Since the 1960's, Robbins Lumber has seen tremendous growth, always with an eye toward customer service through quality, efficiency and innovation.
Responding to the energy crisis of the 1970's, an industrial wood waste-burning boiler was added that not only provided heat for all the mill's buildings, but generated over 50% of its power.
Other additions in the mill for energy efficiency include: kiln vent exchangers, variable speed drives, computers, log scanning, water recycling.
On the production side, an automatic stacker
system and computerized optimizers increased efficiency and reduced waste.
In 1990 Robbins helped develop and install software that integrated all
processes within the mill and allowed precise tracking of production and
inventory. Voice recognition for log scaling was developed for increase safety,
quality and efficiency. The future addition of bar-coded lumber guaranteed
accuracy for the customer.
A planer mill built in 1993 incorporates on-line computer technology, replacing
tally sheets and pencils and utilizes on on-line bar-coding system.