The Wood World Monitor

A Newsletter for Participants in the Wood Products Industry

• Toyota Speaks
• China Reduces Export Competitiveness
• Close Your Talent Gap

• Bigger Ships = Lower Freight Costs
• Not Just Furniture Manufacturing
• Watch the Consumer
• Labor Law Update

• Is More Productive Labor Enough?
• Are Labor Unions On The Rise?
• Swimming Against The Tide

• Darkening Clouds
• Reversing the Manufacturing Migration
• Going Green
• The 150/20 Rule

• Another Man's Opinion on Jobs
• California Proposes New Regs
• Economic Factoid
• First Step to Higher Productivity

• Ikea - The Cult Furnishings Brand
• Management Matters
• Economic Factoid
• Building Costs Off and Running

• Inventories Rising
• S&OP - A Must for Product Flow
• Maintenance Tip
• That Damned Owl

• Look At Your Warehouse
• Cabinet Boom Continues
• Achieving World-Class Delivery Performance

• Our Technology Deficit
• The Outlook for North American Hardwoods
• Avoiding Employee Lawsuits

• Thanks for Kitchens
• Container Freight:  An Critical Economic Ingredient
• Is The Office Furniture Industry Coming Back?

• Up From the Ashes
• Avoiding A Big Mistake
• The Health of the Housing Industry
• New Galactic Headquarters

• A Hot, Healthy Cabinet Industry
• Chinese Labor Costs Rising
• More Fire Control + Better Utilization = Forest Health

• The Demographics Balancing Act
• Aging of The Baby Boomers
• Generation X
• Sudden Oak Death
• External Costs Hurt U.S. Producers

• Kitchen Remodeling Sees Great 2004
• Old Leads Could Mean Good Business
• Freight Rate Hikes Ahead
• Ash - A Threatened Specie
• Where Will You Be In Ten Years?

• Wood Use In Furniture
• Multitasking:  It's Counterproductive
• Are Americans Green?

• Rank Your Customer Centricity
• Healthy Forests
• White Collar Jobs Too
• Maintenance Corner

• Housing:  Oxygen for the Economy...
• ... And for the Wood Products Industry
• Defining Labor Costs
• Incentives to Invest

• Winning With Quality
• Be Prepared
• The World's Economic Engine
• Firing Customers

• Brains Over Brawn - Lowering Material Cost at Yorktowne Cabinetry
• How Ikea Does It
• Time for Better Forest Management

• Demography is Destiny
• The ABC's of Demographics
• The U.S. - A Melting Pot Once Again

• War For Talent
• Thinking Downstream at Hooker
• A 21st Century Staffing Solution

• You Can Forecast Your Business
• Got (Too Much) Mail?
• A Taxing Situation

• Aiming For Rapid Response, Mass Customization At UltraCraft
• Education Return On Investment
• Facts On Customers

• Knowing What to Make, How Many to Make, & When to Make It at Hooker Furniture
• Enough Engineers?

• Marsh Industries, Inc.
• Productivity Growth Declines
• Census Portends Housing Demand

• Mahogany Targeted For Import Tariffs
• How Much Do You Spend On IT?
• How Does Your Labor Turnover Rank?

• Who's Responsible for Employee Retention?
• Projections & Trends - The U.S. Office Furniture Industry
• Stretching the Wood Resource
• Federal Stewardship of U.S. Lands

• Shaping an Empowered Work Force
• The Proper Outlook for a Leader
• Certification of Forest Products Reaching Critical Mass
• Analyze Your SG&A Costs

• Engineering's Top 20
• Trucking - Between a Rock and a Hard Place
• The Truth About Manufacturing
• Your World
• Why Employees Remain Loyal

• The Other Route Card
• Forecasters Differ On Furniture E-Tailing Growth Rate
• Measuring Up In Inventory Management
• Leveraging Manufacturing Competency
• How Far Has Technology Come

• Maintenance Management
• S. J. Bailey's New Plant:  A Successful Consolidation
• Revisiting IT - Implementation Time's The Key
• Housing Market Weakens

• Just How Big Are We?  Part 2
• South American Wood Products Exports to the U.S. Up 400%
• Valuing Your Real Competitive Advantage - Knowledge
• Composite Panel Capacity Growing
• Inventory Reduction in U.S. Economy Fall Flat
• Housing Activity Boosts Furniture Sales & Producer Profits

• Just How Big Are We?  Part 1
• Inventory - Not All Bad
• Improving Your Productivity
• U.S. Economy Rolls On
• Asian Longhorned Beetle

• Information Technology - Show Me the Money
• Customer Intelligence - Ranking Customers by Profitability
• Safety Signage for Woodworking Machines
• The U.S. Economy

• Low-Tech America - Still Alive and Kicking
• Biotechnology in the Forest
• State of Russian Forests
• Supply and Demand

• OSHA Cliff Notes
• Supply & Demand

• The Ultimate Manufacturing Machine
• Marketing Failure
• Supply & Demand

• Set-Up Time
• Consumer Creditworthiness
• Better Education - The Base for Productivity & Profits
• North Carolina's Forest Products Industry Among Tops in U.S.

• Is Your Factory Obsolete?
• Learning How the Army Learns
• Shock Therapy for Your Facility

• Productivity & Investment - How Does the Furniture Industry Compare?
• Cellular Manufacturing - Can Cells Cure Your Sick Factory?
• Environmentalists Go Global - Stop Chilean Logging Project