by Pamela Krewson, Publisher, NWPCA, November/December 2006

Tours of two pallet recycling facilities and speakers from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Investigations and ConAgra Foods helped draw 270 attendees to NWPCA’s 2006 Recycling and Repair Conference & Exposition Oct. 5-7 in Atlanta, marking the event’s largest turnout ever. Equally impressive was the presence of nearly 60 registrants who were attending their very first NWPCA conference.

Plant Tours
The conference kicked off with a tour of Bo’s Pallets, Inc. in Adairsville, Ga. The facility features a customized automated pallet repair line and a complete bar code label system for tracking various aspects of payroll, production and inventory control. President Greg Bowen headed the tour through his impressive plant and fielded questions from the attendees as they watched the operations in motion.

Attendees then headed for the Atlanta branch of Pallet Consultants where new, recycled and remanufactured pallets are produced and nearly 70 docks are used. Gus Gutierrez hosted the tour and later spoke to conference attendees as a presenter about recovering from plant disasters.

“The big draw to the Recycling and Repair Conference for many people, including myself, are the plant tours,” said Stephen Grimes of Pallet Resource of NC, Inc. (Lexington, N.C.). “You get all the educational and networking goodies you always get at an NWPCA meeting but it’s a real treat to see the operations of friends in the industry.

“I’ve never been into a fellow member’s plant without seeing something that we can do better in my plant, something we haven’t tried or confirmation of something that won’t work for us.”

Education Highlights
The conference key-noted with a seminar on immigration and enforcement. Ron Shelkey, national program manager of worksite enforcement at ICE, spoke first about a new ICE Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers (IMAGE) designed to build cooperative relationships between government and businesses in an effort to strengthen employment practices while reducing employment of illegal aliens.

Dawn Lurie, Esq., an attorney with Greenberg Traurig, LLP, followed by discussing some of the most common mistakes employers make when filing I-9 Forms and offered suggestions on how business owners and managers can assume confidence in their employment practices. She noted that ICE put an additional $41 million this year toward enforcement, including a $2 million budget for informants who provide tips on companies hiring illegal employees. “One of the easiest things you can do to avoid penalties and the potential loss of your workforce is to get an I-9 audit done, correct any mistakes or issues that arise and keep your house in order,” she said.

John McLeod’s presentation of the improvements he and Software Technology Lab at Virginia Tech have made to the NWPCA Pallet Design System© (PDS) drew praise from both members and end users attending the conference. Version 4.0 – slated for release in December 2006 – has expanded its pallet design capabilities to handle “up to 29 top or bottom deckboards, nine stringers or stringerboards and seven blocks per stringerboard on both symmetrical and non-symmetrical pallet designs.” Other features of Version 4.0 that McLeod discussed include:
    · A new user-interface with interactive real-time graphics, which simplifies and improves  the design process
    · The streamlined creation of Adobe PDF files allowing easier emailing and electronic distribution of PDS printouts.
    · Three PDS design options to speed up the design process and meet specific pallet design requirements more efficiently.
    · A new electronic User’s Guide which makes finding information and answers even easier.

First-time conference attendee Debra Duckwall of Lovett Pallet Recycling, LLC (Indianapolis) sat in on the session and was impressed. “I enjoyed meeting John McLeod and going over the new features of the PDS program,” she said. “It’s one of my greatest sales tools and I am looking forward to the upgrade!”

ConAgra Foods – the manufacturer of such popular brands as Chef Boyardee, Jiffy Pop, Healthy Choice, Reddi-Whip and Slim Jim – sent representatives from their logistics and purchasing departments to talk about the company’s strategy for pallets and what they need from packaging suppliers. Jesse Saar, manager of logistic services, and Mike Topil, manager of category purchasing, said damaged products due to poor load planning and pallet damage costs the company about $500,000 a year and that they need the help of wood packaging manufacturers to figure out the best solution for remedying this problem. Both specifically addressed their pallet needs in the commodity side of ConAgra’s product line.

Saar said the company launched a White Pallet Purchasing Initiative in May 2006 that includes more than 100 pallet providers with the hopes of achieving the following goals:
    · Consistent quality
    · Consistent quantitywith surge capacity
    · Consistent pricing with stable benchmarks
    · High level of service
    · Strategic and tactical relationship
    · Turn key systems and plug & play programs
    · Superior inventory management
    · Simplification
    · Greater value than the previous supplier arrangements

While the initiative seems to be a good first step in following the company’s new “Accountability, Simplicity and Collaboration” mantra, Topil admits, “We need to be able to tell you guys what we need and you need to tell us, with the help of a system like PDS, what the best solutions are. We’re looking to you as much as you’re looking to us to meet ConAgra’s pallet needs.”

The first day of education concluded with a panel made up of heat treating and fumigation inspection agency representatives who discussed the requirements for the removal of the ISPM 15 mark from used pallets. All six panelists said that both the American Lumber Standards Committee and NWPCA, in accordance with the ISPM 15 mandate, requires that the IPPC-sanctioned mark must be obliterated if any of the pallet’s components have changed since the original mark was issued. Simply stated if the pallet is unaltered, the mark need not be removed but any modification requires the obliteration of the old mark and, if used for export, the pallet needs to be re-treated and marked again.

Gus Gutierrez, CEO of Pallet Consultants, opened the final day of the conference with a presentation about disaster preparedness. His company headquartered in Pompano Beach, Fla. recovered from damage caused by Hurricane Wilma in 2005 only to erupt in what local, state and federal officials deemed a “massive electrical/accidental fire” in March 2006, demolishing 106,000-square-feet of the facility.

Gutierrez talked about the process of rebuilding as well as crisis communication tactics and the importance of strategic prevention planning. “It’s very important to assign a disaster team, provide top management with guidelines, identify serious risks and identify critical products when dealing with something like a hurricane or a fire,” he said.

Attorney Adele Abrams hosted one of her popular sessions addressing plant safety and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issues. Attendees had the opportunity to ask specific questions regarding practices within their own plants and received consultation on dealing with OSHA inspections and fines. Abrams will be addressing some of the most popular issues in future PalletCentral columns.

The conference concluded with a presentation by Chris Braddock, the associate director for procurement and privatization policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, on the new tax law requiring government vendors to give 3 percent of their payments back to the government and wait a year for a refund.

Conference Sponsors
We would like to thank the Recycling and Repair Conference sponsors for their support of this year’s event:
    · Bo’s Pallets
    · International Carbide and Engineering, Inc.
    · Kheops Group
    · Kiln-Direct.com
    · Profile Technology, Inc.
    · Smart Products, Inc.
    · Viking Engineering & Development

Program Book Correction
An incorrect company description for Automated Machine Systems, Inc. was published in the Recycling and Repair Conference & Exposition program book. The description should read:
 

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