Trade shows are a great way to demonstrate products and to meet people face-to-face. They are very useful when you want to see products that require a demonstration or, as my brother Keith would say, “where you want to put your hand on the machine.” But there are even more reasons to...

Part 7 in our TIMWOODS series Reducing Over-Processing is a critical part of creating an efficient lean production/distribution company. As our friend Tim Woods has been guiding us through our lumber yards, manufacturing operations, and offices, we’ve seen a lot of wastes. Now...

Part 6 in our TIMWOODS series Clearly, there are many different ways that people waste time, money, and resources, but throughout our series my objective is providing new ways for you to think about the opportunities in your operation. In previous articles, we’ve talked about the wastes...

How can we measure and improve employee productivity? It’s a common question now, one that I am often asked within the Component and LBM industry, but that wasn’t always the case. We’ve come a long way and learned a lot! Back in 1911, mechanical engineer Frederick W. Taylor,...

Part 5 in our TIMWOODS Series Piles and piles of production all around you. No, I am not talking about inventory, I am talking about WIP, finished goods/staged jobs—Overproduction. Overproduction is making products in too great a quantity or before actually needed, leading to excessive...

A book I read in 2015, “Rise of the Robots,” by Martin Ford, talked about the threat many people see that robots present to the employment marketplace. At the time, I was working with several different equipment manufacturers and clients on their automated/robotic equipment...

Part 4 in our TIMWOODS Series Shigeo Shingo, who is considered the world’s leading expert on manufacturing practices and the Toyota Production System, wrote “humans are animals that make mistakes.” But how often do we make mistakes in our lumber yards, millwork, and...

Part 3 in our TIMWOODS Series Our friend, TIM WOODS, has been busy in many LBM and component operations and, as we continue our series, he has been seen sweeping “Inventory” down several operations’ drains. Inventory is another waste word in our TIMWOODS acronym for the...

Part 2 in our TIMWOODS Series When we last left off in our series, I introduced you to my friend, TIM WOODS. TIM WOODS is actually an acronym for the eight deadly wastes (Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Over-Processing, Over-Production, Defects, and Skills). While the acronym...

If you are like me, you spend the later part of the year setting goals for the coming year and planning how to accomplish them. For those who work for me, I always set goals, metrics, and participate in a conference on how we are going to achieve what we want together. Over the last few months,...