Store fixture manufacturer grows into new plant.

After garnering two major contracts in the last five years, this Atlanta-based store fixture and architectural woodworking company knew it had to increase its production capabilities. Now at home in a new plant and using new computerized equipment, Leeman Architectural Woodwork is projecting sales to grow by more than 71 percent in 1997.

Leeman architectural woodwork's plant, 157,000 square feet of clean floors and high ceilings, is filled with the hum and buzz of computerized machinery. Only operating for a few months, the new facility, which tripled the size of its former digs, is still evolving, with new computerized machines "on the boat" to replace "old" computerized machines currently in place.

"If you would have asked me five years ago if I would have spent the money to build this plant and buy all this equipment, I would have said 'no way,'" said Gary Leeman, president and CEO. "And now I feel that we are going to continue to automate."

With the new versatile equipment, added Operations Manager William Odom, "we can build our fixtures more efficiently because the machines are performing more of the operations resulting in less manual labor and handling."

Since the International Woodworking Machinery and Furniture Supply Fair 1994, when Leeman Architectural Woodwork bought its first piece of computerized machinery, a panel saw, the company has invested some $1.5 million in new production equipment. "We are updating our equipment nearly every year," said Leeman.

In that time, Leeman Architectural Woodwork, a store fixture and architectural woodworking company based just outside of Atlanta, has purchased two CNC point-to-point routers, and upgraded one of them, and two computerized panel saws, one of which will be upgraded as soon as the boat carrying it from Italy makes it to U.S. shores. Near-term future investments include adding a third edge-bander, which will help relieve a production bottleneck caused by more efficient machines feeding workpieces to the banding station faster than they can be processed. A computerized inventory, which would be accessible to clients via the Internet, and a new central dust control system, to replace a system of machines clustered to individual dust collection units, are also on this nine-year-old company's drawing board.

WHY INVEST IN CNC?

Leeman Architectural Woodwork's rationale for making capital investments took root five years ago when it garnered ongoing work manufacturing store fixtures and displays for the home center retail giant, Home Depot. Leeman's fortunes grew even further when, a year and a half ago, the company was chosen to produce more than 100 different types of store fixtures for the electronics retailing giant, Circuit City. While these are its two biggest clients, the company also does work across the country for a number of retail, medical, educational and institutional clients.

These contracts have helped Leeman Architectural Woodwork's bottom line. In 1996, sales topped $7 million. Sales are projected to grow approximately 71 percent to $12 million in 1997. Eight years ago, the company had sales approaching $500,000.

To make money you have to spend money, the adage goes, and that is precisely what Leeman Architectural Woodwork has done to keep up with its orders. "These two contracts were the major factor in us investing in new machinery," said Odom. "Especially for the Circuit City work. The Home Depot work in the past has been less demanding as far as the need to use technologically-advanced equipment. But now that we have gotten the equipment, this has opened up the market with Home Depot for us to possibly do other, more intricate projects for them."

Leeman said improving production capabilities was a necessity for his company if it was to produce its orders on time. "If we get a call from one of our major accounts and they say, 'We need 100 fixtures in a week,' we can do that," Leeman added. "If we can't deliver, they will find somebody who can."

A concern before the capital investments were made was what effect the efficient new machines would have on the number of required employees. Would the equipment put some people out of work? Leeman and Odom feel strongly about being loyal to their workers. As an example of this, the company offers employees a 401K plan, health insurance and maintains an emergency fund to provide financial support for its employees in times of emergencies.

"You always hear, buy a machine and you have to release 10 men, but that is not what happens," said Odom. "This frees up employees who had been running manual saws and drills to do other jobs."

"You create more jobs," Leeman added. "We have increased our employee level because our productivity has increased."

BUY, BUY, BUY

The increased production capability has also helped the company pay for its new computerized machinery from its very first purchase.

"The first piece of equipment we purchased, an SCMI Alfa 45 C panel saw, we paid $60,000 for," Leeman said, "but it paid for itself in the first year."

In addition to purchasing the panel saw at IWF '94 in Atlanta, Leeman Architectural Woodwork also purchased a Record 2 CNC router from SCMI. At the time, the vendor questioned whether the Record 2 was versatile enough for the high-volume company, and "'within three months, we realized they were right and we had to upgrade it," Leeman said.

The company now has in place a Morbidelli Author 700 CNC bridge-type point-to-point router, also offered in the U.S. by Tekna. When purchased, the computerized router was the first Author 700 router in operation in North America. With a 5-foot by 10-foot table and a safety fence around the main body of the machine, the Author has a 12-head automatic tool changer, 12-hp router that changes tools without having to interrupt the boring cycle, and a 9-hp fixed router. "It has tolerances to 0.1mm and a full complement of face and edge boring spindles," said Odom. For tooling on all of its CNC machines, the company uses high-grade carbide tools from Leuco and FS Tool.

The second router in the shop is the U550 Morbidelli CNC point-to-point router, also from Tekna. The twin-beam overhead frame router works in Windows and is compatible with all CAD packages.

One of the two panel saws, which are used to cut 3/4-inch particleboard and other panel products, and are programmed with Pattern Systems' Cut Plan software, is being upgraded. The company currently has in place the "Class" model from Gabbiani and is purchasing its big brother, the Elite. The Elite is a rear-loading single-beam panel saw that can cut through 5-inch stacks of material due to its 40-hp main motor. It has a carriage speed of more than 230 feet per minute and its controller can store more than 4,000 programs with real-time monitoring of all systems. The Elite also features photo-electric cells that activate the feeders and load the next book of panels to be cut while the machine is still making the last cut.

The more efficient panel saws and CNC machining centers have created a production bottleneck at the edgebander station. The company currently has a Holz-Her 1438 edgebander and an SCMI Selecta D edgebander, and to clear the logjam, the company is adding a third edgebander, an IDM 6620 from Tekna. The edgebander features a pre-milling station, end, top and bottom trimmers, buffing stations and "3mm corner rounding on the fly capability," Odom said.

"When you improve efficiency in one area, other areas have to follow. By upgrading our saws and routers we have put pressure on our edgebanding operations to keep up. That is why we are upgrading; to even out the bottlenecks."

ASSEMBLY AND STORAGE

Considering Leeman Architectural Woodwork's two biggest customers, the ability to furnish goods on one week of notice is of the utmost importance. Thus, the company has striven to eliminate bottlenecks and keep products flowing out the door.

To keep production on-line, redundancy of key equipment is factored into Leeman Architectural Woodwork's manufacturing system. From having two screw-drive air compressors to two pane saws, "we have two of everything," Odom said. "If a machine goes down we can continuing producing."

In addition to necessitating greater production efficiency, the contracts with Circuit City and Home Depot also meant the company needed more room for raw material and finished goods storage. The company keeps about $100,000 worth of board products, primarily 3/4-inch particleboard, in inventory. Raw materials are received on a daily business. To meet its clients' needs, the company also keeps a large inventory of fixtures and displays which are commonly requested by Circuit City and Home Depot.

In addition to more room for storage, the new, larger facility also provided Leeman with the opportunity to re-engineer the shop floor to create better material flow and allow for future machinery acquisitions. The plant floor is divided into three assembly areas. There is the "Tenant" assembly area which produces architectural woodworking, an assembly area that makes all plastic laminate fixtures and a third area for Home Depot fixture and display products.

To produce the store fixtures and displays for Home Depot, the company has established six manufacturing pods, akin to manufacturing cells, each of which assembles two or three of the products ordered most by the retail giant. Because they specialize, workers can go from assembling one product to another product as needed.

Added Odom, "With pods, you make specific items and you keep that work within just one area. It wouldn't work for the items we make for Circuit City. For them we make more than 100 different fixtures, and you can't have 100 different pods."

EVOLUTION

Over the years Leeman Architectural Woodwork has grown from a small millwork operation to a full-service store fixture manufacturer; the company's current success has not changed that. Like the plant, the company and how it does things is still evolving. Different manufacturing techniques are being incorporated, such as using dowel construction. A training program, which would reward employees with raises and promotions as their skill levels grow, is being contemplated. Barcoding and other computerizations also are being explored and considered.

"We are moving from a small operation to a large operation in a short period of time," Odom said. "We have made mistakes, but we have learned from them and we are building for the future."

"We were like everybody else," Leeman added. "We didn't want to spend money on automated equipment because of the dollar signs. But now other companies, that were our contemporaries a few years ago, are coming to us and using us as a job shop because we can produce their parts faster than they can."

Friendship Spans the Miles

Leeman Architectural Woodwork was officially founded about nine years ago, but Leeman and Odom's business relationship spans back several years and 2,000 miles before the event.

The two met in 1985 in Long Beach, CA, where they each operated their own woodworking shops hat were a back door apart. In 1987, third of the Los Angeles area, Odom and his family moved to Georgia, and Leeman and his family also decided to relocate from the Golden State to the Peach State.

In 1989, Leeman Construction Co., a millwork fabrication and installation company, was born. The company began doing business as Leeman Architectural Woodwork and its first plant was a 1,500-square-foot manufacturing facility with a sliding table saw and two employees. A series of expansions brought manufacturing space to approximately 48,000 square feet three years ago, but it was still not enough. In February of 1997, Leeman Architectural Woodwork moved a half mile away to a new 157,000-square-foot facility, and "we are already starting to get tight," said Odom.