Associated Hardwoods, a family-owned and operated manufacturing company specializing in intelligent forest management, has implemented Plataine’s WoodOptimizer to improve their plywood cutting processes. Plataine is a leading provider of Industrial IoT and AI-based optimization solutions for advanced manufacturing and its AI based technology was chosen due to its vast experience in the Furniture industry, helping companies make their manufacturing processes more efficient and digitized.
Since 1978, Associated Hardwoods has been dedicated to intelligent forest management combined with manufacturing excellence, with a focus on preserving and utilizing our greatest natural resource. However, their plywood production processes were manual and inefficient, resulting in poor yields and inflexible work order generation, and a lack of visibility into the process. Plataine’s WoodOptimizer provides Associated Hardwoods with the ability to automatically create optimized cut plans that are based on work orders from their ERP system, eliminating manual input, and improving their make-to-order production strategy. The platform helps operators eliminate mistakes and focus on reducing waste and improving quality. A 15%-20% increase in material yield is expected in the upcoming 6 months. Plataine’s WoodOptimizer application optimizes plywood sheets for the best possible value, while at the same time significantly reducing waste.
“Plataine’s WoodOptimizer has helped us to automate our plywood production processes, making them more efficient and cost-effective. With this solution, we can optimize plywood sheets for the best possible value while significantly reducing waste, resulting in higher yields and improved profitability. Plataine’s professional services engineer performed the initial installation remotely and then arrived on-site for several days to complete the installation and provide training for the programmers and operators” said Rick Jordan, President of Associated Hardwoods.
“We are proud to have been selected by Associated Hardwoods to provide our solutions and experience in this field, helping them achieve their goals of improving efficiency, reducing waste and increasing profitability,” said Clay Bolick, VP Operations at Plataine.
