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OPERATIONS
“The objective of the Merrill Companies is to provide completely reliable services that consistently meet or exceed customer requirements.” — Quality Policy
The
important advantage Merrill offers as a small “niche” operation
is its ability to focus in depth on customer requirements. Continuous
improvement, safe, productive, damage free and/or contamination free
handling and storage, accurate counts, shipments, and paper work and
fast turn around of landside shipments are all key determinants of quality
at Merrill’s.
A top priority of Merrill is a clean terminal environment. This commitment is backed up with personnel and equipment. All paper grade warehouses on site are equipped with positive pressure filtered ventilation which prevents infiltration of any roadway dust particles. A state-of-the-art Tennant vacuum sweeper designed to capture micron sized particles patrols roadways throughout any stevedoring operation and through every work day. Stockpiles are treated with surfactant to assure no significant particulate air entrainment.
Lift trucks in paper service are equipped with load shock absorbers, mast level indicators and multiple pressure settings to minimize clamp force.
EDI
Merrill regularly provides scanning, EDI interface, and electronic inventory management and reporting.
Training
Modern, well maintained equipment is only as effective as the procedures and attitudes of the crews that operate it. Personnel bring the famous Maine work ethic bred of the naturally hard work of rural Maine. Quality equipment, quality systems, and quality people reliably deliver a superior product.
More than a “Dock”
Merrill people are proud of their reputation for careful planning, monitoring, analysis and continuous improvement of their operations. This quality adds value to customers’ cargo.
Merrill’s loading and discharge systems are designed to enable crews to move cargo safely and with minimum damage or contamination. Effort is applied where it does the most good: planning each operation in detail, measuring performance, and reviewing how it can be improved the next time. Supervisors develop complete loading or discharge plans, stowage, production and quality targets and monitor and record actual progress hourly throughout each operation.
Unlike most small terminals, Merrill regularly moves from handling high value cargo on one vessel to bulk commodities on the next. Rigid adherence to high environmental standards for air and water quality make Merrill a good neighbor in the community and a quality stevedore for sensitive cargos — food grade, packaged or bulk. Merrill’s attention to detail again offers the customer an advantage.
Merrill uses reliable, well maintained equipment in creative ways to get the job done — productively and safely. Merrill’s maintenance people service each piece of equipment and can readily replace or add to the fleet as required.
“Just in Time” distribution can be routine service when people understand its importance and have systems to support it. Merrill people do. Merrill’s goal is to find opportunities for improvements in the total movement and to make or recommend changes whenever the customer can benefit. An important opportunity for improvement is often found in regular review of land transportation alternatives based upon ever changing local conditions.
Maine Workers Have A Tradition
Of Giving Value
In Return For A Customer’s Trust
Merrill workers are independent. It’s a Yankee tradition. They think for themselves. They take pride in the quality they deliver. They call themselves “Merrill’s Wharf Rats” and display a spirit rarely found in the stevedoring industry.
They have built the business by clearly caring about their jobs and taking satisfaction in seeing them well done.
Many of the same people working the vessels also serve in the warehouses and accumulation yards. Merrill people see the “whole picture”.
Any visitor quickly senses the pride in the operation. Most Merrill people have been working together for years building the business. Several have come from other Merrill companies and can boast twenty or even twenty five years or more with Merrill.
It’s the human quality that adds value to the customer cargo at Merrill. Quality that sees and prevents damage or contamination before it happens. It is the quality that brings in a person on short notice or a holiday weekend to get out an emergency shipment or to service a vessel.