JTB Furniture Triples Packaging Speed with IWF Show Discovery

In 2016, a Mississippi furniture company management team headed to the IWF Wood Show in search of a better packaging solution for one of their production lines. They found one. The team had been frustrated with their current methodology and knew there had to be a simpler solution. After reading about EAM-Mosca strapping systems and the success of others in the wood industry using strapping for packaging securement, the team visited Mosca’s booth at the show. Never having used strapping machines or strap previously, the team was intrigued.

Tight Labor Market
In a busy, 400,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing facility in small-town Columbus, MS, 200 employees in a town of 23,000 residents manufacture and assemble furniture for the hospitality industry. Some of the components are not only bulky, oversized but consistently changing which demands flexibility from the production lines. On one specific line, ten employees would carton headboards and manually tape them closed. The process was tedious and required a lot of manpower.

The Johnston Tombigbee Furniture Manufacturing Company (JTB Furniture), was founded in 1932 by an entrepreneurial spirit, Russell Johnston, who while owning and operating a furniture company purchased the Tombigbee Lumber and Mill along with several thousand acres of timber land. Today, in ‘A New Era of Excellence,’ a tagline penned by Reau Berry, grandson of Johnston and the current owner of JTB Furniture, the tradition of excellence and style carries on still. Today, JTB Furniture is a preferred or required supplier to several well-known hotel chains including Holiday Inn Express, Residence Inn, Hampton Inn, Best Western, and many more.

Switching from Tape to Strap
Shortly after the 2016 IWF show in Atlanta, GA, EAM-Mosca Regional Sales Manager Jimmy Dodd followed up on the team’s show inquiry and stopped by the Columbus facility to meet with Matt Lyle, Product Design Engineer, and Duke Berry, COO.

After a review of the facility and timing operations on one line in particular, Dodd recommended Mosca’s ROMC-6-Sonixs, a large-arch, operator cycled strapping system for heavy-duty, large product applications to replace the taping operation. The automatic bundler has a stainless-steel table-top and a sealing head located in the center bottom of the arch, which makes it convenient for strapping large products that may be difficult to position.

Tripling Production Rate
Lyle and Berry ordered a ROMC-6-Sonixs 260/6 immediately and the system was installed shortly thereafter. After employees were trained, the former ten-person/line packaging headboards with tape at six minutes/per headboard dropped to a six-person line, strapping headboards at three minutes/per board – nearly 50% less time and staff. After another few short weeks, the line dropped again – this time to four employees at only 1.5 minutes per headboard. Nearly tripling the reduction in employee and production-time process. Talk about a new age of excellence!

“The Mosca strapper significantly improved our throughput with far fewer employees and the equipment payback was less than three months,” says Berry. “We were able to relocate staff to other areas of the plant that needed attention. We couldn’t be happier.”

The system that JTB purchased features Mosca’s Standard 6 strap path and proprietary Sonixs ultrasonic strapping head. The sealer uses an open construction and sealed bearing design that sheds dust and dirt to reduce cleaning requirements. Additionally, the strap path and innovative Sonixs sealer easily disassembles without tools for fast, convenient cleaning.

JTB Furniture uses 12mm PPY strapping which feeds easily around the large, high-precision 102” x 24” strap track at speeds around 15 straps/minute on average. The ROMC-6 strapping system has speeds of up to 30 straps/minute depending upon track and package unit size. The standard extra-large strap accumulator prevents ‘strap set’ to enhance strap feed performance, contributing to the machine’s overall reliability.

After just six months of operation the team at JTB had already ordered another ROMC-6 Mosca strapper for an additional line – a “no-brainer’,” says Lyle, who appreciates the efforts of Dodd and the reliability of Mosca equipment. According to Dodd, other customers have successfully installed the ROMC-6 in cabinetry, office furniture and the door and window industries in different configurations. EAM-Mosca showed that system at IWF 2022.

About EAM-Mosca
EAM-Mosca Corporation provides high-performance strapping system solutions to a variety of industries, including food, graphic arts, mailing, fulfillment, logistics, corrugated, wood, and other industrial or consumer goods. The company combines innovative equipment with strapping materials manufactured to maximize machine performance, and customer support programs that help customers meet their performance and productivity goals.

To learn more about any of EAM-Mosca’s other productivity enhancing strapping systems, please call 800-456-3420, or email info@eammosca.com.

BACK TO NEWS