminate boxes in order to save its in-house manpower for more skilled work. Small shops can consider these services to fill a void when the need arises.

There is no accounting for the work flow in custom woodworking - it's hard to avoid being under or over booked. The current manufacturing wisdom on this is: keep your staff lean and contract work out to accommodate peaks. This is the engine that keeps many third party box shops and small local wood shops alive, and that provides solid profitability to mid and large size architectural woodworking and store fixture manufacturers.

The same attitude is useful at the drafting/engineering end of your operation. We have all alternately underutilized skilled drafters and pushed them to the brink. If outside drafters are an option, in-house staff can concentrate on work where timing and/or coordination is critical, while repetitive or long-lead jobs can be subbed out to a service. Large jobs can also be broken up, with the head of the department using a familiar outside service the way he would a third or fourth in-house person.

An outside service can also provide CAD capabilities when they are useful, but not available, in-house. Small shops have no drafting staff, so outside services are an option when a client requires drawings for approval, or for extremely complicated work. For these situations, an outside drafting service can bring in work that would otherwise go elsewhere.

Woodworking manufacturers generally have two very real reservations about using an outside service: cost and control. You can get into trouble on both of these fronts - and anyone who has worked with an outside service probably has - but there is no real reason why cost or control should go south. As in all working relationships, you need to pay attention to and agree about the ground rules. It is essential to have a firm cost proposal and to know your subcontractor's capabilities.

There are numerous horror stories about agreeing to a per drawing price and then getting twenty drawings for a job where you figured twelve. Price per drawing may be a good estimating tool, but it's not a good way to do business. Any drafting service worth its salt will give you a fixed, lump sum price. This can include plotting or not, and it can include revisions or not (if the service has pencil capabilities and/or you have a plotter). You may prefer to work hourly or at an upset maximum, which should be agreeable all around.

The original article appears on www.woodweb.com