Our customers are growing numerous wood based industries across the globe. They are on the forefront of product and service innovation and are working diligently to grow sustainable and profitable enterprise. Together we are a partner in this endeavour and one of the ways we help our customers is by walking their factory line. It’s a simple step that has huge benefits…
1. Waste reduction
We all know the experience of not seeing the forest for the trees. The idea, that when you are in the middle of something it is hard to see the opportunity you need. It’s the same with custom cutting. When we walk through our customers factory we get to bring a set of fresh eyes to the opportunities to reduce waste. All of our customers love the idea of custom cutting New Zealand Radiata Pine, but it often isn’t until you walk the line that you see the opportunities to reduce their waste through custom cutting.
One example of this is a customer making sofa frames. Their first order came via the internet, we had never met them before. They ordered a 150X38. When we visited their factory a few months we discovered they were processing the lumber down to two pieces 68mm wide, Meaning they were wasting 10% of the wood, not to mention the wasted labour and processing costs to rip the lumber. We now supply them a 68X38. That’s just one example.
2. Knot size customisation
When we see how a customer is using the knots we can then modify how we cut the lumber to get as close as we can to their knot specification. In theory we shouldn’t need to walk the line to get this information, but there really is nothing like seeing it for yourself to really understand the customers need.
3. Grade Customisation
The same principle applies to the grade of lumber the customer orders. Often the grade they need is quite different to the grade they order. Our job is to understand this and to help our customers order the grade of lumber that would optimise their manufacturing process.
At the start of this blog I said walking their factory line has huge benefits and it really does. For the customer buying New Zealand Radiata Pine, they get assured they’re buying the best lumber possible for them. And for Sequal it ensures we get to enjoy a long business relationship and add value to the whole supply chain. We like to think it’s one way we can demonstrate our commitment to our customers and partner with them to make sure we are always doing things better.