A Few Minutes With...
A Few Minutes With… Jeff Meyer, President
Baillie Lumber Company, Hamburg, NY
Differentiation is the challenge.

Custom Shop
When Jim Wardlaw walked into Collegedale Casework three years ago, he saw the way things had been done there for the last 40 years. As the new CEO of the Collegedale, Tenn.-based manufacturer of casework for laboratories, libraries and media centers, he has developed a new company culture of structured organization, work cells and reduced inventory.

Finish Line
With the resulting reduction in labor costs, coating costs and costs of rejects, even the largest and most automated finishing lines can have a three year or less “payback.” Finishing expert Bob Kostelnik explains the ins and outs of automated finishing lines.

Hot Gear
Get descriptions and request information about products from our participating companies.

Drying and Roughmill
Some comments on hand-held moisture
meters in hardwood lumber drying. Dr. Fred Lamb examines the different types of moisture meters and their role in hardwood drying.

Material Issues
Hard maple and soft maple ride the wave of white wood popularity.

Production Line
As the new owner, along with her husband James, of Walker Woodworks in Sacramento, Calif., Carol Radkins discovered early on that she would have to be a “quick study” in AutoCAD and CNC software systems to successfully take on the challenges of a commercial casework business. Along with that knowledge has come the confidence to take on custom projects.

Process of the Month
For Ernst Cabinet Works in Hamburg, Pa., the implementation of an advanced software program has simplified the complicated designs associated with high-end custom kitchen cabinetry, along with streamlining its production process. Meanwhile, Top Drawer Component in Apache Junction, AZ, has improved its margins with new optimization software.

Sanding Sense
Polishing platens impart a polishing type finish that refines the scratch pattern or grit marks introduced by previous sanding heads. Sanding expert Howard Grivna shows examples of platen construction variations to achieve different results.

Supply Side
Despite a past tendency to think of functional hardware as not a particularly glamorous product, today’s consumers are looking for its high-end features to add aesthetics and ease of use to their storage solutions. Meanwhile, functional hardware design is going softer.

Think Lean
Kanbans are generally the choice of practitioners when creating pull systems to increase capacity and improve response time to customer demand. Lean manufacturing expert Ken Rolfes helps you select the appropriate Kanban system for your situation.

Trends
Aside from residential kitchen and bath cabinetry, perhaps no segment of the woodworking industry has enjoyed more recent success than hardwood flooring. Shipments of hardwood strip flooring have more than doubled in the past 10 years alone, welcome news to an industry that struggled for the better part of the last half-century.

Words of Wisdom
WMMA scholarships reveal potential of a career in the wood industry.