The Pennsylvania wood products industry suffers from increasing competition that is causing a reduction in jobs and economic value-added to the Commonwealth. One manufacturing strategy that holds great promise for increasing the competitiveness of secondary wood producers is lean production, developed from the Toyota Production System
http://www.dig.bris.ac.uk/teaching/m_o_i/studen10.htm . Many of Pennsylvania’s leading wood products manufacturing companies are already involved with lean manufacturing, or are trying to determine how lean best fits their enterprise; however, we believe that strictly applying lean techniques to a wood manufacturing environment may in fact do more harm than good. We therefore propose to conduct applied research that will clarify and quantify how secondary wood manufacturers should use lean. We will then compare these results to existing lean manufacturing curricula to determine how they should be modified. Finally, we will deliver an executive-level educational program to inform industry leaders about lean as a strategy.