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When you think of Mexican manufacturing operations, many visualize sweat shops where employees work for pennies on the dollar compared to the United States. Like many south-of-the-border manufacturers, TME doesn’t fit that description.
As the largest producer of countertop blanks in Mexico and Central America, TME has stepped up its cabinet door output to match that benchmark. The company has accomplished this by using leading-edge software packages, automated production methods and a highly motivated management and production staff. By the end of the year lead times are expected to be cut in half to two weeks.
TME was founded in 1988 for the production of postformed kitchen countertops. The cabinet door division produced its first doors in October, 1996 and now serves the United States and Canadian markets exclusively. TME is strategically located approximately 550 miles from the U.S. border at Laredo, Texas, in Zapopan, a suburb of Guadalajara, Mexico’s second largest city, in the state of Jalisco.
The door division started production with American red oak to produce solid raised panel, veneer raised panel and plywood in frame doors and drawer fronts. The company recently added American maple to produce the same three door construction types. All orders are produced to order in accordance with each customer’s design, dimensions and specifications. There are no standard, stock products. Production volume is 9,500 doors per day, on average. The production mix is currently 52 percent veneer raised panel doors; 33 percent plywood in frame doors; and 15 percent solid panel doors.
All doors are made with five-piece construction. MDF is the core material for center panels in veneer raised panel doors. Panels are cut with a Holzma HPL 11 panel saw and then profiled and sanded in dedicated machinery — Jenkins DET’s and Italian “Stemas” profile sanders.
Sales are direct to market through TME salaried sales force. Minimum quantity per order is one-half a truck load (about 4,000 doors, plus 2,000 drawer fronts). The minimum quantity per door size is 25 pieces.
Says Rodrigo Obregon, TME’s vice president of sales and marketing: “The U.S. kitchen and vanity cabinet market is very large, with significant growth the past several years. TME’s production is geared to the United States, with over 90 percent of our doors going to U.S. cabinet manufacturers. The remaining percentage is shipped to Canada.”
