November 23, 2004

Fellow Pennsylvania Wood Industry Partner:

The Pennsylvania wood products industry suffers from increasing competition that is causing a reduction in companies, 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.

Lean manufacturing has become the de facto standard for companies trying to upgrade their competitive capabilities in today’s global market. A number of Pennsylvania’s leading wood products manufacturers are already working to adopt lean manufacturing, or are trying to determine how lean best fits their enterprise. As they do so, they come to recognize the potential of the concept to increase their competitiveness, and to improve their bottom line. However, these same companies find that certain aspects of lean manufacturing create conflicts in the recovery/inventory/cost equation of their businesses…conflicts that can be traced to the inherent variability in the raw material itself, the wood.

Here at Penn State, our research efforts in this area are focused on defining lean production in terms specific to the wood products industries. In the first eighteen months of this research, we’ve been able to develop a measurement system of “leanness” that is specific to the raw materials, processes, and outputs unique to the various wood products industries of the Commonwealth. More than a dozen of Pennsylvania’s finest wood products companies have cooperated with our research by providing a simple set of operational data identified as critical to a realistic and useful measurement of a company’s efforts toward lean production. In return, these companies have been provided with lean assessments customized to their company, as well as the opportunity to interact with our research team to develop operational improvement strategies based on this assessment.

We are looking to expand the strength of our techniques with the help of additional data from your industry. We would like to significantly expand our list of cooperating companies over the next six months. Whether you operate a sawmill, concentration yard, dimension operation, pallet, cabinet or furniture company, we need you! The overall goal of our USDA-funded research project is to enable Pennsylvania hardwood producers to be more competitive via a greater understanding and application of the principles of lean production, specifically as it comes to be defined through the advances of this research.

The only cost to your company will be the small number of hours required to gather the small data set we require. Normally, this process involves a two-hour meeting with our research team to cover the data collection requirements, one to three man-days of data collection from your own operating records, and a final two-hour meeting to review the data with your team. Within a month, you will be scheduled to meet with our research team to discuss your specific “leanness” and lean improvement opportunities.

Please consider joining in this opportunity to lead the Pennsylvania wood products industry into a position of technical and managerial world market and process leadership. A simple reply to this email, or a call to Dr. Chuck Ray, wood products extension specialist, at 814-865-0679, will get you on the list and schedule for the study. Please reply quickly, as we have to limit this next phase of the research effort to the first thirty companies that volunteer.

Thanks for your consideration. The School of Forest Resources at Penn State looks forward to working with you.

Sincerely,

Chuck Ray

Assistant Professor of Wood Operations

The Pennsylvania State University