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HOW USNR RESTRUCTURED
ITS PLANTS FOR MAXIMUM
EFFICIENCY
Article & Photos Supplied by Mary Ellen Klukow, Editorial Associate – Lynn Gorman Communications LLC
USNR USNR’s Woodland, Washington FMS team and supporting members
is the world leader in any of the machines to help minimize set up. The new producing equipment method keeps USNR’s spindles as active as possible. Set for the sawmill and up is done offline, and each machine has resident and
wood processing industries, supplying parts to North identical tooling to eliminate bottlenecks.
America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Mike Smothers, operations manager, calls USNR’s shop in Woodland, Washington, a “high mix, low volume” facility. The 100,000 square foot shop fills orders for edgers, profilers, chippers, gang saws, and other specialized parts for the sawmill and panel industries, with a few items produced at much higher volumes.
When Smothers was hired one of the first changes he made was to install a Fastems Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS). The FMS includes three DMG/MORI NHX 6300 horizontal machining centers and organizes and schedules projects to maximize productivity. Previously, most parts were made on vertical machining centers, which meant that the spindles were idle while operators were changing workpieces, fixtures and tooling. Along with this slow process, there was no resident tooling in
The four USNR plants (Woodland, WA, Jacksonville, FL, Plessisville, QC, and Söderhamn, Sweden) are also adopting a UPS [USNR Production System] system. The premise of this system is to allow the shop to build velocity and lower WIP (Work in Process) levels to allow the company to move material through the shops rapidly. One of its goals with this system is to cut USNR’s average delivery time to five days. “Woodland was at 25 days and now we are down to an average of 9 days, and we’re working toward 5 days,” explains Smothers. “Hitting 10 days was a big accomplishment for our shop and the UPS system, now we are working on a 5-day average.”
The UPS system extends beyond scheduling to accomplish physical organization. Two Kardex Remstar vertical lift modules keep USNR’s materials, parts, and fixtures ordered. “My warehouse is in those two Kardex
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CNC WEST August/September 2020