Not all plants are created equal. From the outset, some are designed to fail. This issue of Pallet Enterprise features some companies that are doing some new things or have found simple solutions to solve typical pallet manufacturing, sawmill or recycling challenges.
Change starts by seeing what you have ignored. Many times we have organizational blindness because there are things we overlook. Most people miss things they are not looking for. The hot buzzword when it comes to improving plant operations and efficiency is lean manufacturing. The key idea is to do more with less and to reduce wasted motion, energy and resources. You start the lean process by walking through your plant. You may want to invite a process engineer, lean consultant or just someone who doesn’t work in your plant but has operational experience to provide you a third-party perspective. One good idea is to seek a lean/process consultant who could be a graduate student from a local university that has gone through some lean training or classes. Virginia Tech and other packaging programs offer students who could help in this regard.
During the walk through, seek to identify bottlenecks in your operation. What areas of your plant/process are lagging behind the rest? Can you solve this problem with a new machine, more automation or redesigning the flow of material? Do you need to move a worker to that area to prevent hang ups in your process? Any area that routinely causes your line to stop needs to be addressed.
One common area in pallet shops where problems tend to develop is hand nailing stations. This might require a better nail gun or more maintenance. Consult your nail provider to see what you can do if you are constantly having jams or misfires.
Ask your employees, what processes make you say, “No not that again!!!” Find those areas and fix them. The article on Paltech Enterprises explains how the company developed make-shift workstations that reduce ergonomic strain with employees. Read the article on page 26.
Another key step is to improve the versatility of your operation. The more sizes and types of lumber you can efficiently process, the better off you will be to respond to market changes in the future. The cover story on Hogbox in Arkansas explains how Earl Farrell has worked with Baker Products to develop a sawline for processing a wide variety of softwood lumber lengths and dimensions.
You may need to add a scragg mill or upgrade your resaw line. Can you process raw logs instead of just cants? While this will require more money than the first step, it may be something to consider.
A major aspect of lean is to eliminate wasted motion in both human activity and equipment that does not add value to the product or service. Most pallet plants that I have visited have some wasted motion. Ask yourself, “Why are we touching this? Why are we moving this? Can we do this without using people or eliminate this activity altogether?”
One story in this issue covers how Richard Berry of Berry Pallets in Waseca, Minnesota is taking scanning technology used at high-speed sawmills and retrofitting it for his pallet operation. The idea is to quickly inspect lumber and sort it to get the most out of his material with minimal labor. Proper sorting of lumber is a must in today’s pallet industry, and this technology could revolutionize lumber processing. Read the article on page 36.
Rick LeBlanc wrote an article on plant layout that covers key issues to consider when improving, designing or retrofitting a facility. This is a must-read article if you are working on your facility. You can find this plant layout article on page 20.
Bill Hildenbrand, the owner of Pallet Express in Easton, Pennsylvania said in a previous Pallet Enterprise article, “Way too many companies in this industry are inefficient. They do everything two and three times. And are driving too far with stuff. Excess handling impacts productivity.”
Hildenbrand explained that a common reason for this wasted motion is the layout of the building. A pallet operation buys an existing building that is not optimized for pallet movements. But the cost of knocking down walls and reorganizing everything may be cost prohibitive at first. Hildenbrand has used mobile ramps (Dura Ramps) as a way to add extra dock space and optimize the layout without completely redesigning a building. See Table 1 to identify some common causes of wasted motion.
Companies must come to understand that lean is a way of life not a business fad. You want to develop a culture that embraces and champions lean as a way of making the process better. Kamps Pallets, which operates multiple plants in the Midwest, has taken this commitment to a high level by having a full-time person on staff tasked with leading its lean management initiatives. While you don’t have to do that, developing a lean council of managers and front-line employees is a good start.
The people who truly make lean work are the production employees not the managers. And Kamps Pallets works to make lean something that production workers think about and contribute to develop. The company does role playing exercises, basically games to get people thinking about how to do things more efficiently.
These exercises can help identify areas that need to be changed as well as get workers in the mindset to identify lean opportunities in the future. For a list of online lean games, visit http://www.leansimulations.org/p/huge-list-of-free-lean-games.html
The last key step of simple lean is to turn waste products into usable products. How can waste wood and lumber scraps be utilized to enhance existing products or offer new ones? This can be done by turning waste wood into boards for recycled pallets, offering recycled lumber for do-it-yourself projects, using wood to heat your facility, or making wood pellets from sawdust and scrap material. The opportunities are growing each year as wood fiber is turned into a variety of value-added products.
So what area have you ignored that you can change to make your operation more profitable? Are you asking the right questions? If not, you may be leaving money on the table.
