Picture perfect: Raymond Building Supply's state-of-the-art manufacturing plant, lumberyard, and corporate headquarters exemplify a masterpiece of LBM supply

Prosales, Nov, 2003 by Chris Wood

Just as a masterpiece is never finished in the eyes of its artist, Raymond Building Supply Corp. is continually putting the "finishing touches" on the company's 35.5-acre headquarters facility complex in North Fort Myers, Fla. Always looking for ways to improve and reconfigure its operations--from the truss manufacturing plant to the interior door hanging plant to the corporate offices--the company approaches production, inventory, technology, and employee morale as an all-encompassing business philosophy that keeps management on the move and the yard at the cutting-edge of facility design.

The centerpiece of the operations is an trader-cover facility that includes traditional building materials storage, a l00,000-square-foot truss manufacturing facility; a 66,000-square-foot door assembly plant, approximately 22,000 square feet of office space, a 6,500-square-foot mechanical garage, a 22,000-square-foot warehouse for storing aluminum windows, mid a rail siding that accommodates up to 13 rail cars of inventory.

Although original construction began in 1998, the facility is in a constant state of evolution. "One of the buildings was initially ear-marked for our lumber division, but we ended up equipping it with truss equipment," Raymond president Charlie Babb gives as an example. "We compromised space for the sake of production, but when truss expansion is completed across the railroad tracks, the building will go back to the lumberyard."

One of the most arresting features of the property is the sense not only of available space, but how the real estate is constantly manipulated for maximum corporate gain in an approach that puts a total package of efficiency, productivity, material handling and storage, and employee safety and morale all on equal footing. "Eliminating handling eliminates overhead," Babb explains. "Eliminate overhead and you increase profits. Increase profits and you increase bonuses. Increase bonuses and you increase the morale of your employees"

In Concert

To help keep this chain reaction in motion, Raymond uses information technology (IT) as a catalyst. "When we put our growth program together [in 1996], which included relocating and building new facilities, technology was at the fore-front," explains Babb. "We decided to be ahead of the game [in areas such as] fiber optics, our Web site, technology training throughout the ranks, and pushing our customer base towards technology as well as using it in production"

At the North Fort Myers facility, this technology edge is evident in the company's investment in a wide area network (WAN) connecting "all of Raymond's facilities and a commitment to the latest in computerized manufacturing equipment, software, and hardware systems.

One of the most impressive areas is Raymond's truss assembly operation. Material pickers man forklifts with wireless computer tablets tied into the WAN that indicate the sticks needed by the truss production foreman for the next Job. Pulled material is deposited by length and species at one of four Alpine lumber carousels, which can turn to the appropriate job and feed one of four primary Alpine Auto Mill computerized component saws in approximately 15 seconds. Additional cuts are made with four radial arm saws, one Timber Mill Saw, three auto saws, or a linear saw.

Cut material is then identified with preprinted labels and sent to one of Raymond's 19 truss fabrication areas, including four computerized Alpine tables, eight Alpine Auto Set tables, four wood-top tables, two jack presses, mad one Alpine Floor Master floor truss machine. Above each table is a 36-inch suspended television monitor displaying assembly data via the WAN that is used as a visual reference in the building of each truss. At any given point in time, the production foreman (or any other Raymond employee with authorization and Internet access) can view the status of any particular truss job. As part of Raymond's commitment to environmental business practices, a conveyer belt rims beneath the entire cutting operation, collecting wood waste and sawdust, which is trucked away for a recycled life as landscaping and animal bedding materials.

Complementing the truss operation is Raymond's door assembly plant. Although not tied into the WAN, it is manned with three state-of-the-art KVAL computer automated door systems that can combine to produce 700 pre-hung door units per day. Once off the line, doors are stored in custom-designed, modular racking units. To eliminate additional material handling and "also insure against damage, an entire racking unit is picked up with a forklift and loaded onto one of Raymond's soft-sided Moffett trailers for delivery.

This practice is in line with another key objective of Raymond's North Fort Myers facility: protecting inventory and assets. Four full-time mechanics man the facility garage, conducting most major repairs on Raymond's entire fleet of trucks and forklifts, while also completing regular service maintenance on the North Fort Myers fleet.