With the forecasted housing backlog and ongoing tight labor market, shouldn’t all truss plants be modernizing by investing in automation? That is easier said than done. One strategy to modernize is to automate with incremental investments.
In my experience, the best way to get over the ROI fear factors of space, time, labor, safety, maintenance, and support is to stand in the middle of somebody else’s shop floor or yard to observe and ask questions. That’s right – Feed the Beast Plant Tours! [For all photos, See PDF or View in Full Issue.]
Incremental CapEx should be planned to boost existing investments in production and to keep your people motivated in order to successfully embrace the incremental changes.
R&K, a division of US LBM, is an excellent case study of incremental CapEx over the years. Prior to 2017, R&K had invested in new truss production tables with automated jigging and their existing saw shop could not keep up with the increased truss production capacity. Their existing saw shop had dedicated web saws and chord saws which required significant job and material handling coordination. They had to cut 1–2 days in advance, which created a logistics problem along with the added time to find each cut job along with the time to handle all the cut material twice. At the tables, since the cut material was not organized for efficient truss building, the material had to be further down-stacked.
R&K was intrigued by the operational savings of the Enventek fully loaded RetroC sawing system which would reduce forklift lumber picking and had auto-fill carts that did not require dedicated lumber stackers. The cart system would collate and sort the cut pieces for runs of trusses for left and right of truss to eliminate down-stacking of truss pieces at the tables.
So, in August of 2017, R&K jumped on a plane from Gilbert, AZ to Toronto, ON Canada to visit with the folks at United Truss, Innisfil, ON, who in 2014 had invested in a 175 ft Lumber PickLine, 50 ft Live Deck auto-feeding a RetroC saw automatically filling 56 auto-fill lumber carts integrated with PlantOne Projection on all their truss jigs.
R&K was so impressed from their visit with United Truss that they put in an order for two (2) fully loaded RetroC systems consisting of a 200 ft Double Lumber PickLine with 48 ft Live Decks and 200 auto-fill carts. Plus, this just-in-time in-line truss production system enabled subsequent incremental CapEx improvements with the ongoing savings of reduced operating costs and increased production – thereby achieving accelerated ROI.
Shown in this first “after” photo of R&K in August 2018 are:
A – RetroC, 48 ft Live Deck, 150 ft PickLine
B – RetroC, 48 ft Live Deck, 200 ft PickLine
C – 200 auto-fill carts
D – PlantOne TVs
E – New truss production building.
But that’s not all! The next “after” photo from May 2021 shows even more:
F – New Truss production building (August 2019)
G – Monet DeRobo Linear saw
H – 48 ft Live deck, 120 ft PickLine (which became a Triple Lumber PickLine)
I – Roof cover added to saw shop outfeed area.
Now, R&K hosts its own tours! The August 2018 Feed the Beast Plant Tour pictured here welcomed California TrusFrame, Truss Fab, The Truss Company, Madera Component Systems, and Intelligent Wood Systems UK.
When you’re ready to see these efficient and effective systems for yourself, let us know! Inside and out, LimTek Process Organization Technology will help you squeeze out more truss production and deliver quality trusses with shorter lead times to better service your customers by organizing your truss fabrication processes to maximize your investment in automation. https://limteksolutions.com/#solutions