Last updated on
July 10, 2009

Background: Case Systems is an institutional furniture manufacturer based in Midland, MI. Since its rebirth from the former Normal Wood Products in 1993, business has been growing steadily for their laminated products. In order to continue this growth pattern, Case Systems needed a larger facility and more production equipment.

Situation: During the development phase of the new business, Case’s management located a 160,000 ft² single-section building for sale near their multi-section 60,000 ft² building. Management pursued purchasing the larger building in lieu of adding another section onto their leased building. Case decided the equipment arrangement in their new building should be driven by process flow instead of by building constraints, their present situation.

Since Case is maintaining a lean workforce, they did not have the manpower or expertise to devote to this project. Case then engaged A. G. Raymond & Company to design the facility and provide detailed engineering for the equipment relocation.

The initial step in the design/engineering phase was cataloging all equipment at the existing plant. Dimensions, individual machine/system layouts, and mechanical/electrical data were collected as the equipment was to be dismantled for relocation..

Field measurements and a detailed inspection of the building were conducted to identify any civil, mechanical, or electrical problems. Local governing authorities stated that the building’s sprinkler system would need to be upgraded because the building’s existing Ordinary Hazard occupancy classification was too light for Case’s operation. The authorities were going to classify Case’s operation as Extra Hazard. At Case’s request, AGRCO fought this occupancy ruling and prevailed. The savings from not modifying the sprinkler system was larger than all of the project’s consulting fees.

Due to large building steam heat requirements and the ever increasing landfill cost, Case required a new wood-fired boiler be included in the project. By using a wood-fired boiler, all of Case’s wood waste would be eliminated and turned into useful steam. AGRCO analyzed the situation and assembled bid specifications and site plans for a new boiler, a new wood-waste storage silo, and a new dust extraction system.

Using the descriptive data on each machine and line, preliminary layouts were developed for the new site. Following approval of the layout concepts by Case, modifications were completed, and a small boiler room addition erected to ready the building for installation.