It’s on our tag line, but what is it? Why did we chose the tag line “Engineered-to-Order Wood Ceilings,” when we could have used “Custom Wood Ceilings?” What is Engineered-To-Order Manufacturing, anyway? Expressed simply, it is a technical term Operation Geeks use to describe very custom and usually complex manufacturing processes. We like to use this operations-biased term because we believe operations is really the heart and soul of our business. We are a fabricator. By using the tag line, we tip our hat to the central role that flexible, yet disciplined, operations play at 9Wood.

In a general sense, it refers to one of four manufacturing environments:

1. Engineered-to-Order (ETO)  [e.g., Spec construction, aircraft carriers]
2. Made-to-Order (MTO)  [e.g., Residential homes from plans, window blinds]
3. Assembled-to-Order (ATO)  [e.g., Mobile homes, Dell™ computers]
4. Made-to-Stock (MTS)  [e.g., Acoustic ceiling tiles, cell phones]

Fabrication techniques vary with each competitive situation because each environment presents different challenges. These differences involve many processes, but the chief concerns are costs, lead-times, and flexibility surrounding custom designs. Other key elements involve levels of employee expertise required and the level of collaboration needed between architect, contractor and supplier.

Made-to-Order: 9Wood’s main Product Suite is considered a Made-to-Order fabrication environment. Ours is the classic Job Shop. This means no finished goods are inventoried because the high variety possible in each finished product makes holding inventory cost-prohibitive (species, finish, fire rating, member size, suspension method, to name a few of the host of possible options). They start with our Product SKU (a specific Product identity, such as 1112-8, the most widely sold grille style). Using Just-in-Time supply chain management, Made-to-Order projects require specific procurement of wood materials from our team of specialized vendors. These are then fabricated into products that fit individual project requirements. There is no restocking policy because each product is made to fit a unique project (of course, we warranty our products).

Engineered-To-Order: An Engineered-to-Order project may or may not start with a basic Product Style. Instead, the emphasis is on bringing to reality the design team's architectural intentions. This involves several sequential steps (see also our Product Suite Series 9000 ETO Wood Ceilings for further details):

1. Design, Budget and Specification Support
2. Collaborative System Mock-ups
3. Shop Drawings
4. Point Scan As-Built Surveys

1. Stage One: Design, Budget and Specification Support
   ETO projects start with helping designers overcome three main hurdles: Design, Budgets and Client Presentations:
   Local Reps: At this early stage, a wise step is to contact our local manufacturer’s representative (Contact 9Wood for contact information). We find that local reps help the design process by sharing their wide design and product knowledge. They also bridge the distance between factory and designer (despite the advances in electronic communication the role of personal support is assured!). Reps help us help you by leading and coordinating the support effort.
   Concept Drawings: 9Wood’s engineering team will also help you with AutoCAD concept design drawings in a give-and-take collaborative design effort.
   Concept Samples: We recognize that client presentations, as well as design decisions, need real samples that you can touch and feel. 9Wood will also provide concept samples and finish samples.
   Budget and Guide Specification Support: Clearly the upside of ETO projects is the creative design possibilities they release. The downside is the budget-busting potential of these designs. At this critical stage, we can provide VE options early in the project cycle. We can propose creative cost-containing alternatives that minimize drastic changes to the original design. These include effective module sizes, cheaper suspension options, cost-effective finishes, economical species selection and several economizing tricks we’ve learned over the years that can be incorporated without compromising the core design.
   
   Why offer all this support? We trust that, should our design support prove helpful, designers will do us the honor of specifying our products.
   
   
2. 
   Stage Two: Collaborative System Mock-ups
   Over years of working on complex wood ceiling projects we discovered that building mock-ups after Shop Drawings were complete was too late in the design phase to identify problems, either of design, fabrication or installation. 30 years of quality control research has clearly identified the Design Phase as critical to client satisfaction. Who would launch a new consumer product without first thoroughly testing it? Yet new wood ceiling products are being designed and tested, not in the lab, but on the job site—when changes are too late or too expensive.
   
   
   
   We asked ourselves, "Isn't there a better, more pro-active approach?"
   
   We believe we have found one. We call it Critical Condition Testing™. This is not for every project. It is for complex, custom projects. These collaborative mock-ups are built as soon as possible after contracts are let to the contractor and ceiling subcontractor. The key breakthrough has been building them prior to shop drawings. These mock-ups are typically morphed caricatures of the final install, assembling in one mock-up every critical conditions in the wood ceiling. Essentially this is a robust submittal process.
   
   
   
   Critical Condition Testing™ involves bringing 9Wood, the Acoustic Ceiling subcontractor, the General Contractor (GC) and the Architect together at our 9Wood facilities (our testing lab, so to speak). Here the group can review the design now fleshed out. It involves some tweaking, sometimes horse trading to avoid cost increases, usually some smiles. The atmosphere is charged—but not with finger pointing. It’s charged with creativity, and an air of win-win cooperation. Everyone wins:
   
   
   • The Architect wins because the design team approves and if necessary tweaks their design early enough to avoid detailing mistakes or costly change orders;
   • The GC wins because problems worked out earlier mean less delays at the end of the project;
   • The subcontractor wins because his field foreman, who installs the mock-up, has learned out how to install the ceiling, at a fraction of the cost of learning it on-site. Problems have been identified and corrected and a trust level established between supplier and subcontractor;
   • 9Wood wins because design intents are better understood, our production processes have been tested and details clarified in fabricating the mock-up;
   • And last but not least, the owner wins because the construction team has brought a quality bias to bear on an expensive custom wood ceiling. Only chaos and acrimony seem to lose.
     
   
   Field Mock-ups: Having sung the praises of our early phased Critical Condition Testing™, we are not implying that a role does not exist for traditional Field Mock-ups (falling between Shop Drawing and installation). These can be useful for both fabricator and installer to work out problems and for the architect to create a control device. The main draw back is that the finishes are often a different batch from the actual production run. Though representative, they will rarely match exactly (wood is a natural product, after all). As a result, we do not recommend they be included in the final installation. They also add cost to the project without providing a huge payback to the owner since Submittal Samples and Shop Drawings, provided anyway, serve as reasonable controls on standard projects.
   
   
3. Stage Three: Shop Drawings
   The third stage in executing an ETO wood ceiling consists of taking the approved Critical Condition Testing™ Mock-up along with any amendments and incorporating these into a set of 9Wood Shop Drawings. These become the record of the collaborative process. And of course, we offer Shop Drawings for projects that don’t require elaborate Testing Mock-ups.
   
   Engineering Services: If the project warrants, 9Wood can and will supply stamped engineering calcs or drawings using our contracted licensed engineer (Nicoli Engineering, Oregon & California licensed). It is not common for 9Wood to provide Engineering services, however, because the T-Bar suspension is typically provided and therefore engineered locally by the acoustical subcontractor.
   
   
4. 
   Stage Four: Point Scan As-Built Surveys
   Many architectural designs include interplay of wood ceiling with features in the interior design (columns, walls, hallways, windows, etc.). The problem has been bringing the precision of computer-assisted drafting and manufacturing to the vagaries of the As-Built. Hand-scribed templates were the traditional and expensive solution. Today’s developing technologies permit a cost-effective and quick turnaround alternative. When appropriate, 9Wood uses Point Scan technologies to digitally map the As-Built interiors. This electronic field dimensioning process creates a 3-D virtual model of the interiors. From this real-time information, AutoCAD Shop Drawings can be updated, computer-assisted manufacturing executed, field fitting wood panels fabricated and finished in the factory and shipping ready to install on-site.

Conclusion: Four stages to birth ETO custom designed wood ceilings:

1. Design, Budget and Specification Support
2. Collaborative System Mock-ups
3. Shop Drawings
4. Point Scan As-Built Surveys

Each stage is intense, but fruitful. We believe an orderly process along the lines we have developed is the key to successfully execute any Engineered-to-Order wood ceiling.

(Also see Series 9000 for details)