I’m hoping someone here might have a better idea for placing runners on the side walls of a cabinet I’m building.
The cabinet is 6 foot tall and has 10 drawers above and below the cabinet divider.

In the past I measured everything then ran dados on the sides (based on measurements) and the drawers and placed a poplar runner to receive the drawers. This approach requires a lot of tuning and is highly error prone.

This time I was going to lay the side panel down and clamp upper, divider & lower boards down to define the space. Based on the height, I would then find the height of all twenty drawer sides, cut them and stack them on to the side panel (horizontally) with firm but not immovable contact. I would then remove one and replace it with a template board that had a dado running all the way through. Once placed into the array again I would slide a runner through and pin nail it to boards that matched the height of the side panel 9front and back. Of course this test runner would be a couple of feet longer than necessary so it could be stabilized.

Remove the template, mark the runner, then when all are marked, cut stopped dados then glue and screw the runners.

I think this will be less error prone but I don’t like the approach. There must be a more logical or straightforward approach to this that I’m missing or haven’t seen before.

Thanks for any help.