copyright 2013© by permission of pallet enterprise...

1Copyright 2013© by permission of Pallet Enterprise magazine — All rights reserved, Industrial Reporting, Inc.

FCAreprint_peJuly2013.pmd 7/16/2013, 3:12 PM1

2 Copyright 2013© by permission of Pallet Enterprise magazine — All rights reserved, Industrial Reporting, Inc.

MOLINE, Ill.–FCA LLC is not yourtypical packaging company. Founded in1985, FCA has evolved from a smalllumber sourcing firm to a full-servicecustom industrial packaging companywith state-of-the-art design and manu-facturing facilities, including an ISTA-certified packaging engineering lab.FCA carries the goal of developing cus-tomer-centered packaging solutions to theextreme, which has paid off for its clientswith innovative packaging designs.

Jeff Campagna, one of the companyfounders and the “C” in FCA, is presi-dent and has created a culture focused oninnovation and servicing customerneeds. “FCA is a classic entrepreneurialcompany, and under Jeff Campagna’sleadership, we take a team approach toeverything – from problem-solving in-ternally, to providing the highest qualityservice to our customers,” said DavidWilsted, vice president of sales and mar-keting for FCA.

Headquartered in Moline, Ill., FCAserves many of the world’s leading origi-nal equipment manufacturers (OEMs)from its 18 facilities across the country

from Ventura, Calif. to Jamestown, N.Y.FCA is a model of what a true specialtypackaging company can do, and it fo-cuses on designing and producing pack-aging to fit large, heavy-duty loads, suchas engine assemblies and industrial ma-chine parts. Its Design, Testing & Engi-neering Center (DTEC) located in CoalValley, Ill. assists customers in provingnew packaging concepts before they aredeployed into the supply chain. It isequipped with a testing table and an in-cline impact tester as well as high speedvideo, accelerometers, and full diagnos-tic hydraulic vibration and reporting ca-pabilities. FCA offers to help clients re-duce testing costs, lower rapidprototyping timelines and improve pack-aging performance.

Every year, FCA delivers nearly threemillion packaging units to customers. Itsprimary products and services include:wood, steel, corrugated, and hybridpackaging products; expendable, reus-able and returnable packaging solutions;and comprehensive value-added serviceoptions. It produces a full range of cus-tomized skids for engines, industrial

equipment and mining equipment as wellas customized crates and boxes. Indus-tries served include: industrial construc-tion, agriculture, aerospace, energy, spe-cialty fabrics and engine manufacturing,among others.

FCA takes its corporate tagline seri-ously, which is, “Custom Packaging So-lutions – Designed, Built, Managed.”

Offering Complete PackagingSolutions – Location and Speed

More than just producing uniquepackaging, FCA will oversee the entireprocess offering customers complete so-lutions from start to finish.

Wilsted said, “With our ‘complete so-lution’ approach to custom industrialpackaging, FCA is focused on servinglarge OEMs on an enterprise-wide basis.These manufacturers have expensiveproducts to ship, with complex packag-ing requirements, and freight costs are avery big deal for companies that demandJust-In-Time (JIT) delivery for criticalpackaging.”

He added, “OEM customers haveunique requirements including JIT deliv-

FCA Sets High Standard forCustomer-CenteredInnovation In Packaging

An engine skid undergoes dynamic packaging testing using the incline impact sled at FCA’s DTEC packaging lab.



ery schedules and often low-volume,highly-customized packaging for theirproducts. FCA has built our business tomeet those needs.”

Committed to long-lasting relation-ships with major OEMs, FCA has lo-cated facilities near customer locationsto improve service. On average, FCA fa-cilities are located less than 20 milesfrom customers. Most FCA facilities aresituated within a few miles of key cus-tomers, and in some cases co-locatedwith customers.

Wilsted commented, “We recognizethat it is unique for FCA to say to acustomer – It doesn’t matter if we’re notthere yet – we will come! And we’reprepared to follow-through when thatmakes sense for our customer.”

As far as JIT delivery, some plantsreceive multiple truckloads per day, andorder turnaround times are typically 15-24 hours with the capability of 2-houremergency service when warranted.

Jenny Dormire, vice president of Cus-tomer Service for FCA, said, “Our flex-ibility and devotion to customer serviceis reflected in the two locations whereFCA has taken on container managementand cleaning for OEM customers.” Thecompany established new facilities tosort, repair, wash and help to managereverse logistics for this container fleet.This required the purchase of capitalequipment, but FCA views these invest-ments as opportunities to deepen our re-lationships with customers, according toDormire.

FCA provides complete packagingmanagement and reverse logistics ser-vices. This includes container and skidmanagement, washing, tracking, recy-cling, repair and refurbishment. It willalso develop kitting and repacking ser-vices to enable efficient transport.

FCA considers “Sustainability” as avital part of its management expertise.(This focus is covered in the FCA – Lean& Green Sidebar)

The fact that FCA has elevated “Cus-tomer Service” to a vice president levelposition demonstrates its unique level ofcommitment to top-flight service.

Dormire added, “One of our initiativesat FCA is to get as close as possible toour customers – building a collaborativerelationship allows you to grow withthem. The future of our organization liesin our ability to uncover new products

and services that will respond to our cus-tomers unmet needs.”

Wood Is Good forBusiness and the Environment

FCA provides custom packaging thatis designed for specific products and ap-plications. It works primarily with woodand will use other material types asneeded. Wilsted explained, “We havespecialized in wood-based packaging forvery practical reasons – wood is eco-nomical, durable and sustainable.”

Softwood, hardwood and engineeredwood make up 85% of the material FCAuses in its packaging products. It willalso design and manufacture hybridproducts with steel or plastic brackets forstructural reinforcement and for collaps-ibility.

In addition to traditional lumber mate-rials FCA utilizes an engineered woodproduct for heavy-duty and internationalproduct applications that is manufac-tured from fast-growing native treeswhich are sustainably harvested. FCAhas partnerships with several suppliers ofengineered wood in North America.

FCA stated that engineered wood“adds to customer value” through en-hanced durability and product protec-

tion, reuse and multiple-trip life, and thesustainability profile of the material.

In-house Design andTesting Expertise

FCA’s in-house design & engineeringteam creates precise packaging specifi-cations that enable custom production atthe plant-level.

“Our ability to model the transporta-tion environment, analyze material data,and perform package testing on specificproducts is a huge benefit for our OEMcustomers,” said Wilsted.

FCA essentially becomes the packag-ing design department for the OEM,eliminating the need for third party labtesting, or expensive engineering con-sulting. FCA’s DTEC lab can generatean ISTA-certified report on each testconducted, providing the data to validateeach unique packaging design.

Engineers are able to target stress andfailure points, and to create morecustomization for superior product pro-tection when they have this foundationaldata. Wilsted added, “The OEM is ableto focus on their own product with theconfidence that FCA has the right pack-aging for their application.”

The DTEC is led by Mike Thompson,

In the DTEC lab, an FCA packaging technician runs a vibrationtesting sequence on a custom box.



“FCA supports green and sustainablepackaging practices whenever possible,”states David Wilsted, vice president ofsales & marketing. “Essentially, we’vefound that the best way to lower procure-ment and disposal costs for our custom-ers, help the environment, and create asustainable business model for FCA is toadopt lean, green and cost-efficient prac-tices within our operations,” he ex-plained. “At FCA, our sustainabilitygoals are focused on two main areas ofaction – limiting waste, and fosteringmore sustainable choices for our custom-ers, and across our company.”

FCA reports that its large originalequipment manufacturer (OEM) custom-ers are targeting sustainability issueswith packaging suppliers. The level ofintensity varies according to the cus-tomer – from mandates, to sustainabilityinitiatives with supplier-based criteria.

Key components include sourcingSFI-certified lumber, utilizing high-per-formance engineered wood, and optimiz-ing customer packaging design.

“With our capacity to engineer andtest packaging for real-world applica-tions, FCA eliminates both waste andcost for our customers,” said Wilsted.

FCA also demonstrates material con-servation with its manufacturing tech-niques, reusing scrap where feasible, andthen grinding wood waste for tertiarymarkets, the company claims.

Plant–Level SolutionsReturnable packaging systems ca-

pable of withstanding multiple trips are akey component of FCA’s sustainablepackaging range according to the com-pany. Supported by FCA’s robust return-able management programs, responsibil-ity for implementing these FCA pro-grams is rooted at the individual plantlevel, said Jim Eddy, plant manager ofthe FCA Coal Valley, Ill. facility.

Eddy explained, “For FCA programcustomers, we receive their skids, pallets,and boxes, inspect them, refurbish them,replace damaged components, recycle thehardware, and then reissue the packag-ing.” Eddy said that his team is challengedto salvage sound material whenever pos-sible in the repair process, part of FCA’s

Lean, Green & Grinding with Cresswood –FCA Tackles Waste

lean initiative to “conserve first.”Repair, recycling, and manufacturing

operations can create wood scrap, how-ever, and FCA Coal Valley grinds thiswaste for markets in the area. “We pro-duce a mix of trims and blocks, and theaim is to keep our scrap out of the landfill.But in an interesting twist, one of our bestcustomers is the local landfill – they useour chips for road beds,” Eddy explained.

To process scrap material includingwhole pallets at the Coal Valley facility,FCA purchased a single-shaft, low-RPMCresswood EF-60 “Destroyer” woodgrinder. “Our Cresswood horizontalgrinder is designed with a 48” flat-sur-face bed and a 6” throat opening so it canefficiently handle an assembled pallet.Cresswood also supplied the conveyorsystem with magnets on the outfeed fornail removal,” Eddy said.

This clean post-industrial groundproduct helped FCA develop a marketfor bio-fuel. “In one pass, our Cresswoodgrinds very uniform chips, and that’swhat these biomass energy accounts arelooking for,” Eddy commented. “We areable to recover and condense scrap withthe Cresswood, and our customer uses itto heat & cool its facility, which is animpressive win-win for everyone.”

Grinding for ‘Better Earth’At the FCA facility in Princeville, Ill.,

plant manager, Joe Cave oversees a cus-tom packaging manufacturing operation

that runs three shifts per day, five days aweek. “We cut panel products for boxes,and we purchased our first CresswoodGrinder eight years ago to grind thewood scrap that we generate,” Cave said.“About 75% of our ground material goesinto biomass energy markets for fuel,with an additional 25% going to a newproject, Better Earth Compost, located inKickapoo, Ill.”

After teaming up with Better Earth in2012, Cave said that FCA decided topurchase a new Cresswood hopper-fedHF-40 wood grinder to accommodatemore ‘dump & go’ volume and changingoutput requirements. FCA Princeville cur-rently produces 80,000 pounds of woodchips, 2-3 times per week. “TheCresswood is constantly operating – it’s acore piece of equipment at the plant,”Cave explained. “It has to be durable be-cause we can’t afford to have it down, andthe Cresswood Grinder gets the job donewith only minor maintenance required.”

Cave has a unique perspective as arepeat buyer. “I’ve seen the evolution ofCresswood technology, and this new ma-chine is so much more advanced, the effi-ciency improvements are like night &day,” he said. “Cresswood is continuing tomove forward with design innovations,and that makes them a good fit for FCA,”Cave concluded, “We’ve got a fresh ‘green’story to tell with Better Earth, and the leantechnology to deliver on our sustainabilitypledge to FCA customers.”

A Cresswood EF-60 “Destroyer” wood grinder processes whole pallets and scrapmaterial into high-value uniform wood chips at the FCA Coal Valley facility.




vice president of engineering for FCA.This facility offers a wide variety oftests, such as, vibration tests, inclinetests, compression tests, finite elementanalysis and other tests designed to meetspecific ASTM packaging standards.

These experts are more than justpackaging experts, the team includesSix-Sigma Black Belts and plant manag-ers trained in the art of lean managementprinciples. These lean principles enableFCA to achieve greater efficiencies,reduce waste, improve quality andresponse time, and lower costs to cus-tomers.

Wilsted said, “With custom produc-tion, efficiency is essential. Jeff, ourpresident, has said on occasion that noone can drill or manufacture an engineskid more efficiently than the FCA team.Our business model relies on superiormanufacturing of complex custom pack-aging, and we are constantly upgradingour facilities to execute at the highestlevel of consistency for our customers.”

Looking toward the FutureThrough its growth, FCA has demon-

strated a focus on looking toward thefuture and developing organic business.There are three major business develop-ment threads for FCA going forward.

For starters, the company will con-tinue to pursue long-standing relation-ships with industrial OEMs, emphasiz-ing its packaging design talent, accord-ing to Wilsted. This means the companywill continue to invest in testing machin-ery and packaging lab equipment.

Secondly, the company plans to con-tinue to locate facilities near its custom-ers while expanding its footprint.

Finally, Wilsted explained that FCAdeveloped a new line of innovative pack-aging products. The first is the Collaps-ible Utility Box (C.U.B.), a patent-pend-ing container constructed of OSB or ply-wood and paired with an engineeredwood or softwood pallet. It is the first

FCA’s innovative new C.U.B. – Collapsible Utility Box is ready for one-person setup and immediate use with no tools, fasteners or clips required.

collapsible packaging that requires notools, fasteners or clips to set up or takedown. It can be quickly set-up by oneperson in less than five seconds, and isready to use immediately.

Wilsted commented, “One of our cus-tomers, typically not easily impressed,has called the C.U.B. a game-changer –and clearly we agree. With its versatilityand savings advantages, the C.U.B. ex-pands our capacity to serve more mar-kets, and that’s where FCA as a packag-ing solutions provider wants to be.”

For more information on FCA,visit www.fcapackaging.com andfor more info on C.U.B., visitwww.collapsiblepackaging.com PEPE

CUSTOM PACKAGING SOLUTIONS. DESIGNED. BUILT. MANAGED. VISIT US AT FCAPACKAGING.COM

INFO FCAPACKAGING.COM

DESIGN. TEST. ENGINEER. MANUFACTURE. SECURE. Our custom designed and validated packaging protects BILLIONS of dollars of valuable customer product each year.

Your valuable product needs custom designed packaging for secure shipment to your customers. FCA can design, prototype, test and validate your packaging product on site, with no need for a third party engineering group or testing lab. With FCA you can lower your testing costs, reduce your validation timelines, and improve the packaging that protects your most valuable product. Just one more reason FCA is the leader in custom designed industrial packaging solutions.


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