No Generation Gap
Gloomy industry forecasts aside, the fifth generation at Robbins Lumber’s legendary white pine mill isn’t slowing the pace of innovation and investment one iota as it celebrates 125 years in business
By: Scott Jamieson
Multi-generation traditions are nothing new to either sawmilling or the State of Maine. My family has been vacationing in the same small Maine town for four generations. In many places, that’d be unique, but here in Maine, it’s nothing to write home about.In our little vacation town, many families have owned their cottages since 1880 and even sixth- generation cottagers are common.
I get that same feeling sitting across the desk from Alden Robbins, a 31-yr-old sawmiller and one of the fifth-generation sawmillers running Robbins Lumber of Searsmont, ME, two hours north of Portland, and just inland from the historic port town of Camden, ME. The family mill was founded in 1881, and is fresh off a $USD 8 million investment in new green lumber handling and auto grading equipment. Just like those Maine cottagers adding grandkid suites, you get the feeling that Alden is making sure his kids have the chance to be sitting at this desk in 20 years’ time. These days, that’s nothing to take for granted, as Alden explains.
“The recent investment was not an easy decision for us, the next generation. You’ve got to be the very best to survive in this industry, but this is also an industry where costs are going up – power, equipment, logs – but lumber prices are not. Do you spend a huge amount to become as efficient as you can? For us the technology bar was already set high, as we’ve always invested in new technology over the years. The easy gains have been made, so we’re not making giant leaps with our investments anymore. We sort of looked at each other, and asked ‘are we in it for the long run, or is it more like 10 years, and then we start phasing out?’”
Had that question involved just dollars and cents, it’s possible the answer may have been different in these trying times. But more than money is at stake for this multigeneration operation. Aside from Alden, whose chief responsibility is sales, ownership includes his brother Jim, who handles the yard, kilns and inventory as well as helping to oversee the mill; his sister Catherine Robbins Jolliffe, HR manager and chief lobbyist; and father Jim, who is company president. These folks have recently taken over the torch from Jim Sr.’s brother Jenness Robbins, a well-known industry figure who was president and principal owner for over 45 years, and who still helps out on a regular basis as consultant. It all makes for some big shoes to fill, Alden admits.
“There’s a fair bit of pride when you’re generation number five, and generation number six is already coming along. You want to have something for them. We’ll see in the end what the right decision was, but we’ve always done it this way – investing and improving in good or bad times – and it has always worked well for us. We still believe that, so here we go.”
Different values
Aside from natural optimism, Alden and family have other reasons for looking at the future with open hearts. Business assets include product diversity, long-term investment in quality, a customer focus, and commitment to innovation.
Diversity starts with a range of local and national markets, and the company’s joint role as both wholesale manufacturer and distributor for local retail yards. Some 70% of production goes to wholesale markets, while 30% is sold inside Maine through retail yards, a mix that allows Robbins to move a range of different value products and to serve more than a few niches.
“To remain competitive, unless you’re a commodity giant, you need a niche. Ours is the diversity we can rely on to find value under a number of markets. We have a cut-up plant, we dabble in fingerjointing when it pays, we do panels, we have component and novelty items, we sell finished goods, you name it.”
This diversity includes a range of finished and semi-finished products, made both in-house or elsewhere by Robbins subsidiaries or joint ventures. This runs from wooden novelty items made by a nearby subsidiary and sold via catalogue outlets, to the company’s most recent move, a joint venture priming operation with Churchill Coatings of Grafton, MA.
Other options for adding value or serving niche markets include an extensive on-site reman plant that can turn out a range of fingerjointed, moulded, or panel products from low-value downfall products (see box on page 18).
This mindset extends to the company’s residuals and by-products as well, which are either processed on site or sold depending on relative values and returns. Sawdust, for example, can be burned on site in a co-gen plant added during the last oil crisis in the 1970’s. Like other production outlets at Robbins, this one is used only when it makes dollars and cents.
“We’ve done our studies on what we can burn, when, and at what price. We’ll buy in from bio-mass operators as well according to need and markets, or if it’s too muddy, we’ll burn more of our own sawdust.”
The on-site biomass system makes steam to heat all the plants, the kilns and can also run a turbine to dump power back to the grid, all making Robbins look pretty smart given current energy pricing and recent interest in bio-energy.
Shavings are a valuable product as well, thanks both to the quality and an investment in efficient bagging equipment. The mill runs an older Verville four-station bagger, as well as a spanking new automated four-station line from Quebec-based Premier Tech that just sings, Alden says.
Quality pays
Playing niche and custom markets assumes an above average commitment to quality, and Robbins has anted up. QC plays a role from log buying to shipping, but really stands out to visitors in drying and finishing. Robbins dries down to 10 to 12% consistently, and treats its kilns as a production nerve centre.
“We take drying very seriously. The pine is not easy to dry, with water pockets and shake, and demands are high because it’s an appearance grade product that we put a moulder finish on, or we’re making tongue and groove without fuzz or knot tear etc… So we’ve put a lot of money into kiln capacity and controls, we know when to pull the lumber out, and don’t have to do so just to make room.”
In fact the mill recently added a new software system from Citect that allows staff to track the entire co-gen and steam plant from a single bank of computer screens. It also responds almost immediately to changing conditions for more consistent heat to the kilns. The mill has two track and seven package kilns for a 760,000 bdft/wk capacity, as seven- to nine-day schedules are standard.
The mill then runs product through a pair of moulders – a massive Weinig Super 30B 10-head (12 knives per head) added in 1993, and a smaller Waco model added soon after.
“We immediately noticed a huge difference with the Weinig. It’s a big, technical machine, but leaves a beautiful finish, so we changed the other planer out right away for the Waco moulder. Now we follow consistent grading and drying with a moulder finish in a wide variety of patterns. It’s a nice combination for the sales guys,” Alden adds with a smile.
Grading just got even more consistent, thanks to the addition of an automated grading system as part of the recent upgrade. The mill added one of the first ScanWare colour grading systems to work on the region’s white pine (New Hampshire’s Durgin & Crowell added one just prior).
“This was the first system we felt comfortable with, with the range of grading issues we need to handle – red and black knot size, wane, splits, stain, decay. We felt it could identify those accurately and consistently, and then grade it all based on value in green lumber so we could capture that value up front.”
Not that the system is perfect, Alden adds. Robbins realized up front that some issues, like shake, would still require input from a human grader, and so a Cypress grade mark reader is also part of the new line. The grader also makes some nonwane edger reman decisions that the auto grader is not yet ready for. Still, they have seen improvements in overall grading consistency shift after shift, and are actively working to get the most from the information the system provides.
“We weren’t expecting perfection from the start, and it keeps getting better as we work on it, but that’s the key in this application. We have a guy – Josh Watkins – who is full time on the system, and he does a lot of studies on what it’s deciding, why, and how can we make it better. He works with sales to refine new products with the grade information we are collecting, and we hope to do even more of that, again to maximize the value of what we have. We don’t treat it like a black box, which in our markets is key I think.”
In the end, he says the ScanWare system is handling about 99% of the grading, and once tuned to the products they want, gives the consistency the mill is looking for.
Broad shoulders
Quality and value don’t mean a thing if the customer can’t get it when needed, so the mill manages a vast warehouse of finished product just outside the planer mill. Here it carries a highly- mixed, large dressed inventory for quick shipment to a range of clients. Alden admits it runs counter to current business trends.
“Right now we have 2.8 million bdft in dressed inventory in here,” he says as we walk through the warehouse. “Some is committed and waiting to ship, but most is for clients we know will need it in the near future. It may run counter to popular just-in-time inventory philosophies, but it’s an important service for our clients.”
Family ties, customer focus, and a healthy respect for innovation may bind this operation, but Alden is quick to note that a steady and loyal staff continues to be a key ingredient for success. This starts at the top.
“We have a really good network of foremen and managers who have been with us a long time, know the business, and really care about the mill, which allows us to focus on our jobs. Jeff Caswell, our sawmill manager, is the youngest of the managers, and yet has still been with us almost 20 years, working his way up like all our managers. Our planer mill manager Vaughn Pierce and sales manager George Weaver have been with us over 30 years.”
Not that they don’t have their doubts, Alden admits as we tour the massive paved yard.
“Sometimes I wonder if we don’t innovate for the sake of innovation at times, but it’s a mindset, a willingness to try new things, even if they don’t all pan out, and it has paid off for over 120 years. We have reason to believe it will in the future.”
As he said at the outset, the alternative is to start thinking of moving on, and the Robbins family seems to like it here in Searsmont just fine.
DIFFERENT GOALS, DIFFERENT FLOW
The extensive and at times rambling layout at Robbins Lumber mirrors a business model that looks to step off the commodity treadmill whenever possible. Alongside some very streamlined sawlines and lumber handling layouts are a host of remanufacturing stations, with much of the lumber moving around these to pick up grade or find better markets for the inevitable down-fall.
In terms of sawing, production starts in the mill’s completely paved yards (both logs and lumber), a difference that part owner Alden Robbins says reduces wear on both rolling stock and cutting tools.
“Plus, we try to recover everything, right down to the last piece of bark for our co-gen plant, and the paved yard makes that possible.”
Logs are watered in summer to avoid stain, and are brought by Cat wheel loaders to the infeed decks. Logs are bought on grade, and are scaled and tallied via the first Simply Computing voice-recognition scaling/inventory system ever installed.
“The scaler speaks into the headset, the system confirms it, and then the scaler tells it to print when the loadis done, and that’s it. We like the accuracy and consistency, and it ties in with the rest of our billing and contract management systems as well.”
It’s also a safety advantage for scalers, and is another example of the mill’s willingness to try new technology. Based in nearby Bangor, ME, Simply Computing also supplies the mill with PLC control software, tying all the systems together to allow centralized computer-based control over much of the mill, and inventory tracking software to take the mill from rough green to finished product.
Most logs are debarked on a Carthage ring debarker, although a Morbark rosserhead is available for logs over 36 inches. Anyone who’s spent time in Maine knows it is the land of massive and beautiful white pine, and Robbins’ wood supply reflects that geographical advantage.
After debarking, logs go through an MDI metal detector to lessen the tramp metal risk associated with private wood, and then onto one of two Forano/USNR double cut bandsaws. Carriages are from Forano and McDonough, and both include Lewis Controls 3D scanning and optimized setworks. These are followed by a Forano/USNR quad horizontal bandsaw resaw that breaks down squares, with boards finished on an optimized Esterer board edger.
From here the mill was completely rebuilt in 2005. Lumber dumps to a large unscrambler, passes by a manual grader looking for shake, and then is singulated on a PLC lug loader ahead of a Cypress grade mark reader. Next comes a ScanWare auto colour grading station and Autolog ink-jet printer to complete the product grading and tracking system. Autolog also supplied the controls to tie the line together.
After a clean 90-degree turn lumber moves to a PHL Industries optimized multi saw trimmer and 90-bin sorter that features a reman drop gate. Much of the mill lumber handling gear is from PHL, which is not surprising given that the Quebec supplier handled the mill’s last major overhaul – a turnkey planer mill added in 1993.
“We know PHL, they are familiar with what we want, and we’ve had good luck with their gear. In fact, you’ll see a lot of Canadian gear in this mill.”
From the sorter, lumber passes through a PHL hi-low system enroute to the first MoCo Industries heavy-duty stacker CWP’s seen in the east.
“They make a very good stacker,” Alden says in explaining this unique choice. “We shopped around and liked it for our pine.” It has performed well to date, he adds.
The PHL planer mill is also set up with quality and the client in mind. The big Weinig Super 30B moulder hosts endless patterns, while another Autolog ink-jet printer lists an impressive array of product info on each board end. Neatly printed info includes mill name, species, grade, KD, bin number, pattern, production date, grader initials, grading association, width and length in bold to help out retail operations, etc..., all applied with ease at line speed. Autolog claims over 200 lugs/min on the system, but Robbins is not likely to test that anytime soon.
“Again, it’s an extra touch, and maybe you could ask if it is really necessary. I don’t know, but the client really likes it, it distinguishes our products, and the way this system works means it’s not a big maintenance item.” The mill can also bar code as needed.
Finishing the job
As far as remanufacturing goes, the folks at Robbins have an almost confusing array of options. Alden notes that close co-ordination between sales and production, and a close eye on regional and national markets is essential to know when to invest time and money in the various reman options. These include fingerjointing on a small-scale Weinig FJ line, a production line the company has had for over four years, but which was deliberately scaled as a flexible producer.
“Fingerjointing can be a tough game, as you can tell by the number of used lines out there. We didn’t want to get into the situation where we are running the line full out just to keep it fed, and trying to make up for a lack of margin by volume. It doesn’t work. The way we’ve arranged it, we can use it when it makes sense, and shut it down when it doesn’t.”
Other stations include an RFS edge-glue panel station, Weinig Hydromat 23C moulder, and a busy Dimter chop saw. Some stations, like the chop saw, work almost full out, while others, like the panel station, often sit idle. The name of the game for the cut-up shop is flexibility in serving clients and changing markets, while still turning a profit.
