Pallet Enterprise Article : january "2009" Regarding Universal Pallet Supply, Inc. Technolgy and Business Smarts

1. Indiana Company Blends Business
Smarts, Sophistication, Technology
Trace Equipment Supplies Four Machines to Boost Used Lumber Recovery
By April Terreri
Contributing Author
ELKHART, INDIANA – Anyone tour-
ing Universal Pallet Supply for the first
time quickly would realize it is a unique,
highly evolved company. It is powered
by innovation and some of the most ad-
vanced technologies found in many in-
dustries utilizing lean manufacturing
and continuous improvement initiatives.
The ISO-9001-2000-certified com-
pany operates three separate business
units engaged in manufacturing new
pallets, recycling pallets, and pallet and
container management.
The company began operating as Uni-
versal Pallet Supply in January 2008 af-
ter a minority-owned private investment
group purchased the assets of Global
Group Inc. and restructured the busi-
ness.
“Global Group, founded in 1999, was Universal Pallet has one man running each of the four Run-A-Gade bandsaw
a pallet company that was doing well, dismantling machines, which are set up in tandem and supplied by Trace Equipment.
but they were at a point where they managers. and container management. All the fa-
needed a new management team,” said “Pallet Track handles data collection cilities are tied into a virtual private net-
Win Linder, 47, chief development of- on the floor, sending the data to work (VPN), and a voice over Internet
ficer for Universal Pallet Supply. PalMate, which is our Enterprise Re- protocol (VOIP) is used to communicate
In its first year, Universal Pallet Sup- source Planning (ERP) system,” ex- between plants.
ply achieved significant growth despite plained Jim Honey, director of informa- Universal Pallet Supply employs
the sluggish economy. “We focused on tion systems. The PalMate program is about 180 people. Full-time employees
running with the base that Global Group used to perform purchase orders, sched- are eligible for medical, dental and dis-
had established and expanding upon that uling and shipping functions, added Jim, ability insurance and a 401(k) retirement
here in the Midwest,” said Charles Raiff, who has a bachelor’s degree in informa- plan. The staff includes five full-time
28, project manager. “We can focus a lot tion management systems and holds six sales representatives and several part-
better now after splitting the company certifications as a Microsoft Certified time sales personnel.
into separate divisions.” Professional. Universal Pallet Supply operates a
“We are still in the implementation fleet of 10 semi-trailer trucks, two 28-
Sophisticated Pallet stage,” added Rick Willis, general man- foot-long straight trucks, 150 van trail-
Recycling Operations ager of the new pallets division. “Our ers and several flatbed trailers, and it
Technology is a big part of Universal goal is to be paperless out on the floor. employs 10 full-time drivers.
Pallet Supply’s success. The company We have a series of (Innovative Data
uses Innovative Data Systems’ Pallet Systems) kiosks throughout the floor High-Volume Pallet Dismantling
Track® in both the recycled pallets and that help us track inputs, outputs, costs, Universal Pallet Supply serves a wide
container management divisions. Auto- labor, and yields. We track every point range of manufacturing industries, in-
mated Machine Systems’ PalMate™is along the production process, which cluding automotive, construction, and
used in the pallet manufacturing divi- helps us be more efficient.” Rick has a groceries, within a radius of about 250
sion. Both software programs integrate bachelor’s degree in management and miles. It supplies pallets to Fortune 500
to provide real-time information for bet- marketing. customers that require four to 11 trailer-
ter data collection, which leads to more The company operates three plants for loads per week and other customers that
informed, better decision-making by new pallet production, pallet recycling buy as few as 100 pallets a month.
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2. New pallets account for about 60% of
the company’s revenues, followed by re-
cycled pallets at 25% and container
management, 15%.
“Our plant is set up for handling
large-volume runs, but we also operate
individual lines that can handle custom
units up to any size,” said Charles, who
is also responsible for the company’s
product quality and safety programs.
Recycled Pallets Division
One of the unusual aspects of the
company’s pallet recycling operations is
that it runs four Run-A-Gade bandsaws
dismantling machines, which were sup-
plied by Trace Equipment, set up in tan-
dem for improved efficiency.
“We put a lot of thought into this sys-
tem,” said Win. “We looked at a lot of
other manufacturers before we decided
that Run-A-Gade machines were the
best out there for our application. Mona Viking Turbo 505 at Universal Pallet Supply, Inc.
Tracy (of Trace Equipment) visited us (Also pictured, Linc Systems Fox Jet Pro pallet digital printer – center)
several times and showed us a lot of businesses that are operating two Run- them in tandem on one line or run two
different applications, and she helped us A-Gade machines in tandem, according saws in tandem with each other and run
design some of the work flow and come to Win, but none is running four. “We two separate lines.”
up with this configuration.” knew we wanted to run four saws,” he The company wanted to maximize
There are some other pallet recycling said. “The only way to do that was to run production of recycled lumber and do it

3. in as compact a space as possible, so inches. “The conveyor levers and the larly impressed by the rugged construc-
they decided this innovative configura- pneumatic blade tensioner are right in tion and durability of the Run-A-Gade
tion made the most sense. “Mona was front and are easily accessible, so the machines.
very excited when we told her we wanted machine is very ergonomically designed Working with Mona and her business
to give this idea a try,” Win said. and operator friendly,” Win added. was a successful experience for Univer-
The Run-A-Gade machines were at- sal Pallet Supply, and the company plans
tractive to Universal Pallet Supply for Trace Equipment to seek out her assistance and advice as it
several reasons. “They use a heavier Mona was very helpful in explaining continues to grow. “She has been in this
gauge sheet metal as well as a heavier the pros and cons of various equipment industry for a number of years, and she is
duty 15 horsepower, three-phase motor he was researching, according to Win, extremely knowledgeable about the ma-
for more power,” explained Win. “The whether or not she represented the manu- chinery,” noted Win. “She is also very
larger, 25-foot-4-inch blade cuts better facturer. “She set up meetings for me at choosy about which machines she will
for us and lasts longer than the standard some of her other customers so I could sell.”
blades we use.” The machine runs the see this equipment in action. From the In the company’s pallet recycling op-
blade at a speed of 4,500 feet per minute moment I saw how they operated, I knew erations, there are four docks to receive
and can dismantle pallets up to 60 this was the way to go.” He was particu- inbound pallets. At a staging area, pallets
go through an initial sort, and they are
designated either for grinding or recy-
cling operations. Pallets to be recycled
are loaded onto a 250-foot oval conveyor
system.
“We developed this design in conjunc-
tion with AMS,” explained Win. The cir-
cular conveyor system enables the com-
pany to sort pallets quickly while mini-
mizing labor. Eight people work in this
area, including the forklift operator.
Workers are on both sides of the con-
veyor, sorting out the 30-60 sizes the
company stocks. The pallets are pulled
off the conveyor, sorted by size and
grade, and stacked by hand. Ready-to-go
pallets are put into inventory and the
other pallets are moved to pallet repair or
lumber recovery operations.
The pallet tear-down area is about 20
feet away. As the pallets are dismantled
on the Run-A-Gade machines, the deck
boards fall down a chute onto a 24-inch
wide conveyor belt.
“The standard on that system is an 18-
inch-wide belt, but we had it widened
because we knew we would be running
four saws down the same system,” said
Win. “Trace Equipment had these cus-
tom built for us.” Since the machines are
in tandem, the chutes dropping the used
lumber onto the conveyor are staggered
so all the boards are not dumped onto the
conveyor at one place.
The used deck boards are conveyed to
a 12-foot rotating round table. Workers
sort through the lumber and place the
material into two Pallet Repair Systems
trim saws to be cut to length; the trim
saws are designed to cut four or five dif-
ferent lengths. The finished material is
removed from the outfeed, stacked,
banded and put into inventory.

4. about 4,000 pallets daily.
The company receives 60-70 trailer-
loads of scrap per week. Wood that can-
not be used for pallets is processed into
mulch with a Vermeer grinder; mulch
production is about 10 trailer-loads per
week.
New Pallets Division
The plant housing the pallet manufac-
turing operations is about 127,000
square feet. This division produces
about 20,000 pallets per day.
The company buys hardwood cants in
a variety of sizes as well as rough lum-
ber, such as kiln-dried Southern yellow
pine. Cants range from 2-½ inches to 5-
½ inches and up to 16 feet long.
Brewer Cut-Up Lines,
Four Viking Nailers
Innovative Data Systems Computer Kiosk running Pallet Track® are located at the
Universal Pallet Supply operates a
end of a Viking Turbo 505. This computer station is used for floor data colection,
cut-up area with three lines of equip-
and the information is sent and processed with AMS PalMate ERP system.
ment; each cut-up line consists of a
Pallet Repair Line end of the line is a worker and five AMS Brewer Inc.-Golden Eagle multi-trim
The Run-A-Gade operators toss the high-speed automatic stackers; he per- saw, gang saw and bandsaw.
stringers onto a different conveyor on forms a quality inspection of each pallet “We use our PalMate software to help
the other side of the machine; this con- and pushes it to the infeed of the appro- us determine what size deck boards or
veyor moves in the opposite direction priate stacker. stringers to get out of each cant,” said
and carries the used stringers to another On this repair line, each worker pro- Rick. “This helps us minimize waste
area to be recycled. duces about 300 to 400 pallets per shift. material. If we are working with an 84-
Universal Pallet Supply has one man The bar codes, scanner and information inch cant, the trim saw might cut that
running each Run-A-Gade. “Each of our system capture production data. “We into a 44-inch section and a 40-inch
four operators can tear down 300 to 450 can document the grades and the number piece to best utilize the material for run-
pallets during a shift,” reported Win. of pallets repaired during any given ners.”
Pallets to be repaired are brought in day,” said Win. The cants, now cut to the correct
stacks to work stations located on both The pallet recycling division operates length, travel via live rollers to the gang
sides of a 140-foot conveyor. About in a 70,000-square-foot building. “In the saw to be resawn into deck boards or
seven to 10 people work at these sta- course of about 12 months, our recy- stringers. The finished lumber feeds out
tions, repairing pallets. As they com- cling has doubled,” Win reported. “This to a conveyor, and workers along the
plete a pallet, they tag it with a bar code significant growth was the result of our conveyor sort the material, pulling and
and place it onto the conveyor. As the focusing on a segment of the business stacking new deck boards and stringers.
pallets move down the line, the bar that Global Group had been ignoring for Any deck boards or stringers that are
codes are scanned automatically. At the quite some time.” The company recycles culled are placed on a belt and sent to the
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5. Brewer bandsaw to be resawn into a us-
able board. “This operation means we
have very little scrap,” said Rick.
Scrap wood from the cut-up opera-
tions is collected by conveyors and even-
tually feeds into a Cresswood horizontal
grinder. The wood grindings and saw-
dust are picked up by one of two collec-
tion system, a new Imperial and a Koger
Air, and blown into trailer vans. “This
byproduct is sold to other companies for
animal bedding, landscape mulch,
biofuel and pellets,” Rick explained.
Pallet assembly operations are di-
vided into two areas: automated assem-
bly and custom assembly. For auto-
mated pallet assembly, Universal Pallet
Supply is equipped with four Viking
505 Turbo nailing machines. “We can
build anything up to a 74-inch pallet
here in our automated assembly area,”
Rick said. “We can also heat-treat them
after assembly in our Kiln-Direct heat- Brewer BR4000 Notcher (foreground): Brewer Gang Saw mill #2 (background).
treater.” pallets as well as small orders of standard “We can build anything that will fit
In the custom pallet area, pallets are pallets. onto the back of a truck,” Rick said. Uni-
assembled by hand with Senco pneu- Universal Pallet Supply relies on Mid versal Pallet Supply also has the ability
matic nailing tools. About nine pairs of Continent nail for bulk nails for the Vi- to paint, stencil or tag pallets with a com-
employees work in this area, building king machines and buys collated nails pany logo, name, job number or other
pallets by hand. They assemble odd-size from Senco. identifying features.
©2008 Wood-Mizer Products, Inc.

6. Container Management Division ply has its own employees working at the In order to keep growing, the company
Container management operations are customer’s facilities to manage pallets. hired several sales representatives who live
housed in a 30,000-square-foot building. The company also uses a high-tech ap- some distance away and work off-site.
The focus of the division is providing proach to tracking pallet inventories for The company likely will acquire other
reverse logistics services and a closed some customers. “We have also started businesses as it continues to grow, accord-
loop program for customers who pur- using Internet-based technology with ing to Win. How soon? “The market will
chase heavy-duty pallets. “This is a spe- cameras at some of our customers’ facili- give us that answer,” Win said. The com-
cial program for customers who want to ties so we can log on at any time to check pany expects to make its first acquisition
use pallets multiple times,” Charles ex- inventory levels,” Charles explained. perhaps as early as the spring of 2009 and
plained. “Many times people buy pallets A special component of the maybe another by the end of 2009.
based on cost, but they don’t consider PalletTrack software also helps the com- “We plan to grow through acquisition
reusing them to keep their costs down.” pany keep track of inventories. if we can find the right companies to work
For these customers, Universal Pallet with,” said Win. “If we can’t accomplish
Supply retrieves the pallets from compa- Progress, Vision for Future Growth this through acquisition, we will purchase
nies that receive them under load. “We The management team at Universal property, buy the equipment, and develop
pick up the pallets from our customers’ Pallet Supply is proud of its ISO-9001- the customer base. This is not new to us
end-users and bring them here,” said 2000 certification. “We are one of the because we have a lot of collective experi-
Charles. Universal Pallet Supply person- few pallet manufacturers nationwide and ence in our group of leaders.”
nel inspect the used pallets. “If a pallet is in our region with this certification, “We have been on a very aggressive
still in good condition, we place it back which is pretty much unheard of in this growth pattern but the financial market
into the loop,” said Charles. “If it needs industry,” said Charles. and economy have changed,” Win ac-
repairs, we repair it,” and the pallet is “What this means for our customers is knowledged, “so we are taking care of
put back into service. “It is a very green that we work within a quality manage- what we have now until the economy
and efficient system.” ment system,” he said. “We looked at the recovers. We have a number of key
Representatives of Universal Pallet standards set forth by the National agreements in place, and when it makes
Supply visit customer locations regularly Wooden Pallet & Container Association, sense, we will move forward.”
to track their inventory of pallets. For and we went above and beyond those For more information, contact Win at Uni-
some customers that are located a dis- standards in setting up our own internal versal Pallet Supply, (574) 293-1949 or e-
tance from Elkhart, Universal Pallet Sup- quality standards manual.” mail sales@universalpalletsupply.com. PE
16 PALLET ENTERPRISE Request Advertiser Info at: www.palletenterprise.com/zip.asp