Demountables Improve Millwork Distribution - First Quarter 1999

Windows and doors are difficult products to ship. They're bulky. They're very, very breakable. The more you handle them, the more chance there is of a ding or a dent, which means costly returns or unsatisfied customers. Loading the truck is labor-intensive, with delicate glass needing special protection. In short, the successful window and door distributor can quickly find delivery to be the weak link in his sales chain.

Fortunately, there's a distribution management innovation that is revolutionizing the way several dozen progressive millwork companies handle these challenges. These companies are achieving just-in-time deliveries that keep contractors and dealers happy with rapid service and without tying up valuable vehicles. They're increasing their sales territory while decreasing their fleet.

Meanwhile, they've found a way to reduce warehouse overhead and labor expenses. Not to mention unproductive staff and vehicle down-time, wasteful double-handling of products, and employee lifting which often leads to costly Workers' Comp claims.

All this is happening with "demountable" truck bodies. It's remarkably simple: a standard delivery truck is outfitted with two or more interchangeable bodies which can be detached, or "demounted," from the chassis by an easy-to-operate, durable hydraulic lift. While one body is on the truck making deliveries, a second body is being loaded at the warehouse. The returning driver demounts his empty body, leaves it freestanding on its retractable legs, backs his truck under the loaded body at the dock, locks it to the chassis, and hits the road again in less than 10 minutes. 

A body can be customized in lengths from 10' to 26', as well as custom body configurations including dry freight vans, flatbeds, curtainsiders, and specials. By switching bodies, the company eliminates the need for more trucks.

Extra runs with fewer trucks

"Millwork takes a long time to load. There's a lot of custom work and every order is specific. Finished wood and windows have to be loaded in a certain order, protected, braced, tied down, and secured. It can't be banded and strapped like lumber on a flatbed," said Randy Baumgarten, co-owner of Lee Lumber & Building Materials in Chicago, IL.

Demountables let Baumgarten get in an extra delivery each day. "With demountable bodies, we can have a second load ready for the driver when he returns from the first run. The driver doesn't have to wait, so we can get in an extra load. If you can't make the extra run you can't get your product delivered, and if you can't get your product delivered you don't get paid," Baumgarten said, echoing what many other companies have discovered. By pulling millwork from inventory directly into standing truck bodies, crews never have to wait for a truck to return to begin loading. The process is consolidated into one daytime operation that avoids costly overtime or night crews, reduces errors and damage, and cuts turnaround time.

"My drivers get paid for what they do - driving - not for loading," said Rudy Lindy, vice president of operations for Builders First Source in Cincinnati, Ohio. "My trucks are on the road, not in the yard." Builders First Source (formally Western Building Products) began phasing-in demountables in 1992. They previously had night crews loading trucks for early-morning routes; the trucks would return at midday and the drivers would help reload. Today, loaders fill bodies while trucks are making deliveries. The morning drivers return, swap bodies, and roll again. The result? Builders First Source is making more deliveries with 30% fewer trucks. Similarly, the Moulding & Millwork Co. of Baltimore, Md., increased its deliveries while reducing its fleet by 38%.

Fewer trucks mean less expense for tires, maintenance, licenses, and insurance. Todd Cuccio, plant manager for American Jewel Manufacturing in Lodi, N.J., estimates he is saving $10,000 a year. "For us, it was either a demountable system or buying two new trucks," he said, describing his company's unusual configuration: windows are shuttled daily from the fabrication plant to the warehouse and sales office four miles away. "It was an initial investment, but now we have less trucks to maintain. And the drivers love it - they don't have to load and off- load."

Swap a flatbed with a box

Firms that need both the protection of a dry freight van body and the open space of a flatbed, or both hard- and curtain-sided bodies, like demountables' flexibility: different body types can be interchanged, and one truck can do double duty depending on the order. In Lewes, Del., Atlantic Millwork's Wayne Bister found another use: extra storage for big jobs. A body is loaded and left at the job site, where contractors work from it at their pace. The truck is freed for other deliveries and picks up the empty body several days later. "It gives me an edge over the competition," said Bister. Other companies find that really big orders can be loaded over several days without tying up trucks. Still others, such as Dorsey Millwork of Albany, N.Y., gain cost- effectiveness by retaining old trucks as yard-jockeys, shuttling bodies for staging and loading.

Another benefit with demountables is that when a truck breaks down, deliveries aren't left stranded at the side of the road. A second truck can pick up the body and resume deliveries in minutes - without off-loading and re-loading all the stock.

Warehouse-On-Wheels

In a more advanced configuration called the "Warehouse-on-Wheels,' wholesalers can serve regional distribution centers from a central warehouse. In this mode, two demountables are loaded end-to-end on a special rail-trailer and line-hauled to the satellite center. There, the bodies are off-loaded and transferred to two straight trucks for local delivery; the trailer hauls two empties back to the warehouse for restocking. The Warehouse-on-Wheels allows smaller trucks to make residential deliveries and reduces transportation and labor expenses. Even more practical is that inventory is picked only once, rather than being unloaded, shelved, re-picked, and reloaded for local delivery.

Bottom-Line

"Efficient, labor-saving equipment is crucial to stay competitive," Demountable Concepts' Vice President Rustin Cassway said. "Having fewer trucks equates to less capital expense or leasing fees, lower insurance premiums, licensing fees, maintenance hours, and DOT paperwork. By specifying vehicles under 26,000 pounds gross weight, millwork operations can have the flexibility of tractor-trailer fleets without the labor expenses of CDL (commercial driver's license) -rated drivers."

Demountables give delivery trucks an "out-of-body" experience. More important, they let trucks and drivers deliver instead of wasting time waiting for loading. They are helping dozens of millwork companies' stay ahead of their competition by providing high levels of customer service through on-time and consistent delivery schedules.

After a hundred years, you'd think there was nothing new to expedite the loading of a truck. But, as Cassway said, "Demountables have reinvented the wheel, and made it better."