Kruger's Investment (CONT’D FROM PAGE 28
Culture Of Collaboration John Keith has more than 35 years of experience in the corrugated industry working for both integrated and inde- pendent companies. The Etown plant was his sixth green- field startup. He said these types of projects are “huge events, like bringing a small city together.” To ensure everything went smoothly on the machine side, Kruger took the unusual approach of tasking the main suppliers, such as Fosber, Bobst and WSA, with se- lecting and managing the ancillary components from other companies. Keith and his team met with the OEMs twice a day as a group to talk about the schedule and startup. He attributes this team approach to fostering collaboration. Keith said staffing the plant posed few challenges. Eighty percent of the salaried staff was in place by Novem- ber 2021, before any of the machines had started up. The managers have more than 400 years of combined corru- gated experience. For hourly employees, Kruger participated in local job fairs and posted announcements on social media plat- forms, such as LinkedIn and Facebook. “At the first job fair, I interviewed 37 people in four hours,” said Keith. “We still have a huge pool of people we haven’t even called on yet. We’re getting ready to go to a third shift so every two weeks we’re starting another five to eight people, put- ting them through intensive classroom training and then hands-on training on the machines.”
• Automatic Tooling Delivery and Retrieval System from the converting machine centers to the mezzanine. • Automatic Roll Delivery and Butt Roll return system from the roll storage room to the Fosber corrugator.
Finished sheets off the corrugator go directly into the WIP warehouse or downstream to converting or to ship- ping where they are strapped and prepared for delivery to local sheet plants. Etown has two shipping lines with load doublers, pallet inserters, tiering devices and EAM Mosca unitizers and palletizers. The plant has 27 dock doors. WSA-USA supplied a fully automatic material handling system, including a Vertical WIP Storage and iFAS Smart Factory Auto- mation System.
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Serving the North American Corrugated and Folding Carton Industries Since 1985
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