Quick Change Artistry
APRIL 2009 www.modernwoodworking.com 36 A fast food restaurant might seem like an unlikely place to experience an epiphany about a molding operation, but that's exactly where Ken Witucki was when he developed the produc-tion model for his company, Valley Hardwoods in Little Falls, Minn. I had been thinking about how we've got all this great equipment, we've got good, experienced, knowledgeable people working for us who want to do the best job possible, and yet it still seems like we can't produce orders in a timely fashion, he says. A er I paid for my meal, my order arrived as I was being handed my change. It was unbelievable to me that I could order something and have it there at the same time I was getting my change. ere were only high school students working there, yet a system was in place that enabled me to get my food that quickly. I kept asking myself, `Why can't this kind of e ciency work in molding? Why do we think a two-week turnaround time is acceptable?' Today, Valley Hardwoods' 12 employees produce quality hardwood moldings and millwork for the commercial mar-ket in its 25,000-sq.- . facility within an astounding 24-hour lead time. Says Witucki, ere are three things you must have in order to be successful in a small run operation: You have to have the equipment; you have to have the people with the mentality that small runs are good; and you need a system that holds it all together. As for the rst part of Witucki's formula for a successful operation goes, a P1000 moulder from Weinig has lled the bill. In fact, he recently purchased a second one. With its PowerLock tooling system that incorporates the spindle into the cutterhead, changeover is accomplished by just pushing a button. We're buying equipment somewhat with future capacities in mind, but mainly our buying of equipment is more focused on how we can become more e ective at what we do how we can reduce our e ort and increase our productivity, he says. In the case of the P1000 moulder, for instance, we were able to reduce our setup times dramatically. e Powermat also gives us the consistency of getting from pro le to pro le, the ability to run without running setup pieces and the con dence that it will all happen on a regular basis. We consistently run 10,000- to 13,000-lineal-feet per shi . On average, we have 27 changeouts per day, per shi , per moulder. But it takes more than just a moulder it's the whole equipment package, says Witucki. Any bottlenecks Valley Hardwoods might have are looked at through TAC time the time in process of a particular molding from the time it is in the lumber state to the time it is a shippable product. Its last big equipment upgrade was cantilever racking based on its biggest bottleneck getting wood in front of the ripsaw. Turnkey time is now less than eight hours. Most of its mold-ing ships within 24 hours. We're a one-shi operation with less than a one-day lead time, says Witucki. A convenience store mentality e impetus to take the journey to lean manufacturing actually came from a Valley Hardwoods customer. About two years ago, one of our customers asked us to become lean and shorten our By Brooke Baldwin Wisdom Quick change artistry Millwork manufacturer achieves 24-hour turnaround on short runs