Unitech Oxon – a family run kitchen and bedroom furniture manufacturer based out of Banbury – has been providing bespoke designer kitchens for the past twenty-five years throughout Oxfordshire and surrounding areas. The independent company is continuously expanding, embracing new ideas and technologies to streamline and enhance their production methods. Unitech Oxon utilises some of the most advanced woodworking machinery and automation software available, providing them a competitive edge in their market.
But as Unitech explains, life was not always so high-tech. “In the early days, our workshop and everything we built was fairly standard. We had a standard product line that had fixed constructing methods and we relied on manual processes to create programs for our CNC machinery. We produced quality products, but our workflows were far from high-tech or automated.”
As Unitech Oxon’s business grew, their need for mass production increased. “We started to take on more projects which meant we needed to ramp up our production to keep up with the demand for our products. With the increased volume and stacked sheets of material being processed through our beam saw, the accuracy of our parts declined. If we wanted to maintain our reputation for quality and grow our company, we knew it was necessary to improve our machinery and workflows.”
Unitech’s search for new machinery led them to Anderson, manufacturers of CNC-controlled precision machine tools, where they were also introduced to an all-in-one, AutoCAD-based manufacturing platform from Microvellum. “After a demonstration of the software and its capabilities, we knew straight away that Microvellum was going to be the solution that would help us redefine our workflows. It would help us move forward into the future of manufacturing.”
Microvellum’s platform has been developed to handle all aspects of wood product manufacturing, including design, drafting, estimating, engineering, CNC production, and reporting. Its open architecture allows users to be in full control of the products manufactured with the system, as Unitech puts it, “down to every detail”.
“We used to offer a standard product at a time when everyone wanted bespoke. We were accommodating and made our customers happy, but that manual, one-off work caused delays and frustration throughout our workshop. With Microvellum, we can customise anything and everything - right down to the little details. Now, nothing we do is standard, and everything comes customised. There are so many variations in what we do. We have even setup different construction and machining specifications for repeat clients, which was not possible before.”
Today, the crew at Unitech Oxon are busier than ever. They have added to their sales team, expanded into new showrooms, are exploring new markets, a larger factory, and the possibility of adding new machinery to complement their line-up of other CNC equipment.
“For us, implementing Microvellum was a game changer. Not only did it help us provide more flexible options for our customers, but it also helped move us into the future of manufacturing where everything is centralised and connected. We can make changes to any product and with the click of a button, our production team has the updated CNC code, drawings, and reports. It provides the flexibility for mass customisations that we needed, combined with the power to keep everything streamlined throughout our entire workshop.” Unitech concluded.
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