EGGERS LEAVES DOOR OPEN TO NEW TECHNOLOGIES.

Upgrading its plant, machinery and products is an on-going process for this architectural door maker.

Several high-tech operations on the new "continuous flow" production line at the Neenah (WI) Division of Eggers Industries contributed to the plant's selection as WMIA 2000 Innovator of the Year.

In particular, a flat-line finishing system and a CNC machining center have helped Eggers automate the manufacture of five-ply, flush architectural doors.

A gaping hole in the Neenah Division's U-shaped production layout symbolizes the company's commitment to future investment in innovative technology. The space is reserved for new computer-controlled machinery that the company plans to add later this year. The new equipment will replace a pair of 15-year-old double-end tenoners.

The relocation of the door sizing operation will put the entire production line on one floor for the first time in the company's history, greatly reducing material handling and product cycle time in the process.

"We've already reduced our cycle time -- how long it takes us to make a door from start to finish -- dramatically," says Harry Reichwald, Neenah Division executive vice president and general manager.

"Right now we're looking at somewhere between five to 12 days," depending on the complexity of the door, Reichwald says. "Cycle times had probably been twice that long in the past. Now, our goal is to bring it down more yet, to somewhere between three and 10 days."

THE NEW LAYOUT

The modernizing of the production line is part of a recent $8 million investment that included adding 80,000 square feet to the first floor of the three-story facility. The expansion increased the size of the plant to 280,000 square feet, which employs 240 people including 190 production workers.

Reichwald provides an overview of the company's line of architectural wood doors.

"The bulk of our doors have a particleboard center -- that's about 70 percent of our production," Reichwald says. "Doors with SCL cores -- that's Structural Composite Lumber, a man-made wood material -- are probably about 10 percent. Fire-rated doors with mineral cores account for 12 to 15 percent." Acoustical, lead-lined, and bullet-resistant doors account for the balance of production, he says.

Reichwald proceeds to describe the Neenah plant's production process.

"First we put on the top and bottom rails and the side-edge strips," all made of solid lumber milled in-house, "and sand each door prior to pressing," Reichwald says. At the Wild hot press, wood composite crossbanding and veneer faces are laminated to the core.

MACHINING UPGRADES

The pressed panels are run through a pair of Torwegge double-end tenoners to trim the precise lengths and widths. The sized work pieces are then carted to a Lehbrink machining center, which does the work for what previously required four machines. At the infeed, a bar code located at the top of each door is scanned. The bar code includes specific machining instructions required for each door.

"We've hooked up the machining center to have a direct link to the office where programs are made for each order. Then the machine sets up instantly based on the information that it pulls from that file," Reichwald says. "The machining center cuts slots for hinges, locks, flush bolts and other hardware," Reichwald says. "It will cut light openings in a door as well."

The machined veneered parts are then finish sanded and inspected.

Doors that are to be shipped unfinished go directly to the warehouse. The other 60 percent proceed to the company's new UV flat-line finishing system, where stains and topcoats are applied to the horizontal doors with a roller system, then instantly cured with UV light.

"We do all sorts of custom and stock colors," Reichwald says. "We're pretty specialized here."

It's this specialization and need to cost-efficiently take on small runs and big ones that drives Eggers' to implement newer, more versatile equipment. "We'll build just one door," he says. "We'd prefer not to. But we're really a job shop-type operation. Most of the doors that we make here have already been specified for a specific building somewhere.

"We do have a few stocking distributors around the country," Reichwald adds. "However, the bulk of what we do is custom."

WMIA Innovator of the Year Honor Roll 

2000 -- Eggers Industries, Neenah Div.

1999 -- Siewert Cabinet & Fixture

1998 -- d-SCAN Inc.

1997 -- The Maiman Co.

1996 -- Ellstrom Manufacturing

1995 -- The Knoll Group

1994 -- O'Sullivan Industries

1993 -- Omega Cabinets

1992 -- VT Industries

1991 -- Buchner Design Studio

1990 -- Ashley Furniture Industries

1989 -- Steven Industries

1988 -- Wisconsin Furniture Industries

AUTOMATE, COMPUTERIZE, COMPETE!

Innovation means the world to the American woodworking industry, according to Giordano Checci, WMIA marketing committee co-chair and Giben America president.

"If you innovate enough and if you are a very good innovator, then you can also export your products, because at this point It is unique -- in the way it is manufactured, in the way it looks and in how much It costs to produce," Checcl says. "This is the global challenge that innovators welcome."

"The woodworking industry needs to become innovative through the use of machines that enable companies to do things today that you could not do yesterday."

Giordano Checci

HIGH TECH MEANS HIGH PAY

Consider the Danes, Checci says. "They sell Danish furniture in North America and they have the highest labor costs in Europe, maybe even in the world. Yet, they can export and compete against furniture that is made over here -- even against furniture made in Thailand with cheap labor.

"The Danes are innovators in the way they design and manufacture their furniture, and so they get an edge in this market with extremely low cost and extremely good quality because they use innovative technology."

Such technology does not come cheap. Beyond the "resources and guts necessary to Invest in high-tech, computer-controlled machinery, It involves educating people so that they are capable of fully utilizing the technology which is built Into these machines," Checci says. "The future lies in very well-educated labor using innovative machines, not cheap labor."

Checci says the three concepts featured in the annual WMIA Awards Program are Inextricably linked. "If you innovate with technology and educate your workforce, then you can meet the global challenge by exporting," he says.

THE MARKET

Eggers' typical customer is a hardware distributor who bids on a construction job based on an architect's specs. After winning a bid, the company places its door orders with the Neenah plant. The distributors usually package the finished doors with its own hardware and sometimes its own door frames, Reichwald says.

Eggers works hard to stay ahead of the construction-code curve, Reichwald cites an example: "Probably the biggest change that's coming about right now in our market is the call for positive-pressure testing of fire doors. In the past, fire tests had a neutral pressure in the fire chamber." Now, he says, testers have increased the pressure in the fire chamber, which requires the development of "new manufacturing methods" to manufacture products that will not fail.

This trend is already established on the West Coast and is working its way east, Reichwald says. "It'll be a number of years before it's in place all over the country, but we already know how to deal with it. We've made the changes and had our entire line of fire doors already tested" to make sure they meet the stricter set of performance criteria.

In addition to making safer doors, the company has made an all-out effort to make its plant safer. "We've decreased the number of injuries we've had here by 50 percent over the last two years," Reichwald says.

Much of the company's safety effort has involved the installation of automatic lifts to reduce the likelihood of back injuries and muscle strains, he says. "Our doors are heavy," Reichwald says. "That's good for the customer, but poses challenges for our employees."