Breaking into the RTA storage market.

Knape & Vogt uses its acquired facilities to set up a ready-to-assemble wood storage systems line.

There's a new player in the ready-to-assemble wood storage market.

Knape & Vogt is taking the plunge into the RTA market with its new Space Solutions line of wood storage, stacker and closet systems. The company which first introduced its venerable wall-mount-ed adjustable steel shelving system 60 years ago is now emphasizing appearance and ease of construction with its new Space Solutions line, constructed of laminated particleboard and held together by cam fasteners.

"We're going full speed with this project," said Mike Leonard, product manager. "Today, households with two incomes are accumulating more extensive wardrobes. People want to upgrade their closet space and they want systems constructed of wood instead of the older wire closet storage systems because wood looks stronger, like it will be there forever.

"We did extensive market research to decide what direction to go in, and when we asked consumers what they would target in their house for upgrading, they overwhelmingly answered closets," said Leonard.

The proof is in the packaging

Knape & Vogt, headquartered in Grand Rapids, Mich., began looking for a new project two years ago, after purchasing a manufacturing facility in Skokie, III. The company wanted to explore the possibilities of a joint manufacturing venture among its facilities.

The Space Solutions RTA storage line is a true joint venture for Knape & Vogt. The Benton Harbor, Mich., facility purchases the particleboard and laminates, cuts, edgebands and machines the panels before sending them to the Skokie facility for assembly and packaging. Knape & Vogt's shop in Grand Rapids manufactures the drawer slides used in the cabinet drawers, and the Muncie, Ind., facility manufactures the wire baskets used in the cabinets.

After two years of market research and product development, Knape & Vogt's Space Solutions line was formally introduced at the National Hardware Show held in Chicago in August.

"We hope to have major home center placement by the first of the year," said Leonard. "We already have a good relationship with the home centers from our specialty hardware business, but we anticipate a longer lead-in because RTA storage is already a competitive market."

Although Knape & Vogt is a newcomer to the RTA storage market sold in home centers, the company said it has a formula for success. "The Space Solutions line is designed to upgrade closet storage and make it easier to assemble with clear packaging and solid construction," said Leonard. "We have focused on manufacturing a superior product with superior packaging, but with competitive prices. Because of our unique joint manufacturing setup, we'll be able to deliver a superior product without translating higher manufacturing costs into higher retail prices."

Knape & Vogt says the 5/8-inch-thick laminated particleboard used in the Space Solutions line makes the product sturdier and able to handle just about anything a consumer would want to store on it. To make assembly easier, cam fasteners and miter-fold drawers are used.

There are more than 50 products in the Space Solutions line divided among three different systems: the storage stacker system, the storage cabinet system and the custom closet system. The systems are modular, so consumers can design and build their own units with the help of point-of-purchase posters and tear-sheet planners. The components also carry icons that inform the consumer which system each individual unit belongs with.

"We felt that one of the most important aspects of launching a new RTA storage line was to make it easier for the consumer to understand and build," said Leonard. "We felt that packaging was the key and we spent a lot of time making the packaging and instructions easy to follow. The point-of-purchase brochures, posters and tear-sheet planners make it easier for the consumers to coordinate the stacker, cabinet or closet system they need."

The Benton Harbor factory

Knape & Vogt's Benton Harbor facility was purchased in the early 1970s and since then has been busy doing contract work and manufacturing the panels used in Knape & Vogt's shelving products. With the introduction of the Space Solutions System, the Benton Harbor plant is taking on a larger role within the company.

"Our outside contracting is still a portion of our business, where it will probably stay. We are busy receiving, laminating and machining the particleboard for the Space Solutions line," said Gary Cichon, vice president and general manager.

"We anticipate sales of the new Space Solutions line to significantly impact Knape & Vogt's volume of business," said Leonard. "The Benton Harbor facility will play a large role in this new venture."

The Benton Harbor plant is 150,000 square feet, with 89 employees, 21 of whom have over 10 years of service with Knape & Vogt. The plant keeps approximately 1 million square feet of particleboard in stock for all the products it manufactures. The board is 5/8-inch-thick and generally comes to the shop in 4-foot by 8-foot sheets. "We don't really do just-in-time manufacturing because the boards come in by rail and truck with a delivery time between four and five weeks," said Cichon.

When the boards are ready to be used, they are first sent through a Black Bros. cleaner which brushes dirt and other particulates off the surface of the panels before laminating.

Next, because the panels occasionally come in with frost on them from the long train ride during the winter, they are sent through a preheater which warms them to between 60F and 70F The pre-heater was built at the Benton Harbor facility last year. "We couldn't find a pre-heater that did what we wanted it to do, so we built it here for one-third of the price it would have cost us to buy it," said Dick Rigler, plant manager.

The particleboard panels continue on the conveyor belt into a Monco three-roll hotmelt laminator. As the boards come through the laminator, the laminates are automatically placed on the top and bottom of the substrate.

Rigler said the laminate sets almost instantaneously. Workers on the line trim the edges off the laminate as the panels move down the conveyor line.

The laminated panels are then inspected by a worker further down the line. The plant uses CDM 60-gram laminates on the boards. Laminates are white for the Space Solutions line, but the stackers will also be available in black. Rigler said the facility keeps approximately 6 million square feet of laminate in stock. Yellow lights help to draw attention to imperfections on the top of each board, and a mirror allows the inspector to check the bottom of each board.

The panels are removed from the line and stacked in bunks of 40 sheets to await machining. Bunks of laminated panels are brought by forklift to the panel sizing area.

Up to seven 5/8-inch panels are moved into the cutting area to be crossed and ripped at once by a high-speed Giben 17 angular panel saw. These panels are cut into a variety of sizes, depending on the part to be produced. The largest part in the Space Solutions line is 14 inches by 83 1/2 inches, and the smallest is a 6-inch drawer front.

The Benton Harbor facility is expecting to start up a third panel saw, a Holzma, in April to help the shop meet its increasing manufacturing demands.

The panels are then stacked on an automated conveyor system which moves them to one of two fully automated Homag edgebanding lines capable of doing all four sides in one pass. Rigler said he expects to have a third Homag fully operational by June 1. The panels go through one edgebander which does the first edge and continue down the 130-foot line where a second side can be done. The panels can then be automatically turned and continue down where a double-sided edgebander can complete the process.

A Weeke feed-through boring machine simultaneously drills the tops, sides and bottoms of the boards, using the 32mm system, to make space for the dowels, cam fasteners, cam shafts and hardware used to assemble the Space Solutions systems. Bit holders on the machine hold up to 16 drill bits. The shop also has a Busellato Super Junior CNC point-to-point drill with routing and grooving capabilities, an Alberti TF-36 CNC feed through point-to-point drill and an Alberti B-5 CNC point-to-point drill/router.

Each machine in the shop has its own dust collection unit, and all wood waste is ground up in a Vortex grinder. Some of the waste is sent to a company in Grand Rapids that uses it to fire kilns, and some is given to chicken farms for bedding. "Before we got the grinder, we used to send two or three containers of wood waste a day to the landfill. Now, because we can grind the wood and pack it in, there are two or three containers a week going out to be used in other places," said Cichon.

The finished boards leave Benton Harbor and arrive in Skokie for packaging and shipping. Knape & Vogt's Grand Rapids facility ships drawer slides to Skokie and the Muncie shop ships the wire baskets for packaging. Knape & Vogt buys the concealed hinges for Space Solutions from Salice and the mitered drawers from Eurodrawer. The Benton Harbor facility cannot produce the mitered drawers because the drawers are laminated with vinyl.

The big push

Knape & Vogt plans on giving Space Solutions a big media push to get it started, and then expects it to catch on with consumers. The company once known only for its specialty hardware division is optimistic about its new venture into the RTA storage market.

"The stigma that RTA furniture is low-quality is disappearing," said Cichon. "It's getting very hard to tell whether some of the new RTA furniture is actually RTA or fully assembled. It's better built, easier to assemble and easier to take apart."