A
Th e
Component Manufacturing dverti$ dverti $ er
Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
Adverti$$er
May 2021 #13262 Page #10
Sixty Years of Machines Part XVIII: Automation Momentum
Joe Kannapell
W
e suppliers had to escape the bind that Jerry Koskovich’s automation portended. We had been chastened by our CMs’ excitement viewing his Auto Omni Saw at the 1988 BCMC. Then we were shocked shortly thereafter when one of our leading customers, Tom Nomeland at Superior Truss (now UFP), ordered Jerry’s seventh saw. Around the same time, our overseas CMs were clamoring for our response. In short, our customers wanted automation, and all we had was a good, but still manually operated, upgrade of Art DePauw’s saw. We had to act quickly, while we still had a few openings. Our greatest opportunity was Jerry’s price-point – most CMs balked at paying $135,000 for the unconventional Omni versus $65,000 for the proven Easy Set. We had set out in the late 1980s to develop a semi-automated saw in the $100,000 range. Our resulting product, the Easy Set 2000, debuted in 1990. The 2000 required data entry on a touchscreen but wasn’t capable of downloading cutting parameters. Many CMs, foreign and domestic, were OK with manual data entry, since the 2000 worked with any software, and didn’t require computer networking. Some even questioned whether the Omni’s PC interface would work well in sawdusty plants. We touted the reliability of our industrial touchscreen interface that distinguished the Easy Set 2000 from the 1000. Otherwise, the mechanical frame of our saws were nearly identical, expediting production in our new 50,000 square foot plant. Our secondary opportunity was Jerry’s reliance on outside vendors to put together his saw. Though he found an excellent machine shop nearby at Lou-Rich Industries, he sourced his electronics package and robotic assemblies elsewhere. He owned no facility to bring these parts together. And he had to develop a process from scratch and had to rely on his vendors to coordinate inputs. Jerry couldn’t perfect this overnight, and while he was developing reliable production systems, we gained the advantage of much shorter lead times. By offering a lower price and quicker delivery, we sold dozens of Easy Set 1000’s each year in the early 1990s. Our success with the 2000 was mixed – while we sold a few overseas, our semi-automated saw didn’t catch on domestically until Ron Bergeron installed one in 1993. Ron quickly maximized the 2000’s output by using two operators: one to key-in the cutting and the other to load the lumber. When his renowned Century Truss plant was feeding truckloads of lumber daily through his 2000 saw, word traveled quickly throughout our industry. Soon Easy Set 2000 orders began to overtake still robust 1000 sales.
Continued next page
PHONE: 800-289-5627
Read/Subscribe online at www.componentadvertiser.com
FAX: 800-524-4982