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Component Manufacturing dverti$ dverti $ er
Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
Adverti$$er
November 2021 #13268 Page #134
The Last Word on Witnessing Integration at BCMC Joe Kannapell, P.E.
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t each BCMC, we’re able to see the evolution of our industry in real time. Right now, we’re seeing how to integrate machines that used to operate independently. These machines, the saws and the tables, have had sixty years of improvements, and a billion dollars of CM investments. Saws, for example, have been systematically upgraded from manual to powered to automated operation. But only lately has there been much investment, beyond software, to integrate the cutting (or the assembly) with the flow of material into and out of it.
Although many manual systems were developed to move material, the lumber train and carousel were among the first powered systems capable of moving full bunks of lumber to the saw. The carousel was a more compact solution, but both were limited to 5 or 6 sku’s. These systems have become less practical as cutting has become less repetitious. One of the first physical connections between saws and tables came with Jim Urmson’s TCT Feeder System. This was first deployed at BMC West in Boise, ID in 2005, then Forest Products in Sarasota, FL, and finally at Manning Lumber in Ocala, FL. Manning currently has TCT XL Saws feeding conveyors on both sides of their plant. Tim Bennett, GM at Manning, attests to the superiority of this system over lumber carts, especially when cutting truss-by-truss.
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