In our May issue, I began this series From the Road, inviting everyone along the course of our cross-country adventure to connect with me for an in-person visit. Recently, I was pleased to tour Merrick Machine Co. in Alda, Nebraska, the home of Triad Machinery.
Arriving at the industrial park that houses two of their manufacturing plants, I was met by Brad Samples, Plant Manager, and we were soon joined by Lowell Tuma, Sales Manager, and Russ Merrick, owner and President. As the name shows, Merrick began as a family business – Russ is third generation leadership at the company started by his grandfather, Jim Merrick, in 1959. Originally from the oil industry, Jim Merrick is considered one of the early pioneers in building component manufacturing machinery.
Their first machine made windows and it was called the Triad. Today, the Triad T-4 Window Machine is the cornerstone of the Triad Window line. Other products include wood wall panel equipment, steel stud framing tables, stair stringer cutting saws, RUVO pre-hung door assembly machines, material handling carts, and more.
My plant tour started in a staging area for raw materials. Merrick Machine Co. (MMC) produces all of their specialty parts in-house using CNC-guided laser cutting, break press, milling, and forming equipment. Their strategy is to cut out the middleman to reduce lead time, maintain production schedule flexibility, reduce errors, and maintain a strict level of quality. It also allows them to plan ahead on raw materials in bulk without affecting their production schedule. We took time to watch a robotic sheet steel machine lift a single panel and position it on a carrier that brought the raw sheet into a CNC laser machine. It cut out individual parts including slots, holes, and openings based on the overall design of the machine being produced. From there, we went to an assembly area where a wall panel bridge was being constructed. Every part of the bridge structure was produced in-house with the exception of fasteners and electrical or pneumatic components. Next to the bridge, a wall panel assembly table was under construction. As with the bridge, all of the plate and structural members had been produced in-house and stood by, ready to be assembled.
We then went to an area where a competed machine was loaded with a panel to demonstrate the ProFusion bridge and capabilities of their hands-free operation. I was expecting to see someone push a button or throw a switch or actuator to start the process. What I saw was an operator holding a tablet. With a few strokes, the bridge indexed then proceeded to fasten all plates, studs, seams, and openings. It turns out that the speed of this process only depends on the brand of gun used and tool cycle time. What’s more, no one other than the tablet operator is needed to initiate it, and that person can be in a different area, a different building, or even a different state when managing the process! The only manual intervention will be for loading the guns (with up to 1,500 nails each) and positioning the framed panel with sheathing. That too could be automated, but it’s not a requirement. (Note: To see the ProFusion for yourself, stop by the Triad booth at BCMC this month or check out the online video of the ProFusion Sheathing Bridge in unmanned operation.)
With my past experience in commercial modular building manufacturing, I was not only thinking “this is really cool,” but I was thinking of how many people I would need to accomplish what this machine did by itself in a fraction of the time of a wall panel sheathing crew. I figured it would take three people, one on each side of the table and one standing on the panel, to reach all of the areas this bridge nailed, and how many times they would have had to reload to accomplish the task this 1,500-nail-per-gun machine did without reloading. Added to that I envisioned the waste of nails that are usually scattered on the floor, under the table, broken loads discarded to avoid jams, and how much time would be lost in movements making sure air hoses were not hanging up, going after nails, or waiting. Add benefits like pre-programming fastener spacing requirements and not seeing excess nails where they weren’t needed, and my commercial modular manufacturing self was saying, “if I was still in manufacturing, I would want one of these.”
After seeing the ProFusion bridge demonstration, we moved into another area where stair stringer saws were being assembled. I immediately understood the benefits, not only in automation but in the quality and economy this saw could offer. Making square notched cuts (without overcutting like when using a skill saw) increases strength and avoids overcuts that can weaken stringers. With automatic indexing, the time and material savings alone make offering pre-cut stair stringers a viable addition to a component manufacturer’s product line.
Before exiting the manufacturing plant, we took a detour to the section of the building where parts are made for the automobile industry and other uses by plastic injection. From internal parts for timing chain assemblies and races made of specialty plastics and nylon, to assemblies for the agricultural industry to use in irrigation, this division is a producer of products not equipment. But having Merrick Machine Co. next door to help build extrusion equipment is a definite plus.
The overall concept was automation and efficiency. When parts came out of the press, the small plastic stems and “trees” that held groups of parts together were separated and returned to the raw materials bin to be ground up and used again. Russ explained his thought process on further automation, replacing repetitive processes that are currently human actions with robot tasks. His goal is to elevate human involvement to being more technical and supportive and less labor intensive. Making people more valuable through training and improving processes, and using robotics to replace manual tasks, is a common thread in his entrepreneurial vision.
When we got back to the office, we visited their customer service department. There I saw multiple customer service reps making calls to customers to make sure they were satisfied with their equipment, to see if they needed information on other products or equipment, and reminding them to check consumables so that their operations would remain at peak efficiency.
Overall, I am very impressed with all of the people I met at Merrick Machine Co. and by all of the companies under the Merrick/Triad Fastener/Triad Products/RUVO/FuTek Tooling alliance. Not content to rest on past successes, they have a drive to continue innovating, and it shows in their willingness to expand their businesses in any directions that the future holds. Furthermore, their commitment to the building components manufacturing industry is readily apparent in their dedication to overall quality, process control, and innovation for the benefit of our manufacturers.