Company survives fire, recession
Published Friday November 27th, 2009
ST. STEPHEN - A fire will not destroy a healthy business, as Tom McKnight found out last winter.
"Exactly, because we had an opportunity to improve," he said in an interview Thursday in the rebuilt Sticks and Stones Manufacturing Inc. cabinet-making shop in the St. Stephen Business Park.
A fire destroyed most of the old shop early on Feb. 3. The company operated out of three rented buildings until it moved back to the old location, built newer and better, in September.
With the economy the way it is, especially in the United States, the company does not employ the 24 people it had at the time of the fire - although it still ships to New England and Bermuda as well as elsewhere in Canada.
Growing demand in New Brunswick takes up some of the slack, enough to keep about 15 people working. "We're focused on the local and the Saint John and Fredericton market," McKnight said while showing a reporter around the rebuilt plant.
"The recession (is) in the States and Quebec and west, but there doesn't seem to be much of a recession in"¦the Maritimes."
The insurance claim for the fire last winter came to more than $1 million, McKnight said.
The rebuilding crew re-used only the steel girders and concrete floor from the old building.
The plant, in operation since 1998, burned not long after a consultant completed a "lean manufacturing" exercise, McKnight said.
The consultant discovered bottle necks at the CNC (computer numerical control) machine that sizes up and cuts four-by-eight sheets of plywood into cabinet components, also in the finishing department.
"So we took that knowledge and put it into our new layout," McKnight said. He installed a new $200,000 CNC machine capable of handling two sheets of plywood at the same time, and doubled the size of the finishing department, adding two booths.
The operation got a new double-belt sander following the fire but, other than that, salvaged the rest of the rest of the equipment and machinery.
The fire provided "an opportunity to improve," McKnight said. "We're focused on the latest technology equipment and a high-quality, unrivalled product."
The new CNC machine does things that could only amaze old-time cabinet makers.
Kevin Dinsmore in the company's technical engineering department takes drawings for custom cabinet work - kitchen cupboards, home entertainment centre, bedroom closets, bathroom vanity - which he enters into the computer.
From there the machine operator takes over. By telling the machine to "optimize" it will align the plywood and cut it to get the maximum amount out of each sheet with minimum waste - sticking a label on each piece telling where it fits into the finished cabinet.
"The accuracy of it is just unbelievable," McKnight said.
And fast. It can process the two sheets of plywood in maybe seven minutes, spitting out cut, dadoed, drilled and labeled pieces ready to put together, operator Jeremy Leavitt said.
What sawdust and other waste Sticks and Stones Manufacturing does generate goes next door to Flakeboard Co. Ltd.
Sticks and Stones Manufacturing makes about 90 per cent of the drawers for the cabinets it builds with dovetailed corners, McKnight said.
Another machine does cuts the dovetails, again, faster than the old-timers could have imagined. "We can do up to 100 drawer boxes a day," McKnight said.
The company made more room for the finishing department by moving administration, drawing and other departments upstairs, along with the lunchroom and display area.
A natural gas system heats the closed-off area, drawing its own air through filters from outdoors to keep things inside dust-free.
Employees in this department spray on most finishes. The area smells like an auto body shop.
Sticks and Stones Manufacturing does all custom work, with usually parts of five kitchens in the on the floor at one time.
McKnight could not say precisely how long it takes to complete any one order. "The biggest thing is to get it finished, through the factory, with the shortest length of time on the floor," he said.
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