1. THARP CABINET CORP.
EXPERIENTIAL FIELD PROJECT BY
JJSM:
Matt Bender, Sean Whitney, Jerry Kinzie, Jack Liggett

2. ABOUT THARP
Formed in 1971
Tharp designs, manufactures, delivers, and installs custom
cabinetry in cities throughout Colorado and Wyoming
 Denver, Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, Cheyenne, and the mountain communities of
Winter Park, Steamboat Springs, Vail, and Breckenridge

3. THARP’S SUPPLY CHAIN OVERVIEW
Purchase raw material from 2 main wood suppliers
All production is based on the pull of customers
Materials flow through production in 16 days
Assembly and Delivery take 6 days
total lead time = 22 days
Delivery and Installation of products

5. SUPPLY CHAIN MAP

6. KEY MATERIALS PURCHASING PARTNERS
2 wood suppliers for the 11
types of wood offered
 Hardwoods
 Packston
1 main door supplier
 Decorative
40+ suppliers for other
production essentials
Pull Purchasing

7. SALES AND CUSTOMER ORIENTATION
In-house showroom and sales staff
Use a Computer Aided Design (CAD) system to
design full cabinet layout with customer
Customers can view their order progress all the
way through production

8. PRODUCTION STATISTICS
Tharp has a 22 day lead time on fully customized cabinets
 Shortest is the industry
Make cabinets in:
 11 different woods
 Each wood can be stained 9 different ways, 7 painted colors, and 8 “colored
stain and glaze” styles
 28 different style doors to complete the cabinets
 They also offer the option of “distressed” wood
So if your counting that’s 14,784 different cabinets that Tharp can custom
build to any specific size
 Tharp also offers to match any color or stain you already have installed for a
small fee

9. FACTOR SPECIFICATIONS
Only 1 factory/warehouse, located in
Loveland
(middle of major markets)
At capacity, one 8 hour shift can process
14,000 board feet
Maintain Quality: 7 step hand sanding
process
43,504 total sq. ft. of production area
A custom built Enterprise Recourse
Planning system tracks each order
 Customers can view progress online
 Quality control: managers must sign off on every
piece of wood before sending it on to next department

10. PRODUCTION
Try to keep the process as
straight-lined and lean as
possible
Flows from:
 Cut Facility
 Door Facility
 Cabinet Backs
 Assembly
Cabinets are held,
unassembled, until customer
is ready to install them
30% of waste is recycled by
Tharp the rest is recycled as
sawdust by an outside
company

11. Flow of Materials Recycling Unit
Areas with 2 levels
Engineers’ Offices

12. SCM PRINCIPLES PRACTICED IN PRODUCTION
LEAN OTHER PRINCIPLES
Focus and Improve flow Systems thinking of
through production
with use of single Cut production in total
Sheet Minimize inventory
Maximize Value-Added by working with
time
suppliers to
Use the Pull of
Customers to minimize lead-
perfectly forecast time
Constant improvement Use Quality Control
process
Cleanliness

13. DELIVERY AND INSTALLATION
Customers have the option to deliver and install the cabinets themselves
 Most General Contractors choose this option (about 20% of total sales)
Tharp does all their own Logistics
 Use delivery trucks driven by installation teams to deliver products anywhere within 200
miles
Minimizes waste, saves money, and promotes sustainable business practices by
wrapping their products for protection instead of boxing them

14. RECOMMENDATIONS
1.) Purchase the 2.) Add space to the 3.) Build a larger
necessary main production warehouse to hold
equipment to make facility so that it can fully assembled
all cuts necessary be better straight- orders and achieve
for all doors. lined on one floor. full truckload
deliveries.

15. NEW DOOR FACILITY
Needs about $1.6 million
of doors annually
 All bought from Decorative, in
California, until 2009
Decided to build their own
new door facility in 2009
 Shortened lead time by 2 days
 Saved 25% of all door costs
Still order 30% of doors
from Decorative
because Tharp lacks the
technology to make
certain cuts

16. RECOMMENDATION #1: DOORS
Tharp should invest in
new technology so
that they can
produce all their
doors In-house
 Make-Buy Analysis
 No Lead Time
 No Up-Stream flow from
accidentally damaged
doors

17. MAKE/BUY ANALYSIS
1800000
1600000
1400000 $1,320,000.00
$1,200,000.00
1200000
Doors Made ($)
1000000
Doors Bought ($)
800000
600000 Total Annual Cost of
Doors
400000
200000
0
Current Recommendation #1

18. Areas with 2 levels
Engineers’ Offices
Fork Lifts

19. RECOMMENDATION #2: PRODUCTION FACILITY
Current facility is
spread out over
multiple floors in
the factory.
Put all production on
one floor in a
straight-lined path
for efficiency
 No worries about the
safety of forklifts
 Decrease time moving
materials between
departments

20. STORAGE FACILITY ISSUES
Area for storing assembled cabinets is very
small
Forced to store cabinets unassembled until
customer is ready for delivery
Assembly then adds a week onto delivery
time
Backups when multiple customers are ready
for delivery during the same week

21. RECOMMENDATION #3: STORAGE FACILITY
Tharp should build a
new Storage
Facility
Shorter lead time on
deliveries
Reduces bottleneck
during assembly
phase
Reduces shipment
delays during
weeks they have
multiple orders

22. CONCLUSIONS
Although our recommendations require an
initial investment, Tharp Cabinets would
benefit financially in the long run.

23. QUESTIONS?