A partnership that helps both
Local cabinetmaker enlists design class at IPFW to create effective display center
The Grabill Cabinet Co. has been crafting high-end products for more than 60 years.
But the northern Allen County manufacturer knows even quality workmanship doesn’t guarantee a sale if potential buyers don’t see the cabinet samples displayed in an attractive and organized way.
Grabill Cabinet needed to provide dealers with a custom-designed design center that allows them to showcase the company’s various cabinet door and drawer front styles. But when you’re immersed in an industry, you can’t always take a giant step back and consider solutions from a fresh perspective.
Serendipity brought the company to a 3-D design class at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.
John Kaufeld, Grabill Cabinet’s spokesman and dealer development manager, mentioned the company’s challenge to a friend. That person knew an IPFW assistant professor whose class does similar – though mock – projects each semester. Rob Lopez, assistant professor of 3-D design, agreed that the project fit the curriculum and would be a useful student exercise.
IPFW has a history of pairing its students with area entrepreneurs who have business problems to solve. Among them, Fort Wayne-based Master Sports LLC and Akron-based Pike Lumber worked with marketing students in 2004 to explore the potential for exporting their products. The next year a group of MBA students studied operations at Fort Wayne-based Ottenweller Co. Inc. and made recommendations for the metal fabricator as part of a three-credit consulting exercise.
Stephen Shapiro, a Boston-based professional speaker and author of “The Little Book of Big Innovation,” encourages people in industry to seek input from students. A company’s employees will probably just come up with some version of what they’ve done in the past, he said.
“Expertise is the enemy of creativity,” he said. “If you know something well, it’s tough to get out of your own way.”
Grabill Cabinet executives have met with the students to explain their needs but didn’t tell them how to solve the challenge, Kaufeld said.
“We tried to paint a picture and let the students answer it,” he said.
Lopez asks his students to do their second project of the semester in teams to help them learn to work well with others. In previous semesters, he has created an assignment. But he believes the students thrive when they get real-world experience. “It breaks the mundane of working in class all the time,” he said.
Other advantages include giving the students experience selling their design ideas and allowing them to hear people in industry reinforce the teachings of the 3-D design instructors.
Lopez divided his 19 students into five teams, making sure each team has at least one student who excels at research, another who specializes in concepts and one who concentrates on sketches.
“I thought this was a good way to approach this particular project,” he said. “Even the students say, ‘Wow. I get to do what I’m good at.’ ”
The students have been given class time to brainstorm ideas. Lopez also led 13 of the students to Chicago to do research. They visited The Merchandise Mart where they toured the Herman Miller showroom. Herman Miller designs and manufactures high-end office furniture, including the Aeron chair, versions of which sell for more than $1,300.
The design students also visited Drury Design in Glen Ellyn, Ill., which sells Grabill Cabinets. Gail Drury talked to the students and gave them a tour of the firm’s showroom.
“We pretty much just showed them how we do what we do,” she said.
That includes meeting with customers and helping them make myriad decisions about their kitchens and baths. The IPFW students wanted to know whether Drury, a master certified kitchen and bath designer, wanted various wood and cabinet door samples visible or hidden and pulled out as needed. (She prefers the latter so customers don’t get overwhelmed.)
“They were very inquisitive. They had a lot of good questions,” she said. “They were taking a lot of pictures.”
Final presentations with full-sized, foam core models are scheduled for April 2. Each team was given about $60 to make a mock up of its design.
“You get some beautiful concepts presented in foam core,” Lopez said.
Grabill Cabinet executives will choose the winning design.
The students weren’t given cost guidelines for the finished product, Kaufeld said.
“If it’s wood, we can make it,” he said. “We’ll do them in-house.”
sslater@jg.net
It's all over but the packing. Navistar International Corp. on Wednesday said it will invest $205 million to create new headquarters, technology and parts operations in suburban Chicago.