JERSEY CITY, NJ – An after-hours tour of Eastern Millwork Inc.’s factory proved to be as popular with Cabinets & Closets Conference & Expo attendees as its “sold-out” status would indicate.

A bus-load of CCCE 2014 attendees got a personalized tour of one of the Northeast's most high-tech architectural woodworking operations. Many attendees were fortunate to have EMI Owner Andrew Campbell as their guide of the 40,000-square-foot-operation.

Campbell said he likes to run a tight ship. Woodworking equipment, including many machines purchased from Stiles Machinery, are compacted closely together to minimize material handling, he said.EMI focuses on lean manufacturing and batch one production. The company developed its own BIM software to be able to efficiently produce for large architectural woodwork projects like for the cavernous atrium at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan.

Campbell added that he hopes to build a new plant adjacent to his current location next year. He said it would not be much bigger, but it would be taller to better facilitate the company's investment in a Bargstedt Intellistore, an automated panel retrieval and storage system. Also on his new plant wish list is an automated flat-line finishing system.

Campbell's pronouncement that EMI would stay put in Jersey City, countered previous plans to build a new faclity in Bayonne, NJ.

Eastern Millwork's handiwork graces some of New York City's most prestigious buildings, including Rockefeller Center and the New York Times. EMI has also furniture many other Fortune 500 firms, area universities and hospitals. The company earned the cover story of the February 2014 issue of Wood Products.

The tour was co-sponsored by Stiles Machinery Inc., the Association of Closet and Storage Professionals (ACSP) and JB Cutting.