At Kensington Glass Arts (KGa) in Ijamsville, Maryland, precision is not a slogan, it is the operating system. Known across the Mid-Atlantic for architectural glass fabrication supporting commercial interiors and demanding façade-related packages, KGa positions every project around one core goal: delivering architectural intent, consistently and repeatably, from order entry to shipment.

To protect that intent through complex workflows, KGa relies on A+W Software as the digital backbone linking office operations with the shop floor. Internally, the company’s culture is built around four principles, precision, process, learning, and accountability, and A+W reinforces them by making production steps measurable, trackable, and scalable.

The operational core is built on A+W Business and A+W Production, which connect estimating, order entry, planning, scheduling, and execution within one flow. To reduce manual handling and rework, KGa integrates tools such as A+W Excel Line Import and A+W EDI Import, minimizing retyping and ensuring jobs enter fabrication “clean” from the start.

On the floor, real-time visibility is critical. Master Scheduler Ryan Heilman highlights that tracking determines performance: from cutting through QC and delivery, A+W provides accurate status and location data so glass can be crated and shipped right the first time. For quality control efficiency, A+W Smart Companion adds mobility, allowing inspections to happen where the glass is, reducing fixed-station bottlenecks.

For complex planning, A+W’s optimization engine supports nesting, sequencing, and cutting efficiency, reducing planning load and stabilizing throughput during peak demand. According to Senior Vice President Jim Rathbone, the biggest dependency is lamination, especially with tempered and patterned pieces, where multiple departments must converge at a single fabrication center. A+W coordinates these handoffs and prevents delays, loss, or misalignment.

As KGa expands its fabrication-focused strategy, serving more glaziers and adding new product lines, A+W remains central: a system designed to manage the “infinite variables” of glass manufacturing while keeping precision, communication, and delivery under control.