What "process" means to us

A question we are commonly asked is "what sets you apart from your competitors?" This is a very valid question, and one we can proudly answer with a degree of certainty. It's all about our "process".

It is widely known that in manufacturing, quality and value are built by developing and refining a consistent, repeatable process. The problem with a customized business such as ours: there are seemingly no consistencies. Our reputation is built around being flexible, accommodating customers who know and expect that we will sacrifice conformity in order to flawlessly marry engineering with creative design. Commercial manufacturers simply cannot stretch that far. After all, that is why they have come to us!

In most cases what results is that custom shops usually abandon the idea of a conventional manufacturing process, and simply give projects to highly skilled individual craftsmen to carry out the task, from beginning to end. There is nothing inherently wrong with this method; it has been done this way for centuries. But by its very nature, it ensures that no two products will ever be exactly the same. We believe this is fine and even quite desirable for a piece of custom furniture or a painting. But given our customers' reasonable expectations of how windows and doors must function and perform, the method is simply not good enough for HeartWood standards.

HeartWood's approach to manufacturing is to actually divide each larger process into numerous sub processes (standard operating procedures) for all stages of millwork, even the very smallest. If we are asked to design a product that triggers a deviation from one of these SOP's, we step back and analyze how we can make the request fit. Sometimes we cannot, without compromising quality standards or forcing large cost increases. But if we believe we can accomplish what it being requested, a new SOP is completely documented and logged.

This "pixelization of process" allows us to be not only extremely flexible, but extremely consistent. Thus, our craftsmen are able to accomplish a wide variety of tasks without diminishing quality or consistency. While this process takes extreme discipline, ultimately it makes HeartWood's manufacturing extremely efficient, removing cost and adding quality.

Each piece of slab lumber is hand selected for grade and tested for proper moisture content. Moisture content is critical to ensure a stable and lasting product that won't warp, twist, shrink or swell beyond acceptable tolerances.

Each piece is then "hand faced", meaning that any natural curve or twist is painstakingly removed by hand, 1/16" at a time, prior to any further processing of the lumber. This is a step that even the finest manufacturers skip because of the time it takes, but it is one of the keys to HeartWood's quality. Once the board is faced (flat, square, and straight on all sides), it is again examined for defects to be sure it meets HeartWood's high quality standards.

At this point, the lumber is machined to begin shaping the various components of the windows or doors. Each piece of equipment has been selected from around the world as "best in class", meaning no compromises have been made in assuring quality and precision.

Our process utilizes matched insert tooling between key pieces of equipment. "Matched" means that tooling heads are interchangeable between equipment to ensure complete consistency in profiles and cuts; whether straight or curved, whether 1 piece or 100. "Insert tooling" means that all knives are computer matched and cut so that there are zero tolerance deviations. Our knives are never re-ground, as this creates tolerance issues that affect both the aesthetics and ultimate quality of the product. While this policy may seem overly fastidious, and other manufacturers don't go to the bother, it allows for efficiency in other areas, simply because our deficiencies and scrap are kept so low. And although the added expense in equipment and tooling is considerably higher than our competitors, the net result is a savings in material and labor. It also helps to ensure on-time delivery, another element in which we will not compromise.

Critical machining of our windows and doors is done on a large CNC (computer numerically controlled) station, employing 30 robotically changed tools that perform various operations. CNC equipment is not employed to increase manufacturing speed, a common misconception. Its primary benefits are precision, design flexibility, and repeatability.

Our CNC's precision far exceeds any industry standards as it can machine parts to an accuracy of 1/1000th of an inch. Most custom shops can achieve a tolerance of 1/16" at best . Its cutting flexibility allows us to cut shapes and unique pieces that conventional tooling cannot do, permitting greater versatility in your project's design. Given that all jobs, regardless of size, are computer programmed, we can at any time repeat what has been done before to assure 100% consistency, if product is damaged or the project is expanded.

Most of our glass is cut, insulated and assembled at our factory. Critical glazing patterns are created by the same computer programming that creates the matching wood components, so they can be manufactured concurrently. This saves time and assures error-free glazing assembly. And unlike most manufactures who offer either Simulated Divided Lites (SDL) or True Divided Lights (TDL), we offer both, so that you can choose what best fits your design and budget.