Last year began for Greg Bowen with a question, “Why are there so many pallet companies?” He came to the conclusion that commitment is the thing that holds so many companies back from reaching their growth potential, and he has decided to go all in investing in equipment to have one of the best pallet facilities in one of the hottest pallet markets.
Greg Bowen, president and owner of Bo’s Pallets in Adairsville, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, said, “In my area there is over 10 million sq. ft. of distribution center space being built as we speak. There is an explosion of growth right here with DCs… We have to scale up to handle the business.”
Bowen doesn’t do anything the way everybody else does just to follow convention. He likes to find his own ways to improve production and has worked with leading suppliers, such as PRS Group and Innovative Data Systems (IDS) to develop the best pallet repair facility possible. Bo’s Pallets is a showroom for PRS equipment from repair lines, stackers, dismantlers, trim saws and more. Bo’s Pallets basically runs on Pallet-Track®, utilizing Mill Manager™, Automated, Load Tracking, e-Signature and Tablet Punch for Time & Attendance.
Previous Expansion Sets Tone for Current Growth and Production Strategy
Over the last year, Bo’s Pallets has started developing 10 acres of unused land, building an additional 32,000 square foot warehouse and a 5,000 sq. ft. truck and trailer repair shop. This expansion doubled the company’s existing facility size.
Bowen explained, “Jeff Williams and his team at PRS put our original pallet repair system in back in 2001 and has given us great service for the 19 years since, so I contacted him to help us with our planned expansion. Our process allows us to handle a pallet only one time without pre-sorting. The issue PRS solved for us was how to automatically separate 25 pallet footprints using only twelve stackers without stopping the production.”
Back about three years ago, PRS first upgraded the existing repair line by adding a second tier of conveyor to transport all “to be dismantled” pallets directly to four PRS single-operator dismantlers. The dismantled lumber is conveyed to four PRS end trim saws to be cut to length. Innovative Data Systems installed Pallet-Track® Automated, a computerized pallet tracking system.
Bowen stated, “The repair line in a recycling plant sets the pace for the entire operation. The modifications by PRS increased our production approximately 35%. This increase as expected allowed us to increase our business but not enough to take advantage of all the opportunities coming our way.”
That’s when Bowen called PRS again and ordered a duplicate of the recycler’s existing upgraded repair line. Installed in 2019, this second line grew the company’s processing capability to 10,000 pallets in an eight-hour shift. This expansion required Bo’s Pallets to move some of its existing equipment out of the repair building.
Bo’s Pallets recycling operation creates about 35% non-saleable pallet cores because of size or condition. It processes those pallets using 11 PRS high-speed dismantlers. Bowen explained, “Our goal is to get the highest return on every pallet we bring into our facilities. Repair and resell, recover every usable stringer and deck board, then grind the rest to be sold as certified playground material-colored mulch, and lastly as boiler fuel. We nail the usable lumber together to build sellable sizes, mostly specialty sizes. We sell the rest of the material to other pallet operations and through brokers.”
Greg Bowen has always done things a bit differently than other recyclers. For starters, he doesn’t pre-sort loads or use a tipper with a sorting station at the beginning of the process. Bowen commented, “We don’t believe in presorting because all of that is a bottleneck to me. Whereas other people presort and make a judgement call on how many they are going to fix. They don’t really know how many are going to be salvageable that early in the line.”
Every pallet goes down a line, and the focus is to reduce forklift and manual touches. For example, Bowen worked with PRS to develop a longer conveyor that extends beyond the stackers. Low-volume grades/sizes are sorted and stacked by one employee at the end of the line. The floor is painted with every size, and the sorter manually handles this process. The high-volume grades go into one of six stackers. Conveyors also send pallets to be torn down directly to the dismantler stations without requiring a forklift operator to transport them.
At 16 repair stations, workers take pallets off a stack and put a big barcode label on the first stack of each new truckload. Subsequent pallets receive a smaller barcode to identify the grade, repair station/worker, etc. Cores to be dismantled are labeled, put on the top conveyor and moved directly to PRS dismantlers where they are scanned at each dismantler to track the production of each employee. No touch pallets and repaired pallets are placed on the bottom conveyor and sent to the right stacker or the end of the line if an odd-size.
Bowen said, “PRS put in the hardware and Alan Miceli of IDS installed the software and barcode scanners to make it all work together. Our pallet repairers can all be working on different trailers at the same time, mixing the pallets on the line, no matter what order they are put in, but the computer reads those barcodes and knows which pallets belong to which supplier and which repair guy, it’s pretty amazing to be honest with you.”
Data Makes A VERY Big Difference
Knowing what is in a load removes all the guesswork out of sorting and repairing cores. Too many pallet companies are having to make educated guesses when it comes to core quality. Data tracking is critical to make smart decisions. Bowen said, “Our data provides accurate counts, which is a huge advantage over any competitor that doesn’t have data tracking because I am not guessing at the deal.”
At the end of one load, Bo’s Pallets knows exactly what it can sell and the value of that core account. Bowen added, “We usually win the business, because we know the real numbers and don’t have to put as much of a safety factor in our quotes. Also, our supplier’s checks are bigger than our competitors because we repair every repairable pallet. If we can repair it and sell it, the supplier gets paid more even if the other guy is paying $3 per pallet, and we are only paying $2.75 per pallet.”
Employees place bar codes on every pallet that identifies the size and grade, the supplier, and the repairman of each pallet. Core suppliers receive detailed breakdowns of each load. Workers are paid by piece rate, and the scanners do all the counting and tracking. This eliminates manual counting errors and tally disputes.
Bowen recalled, “A large company found a pallet with our label in their plant a couple weeks ago and had been experiencing issues with their pallet service company. The manager called and we landed the business. We project we will make more than enough profit off this one account to pay the cost of the Pallet-Track® system.”
Bo’s Pallets will also take on core accounts that others refuse to service. Bowen explained, “I don’t want high-quality suppliers with a big majority of usable cores. I want the customer with 50% scrap and 50% usable cores mixed in. The reason is that we can get a much lower core cost because of the amount of scrap. We identify the scrap and take it apart for pieces. The remainder is ground up for wood residual markets.”
The design of the repair process allows the company to take lower-quality core sources since the operation is set up to efficiently turn scrap into usable lumber. About 1/3 of Bo’s Pallets cores are torn down to produce recycled lumber or other products. The company has added pieces and entire systems through its various growth phases. That is one of the reasons why PRS equipment has been such a good fit.
Bowen said, “PRS is flexible. You can buy a la carte or entire systems or both. I can buy one stacker or six stackers with a conveyor line… I can grow slowly or ramp up production with additional pieces of equipment. It takes less investment to grow one piece at a time.”
COVID-19 Impact, Training Up Top Leaders
COVID-19 hit Bo’s Pallets very hard because shortly after returning from a business trip, Greg Bowen came down with the virus in March. He remembered, “I missed two weeks work and ended up in ICU. I recovered and thanks to a great team of management, our operation ran flawlessly.”
During the pandemic, incoming cores exploded in volume for Bo’s Pallets but sales dropped about 30%. This required swift actions to adjust operations. Bowen credits his management team for working with suppliers and customers to meet everyone’s needs. Close communications were important on the rebound too because Georgia was one of the first states to reopen. Bowen commented, “Sales are climbing rapidly back to pre-virus levels.” He specifically highlighted the skill and oversight of his key managers, Chief Operating Officer Meridy Wright, General Manager Randy Jackson and Kraig Hittler, who oversees the new pallet operation.
One of the reasons the company didn’t miss a beat was the way that Bowen has raised up some key employees, especially Meridy Wright. Back in 2013, Bowen made a succession plan that involved Wright as his replacement when none of his children wanted to come into the business. He recalled, “Meridy wanted to run the company and is a more than capable person.” Bowen focused on training Meridy Wright, and they even share a big office so that she heard everything he said and did for years. She knows how to run the day-to-day operations while Bowen focuses on big picture, long-range planning. This has allowed Bowen to be able to leave the company for three weeks at a time to perform missions work in foreign countries with The Gideons International. He said, “Because I already had people trained to take over, we didn’t have any problems when I was out of commission due to the coronavirus.”
Sales has even grown this year despite the pandemic. Part of it is being located in the right place as Atlanta’s economy bursts. Another key is having the right mindset. Bowen suggested, “You need more capacity in everything than you need right now if you plan to grow.” That is why the company has undertaken a multi-million-dollar campaign to invest in equipment and facilities.
Bowen projected, “A pallet company can only grow as big as its manufacturing/repair facility. If you can handle ten thousand pallets or more per day, I believe your business will grow to that level if you give good service.”
Bowen believes that companies are going to have to grow or else face getting pushed out or gobbled up by larger competitors. He said, “The reason that there are so many pallet companies in the industry is that there used to be a lot of mom-and-pop shops in the industry. But those are slowly being consolidated by bigger players.”
Alliance Automation Technology Is Next Phase in Recycling Prototype Facility
Overall, the new repair building will include 11 people who build pallets from scratch, three PRS two-man dismantlers, one PRS end trim saw, one PRS chop saw, two PRS notchers, two Alliance Automation robotic pallet dismantlers and one Urban Sawmill trim saw line. The next phase of the expansion involves some cutting-edge machinery innovation from Alliance Automation.
Bowen admitted, “I am excited about the Alliance Automation Urban Sawmill. I have been looking for something like that for three years… It is the next hottest thing coming down the road, especially for the big recyclers.”
The Urban Sawmill system will scan random deck and bottom boards for length, width and thickness then optimize and trim to the desired finished length. Individual sort bins capture the reclassified lumber of predetermined dimension. This system has the ability to increase your current capacity, precision and lumber yield with minimal labor requirements. Alliance Automation developed this technology with pallet recyclers in mind.
Bowen has made some tweaks to the first Urban Sawmill design that was deployed at Kamps Pallet. He said, “I design my own layouts. I always do, and I have worked with Alliance Automation to make some improvements to the Urban Sawmill.”
Alliance redesigned the board removal process. The first design had workers capturing and stacking boards by hand. Bowen explained, “What I did is put a roller conveyor on the floor and put a 48×40 pallet in there with boards on the side making a crate, wood falls into the crate until it fills the crate. This eliminated several people.”
Also, Bowen worked with Alliance Automation to have the robotic dismantlers drop boards straight onto the Urban Saw line to eliminate extra conveyors and board handling. The manned dismantlers will also feed lumber onto the Urban Sawmill line. He projected, “The Urban Sawmill will allow us to reduce the amount of pallets that have to get ground up and turn more into usable lumber with minimal staff and equipment changeover downtime.”
Another reason to invest so much in machinery and equipment is the labor shortage. Bowen expressed, “We cannot find people willing to come into this industry and do the physical labor. More advanced automation including robotics is going to be the key to the future due to labor shortages.”
Automation Made Simple and New Pallet Production Expansion
Bowen was quick to point out that many recyclers can improve production efficiency even with more basic automation. Going back to his early days he recalled, “In 1994 we had a very small 40 ft. x 40 ft. repair building. I asked Jeff Williams of PRS then if he could help us automate in even such a small space. His solution was to put a roller conveyor outside of the building to roll loads outside for material handling function while repair was inside… No matter where you are at in terms of size or layout, small or large, PRS can help you automate and reduce costs while improving efficiency.”
Working with the right suppliers means collaboration to Bowen. He said, “I have a concept and Jeff Williams and his team at PRS as well as Alan Miceli of IDS can find solutions to the problems that I can’t figure out.”
Bo’s Pallets has grown beyond its focus on pallet recycling. The company has started increasing its base for new pallets after purchasing an existing pallet manufacturing company in 2019. This company had two Viking nailers and one GAP nailer as well as three Baker resaw lines. Growth led Bo’s Pallets to add a new Viking 505 nailing machine in January 2020. Bowen explained his choice after considering a number of machines on the market. He said, “Viking makes a reliable machine, the parts are readily available, it’s a great company. Viking is the standard in America.”
Finally, the company has recently traded its EC366 Rotochopper for a new B66 Rotochopper grinder. Bowen boasted, “The increase in production has been mind-blowing to say the least. Another lesson learned is you can never buy too big of a machine if you’re planning to grow your business. While waiting on delivery of the new B66, I really started to realize just how much usable material we are still grinding.”
Bowen prefers to stick with the same suppliers to maintain part consistency and operator experience. He added, “Your people become familiar with how machines operate. For example, we bring Rotochopper in once per year to go through our machine and do additional training for our staff. We found that bringing in the supplier to train and maintain our equipment is better than going to the supplier or its factory.”
Growth continues to be the game plan for Bo’s Pallets. The company now serves customers ranging from Atlanta to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Choosing the right suppliers, securing access to cores and designing the production process for growth remain key strategies for Bowen as he shows no signs of slowing down.
