February means different things to different people – Valentine’s Day, the Super Bowl, Family Day (in Canada) – but to me, February is also the anniversary of my most complicated and challenging installation. What’s more, the installation was completed in the middle of the pandemic and a Polar Vortex to boot! [For all photos, See PDF or View in Full Issue.]
In February 2021, my team showed that sub-zero temps and some snow aren’t enough to stop us from feeding the beast! We’re always ready to tackle a challenger tougher than Mother Nature – the challenge of limited space.
Many truss plants are producing trusses within buildings with loading dock “constraints.” In most cases, the loading dock is the ideal location for an automated saw, however, there is no practical way to get lumber up to the loading dock. This job uses a “High Rise” Lumber PickLine plus a unique RetroC saw install.
A skilled crane operator was able to “thread the needle” and deliver the RetroC saw into the building...even though they needed a little extra push at the end from the forklift.
I’ll bet the forklift driver had mixed feelings about it – he knew that, after we finished installing the new equipment, then he would be spending much less time driving the forklift in the future. With a Lumber PickLine, you don’t need your forklifts for time-consuming lumber movements.
After getting the RetroC into the building, then came the unloading of the High Rise (8ft) Lumber PickLine. Although this step seemed a little anticlimactic, there’s no complaining when a job goes smoothly!
On Day 1, we had a good install day with blue sunny skies, even though the temperature was –19°C excluding wind chill (yes, that’s –2°F)! Day 2 turned into a snow day though, so we worked inside assembling the RetroC.
On Day 3, we put the PickLine Conveyors into place and aligned them with the RetroC saw.
Then, the trough construction in the yard continued throughout Day 4.
Day 5 was for finishing touches, with training beginning the next week.
I call Week Two the Training Wheels Protocol. That’s when everyone learns why no dedicated forklifts are required – instead, lumber is efficiently picked to “cut-by-truss.” You won’t see lumber catchers behind the RetroC saw – it will cut-by-truss and batch cut at the same time.
Additional money-saving tips include organizing lumber in front of the tables for left and right as well as collating picked plates to further speed up production. In very tight and less than optimum material staging situations, minimizing movement is enhanced with big screen TV projection that really does speed up production too.
Last but not least, everyone learns that Passive Lean works 24/7 and no one goes home until the PickLine is loaded for the next day!
Sun or snow, hot or cold, you can count on a PickLine to keep your production humming. So when you want to increase production, save time, and save money by eliminating constraints, remember that we’ve researched and developed process organization technology to resolve plant inefficiencies.
Contact us when you are ready to take your organization to the next level: Edmond.Lim@LimTekSolutions.com, 416-888-4457 (cell), https://limteksolutions.com/.