Emerging Trends

Dealer Takes the Guesswork out of EWP Sales
By David Koenig
BPD-Building Products Digest
THREE years ago, Southeastern dealer Ply Mart was selling about $9 million a year in engineered wood products, the old-fashioned way. Much of the work-design, alterations, ordering, fulfillment, billing-was done by hand, in person, over the phone or by fax, creating countless cardboard crates filled with mountains of paperwork. After the job was designed, the order was cut within 2 ft. of the required length with a chainsaw, at the Ply Mart yard. The joist was trimmed again on site by the framing contractor. The practice was wasteful for both dealer and builder. Today, Norcross, Ga.-based Ply Mart's 17 lumberyards generate $27 million in engineered wood sales. "You can't do that with cardboard boxes, walking around with chainsaws," says Chuck Mooney, manager of the chain's engineered wood products division. The turning point came three years ago when Bill Hofius took over the engineered wood division as senior vice president of sales. Almost immediately, he switched engineered wood supplier-to Boise, which was just ramping up a completely automated, start-to-finish system advertised to greatly reduce time and waste and increase accuracy. The system is actually a number of integrated services and software applications. It begins with the dealer accepting a homebuilder's plans as electronic files or by turning the blueprints into electronic files by having the lumberyard scan them. New plans and reusable templates are stored in Plans Room, where dealer, architect and builder use their own computer to examine, alter and confirm every component. Every party is instantly updated when any changes are made. When everything has been approved, the plans enter the BC Framer system, which specifies precise length of all framing members to 1/32" and forwards a cut list to a Saw-Tek automated cutting system. The materials list is also forwarded to the customer invoicing system. The Saw-Tek slices every member and can even pre-cut holes for utility lines. An auxiliary inkjet marker can mark all framing pieces with their tract, lot number, and where they are to be placed in the structure. Precision-cut engineered wood then rolls off the assembly line, is packaged, and delivered to the jobsite for installation. Ply Mart began implementing the systems gradually. The biggest benefits came when, in mid-2005, the chain purchased its SawTek, "the crown jewel of our engineered wood program," says Hofius. The dealer built a 10-acre distribution center in East Point, Ga., to house the equipment. Although the saw system doesn't require an exhorbitant amount of room-trucks seem to leave with precisely cut lengths not long after the long lengths arrive from Boise's manufacturing plant in Alexandria, La.-Ply Mart quickly expanded the center to a full-service distribution center with lumber, millwork and other building products. The transition to automating just about everything was difficult for a 39-year-old company like Ply Mart. Fortunately, Boise has been there to assist the dealer every step of the way. Boise technical staff spent months helping to get the systems installed and running, and Ply Mart staff trained. And support remains just an 800-help line number away. Just as importantly, Boise invested time in Ply Mart's customers. Boise's Build-Rite Services team first inspects several of a volume/production builder's projects to become famliar with their construction cycles. They then input the builder's 2-D sheets into a 3-D modeling program, allowing them to develop schematics incorporating every structural framing component. The layout is then run through the Build-Rite program, to verify load paths and analyze every aspect of the structure's rough frame design and mechanicals placement compared to best practices. Working drawings are revised to reflect any enhancements, and then builders are provided with a quantitative analysis of their project including estimated savings-typically 10% and up. Waste alone usually drops from about 10% to less than 1%. Build-Rite's John Stiffler notes, "If we can drag out costs and increase the builder's profit margins, they're successful, the dealer's successful, we're successful." Convincing some builder customers to automate can prove difficult, even when Ply Mart shows them the hard numbers. Many seem to prefer a $200 rebate from the manufacturer rather than a system that can save them thousands of dollars on every project. "You've got to have a champion in there to make this successful," says Ply Mart technical rep Tim Mickelson. "We never talk about cutting costs. It's helping our customers make more money." On Ply Mart's end, builders are supported by experienced designers, always considered by Ply Mart to be "a precious commodity." The chain now employs top-flight professionals from Idaho to South Carolina, and up to Canada. "Every designer works from home," Mickelson explains. "He can take the afternoon off to watch his kid's Little League game, then work all through the night. I don't care as long as he gets the work done. And all of a sudden I'm the best employer in town. Before I had to search for designers. Now I have two or three a week contact me looking for work." The chain also invested in special trailers with roll-off beds to slide the products safely onto the ground. With so much value now built into each piece of engineered wood, Ply Mart couldn't afford to risk damage once it reached the jobsite by dumping it 4 feet off the back of a delivery truck. "You have to protect the investment all the way to the jobsite," says Mooney. There are currently 32 SawTeks in operation in North America, and Boise is installing new devices at the rate of about one a month. Ply Mart has a second Saw-Tek on order, but is still deciding where it will place it to best foster future expansion into new markets. Wherever the machine lands, expect big growth. Fast.
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