nc.
As seen in July 2012
PALLET ENTERPRISE
Millwood Pursues Unit Load
Management and Vertical
Integration Strategies
By Chaille Brindley
Millwood has expanded over the years to become one of the largest pallet and unit load services company in the United States.
It is a truly vertically integrated company from owning its timber harvesting and processing capabilities to pallet
manufacturing and recycling facilities to materials handling system design and manufacturing divisions to packaging testing
lab and specialized software expertise.
Innovation is a key driving force behind the success of Millwood Inc., one
of the largest private pallet and packaging companies in the country.
Headquartered in Vienna, Ohio,
Millwood operates 26 locations employing about 1,300 team members.
Millwood is vertically integrated going
from the log to finished wood packaging
to materials handling systems and packaging logistics services.
Millwood’s core sales approach is to
focus on the message, “Reinventing
Unit Load Technology.” This is more
than just a tag line; it is a core competency for the company. Millwood has
the staff and expertise to offer a wide
variety of services with a focus on im-
proving logistics and cutting costs out of
the supply chain by maximizing all aspects of the unit load and materials
handling technology. By unit load,
Millwood is referring to the interaction
between the pallet, boxes, packaging,
stabilizers and materials handling
systems. With a systems-based approach, they all work together to
efficiently and safely transport loads
around the country.
Where Systems-based Unit Load Design Is a Core Competency
The idea of Systems-Based Unit Load
Design was pioneered by Dr. Mark
White at Virginia Tech and was widely
employed by Ralph Rupert when he led
the Center for Unit Load Design. The
core idea is that by analyzing the pallet,
product packaging, stabilizers and strapping, and materials handling as a
complete system you can identify ways
to improve safety, reduce product damage and cut supply chain costs. In many
instances, spending a little extra to
strengthen the pallet will result in
greater overall savings by reducing the
amount spent on corrugate and other
parts of the unit load.
Ron Ringness, executive vice president and partner for Millwood, said,
“We can supply a customer with new
and used pallets, lumber, corrugate, engineered films and packaging systems.
We also service their equipment and
Copyright 2012© Pallet Enterprise magazine — All rights reserved, Industrial Reporting, Inc.
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provide engineering services. We have
expertise in all of the components of the
unit load.”
Ringness added, “Along with a diverse line of products and services, we
have an experienced staff to service a
wide variety of customers and industries
across the country.”
That size and degree of expertise is a
key differentiator for Millwood.
Ringness said, “We are not a small operation in which one or two individuals
wear 10 different hats. We have people
who have spent their careers in the packaging and materials handling industry.”
Millwood employs a sizeable staff of
packaging experts, engineers, logistics
and materials handling specialists to go
way beyond just designing a pallet.
A new central part of its strategy is
using science and real world data to
back up its assertions. Millwood plans to
launch a new test lab later this summer
that will be led by Ralph Rupert, the
former director of the Center for Unit
Load Design at Virginia Tech. Rupert,
who joined Millwood last year as its
manager of unit load technology, is a
recognized expert on corrugated packaging and pallets who has conducted
tests for a wide variety of clients.
Millwood will offer testing services
based on ASTM test procedures to its
own clients as well as other pallet companies. Rupert commented, “This is not
just an internal lab. We already have a
backlog of potential test programs for
the outside world.”
The Millwood lab will be an ISTA
certified facility. It will offer vibration,
impact and compression testing for
transport packaging. Rupert said, “We
will be able to do full unit load, pallet
and package testing to verify the solutions that we offer. We’ll put science
behind the solution.”
Ringness said, “The lab will be installed in our innovation center which is
home to our technical service personnel.” There, the Millwood team is in the
process of re-engineering and rebuilding
two automated sorting systems.
Having bought Liberty Industries in
2005, Millwood may be the only major
pallet company in the country that can
provide transport packaging products as
well as automated materials handling
and conveyor systems. Last year, for instance, Millwood purchased NPS, a
distributor of engineered stretch and
shrink wrap films. This expertise truly
gives Millwood a unique perspective
A new central part of its strategy is
using science and real world data
to back up its assertions. Millwood
plans to launch a new test lab later
this summer that will be led by
Ralph Rupert, the former director of
the Center for Unit Load Design at
Virginia Tech. Rupert, who joined
Millwood last year as its manager
of unit load technology, is a
recognized expert on corrugated
packaging and pallets who has
conducted tests for a wide variety
of clients.
With the stated goal to “Reinvent Unit Load Technology”, Millwood has full design and engineering team
with the knowledge to solve problems where packaging and materials handling systems interact.
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Copyright 2012© Pallet Enterprise magazine — All rights reserved, Industrial Reporting, Inc.
nc.
Millwood has setup service centers to process and recycle pallets for CHEP as well as its own white-wood facilities.
Pallet management and reverse logistics has become a core competency for the company.
when it comes to handling the interaction between the pallet, packaging and
materials handling systems.
Ringness said, “We believe the unit
load concept is the future for our industry. As our customers reduce their
purchasing staffs, they prefer a single
source that can help them reduce their
costs. We can be that single source for
film, equipment, pallets and other industrial packaging products and
equipment.”
Rupert added, “Purchasing agents
regularly call for specialty items and for
answers to special problems.” This includes everything from specialty pallets
to unique conveying and materials handling solutions to stretch wrap and box
solutions.
It is difficult for many customers to
realize that cutting costs on the pallet
can actually increase the total cost of the
unit load by a sizeable margin. Pallets,
however, are a relatively small cost of
the total unit load when you consider the
stretch film, stabilizers, corrugated
boxes, individual product packaging, dividers and other parts of the total load.
Joe Pecchia, director of strategic account & technology development for
Millwood, said, “By looking at the entire unit, we take it out of just a
commodity purchase. We do use a science-based solution before we offer any
alternatives to people. If we can move a
board, or alter the configuration of the
material or put a different material in
there, we can save money.”
System-based unit load design may
be the future. But that doesn’t mean that
every buyer is on board yet. Ringness
explained, “You have to go to the highest levels of a corporation, including the
supply chain managers and C-level executives at Fortune 500 companies.
They are looking to reduce their total
cost. And they have the clout to drive
that objective through all their plants.”
Millwood’s expertise and reputation
allows it to get access to higher levels in
corporate customers that are necessary
to drive true unit load changes. The process starts with audits and analysis for
new business to identify areas where efficiencies can be improved and costs can
be cut.
Millwood applies this same approach
internally. It is known as one of the largest independent depot operators for
CHEP. It has its own white-wood manufacturing and recycling facilities.
Millwood owns a lumber brokerage
company and operates a number of sawmills. “We own R&S Lumber Co.,
which supplies softwood lumber to our
plants, plus the housing sector and other
customers. Because we have our own
brokerage firm, we deal directly with the
sawmills,” said Chip Trebilcock, presi-
Millwood owns Liberty Technologies, which engineers custom packaging and materials handling machinery solutions.
This includes stretch wrap, shrink wrap and strapping systems; robotic pick and place; palletization; and conveyors.
Copyright 2012© Pallet Enterprise magazine — All rights reserved, Industrial Reporting, Inc.
3
Seeking to be vertically integrated from the log to finished products to the recycling of those products, Millwood owns a lumber
broker company, two sawmills and works with dedicated timber harvesting crews. This integration helps ensure that it never runs
out of wood to fuel its pallet and packaging operations.
dent and partner of Millwood. “We have
scragg mills for processing hardwood
cants. We even buy our own timber and
manage our own timber crews. Being
vertically integrated helps us with our
unit load strategy because a lot of our
customers will buy lumber for crating
and blocking.”
Known for specialty packaging expertise, Millwood works with vendors,
such as Mid Continent Nail, to supply
specialized products. Millwood buys
its bulk nails from Mid Continent
and works with the U.S. nail manufacturer on sourcing specialty nails for
customers.
Logistics and National Sales Focus
Seeing a bright future in logistics,
Millwood is in the process of expanding
its capabilities and bringing in new logistics talent. This includes backhauls of
customer products, delivering film and
other packaging products, and managing
Equipped with a full IT team, Millwood
has developed a customer relationship
software that allows complete tracking
and ordering for customers.
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pools of proprietary packaging.
Ringness said, “We are getting more
into Third Party Logistics (3PL) in markets where we operate warehouse
facilities. We can receive a customer’s
product, break the load down into cartons or units, then repack it for
distribution back through our customers’ networks. Logistics is not just
trucking; it is also warehousing, order
fulfillment and other 3PL services.”
A core part of this strategy is the information systems and database
technology that Millwood has developed in its PalletView ™ customer
ordering and management system. This
Web-based account management system
gives the customer access to data on its
orders or the status of closed loop proprietary pools. Lee Evans, senior
account manager for Millwood’s national accounts, said, “All the customer
has to do is issue credits. It doesn’t have
to manage the asset flow, sort or repair
packaging.”
Millwood already has a large national
network of its own facilities and strategic
partners to help manage the needs of any
proprietary packaging program. It has
worked with strategic partners to provide
guidance and even machinery as needed.
For example, a machine designed for one
customer uses a brush and vacuum system to clean debris and glass from
tearsheets and slipsheets. Ringness said,
“We save hundreds of thousands if not
millions of dollars for a major customer
by cleaning and reusing this material that
used to go to the landfill.”
Beyond the basic operations,
Millwood’s national sales team, led by
Keith Countryman, vice president for
national accounts, is accustomed to
dealing with major corporations and
communicating with the top brass of
large companies. This is where its unit
load expertise comes into play.
“We will always be in the 48x40 market because so many of our customers
use that size pallet. But as the market
becomes more competitive every year,
we are emphasizing it less,” said Evans.
“With our sales force and expertise, we
feel we are better positioned to go after
specialized markets.”
As the quality and availability of
cores deteriorates, Millwood is pursuing
more remanufactured and combo pallet
business. Ringness said, “From our vantage point, the pool of recycled pallets is
very tired and a lot of the available pallets are of poor quality. Customers want
change. If our industry can’t deliver the
quality they are looking for, someone
else will.”
Customers want better quality products, but they still must be cost
competitive. Using remanufactured and
combo pallets has helped Millwood supply customers despite the changing
market dynamics.
Looking to the future, Millwood executives believe it is uniquely positioned
in the marketplace. Ringness stated,
“We have the strongest and deepest
national account team in the pallet industry. Our pipeline is full of
PE
opportunity.”
Copyright 2012© Pallet Enterprise magazine — All rights reserved, Industrial Reporting, Inc.