Reading a Blueprint Job for a Busselato Furniture Cnc

Mortensen Woodwork utilizes high-tech production and handcraftsmanship for a winning combination.

Hospitality, corporate and judicial are the iii top markets for Mortensen Woodwork. Pictured here is the lobby area of The Renaissance Marriott in Montgomery, AL.

Mortensen Woodwork Inc. is a company of contrasts. In the approximately 130,000-foursquare-pes facility, the Wedlock Metropolis, GA-based architectural millwork firm provides a full-service functioning, offering material procurement, pattern, machining, finishing, assembly and installation. A land-of-the-art operation, it uses just-in-time manufacturing to procedure the large number of jobs running through the establish at any one time.

Just a few miles away, Mortensen also pays homage to its roots as a furniture maker. In the v,000-foursquare-foot building once used by Fred Mortensen Sr., who established the company back in 1946, a small staff of craftsmen hand create the furniture and turnings used in conjunction with some of the larger architectural projects.

This combination of high-tech product and handcraftsmanship has proven to be very successful. According to Greg Kasten, company president, Mortensen Woodwork is on track to reach $22 million in sales for 2008. And although the outlook for 2009 is a little uncertain due to the economy, "We do feel nosotros are positioned to sustain the downturn better than our competitors," Kasten says.

Much of that is due to the visitor'due south diversity. "Nosotros market to a number of unlike disciplines: religious, healthcare, corporate, judicial and hospitality," Kasten says. "Nosotros're open up to any market. We're e'er able to switch gears and still maintain our high level of production and quality," he adds.

Considering it is a turnkey operation, the company not only will build the doors, jambs, paneling and ceilings, simply likewise the stairs, furniture and laminate casework, every bit well as solid surface fabrication.

Job sizes typically range from $10,000 to $10 meg, with 95 percentage of the company's business organisation slated for the commercial sector, says CEO Fred Mortensen Jr. With the company's loftier reputation for quality and service, much of the business has been from repeat customers or by discussion-of-oral cavity.

Also helping to garner business organization is Mortensen Woodwork's sustainable woodworking initiative. Co-ordinate to Mortensen, the visitor was one of the early frontrunners in the green building movement.

"We are likewise an FSC-certified fabricator," says Kasten. He notes that the number of LEED certified projects awarded to the company has risen, "and is heading toward 50 percent."

In addition to its manufacturing efforts, the company works to educate others on the benefits of green manufacturing and has partnered with certifier Smartwood for a class to educate architects and designers.

Mortensen Woodwork specializes in architectural millwork for corporate offices, such as the one pictured to a higher place for the Colonial Banking concern headquarters in Montgomery, AL.

Strength in Numbers

Education is also very important to Mortensen Woodwork'south estimated 200 employees, which includes installers. "We have connected to try to ameliorate the employee base," says Mortensen. "Nosotros have high standards, which nosotros recruit by, and nosotros really try to educate our employees and push quality."

In addition to holding Kaizen events, the company conducts mandatory training seminars. "Nosotros do these every half dozen to eight weeks," Kasten says. "The more educated each employee is, the better they are."

Omnipresence is mandatory and tests are conducted at the decision of each session. Topics for these sessions run the gamut, and may include blueprint reading, tool sharpening or veneering; the latter two topics would also fall within the company'southward cross-training efforts.

JIT Manufacturing

Because Mortensen Woodwork is vertically integrated, it is able to produce virtually 100 percent of its products in-business firm. "We outsourced a lot of our product for years, earlier we decided to do it here. It started when we began cross grooming employees in case it got slow, and led into them doing everything," Mortensen says.
The boilerplate turnaround for new jobs is four to half dozen weeks, which includes pre-product, though Mortensen is quick to add, "We can plow some jobs [i.e., mouldings and cabinets] in a calendar week."

"This identify is congenital for speed," Kasten adds, referencing the company'southward cell and flow layouts and apply of duplicate machines. The flow layout is utilized in the panel processing area while a prison cell layout is used in the solid forest/moulding, veneer processing and solid surface fabricating sectors. Future plans call for the edifice of an lxxx,000-foursquare-human foot improver, which would enable all of the company's product areas to be under one roof.

However, Mortensen Woodwork continues to be one of the largest architectural woodworking firms in the Southeast. Integral to the company'southward success has been its continuous investment in engineering. According to Mortensen, this past yr alone the company purchased a variety of machinery including: a Star V-groover, Omga double-miter saw, Stiles/Ligmatech clamp, Black Bros. Panel Limited whorl laminator and SawStop equipment. Other recent machinery acquisitions include Delmac/Busellato five-axis and four-axis CNC machining centers, an additional Stiles/Homag single-sided edgebander and Biesse/Selco panel saws.

The Busellato five-axis CNC machining center has pods for horizontal and edge machining of panels.

Veneer and solid wood constitute 80 percent of Mortensen Woodwork'south projects. In the solid wood area, Mortensen Woodwork runs its own mouldings and other solid wood components using Weinig moulders in conjunction with a Northtech gang ripsaw and SCM sanders. A Weinig Rondamat grinder enables the company to grind its carbide and high-speed steel knives for the machines.

"A lot of companies say they do everything — simply nosotros practise do everything," Kasten says.

That includes all veneer piece of work. Mortensen uses Kuper stitchers, Josting unmarried- and double-knife clippers and Casati machines to procedure the veneer, which is then pressed on an Italpresse hot oil shuttle printing.

In the console production area is a contingent of Selco console saws, Busellato and SCM CNC machining centers, Homag edgebanders, and Ligmatech and Italpresse instance clamps. Employees are cross-trained on all the machines, which helps eliminate downtime or bottlenecks in any i sector while improving the overall productivity. Each department is responsible for quality control, throughout the entire production process as well as in the finishing surface area.

Currently for the finishing process, the visitor uses HVLP guns in spray booths, though it has plans to add a Rhodes towcart line in the about future. "We've already switched from solvent to low VOC materials and are below the threshold [for permittable VOC levels]. We'll soon be switching to all waterborne," Mortensen said.

With but-in-fourth dimension production, quick turnaround is important. Scheduling and tracking software, used in conjunction with bar coding, helps track the volume of jobs running through the plant at any one time.

"We bar code at the console saw, through shipping," Kasten says. In addition to using Planit, Microvellum, EnRoute and 20-20/Pattern Systems CAD/CAM software, Mortensen also relies on a proprietary ERP program to track the work-in-procedure, including operation time required, which provides valuable data when bidding on future projects.

Despite the economy, the future looks bright for Mortensen Woodwork. "We are at lx percent chapters already for 2009," Kasten say. While there has been some competition from foreign manufacturers, Kasten says he does not see it as beingness a major threat to the visitor'south business. "Where it is, is in the big hospitality projects, more and so in the sleeping accommodation furniture," he says.

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Source: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/articles/mortensen_woodwork_in_the_seat_of_success_127742608.html

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