Bringing programming under one roof: Wedd Joinery adopts HOMAG smartWOP

For over 100 years, Cambridge-based Wedd Joinery has been creating bespoke, specialist joinery of the highest quality. Established in 1925 and still proudly family-owned, the company combines centuries of craftsmanship with continual investment in technology and people

With a 35,000sq.ft workshop and a team backed by more than 500 years of combined experience, Wedd Joinery delivers complex, high-end projects entirely in-house – from design through to manufacture and finishing.

Wedd Joinery has been a loyal HOMAG customer for more than 20 years, operating multiple HOMAG machines throughout its workshop

The need for smoother integration

Until recently, Wedd Joinery’s programming relied on HOMAG’s woodWOP software alongside a third-party platform. While both solutions 

were strong in their own right, integration between the two created friction.

“We were carrying out most of our programming with HOMAG’s woodWOP, which is a great piece of software,” explains Simon Lock, Commercial Director at Wedd Joinery.    

“However, we were also using what was essentially a competitor’s version of smartWOP. While it was decent enough, it didn’t always integrate well with woodWOP or our production as a whole. We liked the idea of replacing this with another HOMAG solution and bringing everything under one roof.”

Simon and his team first encountered smartWOP at HOMAG Treff 2024 in Germany. “We went there to look at new machines but ended up spending a lot of time with the software team. Seeing smartWOP in action, we took an immediate liking to it – this was clearly the solution we were looking for.”

Why HOMAG?

Wedd Joinery has been a loyal HOMAG customer for more than 20 years, operating multiple HOMAG machines throughout its workshop. “As far as we’re concerned, the more HOMAG machinery and software we use, the better,” says Simon. “We’ve built a strong relationship with the UK team, and everything from sales to servicing has always been top-notch.”

Fast, intuitive implementation

One of smartWOP’s standout qualities was how quickly it could be introduced into Wedd Joinery’s operation, as Simon recalls: “It was very easy to implement – we actually opted to install it ourselves and had no problems.

“We then had two days of training with HOMAG. Our two operators using it are very adept with woodWOP and are strong programmers in general, so they took to smartWOP straight away. Even an inexperienced programmer, I think, would have no difficulty using this software – it’s that intuitive.”

 smartWOP integrates perfectly with Wedd Joinery’s existing HOMAG setup 

Seamless programming

Since switching to smartWOP, Wedd Joinery has eliminated the integration issues of its previous setup. “Now that we’re using two pieces of HOMAG software together, things are much smoother,” says Simon. “With our previous software, we struggled whenever we had to do special cut-outs, angled units or anything out of the ordinary. Now we can take a panel straight out of smartWOP and put it into woodWOP – it’s a seamless process.”

An easy decision

For Simon and the team, investing in smartWOP was an obvious next step.“This was a simple decision for us,” he reflects. “We were already using software that did similar things, but smartWOP does it better and integrates perfectly with our existing HOMAG setup. Given our long-standing relationship with HOMAG and how impressed we were having seen smartWOP in action, the decision was easy. We couldn’t be happier with how it’s playing out.”

For further information or a demonstration of HOMAG’s machinery and software, contact HOMAG UK on 01332 856 500 – selecting option 4 for the sales department – or email info-uk@homag.com.