Renee Milliken -- Kiva Designs Inc.
Kiva Designs started as Bright Ideas For You, designing apparel for a major discount retailer. Eventually, they branched out to supply chimineas, grills and Mexican pottery to this retailer and other nationwide chains. Next, Kiva Designs split from Bright Ideas and formed its own company -- continuing to import items from Mexico for mass retailer customers, but also designing and producing plant stands. Kiva now uses Chinese suppliers for low-cost production, as well as suppliers in Mexico.
Before using Alibre Design, Kiva would submit measurements to its suppliers, then wait at least a month or even six weeks to receive a prototype in return. Typically, the design still wasn't what Kiva wanted so they began the tedious process of tweaking the design. At that time, Kiva didn't use any design software with which they could give manufacturers the files they needed for production.
Then, Kiva was introduced to Alibre Design, but they were reluctant to try it because they did not have any engineers on their staff. Renee Milliken, director of sales and marketing for Kiva Designs, points out, "We really didn't want to have to learn CAD software." They did purchase the software, however, in hopes that it would be easy to use and meet their needs. According to Milliken, Alibre Design was both.
"Alibre Design was very easy to install -- it took maybe 15 minutes. It is such an easy program, too." Kiva's creative director, John Fankhauser, and an Alibre training specialist, Don Dalrymple, did a one-on-one training session for about an hour. "It's great to do training online -- following the baton and doing the tasks as Don is doing them. It's like he is standing right next to me with a pointer. He was very patient -- the training was perfect. John uses a Mac, so his main adjustment to using Alibre Design was working with a PC and using things like right-click menus. Because we're not engineers, we looked at tools during the training that we will end up using with our suppliers -- like measuring, viewing and rotating, plus all the real-time design and collaboration features."
"We had no -- zero -- experience with design software before using Alibre Design. John had experience with Photoshop software, but nothing like this. None of us are CAD experts."
"Now we can go online for design review. Everybody is there, working in real time and we can talk through designs online." Kiva has already worked with its metal supplier in Mexico and plans to work next with its manufacturer in China. "I used the Invite An Associate feature to give our metal supplier in Mexico a free trial of Alibre Design. Eventually, we may buy it for him so that we can form a closer relationship. He can use it to work with his other customers, too."
And through Alibre, the company met engineers who modeled its new collapsible, rolling plant cart. "Through Alibre's consultant program, we can find engineers who are looking for this type of product design work."
"Using Alibre Design really opens up a huge area for us to go into the design and production of other lawn and garden items. I met with an engineer yesterday from a product design firm. He said the item we want could be designed in less than 20 hours. He said that we could hook into the application they use, but I said that I would require them to use Alibre Design with us. It is the only application that lets us work online in real time with our suppliers. The design process will go especially faster because all the people can be online for design reviews. Each person can put in their ideas about how to make it better, or how to produce it for the targeted amount. Alibre Design allows us to have our hands in the design -- I can be a part of the design, not just initiate it."
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| " | Alibre Design ...is the only application that lets us work online in real time with our suppliers." |
Exploded view of collapsible, rolling plant cart as modeled in Alibre Design.
| " | Alibre Design was very easy to install [and] is such an easy program, too." |
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