I feel honored to be able to share this presentation with you this morning here at the Eastern Region. I have been a member of the Western Region for many years so I have always been taking. It is now a pleasure to give in return. There are a number of basics, which influence our decisions. People are very important to us. We believe that people should be loved and things used. The problems arise when things are loved and people are used. People comfort is very important to us. The rolling bench equipment is available "off the shelf' in the Netherlands where a number of liner producers are using it. To the best of my knowledge we are the only nursery propagators in North America using it. The goal is to bring the work to the people, rather than having employees spread all over the nursery. This eliminates what I call "walking time" — to lunchrooms, washrooms’ or telephones. With the rolling benches most of the work can be done in an ergonomically correct fashion. Supervision is also easier as most of the tasks are done in a central area. Another realization was that we are not in the nursery business but are in the materials handling business. Many of the tasks lend themselves to mechanization. The simple question we are presented with is how dowe take 3000 yards of soil mix, add unrooted cuttings, some plastic and fertilizer, ship 3,000,000 liners, and get paid for them? Presently most of the tasks in propagation are done under an incentive system, with all tasks having basic numbers, which must be achieved. Anything ------these numbers, the employee and employer share the savings.over
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