Tim Adams - Fleetwood Motor Homes of PA, Inc. - Paxinos, PA

Date: 1-25-05

To: Dennis Palmer

From: Tim Adams

We began researching CNC routers in January of 2002. This required many hours of research and negotiating with five CNC router manufacturers. This proved to be quite the experience because we didn’t have any trained programmers or operators at our facility.

Our Thermwood model #53 CNC router was installed in October of 2003. Our goal was to complete the programming (we use Mastercam) and routing of all our plywood parts by December 2004. This was completed by July of 2004. We proceeded to add additional materials and products to the router. This may not sound like a huge accomplishment but we build 73 different models which require over 300 parts for each model (25.7MB, 1,546 files, 94 folders). We do not mass produce parts; most production runs are a quantity of 5 units.

Prior to the installation of our Thermwood model #53 CNC router; all of our plywood, luan, and particle board parts were cut on a panel saw and detailed on a pin router, band saw, t-slotter, and table saw. This required handling most parts three and four times. Particle board has a wood grain vinyl on one side. Approximately 20 of the particle board parts, every week, had vinyl damage from handling the parts several times. With the CNC router the particle board is handled twice. The board is placed onto the table, routed, slotted, labeled and then placed on the storage cart. Currently we have an average of one damaged piece per week. Our parts were previously labeled with tape and a marker, now all parts are identified with a printed label from the router.

Since the addition of our router, the average hours per unit worked in our mill area has dropped from 9.5 to 7.1. At 50 units per week, this creates a savings of 120.4 hours per week. However we have added two programmers to our staff (80 hours per week), so the total savings generated is 40.4 hours per week. Do not expect short term results. The average hours per unit increased to 10.1 the first quarter following the installation of our router.

The Thermwood CNC router has also improved the quality of our finished product and reduced our work in process. However, don’t be fooled into thinking that it is a simple transition. For our facility this transition required a full year of hard work. In order to incorporate a CNC router at your facility, the work force needs to review all of the current processes and be prepared to implement new ones. This also requires a supervisor to lead the changes and spend many hours of planning. This was not an easy transition, but has resulted in many long term successes for our facility.

We currently have three trained associates on Mastercam and ten associates as operators. Our router is currently running 24 hours a day, five days a week.

We are expecting our second Thermwood model #53 router to arrive within the next few weeks. With the addition of this router we will have the capability of detailing pine and paneling, which is currently done on the panel saws and chop saws.