By Rich Donnell
June 2003
IRVINGTON, Ala.
PSI Sales, Inc. is positioning itself to become a leader in the
manufacture and supply of log handling and merchandising machinery. It's an
aggressive posture spearheaded by President and co-founder Van Woodham, who
comments, "We want to be known as the wood yard specialist."
Indeed the company's product line runs from electric log cranes to bucking
systems, along with singulators and conveyors--basically a range of products
that prepare and move stems to the sawmill floor for primary breakdown. A plus
for sawmill customers is that Woodham's engineering expertise in the wood yard
environment means that product innovation, refinement and customization are
modus operandi at the PSI headquarters and plant nestled south of Mobile on
the west side of the Mobile Bay.
In recent years, the company's bread and butter item has been its patented
multi-saw transverse log bucking system, called the Log Trimmer, which can process
up to 15 stems per minute. Since PSI introduced the system in the late '90s,
the company has sold a dozen variations of it, including one to Gulf States
Paper's new timbers mill (see page 12 of this issue). Rex Lumber's new sawmill
at Graceville, Fla. is starting up a log trimmer, and Weyerhaeuser Co. will
be starting up two log trimmer systems for its sawmill and plywood mill at Wright
City, Okla.
The latest news is that the Log Trimmer alliance Woodham and PSI maintained
with Hi-Tech Engineering has been dissolved. Previously Hi-Tech supplied the
controls, optimization and marketing support for the system, but Woodham says
the timing became right to end the agreement as Quebec-based Comact purchased
ownership from the original Hi-Tech principals. This allows PSI to collaborate
with any of the several companies that currently provide bucking optimization
and controls.
Meanwhile, Woodham is developing a controls group at PSI. "As a manufacturer
of equipment, the controls should be by us," Woodham states. "We know
how the equipment is supposed to operate. We're looking for the right mix of
staff right now."
The
"we" includes Woodham and his wife, Tracey, who is Corporate Vice
President. She's been with the company for nine years. Tracey handles administrative
duties as well as purchasing and human resources. Other key managers include
Jim Krauss, VP of Engineering; Stacy Lassiter, Controller; Jody Gardner, purchasing
agent; Dave Schmucker, senior project manager; Ken Stallins, quality assurance
manager; Frank James, shop foreman; and Josh Krauss, Sales Manager. "This
is only a part of the loyal staff that strives to manage the complexities of
a manufacturing environment," Woodham comments.
On the new product front PSI has been extremely busy. It recently introduced
its patent-pending Rotary Log Singulator (positioner), and has already sold
four of them to International Paper sawmills at Folkston, Ga.; Franklin, Va.;
Camden, Tex.; and Whitehouse Fla.
Woodham says the rotary singulator differs from other systems on the market
in that the continuous rotation design means that once the lift arm makes a
lift cycle it doesn't have to retract to the start position for the next lift,
as does a retractable design. Woodham says this makes the rotary singulator
faster as it advances forward to lift log after log. He adds that the mechanics
are much simpler and smoother, not requiring a drive link.
Woodham further explains that the new rotary log singulator incorporates a
"quick release" hold back in that it prepositions the next log to
be indexed very close to the discharge point so that minimal log travel distance
is required to place it into the flow.
"The PSI machine is designed for the Southern market," Woodham notes.
"The wood here is heavier with more crook and swelled butts, and our design
is much heavier to hold up the way our customers expect it to."
These and other developments have Woodham and PSI bullish on the sawmill industry, which is a 360 degree turnaround from the mid-'90s when the company was staggering. PSI turns 12 years old in October, and what a "wild ride" it's been.
THE PATH TAKEN
Woodham has been working in the forest products equipment business for 30 years,
starting out in the early 1970s with Bush Manufacturing in Trussville, Ala.
as a mechanical designer of the company's log cranes. He went with Kockums when
it acquired Bush, transferring to the Talladega, Ala. office to manage the log
crane product line.
Through the years Woodham worked with several equipment manufacturers, including
a five-year stint with HEMCO in the mid-'80s at Hot Springs, Ark., where he
headed the sawmill floor product line as the company was just getting into gangs
and edgers. He later went to Price Industries where he managed the company's
chip mill equipment product line.
In 1991, at the age of 39, Woodham felt that if he was ever going to have his
own company, it was time. "I had some ideas and designs," he recalls.
"I felt strongly that a company run by engineers has a better chance of
success in our kind of marketplace. You're constantly out there evolving the
product line. I wanted a company that built superior equipment, innovative equipment,
and stayed ahead of the curve."
Woodham and a long-time acquaintance along with a minority partner established
Process Solutions, Inc. in October '91 at the current site, albeit much smaller
facilities than today. Woodham handled sales and product development with emphasis
on chip mill equipment, including the company's trend-setting electric crane
and drum debarkers.
But Woodham didn't believe his partners had the same goals as he did, nor his
wholehearted commitment to employees, customers and vendors. Woodham felt poor
management decisions were contributing to the company's growing debt. Meanwhile
the chip mill industry was dying due to environmental constraints.
Woodham wanted to take sole control of the company and did so in 1995. Some
people encouraged him to declare bankruptcy, but Woodham felt obligated to pay
off the debt and to meet obligations of ongoing projects. Plus he felt the company
could still succeed. He worked out a plan with his vendors and paid off the
debt in five years.
Today Woodham recognizes that the stigma of that period lingers with some,
but he's proud of pulling the company through, and says PSI has not had a losing
year financially in the eight years since he took it over. He's thankful that
the debt was paid before the downturn at the beginning of this decade. He recalls
not shipping a truckload of steel product from April 2001 until December 2001.
Profits from previous projects kept operations going and key workers employed.
Meanwhile PSI acquired the manufacturing rights for the Southeast for a line
of aluminum boats for Wooldrige Boats, Inc., based in Seattle, Wash. The diversity
has allowed PSI to bear the slowdowns in the timber industry.
One of the key moves PSI made during the debt period was forming a licensing
arrangement with New West Industries of British Columbia to allow PSI to manufacture
New West log ladders in the South. During the four-year agreement PSI manufactured
approximately 70 units in the South. "That moved us into sawmills,"
Woodham says. "Singulation was becoming an important factor in wood yards."
At the same time, Woodham and PSI developed the multi-saw Log Trimmer merchandising
system. Woodham recognized that conventional bucking systems were too slow and
in many cases still a manual operator decision, processing only a handful of
stems per minute. Woodham went to the principals of Hi-Tech Engineering, whom
he knew from his years at HEMCO, and asked them how they could collaborate.
They told him there was nothing on the market to merchandise logs fast enough
to keep the company's high-speed 550 FPM breakdown machine in wood. Woodham
told them about the log ladder technology and about some ideas he'd been working
on with bucking on log ladder type systems. "I went back and came up with
an idea that's basically the Log Trimmer today," he recalls. " It
was a big jump from three to four stems a minute to our 10-15 a minute. I submitted
it to them and they sold the first one to Garland-Gaston Lumber in Camden, Ark.
in 1999."
Woodham needed someone to provide the controls and optimization, as well as
marketing. PSI and Hi-Tech formed an exclusive alliance on the log trimmer.
The second log trimmer was sold to Tolleson Lumber in Preston, Ga., and the
system took off from there. One system is working outside of the South, installed
last year at Sierra Pacific Industries in Aberdeen, Wash.
"We've made a lot of innovations in it and several variations of it,"
Woodham says. "It's a wonderful product that has no equal in the marketplace.
We do everything transversely and you eliminate so much of the transfer technology--the
conveyors, the starts and stops on conveyors. You can be moving the next log
into position while you're cutting the log, while you're moving the already
cut log out of the way."
But Comact's purchase of Hi-Tech and the fact that Comact had the Maxi-Tour
feeder, and that feeders is a core product line for PSI, prompted Woodham to
part ways. "It had been a gentlemen's agreement and we would continue with
it as long as it was good for both companies," he explains. "And it
was beneficial to both of us, in that we could ride their coattails and they
could ride ours depending on what the mill wanted. But timing is everything
and we terminated the agreement on April 15. The real benefit for us now is
that we can use other competitive optimization systems, whatever the customer
is comfortable with."
To handle PSI's new marketing emphasis, PSI hired Jim Krauss' son, Josh Krauss, from Hi-Tech to become the PSI Sales Manager. "Josh is an aggressive young man with a lot of industry experience," Woodham says. "We think he can take us into market areas that we have not been active in to this point."
ON-SITE
Current employment includes 15 in engineering, accounting, purchasing and administration,
10 in the boat shop and 52 in the forest equipment plant. PSI plans to add 15-20
within its two divisions.
The forest equipment plant is currently in operation seven days a week, meaning
business has picked up and contributing to PSI's positive outlook for the industry.
Plant shifts are 12 hours per day Monday through Thursday, and 13 hours per
day Friday through Sunday.
Supported by an impressive arsenal of Auto CAD technology in the engineering
department, the forest equipment plant is on seven acres and includes an 18,000
sq. ft. fabrication station building with multiple types of welding machines
and two 60 ft. span by 7.5 ton lift overhead cranes; a 5,200 sq. ft. detail
and cutup station building with 8x20 ft. computerized burning table, series
of drills, 12x18 in. band saw, two free-standing pattern burners and a 40 ft.
span by 10 ton lift overhead crane; a machine and assembly station with two
manual lathes, boring mill, milling machine, diagonal turret lathe; and a paint
yard station with a 65 ton hydraulic yard crane. Boat manufacturing is in an
adjacent 15,000 sq. ft. building.
PSI bids out its steel needs by the job, usually purchasing it from local vendors,
Metals, Inc. and O'Neal Steel.
The Woodhams are extremely proud of their new 5,000 sq. ft. two-story office,
which was built two years ago, getting them out of a cramped trailer office
beside the plant. The new office is on 10 acres of attractive land and is adjacent
the plant.
PSI has been active with new product development, such as sliding saw bucking
systems. "We're constantly striving to evolve the product line," Woodham
says. "We're willing to take chances. To succeed, I believe you have to
do that."
PSI also emphasizes its capability to do custom-design and manufacture. An
example observed during this writer's visit to the plant is a reject or bucking
saw PSI is building for Weyerhaeuser which does away with clamping and possibly
pinching the log in favor of two arms underneath lifting the log from the conveyor
and holding it as the saw comes down and cuts it.
Not to be overlooked is PSI's emergence into the panel industry with its bucking
systems and singulators. Also, the company's drum debarker is finding application
on oriented strandboard plant wood yards, often replacing ring debarker lines.
PSI has installed four drum debarkers at OSB plants and is installing two more.
"Not many equipment companies like to mess with the wood yard," Woodham says. "But to us it's interesting and we have a lot of expertise in it. If we're given the opportunity to get in front of the customer, we are confident that our equipment will sell itself even though we may not be the lowest bidder. We have a firm belief that our equipment is designed and manufactured to meet or exceed our customers' expectations."
Contact PSI Sales, Inc. at (251) 957-2113; fax: (251) 957-2119; e-mail: twoodham@psisalesinc.com
Contact Rich Donnell, ph: 334-834-1170; fax 334-834-4525;
e-mail: rich@hattonbrown.com