Tolleson Lumber Company

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The Goal
Equipment uptime is critical in the process manufacturing industry. High equipment availability means manufacturers can produce the greatest volume of product in the shortest possible time, thereby maximizing revenue.

However, due to the continuous nature of process-manufacturing operations, equipment uptime is a problematic proposition – maintenance must be performed at precisely the right intervals to ensure maximum uptime. Any breakdowns during peak production hours can bring the whole operation to a halt and disrupt production schedules.

Tolleson Lumber Company is a private process manufacturer that turns trees into lumber. The company operates two locations in Georgia, which contain nearly 800 assets. These assets, which include machinery such as computer-controlled gang saws, edgers and debarkers, are subject to extreme wear and tear and need to be well maintained to avoid breakdowns and disruptions in operations.

Historically, Tolleson Lumber used a combination of paper-based processes and human memory to track asset history, manage inventory and purchase parts. However, this did not create an environment for systematic management of production assets. There was no automated way to schedule preventive maintenance, nor was there a central repository for collecting asset history. Furthermore, inventory management was accomplished the old-fashioned way by looking at shelves in the warehouses. This led to redundant inventory and frequent stock-outs that required expensive one-off purchases.

Tolleson Lumber needed a way to automate these processes under a single, consolidated application that could span both of its locations. By doing so, the company could implement systematic processes for managing its assets and inventory and reduce equipment downtime while simultaneously eliminating redundant inventory and stock-outs. Together, this would improve company revenue and profitability.

The Bottom Line: Tolleson Lumber needed to replace its paper-based and manual processes with automated ones across both of its production plants. This would help improve equipment uptime and inventory management.

The Solution
“Like many process manufacturers, our processes were very manual and labor-intensive,” said Bradford Price, operations engineer manager of Tolleson Lumber Company. “As a result, we wanted to take advantage of new technologies that would help us automate our asset management operations while providing visibility into our inventory levels.”

There were many possible solutions on the market for Price and his team. However, they were able to narrow the field by applying selection criteria that included:

• Multi-site capability
• Configurability, so the solution could match Tolleson’s process requirements
• Integrated spare-parts inventory management and procurement capabilities
• A record of deployment success at other process manufacturers

When applying these criteria, Price and his team were able to narrow down the field to a few contenders. And after undergoing a deep evaluation on those remaining products, one rose to the top for Tolleson Lumber: the Datastream 7i Web-architected Asset Performance Management solution.

The Bottom Line: Tolleson Lumber needed a multi-site Asset Performance Management solution to transform its operations through radically more efficient processes.

Why Datastream 7i?
Datastream 7i outshined the competition across all of Tolleson Lumber’s evaluation criteria. In addition to providing more than enough functionality and configurability to meet Tolleson’s demanding Asset Performance Management requirements, Datastream 7i has a long track record of deployment success in the process manufacturing industry. “It meant a lot to us that other companies in our industry regarded Datastream 7i in such a positive light,” said Price. “Because we were so drastically changing our maintenance processes, we needed to know that the solution we chose worked well in real-life situations for other process manufacturers. Datastream was able to provide abundant references who assured us that Datastream 7i was the choice.”

With Datastream 7i, Tolleson Lumber can automatically issue work orders, log all maintenance activity, manage inventory and purchase parts. Furthermore, the Datastream 7i Web architecture enables Tolleson to deploy a single solution across both of its locations.

“Datastream 7i provided the most functionality of the vendors we evaluated,” said Price. “Plus, the Datastream services organization has been extremely helpful through all steps of the implementation and has been very responsive to all of our requests. They also had us up and running in just a short period of time through the Datastream Now! rapid implementation path.”

Tolleson Lumber chose to deploy Datastream 7i as a hosted solution with the server deployed in Datastream’s hosting facilities and accessed by Tolleson Lumber over the Web. This deployment model eliminates many of the costs associated with self-hosted applications, while also providing security and networking capabilities that would be cost-prohibitive for a company to deploy in-house.  

“Our business is producing lumber. And while we do have some sophisticated production equipment, by no means are we a technology-intensive operation. This means it is important for us to use software solutions that do not place a major burden on our limited IT resources,” Price said. “Datastream 7i hosted is an ideal solution for us because we can take full advantage of the software’s functionality without making a large up-front capital investment or needing dedicated personnel to manage the application.”

The Bottom Line: Datastream 7i provides broad functionality with an established track record of customer success. The hosted model shortens deployment time and reduces cost-of-ownership.

The Results
Datastream 7i has successfully modernized asset-management processes at Tolleson Lumber.  With Datastream 7i, Tolleson Lumber is able to automatically issue nearly 1,000 work orders per month and can log maintenance activity on assets as it occurs. The company can then use this information to schedule preventive maintenance on assets and prevent costly repairs.

“The ability to schedule preventive maintenance has made the biggest difference in our organization,” said Price. “Routine maintenance on our production assets means that we can prevent breakdowns and repairs. This reduces maintenance expenses and keeps our assets up and running when we need them. We can schedule maintenance for off hours rather than having a breakdown dictate our schedule.”

Through the Web architecture of Datastream 7i, Tolleson Lumber can manage its warehouses under one deployment, creating a single virtual pool of inventory. This consolidated view enables the company to keep its inventory at optimal levels across both locations. As a result of this increased visibility, the company has greatly reduced stock-outs, which has generated a commensurate reduction in one-off purchases. In the future, Tolleson Lumber is planning to buy parts in bulk, which will further reduce the cost of inventory.

Tolleson Lumber is also using Datastream 7i key performance indicators (KPIs) to gain “at a glance” information on asset performance compared to pre-defined benchmarks. This enables managers to make fast, informed decisions that improve asset performance and overall operational efficiency. Tolleson Lumber plans to implement the Datastream 7i executive dashboard feature, which uses Web services technology, to graphically render the KPIs in easy to read HTML graphics.

“Datastream has helped Tolleson Lumber become much more organized and we’re quickly seeing major operational improvements from the implementation,” Price said. “And, because Datastream continuously delivers innovative new capabilities to Datastream 7i, we look forward to generating even greater efficiencies in the future through the use of this solution.”

The Bottom Line: Datastream 7i has enabled Tolleson Lumber to improve equipment availability while greatly reducing the cost of repairs and inventory. This translates directly into more efficient manufacturing operations and greater profitability.