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Component Manufacturing dverti$ dverti $ er
Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
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December 2021 #13269 Page #35
How to Lose Millions of Profits with Linear Saws and Two-Person Crews
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here has been a big push to reduce labor. Todd Drummond In response, more than one equipment vendor has suggested that component manufacturers (CM) should purchase linear saws directly tied to roof gantry tables. The idea is simple: fewer crew members and more automation to increase efficiencies and reduce labor costs. As shown in Figure 1, there are two workstations with four assemblers and one sawyer because of the automation of lumber picking and material movement to the two workstations. However, given my actual case study results from current clients (which will be discussed below), this simple idea is flawed. This article will prove, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that this configuration could cost companies millions in lost profits with very little or no labor savings. Embrace the Drummond Method, and your company may make millions more. Our starting point is determining if assembling roof trusses on a gantry table, regardless of automation of jigging on the gantry table, has any real difference between two-person versus three-person crews. Auto-puck jigging is for reducing the setup time, not a reduction of assembly of the trusses. Figures 2 & 3 – The quantity is eleven trusses each of a 32’ Common truss and a 44’ Piggyback truss, and first we disregard the setup time and focus only on the assembly time of two- versus three-person crews. The setup time and assembly of the first truss are not being used for this case study, so the net quantity is ten trusses and the figures show a run of five for each crew. As you can see, each row in Figure 3 represents the number of crew assembling a quantity of five of each truss type. For the 32’ Common, the two-person crew has a total shop time of 15.1 minutes, versus the three-person
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