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Mechanical Handling Pays 



There is no getting away from the fact that whenever you can 

 substitute mechanical for manual handling, you are going to cut your 

 costs. The fact that labor costs are constantly rising, while mechan- 

 ical methods are stationary, if not actually showing reduced operating 

 expenses, is a sufficient suggestion as to why this is so. 



A visitor was recently in a large hardwood flooring factory, and 

 noted that a mechanical system for selecting flooring as to length 

 had been installed. This consists of a series of rolls through which 

 the flooring is passed, the spaces between the rolls being progres- 

 sively larger. Thus the smallest pieces drop through at the first 

 interval, the next size at the next, and so on. The flooring drops 

 through a slot into a bin in the basement of the mill, where boys 

 handle it into bins arranged according to the dimensions of the stock. 



Although cheap labor is used on this work, and though the oppor- 

 tunity to save would not seem to be large, this little device has cut 

 the cost of handling this particular operation about fifty per cent. 



A Question of Policy 



A large hardwood man. who is one of the leaders in the field in a 

 number of branches of the business, has recently adopted a new 

 poUey in connection with tlie erection of a large new plant. It is 

 that competitors are not to be invited to go through his mill, as was 

 the case with the former plant. 



' ' We spend a lot of money for the purpose of w orking out new 

 ideas, ' ' he said, ' ' and we think that it is not good business to make 

 these ideas public. The man who is not enterprising enough to study 

 out these things for himself certainly has no reason to expect that 

 his competitors will turn over to him the results of their efforts." 



The largest box manufacturer in the country, if not in the world, 

 has an iron-clad rule against allowing anyone not connected with the 

 concern to go into his factory. Xot long ago a belt manufacturer 

 whose product is being used there came to investigate a report of 

 trouble experienced in connection with a certain belt. He said that 

 if he were to be permitted to see the machine on which it was used, 

 he could make some suggestions of value. He was turned down, 

 however, along with everybody else. The excuse in this ease is that 

 most of the machinery used in the plant is of special design, and is 

 the product of the company's own mechanical engineers. 



While an attitude of this kind is thoroughly defensible from this 

 standpoint, it hardly seems to be in line with modern ideas on the 

 subject of co-operation and general work for mutual advantage. 

 Nobody knows it all — not even the largest and most powerful con- 

 cern; and certainly combining forces and making nothing secret is 

 the short-cut to advancement for the industry as as a whole. Secret- 

 iveness seldom pays in the long run. It used to be favored with 

 regard to the commercial and selling ends of business, but it has 

 generally been thrown into the discard as far as manufacturing 

 processes, excepting those which are reallj- original and exclusive, are 

 concerned. 



Afraid of Competition? 



"I'm not afraid of competition," said a hardwood manufacturer 

 not long ago. "In fact, I'm perfectly willing to tell to whom I sell 

 my lumber, and at what prices. I don't admit that this is informa- 

 tion which will do anybody else any good. My competitors know 

 that these concerns are buying lumber, and they know as well as I do 

 about what the market prices are. I am certainly not selling for less 

 than cost plus a reasonable profit. I find that letting other people 

 know about this end of my business doesn 't hurt me, and I keep right 

 on selling my old customers. If anybody else can deliver a better 

 proposition to the consumers that I have on my books, they are 

 welcome to the business." 



This is a rather advanced stand, and while the manufacturer is 

 probably not as ingenuous as he seems, inasmuch as he has special 

 facilities for making and marketing unusually high-grade stock, so 

 that he can hold his customers largely on the basis of quality, he is 

 really sincere in believing that there is no reason to keep a list of 

 his customers under cover. As he suggests, every consuming factory 



^18— 



is listed, and is regularly solicited by others; so why should he con- 

 ceal the fact that he is selling certain of them ? 



Mechanical Veneer Drying 



Though some of the best known veneer manufacturers in the coun- 

 try do not use mechanical drying systems, it seems that the sentiment 

 of most of the authorities is steadily growing stronger in favor of 

 this kind of equipment. The difference in cost alone is a big figure; 

 for when one considers the amount of handling, the amount of space 

 and the amount of time required to dry veneers in the old way, and 

 contrasts these factors with the brief time, minimum handUng and 

 small space required by the mechanical plants, there does not seem 

 to be much argument that can be put forward in favor of the old- 

 fashioned system. 



But. as a matter of fact, there is a strong argument along the 

 line of quality. Take a veneer which has been dried in racks. It is 

 likely to be wrinkled and hard to flatten out, though this may be 

 accomplished by weighting it down. It is likely to be drier or less 

 dry than some other piece which was subjected to warm air circula- 

 tion in the dry-house for the same length of time, but under different 

 atmospheric conditions. Hence uniformity is almost out of the 

 question. 



The product of the mechanical drier is flat and good to look at. 

 Consumers want this kind of stock. It is also exactly uniform, 

 because conditions can be regulated in a machine, whereas they can- 

 not be otherwise. Altogether, the manufacturer who is trying to get 

 along without a mechanical system, either because of the expense 

 or because the system he investigated in 1897 was not efficient, seems 

 to be overlooking one of the big bets of the business. 



The Man at the Edger 



One of the most important men in the sawmiU, second only, in fact, 

 to the sawyer himself, is the edger. He is not usually given special 

 consideration as to wages, nor is the job always dignified to the 

 extent that the best men are placed there; yet anyone who has stood 

 back of him and watched him run the boards through — particularly 

 if high-priced lumber is being manufactured — can readily see just 

 how much money he can save or throw away. 



The efficient hardwood manufacturer wUl see that he has a good 

 man at the edger, and that he understands exactly what he is trying 

 to do, aside from the mechanical feature of getting the bark off the 

 edges of the boards. How to do this so as to waste as little material 

 as possible is something that not all mill employes seem to under- 

 stand, and it is a feature to which attention could well be paid by 

 the mill-owner. 



Something Besides Grade 



There are unfortunately too many price buyers in the country, 

 who place their orders for lumber and veneers largely on the basis 

 of the lowest quotation. There are some consuming markets which 

 are famous for the high quality of their products, and yet are also 

 known to lumbermen as hard markets to do business in, because of 

 the fact that they buy the cheapest stock that is to be had. They 

 may be getting good material at lower than market prices, of course, 

 though the dictum that one usually gets just about what he pays for 

 would seem to hold good here, as elsewhere. The chances are that 

 they are not making so much of a saving as they think they are, and 

 that they are losing advantages which would accrue were they to 

 adopt a more liberal attitude — though "liberal" is hardly the word 

 that should be used to express the idea. Broad-minded is more like it. 



For instance, consider the fact that the biggest manufacturers, 

 with the best facilities for good service, make a point of knowing 

 what it costs them to produce material. They are, obviously, the 

 ones who will ask a price that will net a reasonable profit. If they 

 find that consumers are not willing to pay the price, then they go 

 somewhere else to sell their products. The consumer is then forced 

 to purchase from other concerns, possibly not so well qualified to 

 insure satisfaction as to the character of the stock and the timeliness 

 of deliveries. 



