PROFILE
Superior Cabinets - Leading Through Change Since 1980 Image: Grant Romancia
by Elizabeth Ireland
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Fully embraced a continuous improvement mindset across the entire company, not just in manufacturing.
Full leadership transparency with its approximately 250 employees on company initiatives, objectives and financials was one of the first changes in the company’s strategic direction 10 years ago. This transparency still serves to connect all employees to financial outcomes and to relate how their day-to-day decisions impact their customers. “We completely transformed our front-to-back order processes and fully embraced a continuous improvement mindset across the entire company, not just in manufacturing. Now we average more than 800 employee-driven improvements each year, many of which improve a customer experience or have a financial payback,” says Hodson.
For more than 35 years, Saskatoonbased Superior Cabinets has focused on creating quality kitchen cabinetry that provides both beautiful aesthetics and everyday functionality.
Over the past decade, Superior Cabinets has experienced a huge transformation. In 2008, the company began a turnaround plan when its sales dramatically dropped almost 30 per cent over the course of a few months. A new leadership team was hired and began implementing a series of strategic steps – resulting in a new phase of growth and innovation. “To get a sense of the magnitude of change, the last time we produced 25 kitchens a day was back in 2008 where it took 400 people and 16 weeks to manufacture. Today, it takes 250 people and we install kitchens in six weeks guaranteed,” says Scott Hodson, President and CEO of Superior Cabinets.
20 BUSINESSVOICE SASKATOON MAY/JUNE 2018