Jim O.: Hello.
I'm Jim Oberlander with Twig Custom Builders.
I'm one of the owning partners and we're located here in Denver, Colorado.
Jim O.: Here at Twig, we specialize in solutions for alternative housing.
We do a lot of work with tiny homes, van conversions.
We do teardrop trailers, camper trailers, things of that nature.
What we've found is that a lot of the folks who are doing that work are smaller shops
and when they get into some of the more complex elements of their construction, they get bogged
down with a lot of time and expense.
Jim O.: We've been able to create solutions for that market that allows us to take our
products and feed them into those builders or DIY builders and we feed those products
into the market and that helps them transition more quickly through each unit and helps the
DIY builder complete their unit.
Jim O.: We provide pre-packaged flat-pack staircases, pre-packaged flat-pack custom
cabinetry, but we have the opportunity to deliver it in a flat-package, ready-cut package
that then a DIY or a pro builder can assemble themselves.
Jim O.: Labor's our single biggest cost component.
All our other indirect expenses are much smaller than our labor expense and so we were trying
to figure a solution to that and that got us looking towards the Laguna Smartshop II.
Jim O.: When we added the Smartshop II into our process, suddenly many of those routine
labor expenses began to come down.
We found we were actually using less material.
We were handling less material.
We had fewer errors and on repetitive processes, we could repeat exactly with precision, exactly
that operation.
Jim O.: When we found that for ourselves, we thought that we could then externalize
that, and we could offer it to other pro builders and that actually led to our new direction
as a business, where now we're a part cutter.
We make parts, ready-packed, for DIY builders or pro builders, and we couldn't do it without
Laguna Smartshop II.
Jim O.: One of the things that we've been able to do is we've been able to transition
to cutting panels as quickly as six minutes per panel, using our Schmalz vacuum lifter,
which we also got from Laguna and was recommended to us as a solution by Laguna.
We'd never heard of the process before and without Laguna's expertise, we wouldn't have
been able to incorporate that into our process as well.
Jim O.: Most importantly, that means that my crews now have very little risk ergonomically
in the processes that they're doing.
Before, we used to have to take sheets from a cart, lift them into place, flip them, set
them, and then remove them from the machine.
Now, with the vacuum lifter, combined with the Smartshop II, we're able to float, literally
one-handed, a 50-lb.
panel from a stack onto the machine, cut it off the machine and onto a completed stack
of panels.
Jim O.: Being able to do that really makes a huge difference by the end of the day, especially
for our guys that are running those panels.
But it also makes a difference in the speed with which we're able to do things.
Things that would take an entire day now, literally are condensed down to about 15 to
30 minutes, and we can be exactly repeatable from one day to a month in the future.
All I have to do is get that file, select it, and run that exact same file and that
part will be exactly the same as it was a month ago, the last time we did it.
Jim O.: One of the things we found with the Smartshop II is that it's easily configurable
to match our exact work process.
An example of that is, using the Schmalz vacuum lifter, we have a gantry that moves fully
back and forth across the top of the table.
What that meant is, it prevented us from being able to bring our dust collection down from
the ceiling as you see in nearly every other C&C instance.
Jim O.: We had to come up with a solution for it and the Smartshop II is robust enough,
and the SUV package gives a heavier gantry, that we were able to make some customizations
and attachments directly to the gantry that then drives that dust collection system while
the machine is working.
By doing that, we're able to pass the gantry back and forth fully from end to end, side
to side of the table, with no conflict with the Smartshop II or its dust collection.
Jim O.: With our process, as soon as we added the Smartshop II, we began to have people
coming to us, asking us, "Could we?"
With the Smartshop II, the answer has always been, "Yes, we can."
Literally, if we can draw it, we can cut it.
Jim O.: We had a very specific niche that we were intending to service and by adding
the Laguna, one of the things it did was it blew that niche wide open.
We now have folks coming from a variety of different industries, that are coming to us
to cut their parts and to solve some of their problems.
Jim O.: Really, we don't even look at it as a tool for cutting, we look at it as a tool
for solving problems.
The only limitation that we have is our own creativity and how we approach those things
and every day that we go along, we realize how much more our Smartshop II SUV can do.
Again, the limitation is strictly with us and our creativity.