Wood Products
Portland, Oregon
Founded 1982
35 Employees
The Joinery’s Journey with OMEP
The Joinery, a Portland-based B-Corp known for its handcrafted, sustainably made furniture, partnered with OMEP to improve efficiency and support growth. With production spread across multiple spaces and no clear visual management system, the business faced delays and long response times for custom orders. OMEP analyzed material flow and reorganized the layout using CAD modeling, then established standard work for each process step. Teams were formed to handle larger orders more efficiently, and a quick response team of seasoned staff was created to address custom projects with agility. These changes streamlined workflow, reduced inefficiencies, and optimized inventory management. As a result, The Joinery improved its custom furniture response time from over two weeks to just three days, positioning the business to meet rising demand while staying true to its mission of quality craftsmanship and environmental responsibility.
2 weeks to 3 days
Response Time Improvement
Background
Founded in Portland Oregon in 1982, the Joinery began as a one-man furniture repair and refurbishing company. Since then, the business has grown to over 30 employees building handcrafted furniture for residential and commercial clients throughout the US, using its own designs or those created in collaboration with customers.
The joinery’s mission is to manufacture high quality, semi custom household and commercial furniture while remaining environmentally friendly. From solar panels on the roof to the recycled sawdust biscuits they produce, the Joinery is a certified B-Corp with operations run on 100% renewable power. It has been named one of Oregon’s best green companies. Its products are built from locally sourced and sustainably-harvested wood species.
The Situation
The Joinery ships products throughout the United States. Its business has been steadily expanding and as a result owner Jon Blumenauer was seeking assistance with planning next-level expansion. Overall production facilities were broken up due to room and building configurations without a visual management system causing complications and delays in production processes. Response time for custom furniture was over 2 weeks.
The Solution
OMEP conducted a detailed analysis of the material flow patterns of various types of furniture, and laid out the facilities in a CAD program for easy organization. After establishing a standard work piece for each process step, detailed assembly work units were created. In some cases, teams were formed to speed production throughput when faced with larger orders and tight delivery times. In addition, a quick response team was created that was comprised of highly experienced and seasoned personnel to respond in an agile manner to custom furniture requests allowing faster response times.
The Results
Work flow and material flow processes were optimized. The Joinery is now operating on a push/pull inventory system, and is better positioned to meet the rising needs of their customers in a timely manner.
“OMEP has been instrumental in helping us identify opportunities and implement solutions that have improved efficiency.”
Jon Blumenauer
Owner