FAIRFAX, Kansas—Continuous improvement – that’s the key to success for Reardon Pallet Co. And one area that needed a change was its wood waste processing. The goal was to turn a cash drain into profit. Mission accomplished thanks to a fully automated, low-RPM grinder system from Cresswood.
“We love the Cresswood grinder installed by Boulware Equipment,” declared Dan Reardon Jr., the president and owner of Reardon Pallet. “Our Cresswood grinder is attached to the building. We can grind from the inside so it’s easier to operate all year round. The wood chips and the mulch are contained, which eliminates the mess associated with exterior operations.”
Moving from a Third-Party Grinder to In-House Processing
For years, Reardon Pallet successfully relied on a third-party partner to grind wood waste. But as the company grew and waste volume increased, management realized that the costs were getting out of hand. Reardon explained, “This partnership worked well for a long time. But our volume got to the point that we were spending a small fortune processing our waste in this way. We knew we needed to do this in house.”
The company considered a variety of options, including exterior grinding, and decided to go with a fully automated system designed by Boulware Equipment. Reardon said, “We worked with Brad Boulware to find a solution for our grinding challenge. He was really easy to work with and knew how to help us find the right solution.”
Why go with an interior system? Reardon admitted, “Exterior grinders tend to be loud and messy. Dust gets everywhere, and you need a significant amount of yard space to operate them.” Self-containment is a big win when it comes to plant flow and waste build up in a pallet yard. Reardon pointed out, “We don’t have a stack of stuff in our yard anymore. There’s no stack of nails that needs to be recycled. There’s no stack of mulch. That’s a mess. There’s no fire risk from any of that.”
The Cresswood grinder is enclosed and is accessed via a hole in the wall. Waste is taken by forklift in self-dumping hoppers and is dropped into a chute that leads to the Cresswood grinder. Ground material is conveyed and blown into a walking-floor trailer. The enclosed design reduces noise and the housekeeping requirements.
Reardon added, “Cresswood is just different technology. It has lower rotation speed per minute, which makes it quieter than exterior grinders.” And he concluded, “The decision was really a no-brainer. With limited space, we had to go with a Cresswood. This approach didn’t require us to change our existing yard layout or processes.”
Ground fiber produced by the Cresswood grinder is used for mulch and biomass fuel. Boulware installed the grinding system in the fall of 2022. Looking back at the performance, Reardon noted, “The Cresswood grinder has been terrific. It really changed what we did with our wood waste. We took something that had been an expense for us to get rid of and turned it into a profit center.”
The return-on-investment (ROI) has been much better than anticipated. Reardon admitted, “The labor associated with our old process was very inefficient. So, we have paid for this grinding system very quickly. We anticipated a 2.5-3 year pay back, but we have already eclipsed those expectations.”
Another major reason for the savings has been the transportation efficiency. Significantly more volume of ground-up material can be moved than solid wood waste and scraps. Reardon said, “It was about 4-5 times the volume of material we could take in a single load.” Wood waste had become a hindrance when it came to costs and limited business growth potential. Reardon explained, “As the cost to process wood waste dropped, it allowed us to take on other customers and to do better business for those customers.”
Easy Green, Cresswood Grinder Expands Recycling Service Capabilities for Reardon Pallet
The Cresswood grinder has to be maintained like any high-impact piece of machinery. But the design and low-RPM motor limit the wear and tear on parts. Reardon stated, “Like any grinder, there are a number of maintenance issues to monitor. But the Cresswood grinder is an absolute bull. It is constructed of heavy-duty steel and built to perform. We have had very little maintenance so far in terms of the wear parts. And it still looks pretty new.”
Improving wood waste processing is good for Reardon Pallet and its customers because it reduces the environmental impact of the pallet operations. While this is a positive selling point, Reardon admitted that green purchasing has not become a major driver for customers yet. But that may change in the future.
And the grinder has helped grow the business. Reardon revealed, “Some customers were unreachable for us because, in addition to the pallets they buy, they also have a significant amount of disposal. In the past, I was having to charge them more, which made me less competitive. Now that I have the Cresswood grinder, I am much more competitive with other companies in town for this service.”
Efficiently Processing and Trimming Recycled Boards
About five months after the Cresswood grinder was installed, Reardon Pallet put in a Robotic Dismantler and an Urban Sawmill line from Alliance Automation. While improving production is always on the mind of a pallet executive, the big draw of the Robotic Dismantler was something more.
Reardon explained, “When those outside of the industry come into a pallet recycling shop, the number one concern is the tear-down operation using a bandsaw dismantler. This process terrifies all of your business partners, from the insurance guys to bankers and everyone in between.”
While Reardon Pallet didn’t have a history of a lot of safety issues with its bandsaw dismantler operations, that wasn’t the point. Appearances matter. Reardon said, “Eliminating worker safety risks is a big driver behind our decision to put in a Robotic Dismantler, and a secondary benefit is that it has boosted production too.” He added, “I want to be an early adopter of technology and continuously work to improve our operations.”
Alliance’s Robotic Dismantler has been a major technological breakthrough for the pallet recycling sector. According to Reardon, the robot can tear down a block pallet easier and provide more recoverable boards than using a bandsaw dismantler and a human operator. He said, “Block pallets can be completely disassembled so that all the wood can be recovered. You cannot do that safely with the traditional approach, which leads to more waste.”
Reardon acknowledged, “The pallet industry has always been a sector where the barrier to entry is low. But that is starting to change with higher levels of automation in pallet plants and with our customers. Pallet quality and delivering on specs are more important than ever. And people need capital for these new developments in the industry.”
While the Robotic Dismantler tears apart pallets, the Urban Sawmill turns those recycled boards into usable lumber. It singulates, scans, optimizes, trims and sorts boards into the desired sizes. This process usually takes a lot of people and manual effort to accomplish via the traditional methods. The scanner is similar to the technology used in a traditional sawmill to optimize yield.
Reardon recalled that with the traditional approach, operators frequently miscut boards, which resulted in significant wood waste. He explained, “We had operators that couldn’t operate those trim saws efficiently. They would cut a board that was 45 inches to 36 and not think a thing about it. Even though they should have recovered a 40-inch board out of it. So, we found that we can reduce waste and increase volumes by running an Urban Sawmill.”
The Urban Sawmill has drastically changed the company’s ability to produce combo pallets. Reardon said, “The Urban Sawmill has shifted our mix. We used to be 40-60 new versus recycled. Now we are producing more combo pallets with recycled boards. But we haven’t shut down our sawmill.”
Reardon commented, “We’re utilizing recycled boards whenever possible. We’re trying to motivate our customers to switch from new to recycled boards. It saves customers a fortune. And thanks to the Urban Sawmill, the process is a lot easier than the old approach.”
Recycled boards are used by builders to construct combo pallets by hand.
The payback on the Robotic Dismantler is not as quick as the Urban Sawmill due to the consumable foam used to pick up pallets. But Alliance Automation is testing a new arm that can replace the expendable foam and can even facilitate pallet prep operations for dismantling specific parts of a pallet to facilitate repair. Reardon projected a June timeframe, “As soon as the arm is ready to roll, we absolutely will be interested in it…So our expectation is to upgrade to that new arm and/or buy a second robot equipped with the arm.”
The Urban Sawmill has significantly increased the capacity of Reardon Pallet to produce recycled boards and provide customers combo pallets. The volume of the Urban Sawmill did present some challenges. Reardon explained, “We had the same issue that everybody has as you increase your volume of recycled components you are going through, you really over run yourself with small boards. So, we are actively going after small display pallets and mini pallet sizes.”
Zira to Identify Top Pallet Sizes
The latest technology development for Reardon Pallet is the deployment of Zira cameras. Zira’s AI-vision telematics work with AI software to track production, identify specific sizes or detect quality concerns. Reardon has installed the cameras to monitor specific aspects of its repair line. But the big goal is to use Zira’s camera system to monitor quality and target specific sizes that are highly valued by specific customers.
Reardon explained, “A major customer wants to use recycled pallets. But they have very stringent height requirements. Right now, they are buying new pallets. But if we can identify pallets that meet the specific height requirements, we can convert this customer to used pallets. The tolerances are plus or minus a 16th of an inch.”
The idea is to use Zira cameras to look for specific sizes and ensure size consistency. Automation could enable more accurate sorting without having to resort to using a tape measure or very time-consuming manual inspection. Zira cameras can provide real-time data as well as information that is hard to collect through other methods.
Reardon said, “I want to be an early adopter of some of this new technology that will drive even better-quality control processes.”
He added, “AI is going to make us better at our job. Our QC is good, but it can be better. Increasingly, pallet purchasers are going to have higher expectations of their pallet companies, meaning minimum standards are going to increase. And if you don’t have these things available to you, you’re going to fail to meet those requirements.”
Closer Look at the Company’s Capabilities
A number of years ago, Reardon Pallet acquired a sawmill in rural Missouri. This facility is still running full speed, although the boards from the Urban Sawmill have enabled the company to reduce the amount of lumber it has to buy on the open market. Reardon’s sawmill cuts a lot of oak and cottonwood.
Incoming trailers are unloaded, and stacks are dispatched directly to repair stations. Reardon explained, “We don’t have very many loads that are mixed coming in the door. We have staff at key customer locations doing dock sweeps looking for 48x40s. They separate everything by stack or trailer load, so we don’t have to sort much coming into our plant.”
Reardon Pallet performs dock sweeps for some national brokers and major retail accounts. Reardon acknowledged, “We have worked with brokers because there are just fewer companies like us out there that are available for them to use, and there’s fewer brokers.”
The Fairfax plant also has an Automated Machine Systems (AMS) repair line 10 workstations set along a two-tier conveyor. Incoming pallets unloaded from trailers are staged on gravity conveyors at each station – three stacks per station. Workers remove a pallet from the stack they are working on, place it on their table, inspect it, and repair it as needed. They attach a barcode label that identifies the worker and the pallet grade and slide the pallet onto the lower conveyor. Scrap material is tossed into the upper conveyor and empties into a dumpster. Also, an inspector checks pallets for quality before they enter the stackers. At the end of the line, a scanner reads the barcode label, and pallets are automatically routed into one of five stackers.
Pallets to be dismantled go to either the Robotic Dismantler or Smart Products bandsaws. Higher-volume pallet specs are run through the robot. Smaller and odd-sizes boards are dismantled using a bandsaw and cut to length using a Go Fast miter saw. Material that is smaller than 20 inches in length isn’t processed through the Urban Sawmill.
The AMS system is much more efficient than the company’s previous work area. For one thing, it only occupies an area about one-third as big. It also cuts down on the number of stacks of pallets in proximity to repair workers. It eliminated a lot of the heavy lifting of handling and moving pallets by hand, making the work easier. Production increased: experienced workers increased their output by 15-20%.
Reardon Pallet relies on the PalMate software to manage its entire enterprise. The company is always looking for ways to improve its quality control and the operational flow of the plant. Reardon said, “Our plant is running better than ever before. But we’re always looking for improvements. I want to minimize forklift traffic and transport as much as possible.”
The company uses a Viking Champion and Go Fast notcher to produce large orders. The company has moved more into custom sizes. Reardon explained, “We’re making custom pallets more of a focus for us. There’s fewer companies that want to mess with custom pallets. And so that’s been an area for expansion for us, and not just because there’s more of that business here in town, but also because that business doesn’t blow in the wind nearly as much as the 48×40 stuff does. We don’t lose accounts on a nickel.”
Automation has significantly improved the labor situation for Reardon Pallet. It has reduced turnover by eliminating a lot of lifting and repetitive heavy work. Automation has increased the pool of eligible workers by reducing strain and physical worker requirements.
Reardon noted, “Our labor position today is the best it’s ever been. It’s better than pre-pandemic levels. We are thrilled with the group of people that we have. It’s been building over the course of the last couple of years. I credit our managers for that. We’ve got a culture here that these guys like to come to work. Plus, we pay more than competitors in town.”
Kansas City is becoming a popular location for supply chains due to its central location. Reardon said, “The KC market is very steady. We didn’t have some of the crazy highs or lows associated with the pandemic pricing. The KC market is much more diversified than other areas of the country.”
The company has gone through a transition at the top. Dan Reardon Sr., the founder of the company, recently sold the business to his son, Dan Reardon Jr. While Reardon Sr. still comes into work every day, he has handed management decisions over to his son. Dan Jr. said, “There is a lot when it comes to family business transition. We have talked about it since I came on board in 2006. I knew from the beginning that that was my long-term interest.”
What has made the operations work well over the past few years? Reardon Jr. credited his management team. He commented, “We have tried to change how we work with our people. It all starts with our managers. From my ops manager to my production manager all the way down to the guys on the line, everybody is pulling in the same direction and aligned to the same goals.”
