Marsh Industries, Inc.

RELOCATION, CONSOLIDATION & REDESIGN OF A HARDWOOD MOULDING PLANT

Background: Marsh Industries is a hardwood interior trim and custom machined wood products manufacturer located in New Philadelphia, OH. Desiring to increase sales, reduce work-in-process, and reduce logistics problems management decided to evaluate expansion and relocation alternatives. Given the constraints presented by their site and buildings, the company decided to relocate the manufacturing process and upgrade key manufacturing equipment.

Situation: In 1999 Brian Marsh, Marsh’s president and CEO, located the key ingredient of the project - an existing building in nearby New Philadelphia, OH. To determine if the building - a former department store - could be converted to moulding production, he formed a project team including key personnel from his staff, architect Bruce Widder, and specialists from A. G. Raymond & Company. Widder and Company provided local structural, mechanical, and electrical design while A. G. Raymond & Company provided estimating and process/layout design expertise.

The first phase of work included a survey of Marsh’s existing production facilities. This assessment included compilation of space usage, machine capacity utilization, process routings, and inventory requirements. These data were then extrapolated to determine future machine and space requirements plus the departmental flow for the New Philadelphia site. The team found that more building space would be required. Conceptual site plans, layouts, and building arrangements were then designed to satisfy process parameters, square footage requirements, and local site constraints. Upon completion of the conceptual design, A. G. Raymond & Company developed a capital budget and a project schedule that enabled Marsh to evaluate the investment returns of the relocation project.

With the green light to proceed from Marsh’s Board of Directors, detailed process layout design and building modification design proceeded concurrently. To finalize the process layout, specific issues on material handling and dust extraction design were resolved, and key process equipment manufacturers identified. Following completion of the process design requests for quotations were issued for critical equipment such as lumber handling, wood-waste handling, and dust extraction. Selection of vendors for these items followed intensive analysis of their bids.

A short twelve months after planning commenced, the new plant started operation.

Marsh’s new facility features a streamlined, continuous flow of lumber in the rough mill featuring new equipment from Advance Material Handling, Automated Lumber Handling, Barr-Mullin, Group Seven, Material Handling Technologies, and Mereen-Johnson. After exiting the rough mill product moves swiftly through a well-equipped moulding department and into either a bulk-ship area or a multi-tier racking system that allows kitting of smaller orders.

With six months of production under their belt at the new facility, Marsh’s process efficiencies are self-evident. The new facility is processing double the board footage using 17% less manpower than employed at the old Dover plant. Marsh can push production levels even higher with a minimal increase in manpower as sales warrant.

Brian Marsh commented, "It was a pleasure dealing with A. G. Raymond & Company. From day one everybody displayed professionalism and attention to details of every aspect of the project. It was not easy taking an old department store and turning it into a modern and efficient production facility, but they did it and in record time. I would highly recommend Art, Jerry, and the entire staff to anyone who is looking at building, remodeling, or updating their operations."

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A. G. Raymond & Company Inc. 1033 Wade Ave. Suite 102 Raleigh, NC 27605
Phone: (919) 831-0070 Fax: (919) 831-0072 Email: info@raymondnet.com