Equipped to Compete
While salespeople can bring interested clients into the warehouse area for tours to help solidify purchases, the primary purpose of this expansive 212,000-square-foot portion of the building is of course manufacturing, and to that end it is equipped with the newest generations of molding, milling, and door-hanging equipment, all of which are outfitted with dust-collection vacuums to help eliminate airborne waste and particulate matter.
For exterior doors, the company uses a modified KVAL 990 F4–traditionally used to hang interior doors–that can handle oversized units at high speeds. “It’s really a highly automated, high-speed metal and fiberglass line,” says BMC region operations manager Loren Cook, who heads up operations for the facility. “Everybody has a Norfield Magnum in their shop, and that’s a very versatile piece of equipment, but Houston is a big 8-foot market, and you can’t run 8-foot units through the Magnum, so as far as high production machinery, for me the KVAL is the way to go.”
For cutting and mortising door units, the facility boasts a CNC cut-out machine that uses bar-code technology to automate production. Bar codes printed by computer and applied to the units are scanned by the machine, which automatically mortises for the particular lockset going into the door and then cuts holes in the unit for the appropriate glass lights. Molding operations benefit from an SCMI six-head molder that can cut molding profiles on boards up to 4 inches thick and 9 inches wide. For truly custom profiles, designers can create a molding template using AutoCAD software that is downloaded into a machine generating a plastic template used as a guide for grinding the molding knives.
According to Cook, the new equipment and advanced technologies like the template system allow for machine setup and operation by employees with much less experience, which in turn benefits the bottom line given the industry’s notoriously tight labor market. “All of our equipment is really about focusing on using less labor and putting less strain on the labor that you’ve got,” he says. “If you can back up your operators with high-tech equipment, you don’t need to be constantly searching for and recruiting high-dollar talent, and you can stay a lot more competitive in the market.”
Another competitive edge gained in the construction of the facility was to implement cross-docking traffic patterns, where incoming goods are unloaded on one side of the building and deliveries are staged and loaded on the opposite side for maximum throughput. In all, the building includes 30 bays for loading and unloading, five of which were added during the 2004 expansion and are reserved for will-call customers only, a strategy that figures largely into plans to better target the remodeling and trim carpentry contractor markets. “Houston probably has one of the largest concentrations of 30-year-old–plus homes in the United States,” Cook says, adding that most are prime candidates for remodel. “Most of the millwork companies [in this market] don’t want the will-call business because it is disruptive, but we’re looking forward to getting more of it in the next couple of years, and I’ve made a commitment to get those contractors in and out of here with a 20-minute turnaround–that’s what they want.”
The facility also is saving time for delivery drivers, who can gas-up and have their trucks washed on site, a perk that McQuary originally balked at but acquiesced at Cook’s insistence and has since found quite valuable. In addition to gaining some volume savings by not paying retail at the pump, drivers don’t have to worry about stopping and waiting in line or otherwise wasting valuable time behind the wheel. “We’ve got 50 vehicles on the road, and that capability is a good thing,” McQuary says. “I admit that it was money well spent.”
Having trucks roll out on the road shiny and clean also plays into the entire image makeover that the facility has provided. “In the end, it’s all just land and improvements,” McQuary says. “But it is helping us to attract and retain the best workforce in the market and is providing the foundation and the framework for our outstanding team to better serve our customers and grow our business in what has become a dynamic Houston market.” The team also has decided that they’ve finally achieved the scale required to achieve that growth–three separate out-tracts of leftover land have since been cordoned off for resale. McQuary expects pending offers to even generate a profit on the total property investment, leaving BMC West with an even better return on investment and a distribution facility that finally is just big enough.
Vital Statistics
- Company: Building Materials Holding Corp.
- Year founded: 1987
- Headquarters: San Francisco
- Number of locations: 137
- Number of employees: 11,200
- 2004 gross sales: $2.09 billion
- Pro sales percentage: 100 percent
