Reduce Labor and Boost Throughput by Optimizing Your Plant Layout

How often do pallet companies say that they need to introduce automation, but they just don’t have the room? All too often that’s the end of the conversation - when it should be just the start!

If you struggle with labor availability, too many handling touches, congestion delays, and no room in the plant to introduce automated equipment, then welcome to the club. Improving labor productivity and increasing production rates are top of mind for pallet companies. In fact, these are the two top things we hear customers asking about. The good news is that these goals can be achieved through the introduction of automation, made possible through a professionally designed layout - both for existing plants as well as new buildings.

Bringing the Notcher In Line

Is your notcher located in-house or in the outhouse? A lot of operations start out in a smaller building. And then as they grow, they require additional equipment which can quickly fill up the plant and cause congestion. The nailing machine runs out of wood because the forklift has to make its way through the busy operation. Faced with a cramped plant and demands for additional machinery, pallet makers are eventually faced with constructing a separate building or multiple buildings. Does this sound familiar?

One of the most common examples is the notcher. A pallet company might initially buy a notcher to look after the needs of a single customer and build a small building to house it. Over time, however, the demand for notched stringers might grow, and rather than needing it one day per week, the notcher is now required to run five days per week. This is an example of the traditional approach to manufacturing called a cell-based approach, and it involves a lot of touch labor. Stringers must be stacked, and then transferred by forklift to the notcher shed for notching, and then be restacked and brought back to the primary building for pallet assembly.

The modern approach, on the other hand, is to move manufacturing in line and thus eliminate unnecessary touch labor. In the case of the notcher, if we move it in line with the saw, stringers can be sent by conveyor as required, directly to the notcher, and then just be stacked a single time. When the notcher is not in use, boards or unnotched stringers can be bypassed directly to the stacker, eliminating touch labor while providing flexibility.

Automated Stackers Save on Labor

The M2L automated stacking system is one of our best-selling pieces of equipment and with good reason: each unit can help you free up two or more employees to work elsewhere in your operation. One PMG customer was able to reallocate over 10 employees who were previously needed solely to stack wood - at a single location. The challenge for many companies, however, is finding the space to install stackers, and that is where a seasoned layout professional can find opportunities that might not otherwise be obvious.

High Tech Plant Layout Technology

When things are a certain way over time, people tend to take them for granted and fail to consider other options. Pallet plants are no exception. As a business grows over time the building can become cramped, while production people come to accept the existing production layout as the best or possibly only approach. It might not seem like there is room to bring the notcher inline or to add labor-saving automated stackers. That’s where working with an experienced plant design provider can help you explore other machine layout configurations you might not have considered, or weren’t sure could fit.

PMG, for example, uses sophisticated scanning technology to generate a 3D image of the plant, accurate to 1/16”, and including the locations of machinery, electrical panels, beams, and suction systems. This approach not only negates the need for exhaustive manual measurements but also improves measurement accuracy, preventing problems that can easily develop if machinery is realigned while relying on manual measurements. The 3D image is then converted to a 2D CAD layout, allowing existing and projected machinery to be moved around by computer to find new options that can accommodate new automation in the existing building or the optimum layout for a new structure. Not only that, those CAD files can be stored for future use as your business needs change.

Lumber Cut Up as a Profit Center

Do you know how many bundles of pallet material you produce per shift? When it comes to plant improvements, many pallet companies don’t give the lumber processing part of their operation the attention that it deserves. Given that the cost of a pallet can be 60% material cost, however, optimizing your pallet lumber production just might be your company’s best opportunity to increase profits. Additionally, improvements aimed at increasing pallet output will require additional wood to fuel production. One way that companies can improve their throughput is by replacing their existing saw line with the HY400, our high-speed, thin kerf, industrial saw. One PMG customer purchased their first HY400 and enjoyed a 400% increase in lumber throughput. Now they are investing in a second HY400, which will give them an 800% boost in sawing capacity in just 5 years. PMG can utilize its layout expertise to help determine how the HY400 and automated stackers can best be integrated into your cut-up operation.

Every Second Counts

In pallet manufacturing, every second counts. Do you have traffic jams inside of your plant that impede the flow of materials, or having employees do jobs that can be easily automated? Over the course of a shift, those seconds and minutes and hours add up. For example, every five-minute wait for wood at the nailing machine can mean 25 pallets that couldn’t get made. The addition of chain conveyors can help make sure that production continues unabated, while the addition of automated stackers can free up valuable labor resources for other duties.

Whether you are looking at how to best integrate automation into your existing building when it seems impossible or determining the optimal layout for an expansion or new structure, why not give PMG a call today? We can help you explore the optimization opportunities available for your company, and better position you for future growth and profitability.