Issue link: http://palletcentral.uberflip.com/i/860755
12 PalletCentral • July-August 2017 palletcentral.com LEADERS Insight from industry thought leaders for this "Buyer's Guide" edition came directly from business executives from various sectors of the wood packaging industry. Below is a compilation of their comments submitted to PalletCentral. Doug Wenninger, Alliance Automation TECHNOLOGY: We are receiving more and more requests to develop and integrate robotic automation for different parts of the pallet industry. The robotic applications currently available to the market focus on pallet sortation, dismantling and assembly, all of which are designed to increase safety and improve productivity, especially due to the shrinking labor pool. Robotic technology is still relatively new to the pallet industry, and we are just beginning to scratch the surface of possible applications. We are very excited about the future of robotics in this industry and the early adopters will gain an upper hand in the market over those who choose to wait and see. As these technologies continue to improve productivity, they will, in turn, improve overall profit margins. Paul Rhoades, Macoser Inc. MACHINERY: Developing safer, and more efficient machinery for the industry is very important to us. As we know, angle cutting for crating is a tedious and time consuming task with operators constantly rotating the radial arm saw to get the correct angle for each cut, and often missing the mark. Regardless of factory installed guards, the same radial arm saw is a hazardous machine. Our company continues to develop safer equipment for the industry. One example is the Stromab CT-600 push feed up-cut saw system, which removes the amputation possibility with a fully covered saw area. This saw automatically rotates the blade (from 0° to 70° in 3 seconds) to the appropriate angle and allows bulk cutting of the same parts, saving a considerable amount of time. Being fully automatic, accuracy increases to ± 1/64". The day's cut-lists can be created from the office computer and loaded by flash drive. Customers are saving up to 70 cut-lists with 21 lines per list, and reducing their time spent loading repetitive jobs. In addition to safety and efficiency, optimizing machines to reduce waste is another important aspect of the equipment, and an area of continual focus for us. John Lieber, Profile Technology Inc. BRANDING: Being in the custom engineered tool business, many of our customers and prospects are in the business of cutting wood into pallet components and/or assembling components into new or used pallets. As such, we have a unique opportunity to be an active participant of this vast woodworking industry. Over the years, I saw a need for educating the public about how we are "Stewards of the Forest." That branding has stuck with me and conveys our support of sustainable forest management. The wood industry is part of something bigger; we are caregivers of the wood we handle every day whether it be planting, harvesting, sawing, cutting or assembling. Our company has embraced technology, so for this year, we created a short video for our new website, and for StewardsoftheForest.org, to showcase how we are all part of something bigger. We are all stewards of the forest, and very proud of it! Bradley Van Swol, Hays Companies INSURANCE: In today's business climate, regardless of industry sector, meritless claims and never-ending litigation is generating alarming defense costs for employers and their respective insurance companies. Cyber liability and data breach have received a lot of exposure of late. However, Employment Practices Liability (EPL) claims are on the rise, and many businesses are not insured, or insured adequately, for this increasing concern. Working in the insurance field, we are seeing more employment policies and procedures that have to be implemented and enforced. Thus, it is very important that a business have an employee handbook, and that corporate policy and procedures are properly Industry Thought Leaders Market Commentary Industry Thought Leaders Market Commentary