A
Th e
Component Manufacturing dverti$ dverti $ er
Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
Adverti$$er
May 2024 #16298 Page #46
An Extreme Plant Makeover in Pictures
Edmond Lim, P.Eng. LimTek Solutions Inc.
re you crazy? We are not going to move our saw! We cannot afford to shut down for weeks to turn things upside down. Those are words I’ve heard more than once, but it turns out I am not crazy. Saws can be moved and the process improvement can be accomplished in days and not weeks.
A
Moving saws inside the building so they are positioned at an outside wall will free up valuable plant space and increase sawing efficiency by reclaiming saw idle time with a Lumber PickLine. Don’t believe me? Check out my article from last May, Incremental CapEx and Accelerated ROI. Many truss plants are shoe-horned into existing buildings with many constraints. Moving saws and feeding saws with Lumber PickLines sounds extreme, but it can be accomplished with accelerated ROI due to the ongoing operating cost savings and increased truss production after the extreme plant makeover. An extreme plant makeover, done in two phases, was captured in my article on Threading the Needle with a High Rise Lumber PickLine. Adding a RetroC component saw was phase one (5 days) followed by phase two (4 days) when we moved a linear saw from deep inside the plant to the outside wall, allowing it to be fed from the same lumber PickLine as the phase one RetroC saw. Need more convincing? Here are some revealing before and after photos. BEFORE – Blade in the middle of the plant directly in front of the tables is good for just-in-time, however, it’s not enough buffer and the material staging area in front of the tables is not conducive to truss building. AFTER – Still just-in-time to the tables, however, with more efficient material staging and collated cut pieces spread out in front of the tables which has increased truss production.
Continued next page
PHONE: 800-289-5627
Read/Subscribe online at www.componentadvertiser.com
FAX: 800-524-4982