Batesville Casket Co. - Vicksburg Operations, Vicksburg, Miss.
Employees: 239, union
Total Square Footage: 73,824
Primary Product/market: wood component parts for caskets
Start-up: 1975
Achievements: named Plant of the Year in 2006 by its parent company G.C. Hillenbrand for overall performance; implemented a machine maintenance program that reduced lost production cycles by 84%; saved approximately $1 million in labor from optimization projects
A musty odor of damp wood and the sultry air that's reminiscent of a summer day in the Deep South permeate the enclosed temperature-controlled facility where stacks of oak and pecan lumber are drying. A delicate balance of heat, humidity and airflow are necessary to prevent the product from splitting, rendering it defective for the Batesville Casket Co.'s Vicksburg, Miss., operations where the company prepares wood for finished caskets.
The process is a testament to the vulnerability the lumber-products business faces. Knowing this, the Vicksburg plant has broken wood-drying down to a science and has fine-tuned the processes through continuous improvement initiatives. Watching employees test, measure and monitor the wood is like an up-close botany lesson. While such painstaking efforts may seem like overkill, they're necessary to minimize defects and optimize yields. The plant could purchase pre-dried wood but the risks are too great. "We would rather dry it ourselves than buy somebody else's problems," says Lisa Loper, plant controller.
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