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16 PalletCentral • September-October 2020 palletcentral.com A Legacy of Innovation C.L. McKinney's pioneering mindset of expansion through innovation permeates the corporate culture of the privately held McVantage Group sixty years later. Founded by McKinney, who is a Korean War veteran, in 1953 as a small sawmill in Tuscumbia, Alabama, McVantage Group is an established manufacturer of wooden packaging products, an international supplier of exotic hardwoods and softwoods, and a developer of sustainable forestry practices and multiuse resources. As the first sawmill in the Mid-South to use electricity to eliminate manual labor out of process- ing, McVantage Group has thrived on futuristic thinking and trendsetting innovation. From the implementation of the region's first forklift for handling logs to the utilization of the first multi- head super thin kerf bandsaw in the region, leading with cutting-edge technology is at the core of every decision. Each challenged in the 1970s by their father to improve company operations, C.L.'s three sons individually set out to innovate with the intent of doubling the family business. During that time, the company expanded into other divisions, such as wooden pallets and treated lumber. Later, when the industry started to change with the push for environmental stewardship, the business expanded into recycled pallets, maximizing products while minimizing the use of forest resources. Today, a key part of McVantage Group operations is the wooden packaging division. With over four generations of wood industry knowledge in the wood packaging space, McVantage Packaging specializes in the manufacture, repair and recycling of wooden pallets and crates, servicing the Central-Southeastern United States from two plants – Tuscumbia, Alabama and Nashville, Tennessee. While the Tuscumbia headquarters includes a scragg mill and various production stations for the On the Cutting-Edge: Robotic Wooden Pallet Disassembly Yaskawa Motoman: Helping customers build a strong competitive advantage – one robot at a time. By Sarah Mellish CASE STUDY – ROBOTICS Alliance Automation

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