Blue Island, ILLINOIS – Manuel Tavarez is the kind of guy who makes you believe that anything is possible. His story is the American dream built on hard work and passion. And this passion for pallets can be seen in the way that Harvey Pallets takes care of its customers, operating a world-class facility in the Chicago market and providing constant communication with customers.
Manuel Tavarez, president and founder of Harvey Pallets, said, “Hard work and passion are the keys to my success. I always had this passion for manufacturing. But if you only have passion and don’t work hard, you won’t get anywhere…You can’t give up because the pallet market is full of ups and downs.”
Harvey Pallets has relied on HUB Industrial Supply for reciprocating saw blades, bandsaw blades, spray paint, safety equipment, grinders/grinder disks, strapping, poly bagging and other consumable supplies for the past four years. Both companies have been successful due to their use of technology combined with customer service and communication capabilities. While anybody can make a pallet, running a successful pallet service program is another matter.
Bernard “BJ” Packo, director of sales & marketing for Harvey Pallets, explained, “At the end of the day, the pallet industry is all about service and communication. If you can do those two things, you will be successful. I know everybody says it is a commodity business. But if you provide great service and communicate well you will get some forgiveness on price.”
Right Facilities Lead to Better Pallets
If you go to many pallet plants, everything is a mess. But in its recycling and high-production plant, Harvey Pallets has worked to create a space that is clean, well-organized and stands out from the typical pallet shop. It all starts with having the right building. Manuel Tavarez purchased a former cookie manufacturing plant in 2008.
The facility was designed for food production, which means it has high ceilings and a system for circulating air to keep the plant cool and prevent mold development. BJ Packo said, “We tried to forecast what our customer needs would be in the future. We saw that food safety and sanitation would be a bigger concern for customers in the future.”
The recycling and high-speed manufacturing facility does no lumber processing so sawdust is kept to a minimum. Wide open aisles allow for easy transit of pallets. It has about 300,000 sq. feet in the main building. A building down the street houses the custom pallets division, which does involve a small amount of sawing equipment.
BJ added, “Customers are asking us to hold larger inventories on site so that they can free up capital. This requires a larger footprint to store pallets indoors. This building is a huge asset for us because it allows a tremendous amount of indoor storage and processing space.”
BJ further explained the value of the facility when it comes to winning over customers. He commented, “We use this facility to mimic what a customer’s facility looks like. There is no sawdust on the ground. Everything is clean, orderly and well-maintained. This facility provides a better overall work environment for employees and more loading docks to improve pallet flow management.”
The professional appearance of the facility enables Harvey Pallets to service some leading firms, such as operate as a service center for CHEP USA. The company repairs CHEP pallets as well as stores excess inventory under roof. Rental pallets are sorted and repaired at a different area than the regular white-wood pallets.
Turning broken or unusable pallets into recycled lumber has become a much bigger thing for Harvey Pallets. It uses Smart dismantlers connected to a chop saw to dismantle pallets and cut boards to size for producing combo pallets.
BJ said that combo pallets have become a larger piece of business because customers can have like-new pallets for a lot less money.
The white-wood pallet line relies on Industrial Resources tippers, work stations, conveyors and stackers. CHEP pallets are sorted in one area as they are received using an Industrial Resources line. Pallets to be repaired are sent to a nearby Industrial Resources line via forklifts for repair.
New pallets are produced on two Viking 505 Turbos. Those machines together can produce 300 plus pallets per hour. The plant also has a Storti GSI Block Pallet assembly line that can manufacture 1,600 block style pallets per eight-hour shift.
Customer Service Drives Success
Besides the primary facility, Harvey Pallets works with customers to develop solutions tailored to their needs. Sean Packo, account executive with Harvey Pallets, said, “Harvey Pallets prides itself on its higher qualities of customer service very similar to HUB Industrial. Harvey Pallets and HUB Industrial focus on their customers and what each customer needs in order to be successful in their industries. This may include revisiting product designs to find more suitable solutions with reductions in costs, developing the custom reporting systems, or simply being available for questions regarding the needs of their customer base.”
Sean added, “Both HUB and Harvey Pallets look to continuously push forward in the customer service areas by investing in new technologies but maintaining and developing the personalities that brought customers to Harvey/HUB.”
One way that HUB Industrial sets itself apart is speedy delivery. HUB offers a same day order processing guarantee for all requests received before 6:00 p.m. (EST). And if an order doesn’t get shipped before the day ends, HUB will send you a check for $100. Also, HUB offers a very generous 365-day return policy. Here’s how it works: You just tell HUB that you want to return your item. HUB will arrange a pickup of the item and send you confirmation when the credit to your account has been issued. HUB will even pay the freight. HUB’s guarantees make buying easy because you know you won’t get stuck with stuff you don’t need or that things you buy will be late in getting delivered.
Sean explained the benefits of working with HUB. He said, “HUB Industrial’s customer service has been extremely helpful and knowledgeable. When I first took over the ordering from HUB, I would contact Samuel Lacey with my orders and would get timely responses and anticipated delivery dates.”
He also commented, “Samuel Lacey also took the time to walk me through the process of setting up an online account to speed the ordering process and when we ran into some issues with the accounting processes of the site, Samuel was able to get all the issues resolved within 24 hours.”
HUB offers an extensive online catalog that makes ordering a breeze. Just think of Amazon.com style ordering for industrial consumable products with better guarantees and that’s HUB. Customers who set up online accounts will find numerous tools to increase order efficiency and assist managers in tracking usage of consumables.
A new initiative begun in the last year is HUB’s Inventory IQ program which seeks to streamline procurement with a variety of tools from which a customer can pick and choose to suit their needs. As HUB’s director of technology, Alex Kirsch, explains, “By offering multiple solutions in our Inventory IQ suite we can find the best solution for each client. These solutions range from setting purchasing limits per user, tracking consumption per employee, or simply speeding up the re-ordering process by providing a handheld scanner.”
You can also call a 1-800 number to talk with a specialist to get more information or to place an order.
Sean commented that Harvey Pallets buys HUB reciprocating saw blades, grinder disks, and band saws. He stated, “All of the blades have performed well with the recip blades and grinders disks assisting in a high production rate for our repair lines allowing for minimal ordering requirements.
At the beginning of 2016 HUB was acquired by Cleveland, Ohio-based Applied Industrial Technologies, which is a much larger company with a deeper catalog of products to sell and stronger purchasing power.
Nine months into the acquisition, HUB has maintained its unique identity and little has changed in terms of how they relate to their customers. Gabriel Curry, general manager of HUB, commented, “It was a good move for our team members and customers. It’s been business as usual, but with the incredible added resources of a $2.5 billion company behind us.”
A key reason that Applied Industrial Technologies wanted to acquire HUB was its expertise in online sales and ordering. Today, 32% of HUB’s sales takes place online, and that number is increasing every day thanks to its efficient website and online ordering system.
Providing customers detailed reports and tracking is a key part of Harvey Pallets’ strong customer service.
According to Sean, Harvey Pallets has made efforts to improve its technology footprint in all aspects of its business model. This includes using cloud-based systems to track delivery schedules, trailer locations and production. Harvey Pallets works a lot with Google apps and has even collaborated with Google’s Chicago staff to develop solutions that work for its operations.
Sean explained, “We have now incorporated similar methods to offer a higher degree of transparency to our customer base, such as providing customized reporting matrices that are accessed via hyperlinks. The reports can track anything a customer may require to include but not limited to purchasing habits, scrap counts, trailer capacities, etc.”
Google apps have been tailored to track everything from orders and scrap counts to lumber cutting at the sawmill and even heat treatment logs.
Vertical Integration Means Supply Chain Security
A number of years ago when lumber became hard to find, Manuel Tavarez decided to open his own sawmill and begin deploying logging crews. Tavarez recalled, “We started our own logging crews about three years ago because it was so hard to find wood. You couldn’t find it anywhere. So that is when I knew that we didn’t want to wait for others to ship us cants if the market got tight again. Without wood, your entire production process stops. I bought logging equipment and started buying timber from the Missouri forests.”
Harvey Pallets uses about 10 million board feet of lumber per year. And it became impossible at times to find that capacity on the open market. The company operates a sawmill in Centerville, Missouri that can produce up to 30,000 board feet per day. This mill processes cants bought from other mills as well as logs coming from timber owned by Harvey Pallets.
The mill operates a Helle scraggmill as well as a Baker resaw line tied into a board stacker produced by Pallet Machinery Group.
Harvey Pallets runs four logging crews utilizing Franklin tree skidders and log trucks. One of the crews uses a Tigercat feller buncher.
Tavarez explained the benefit of vertical integration. He commented, “Now that we have so much timber at our disposal and have control of our own supply chain, your customers feel much more comfortable knowing that we will always be able to supply their needs.”
Tavarez added, “Because we have prepaid for the timber, we can keep the price at a manageable and forecastable level. This helps reduce price volatility.”
Another major benefit is the ability to custom size whatever is needed to fill a customer order with limited waste. Tavarez suggested, “When you buy from elsewhere, you have to take what they can give you. But one of the benefits of having your own sawmill is that you can dictate what we cut if it is 4x7s or 6x8s or whatever we need to meet specialty orders.”
Family Pride and Determination Breeds Success
While we met, Manual Tavarez seemed to always have a confident smile on his face. He has known adversity through the years starting from almost nothing to create a large pallet company in one of the most competitive markets in the country. Harvey Pallets was recently featured on the TV show Manufacturing Marvels and serves some very demanding customers.
Many of Manuel’s family members work in the business including his son, Michael, who is helping with safety initiatives when he is not in college. The company holds regular team outings and retreats for staff and their families. They are proud that they are a minority owned business that gives many people in the area a good job. And there are a number of families with multiple family members and even multiple generations working at the company.
BJ Packo said, “We are constantly working with employees to find out what we can do to make this a better place to work. Our slogan – ‘A Culture of Pride” is something we really strive to push with our workers. Take pride in your work space and the work that you do. Take pride and take care of the facility.”
Manuel sets the tone by his passion for pallets and commitment to the company. BJ recalled, “There are times that it gets really hard in this business. And five minutes meeting with Manuel is like meeting with a Buddha-like figure – you think you can do anything and meet any challenge.”
BJ commented, “We are seeing a change in the pallet industry. There are a lot more business professionals who are getting into the sector. You are seeing a changing of the guard. What we are doing now is our own spin and part of that business revolution.”
For Harvey Pallets, superb customer service looks like online tracking, vendor managed inventories, off-site stocking inventories, first-class manufacturing and repair facilities, pallet design and customized solutions, vertical integration, pallet management, pallet treatment and much more. For HUB, it strives to deliver quality at a competitive price on time. HUB has a broad catalog of products that can save your company money by reducing those pesky trips to the local office, industrial or hardware store. With online ordering and products tailored to the pallet industry, HUB is a smart choice for many consumable products. For more information on HUB, visit http://pallet.hubindustrial.com/ or call 800/743-9401.
