A recently completed study examined some of the most commonly asked manufacturing questions of Canadian kitchen cabinet and furniture manufacturers (Tremblay, 2010). Namely, which assembly system is the strongest, and which manufacturing process is the most efficient.

Visits to furniture and kitchen cabinet manufacturers’ plants revealed that several case assembly systems are currently in use. These systems were evaluated using three mechanical resistance tests involving the application of shear loads and tensile loads. The second part of the report focused on a comparative study of the manufacturing and assembly time for a model kitchen using four different manufacturing processes. Plans for the model kitchen were provided by one of the project partners, a kitchen cabinet manufacturer.

The various systems used by the industry appear to meet sturdiness requirements although variation in performance is expected to a certain extent. With respect to the most appropriate assembly system, manufacturers choose a system based on a combination of perceived value and cost.

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In order for your customers to enjoy many years of function from their purchase of your wood product, there are some things both of you can do to maintain the look and durability of the natural wood. Wood is a natural product that is hygroscopic – it responds to changes in surrounding humidity and as a result, will lose or gain molecular moisture (water) as relative humidity (RH) fluctuates. This will cause the wood to shrink as RH drops, and swell as RH increases.

Under normal use conditions, all wood products used for millwork in kitchens and furniture are never completely moisture free. Woodwork products are manufactured from wood that has been kiln-dried to an average moisture content of 7% to 8% and maintained at that moisture content until the time of delivery to a woodworking shop. Even finished products that have been kiln-dried and coated with a protective finish will gain or lose moisture depending on the environment it is placed in.

The movement of moisture to and from wood from the surrounding environment continues to take place as the RH changes, whether this is due to seasonal changes in climate and/or building related conditions.

To avoid product failure or quality issues, it is recommended that in low humidity regions such as Alberta, an interior RH of between 30% and 45% be maintained. Other regions of Canada may require different RH levels.  Uncontrolled RH extremes below 25% or above 50% will likely cause problems. In new home construction where there has been recent concrete work, drywall taping, mudding and painting, excessive moisture is often released into the building. In these environments, the heating system may not be operating yet or the heat may be set at high levels (above 30 C or 86 F) to speed the drying process of the aforementioned operations. Placing your finished wood products into these harsh conditions could lead to problems that could affect the warranty of your installation.

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Using value stream mapping (VSM) to determine flow, location and options of your edgebander. The term value stream mapping refers to the tool for showing the sequence and movement (mapping) of information, materials and actions for a given product flow (value stream). Usually, the mapping is done by following a product’s production path in reverse, or upstream from customer to supplier.

In this article, the value stream being addressed includes the action of edgebanding wood components in a millwork shop and how this operation affects what happens before product comes to the edgebander and also after it leaves the edgebander.

It is important to capture the big picture rather than just what is happening at the edgebander. In very simplistic terms one needs to know the cycle times of all the operations (both value added and non value added) in the production sequence (including set up time or change over) as well as what is happening to the work in progress or inventory between processing steps.

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By Dave McRae

Ron Sangara, owner of Leslie Forest Products Ltd. has been involved in the remanufacturing business since the 1980’s, and has seen many changes in the industry over that time. Recently, smaller production runs and higher quality tolerances have forced the company to evaluate all of its manufacturing processes, including the way it dries its products.

Realizing that he had to do something to improve his drying performance, Sangara contacted FPInnovations for help to reduce the length of its lumber drying time and improve drying quality. FPInnovations’ Drying Specialist, Dave McRae began by collecting data and observing the drying process at the Delta-based company. Together with company staff, all thermocouples (wet bulbs and dry bulbs) were checked for their accuracy. An airflow audit was then conducted with the results showing that the airflow (volume/speed) within the kilns was unacceptable for drying to the standards demanded by the company.
The audit showed that the volume and balance of airflow in the kiln was significantly out of balance, even though the lumber stickers were perfectly in place and package placement in the kiln was very good. Further investigation showed that there was insufficient airflow entering the drying chamber from the fan deck, and the plenum space to balance the airflow from top to bottom was inadequate.

Solutions were found to help alleviate the airflow problem and recommendations were made by FPInnovations, then implemented by mill staff to address the cause of the problem. These recommendations allowed the air to flow properly from the fan deck level into the kiln chamber.

With the airflow volume and balance corrected, drying times decreased while quality increased. “When we measured the changes made in our kilns, we found that we reduced out Heat Treating time by 18% and our overall drying time by 30%, says Sangara. In addition, he estimates that they have reduced their energy costs by 25%, and that the changes made have allowed them to dry an additional 25% more loads per year.

For more information on this story, please contact Dave McRae at 250-713-1721 or dave.mcrae@fpinnovations.ca

Part three in a three-part series on product development.

In part one of this series on managing product development, we looked at the importance of setting high-level strategy. The second part was about the process itself including implementing a structured framework and putting together a solid crossfunctional team. (Visit woodworkingcanada.com for parts one and two.) In this article, we look at doing the right projects and measuring progress.

Portfolio Management
It is management’s role to decide which projects get funded. This task is often referred to as portfolio management and while risk is inherent to new product development, managing it is crucial. From a product developer’s perspective, a high-risk situation is one in which much is at stake or the outcome is uncertain. For example, if it’s unclear whether the product is technically feasible or will do well in the market. If uncertainties are high, it’s a good idea to keep amounts at stake low. As the uncertainties decrease, the amounts at stake can be increased.

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A few comments, suggestions, and ideas that may be of interest to Industry…

This article is a follow up from my recent market intelligence trip to Park City Utah. As discussed, I found two projects under development that may be of interest to the industry. The 1st project is “The Shed” in the exclusive Promontory development in Park City. The project consists of a 20,000 square-foot, multi-use building that features a restaurant, bowling alley, gymnasium, and a 50 seat theatre. The project is designed by renowned architectural firm Swaback Partners and features the use of heavy timber and wood millwork throughout. Swaback Partners, a 25 person firm, is located in Pheonix, Arizona and managed by three partners. They have received numerous awards and honors in everything from resort condominiums and custom residences, to office and mixed-use commercial projects. Swaback Partners has carved out a niche in the golf club, ski resort, and high-end commercial construction and design market with projects across the Western United States including the recent completion of the 40,000 square-foot clubhouse at the Martis camp development in Lake Tahoe. I have been in contact with Swaback and will hopefully have some specifications on the Promontory project over the next month.

The other construction project is the North Lake Lodge Hotel and Residential Development. North Lake is located on a 6 acre residential site that has been recently acquired by Regent Real estate developers after a complicated bankruptcy and restructuring.  Situated near the center of Park City, the proposed hotel and residences will have spectacular views and ski in/ski out access.  The design consists of a high-end hotel and approximately 54 residential units which complements the existing adjacent homes, and capitalizes on the views and accessibility to the ski trails.  This project is expected to begin in the spring of 2012 and should provide a good opportunity for a wide variety of high quality structural and architectural wood products. Currently, the architectural plans are out for tender and I will follow up with the winning firm when it is awarded.

For more information on these and other projects in the US, please feel free to contact me at 604-728-8786 or dfarley@bcwood.com

*Above: image of the Shed

Trade shows are not your whole job, just a part of it.  You only do, at most, a few small shows a year, and you’ve got lots of other responsibilities to handle.  So all this detail in our blog about doing trade shows better?  You simply have no time for it all.

But you still would like to boost your results – but only if the changes are simple and quick.  So in that vein, here are 5 tips to help you — quickly — get more out of trade shows:

1. A large, clear message is easier to grasp, so make your next set of booth graphics colorful and easy to understand, with a benefit statement that will then get your prospects into your trade show booth.
2. Create a demo with motion in your trade show exhibit to get more of the right people engaged and interested.  That will also get people to remember you.
3. Collecting business cards is not enough.  Print paper lead cards to write more notes for the sales force to do better follow up, or get electronic lead machines from the show to get their attendee data with every badge scan.
4. Your booth staffers make a huge difference.  Bring staffers who want to be there, give them support, training, and treats.  Count how many qualified leads each one takes in your trade show displays to help decide who staffs the next show.
5. Do everything you can before the show to set up appointments with qualified buyers and existing clients in your booth at the show.

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After seeing the success from their 5S activities, the next step was to get training on Value Stream Mapping (VSM) to help them map out their process and make improvements to the flow of their products. VSM is a Lean manufacturing technique used to analyze the flow of materials and information currently required to bring a product or service to a consumer.

“We saw immediate payback after we finished the VSM exercise. With one of our products, we were able to reduce the number of processes from 18 to 7. This was a huge savings in the production”, commented Ken. “Because we have been looking at our products in depth with VSM, it helped us improve our consistency and our quality”.

Without buy-in of the staff, many of the Lean concepts won’t work. “Initially, I didn’t understand how Lean could be good for our staff”, says Ken. “After all, if you can do more production with less staff, how would your employees feel? People tend to think that if you look at efficiency in production it means jobs are on the line”.

Vintage began by making small changes that let the staff experience the improvements. For example, convincing the moulder operator that he was going to save money by doing lots of shorter runs rather than setting up once and doing bigger runs was difficult at first.

However, after witnessing that the machines were not tied up and the set ups were happening three times faster, employees began coming around. Says Ken, “with less inventory we did not have our cash tied up and it kept what inventory we did have clean and fresh”. “Reduced work in progress cleared the floor, kept the staff focused and reduced the possibility of damage to the products as they made their way through the shop”.

The next steps for Vintage Woodworks include creating the framework so that its staff can sustain the Lean improvements they have already done, and getting ready for further Lean implementation.

Adds Ken,” I have been really lucky to have an Operations Manager in our company that truly believes in the Lean journey. Working together, our staff is looking forward to future changes and the benefits it will result for them”. “We anticipate it will take Vintage some time before we meet our goals, however each step we take we should realize an improvement on our productivity”.

Brian Ehrecke is a manufacturing specialist for FPInnovations. FPInnovations is a company with over 25 years of experience providing technical and manufacturing support to the wood products industry in Canada. He can be reached at (250) 462-4000 or brian.ehrecke@fpinnovations.ca.

We recently held workshops in Kelowna and Victoria that focused on the latest details of federal, provincial and other assistance programs that relate to enterprises in British Columbia.

CLICK HERE to view a summary of the workshop, in Power Point form, that you may find useful for your business.

Furniture is traditionally coated by one or more liquid products applied by an air pistol. The solvents used to ensure the fluidity of these products evaporate after application, and the resins contained within solidify to form a protective coating on the wood surface. In order to accelerate the polymerization of these products, the solvents are highly volatile and evaporate into the atmosphere.

In 2004, the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment published directives (available at www.ccme.ca) for the reduction of volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions created during the finishing procedures of wood furniture. This document, which has been delivered to the provincial ministers who will decide whether to adopt its recommendations, suggests that the furniture industry could reduce VOC emissions and proposes limits. Modifications to environmental standards will force the furniture industry to reduce the volume of VOC emissions released into the atmosphere. It is essential that solvent-free wood-finishing systems replace traditional systems inorder to respect the future VOC emission limits. The technology used for the application, the hardening method, and the product selected for the finish, include three key elements in the emissions reduction effort.

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