Rules for carpenters making fitted furniture

There are very good options for designing, manufacturing and installing fitted furniture. In the light of this there are a few practices that we strongly recommend that carpenters/joiners/installers avoid:

Don't cut materials in the customer's house. The bulk of the materials need to be prepared off-site and the only on-site cuts should be trims and scribes. Using a cut and edge service means cutting can be done in a factory and cutting on-site creates a dust nuisance for the customer
Maximise your use of the cut and edge provider machines. It is clear the advantages that the saw and edgebander bring, make it the same case for CNC drilling.
Don't make your own Shaker style doors. It is very tempting to nail/glue 6mm thick strips to a 12mm MDF board to make an 18mm thick Shaker door. Don't do it because i) Eventually this construction will bend due to the different materials responding to environmental changes in different ways. You may have got away with it for years but it is only a matter of time before it happens to you. ii) The edges will look a mess and eventually hairline cracks will appear where the materials are joined. Nearly all cut and edge providers also make Shaker doors.
Don't diss materials. Sometimes customers will say "I don't want laminate because it chips and absorbs water". High quality materials are a world away from the poor chipboard kitchens of the 1970s. Whether MDF, MFC, Birch Ply is used it's all good if made by a quality manufacturer such as Egger or Medite
Don't use unfinished MDF. MDF is a valuable ingredient material. Wherever it is visible it needs a finishing system on it, usually primer followed by top coat. Whilst modern MDF is low-formaldehyde it is wise to take precautions against off-gassing. The only smell in the customer's house should be fresh paint, not MDF! With an application such as a drawer box bottom there is a good case for using a melamine faced material as it is a finished material that is clothes friendly.