Investing in tomorrow

Writing about investment in the current economic climate may seem unrealistic and I accept that it has to be supported by strong bottom line results, but if the timber industry is to survive and prosper in the longer term, continued investment is critical.

Historically we have failed as an industry to invest enough in two important areas: our people and our equipment. As a consequence, our service standards are not as high as they should be and we are sometimes seen as an unsophisticated industry. If we want timber to become the material of choice and the industry to have the prosperous future it deserves, we need to embark on a programme of ongoing investment in machinery and people, now.

The legacy of aging production equipment does nothing for our productivity, reliability and our reputation. As an industry we have been reluctant to update aging equipment unless it has broken down, choosing instead to view machinery as a bleeding asset.

I think that ongoing maintenance and a continuous programme of replacement is critical. It will enable us to reduce costs in the longer term while improving our reliability and, ultimately, the service we give to our customers. The companies that invest now will also benefit from the improved customer confidence that comes from such investments.

Training

People, though, are the area where we really are missing an opportunity and an area where changes could dramatically improve our future.

There is a huge amount of interest in the industry – Saint-Gobain Building Distribution’s Timber Academy is oversubscribed with people wanting to learn about timber and to gain a qualification – but as an industry we are falling short when it comes to meeting trainees’ needs.

I would like to see an industry that undertakes ongoing succession planning and which has genuine expertise within its businesses. Timber experts are in short supply, hence the tendency for knowledgeable employees to be poached by competitors. But instead of deciding not to train anyone because they might move to another company, I’d like us all to develop innovative and more thorough training programmes. I’m not saying that there are no good training programmes at the moment. wood for good, for example, has some very good information and training which is easy to access and understand – but training is not as in depth as it once was and should be, and as an industry we have a responsibility to change that.

In the past, training programmes were undertaken over a period of two years or more and enabled youngsters to try many different roles within the timber industry. They gained knowledge about machining, importing and the different types of wood. It gave them more information about the career options available and a more rounded introduction to the timber industry, so they could then decide in which areas they wanted to specialise. Investing in this type of training could enable us to create an industry that has a ready supply of timber experts and one which delivers superb customer service.

After all, expertise is the foundation of our industry: a lack of knowledge and expertise among suppliers and specifiers is a big barrier to the specification of timber. In addition, the availability of engineered products has made timber a technical sell.

There is an absence of knowledge at all levels in both the public and private sectors, and if we fail to address this shortfall, we will leave ourselves open to rightful criticism.

Opportunities to sell

We have sold pieces of wood for too long.

Architects want us to demystify timber and, as a result, we now have an opportunity to sell timber in a different way. If more of our people have strong technical knowledge and expertise, we will be able to capitalise on this need. If we don’t invest in the training to make this a reality, it will cost us our reputation and ultimately money as timber loses out to competitor materials.

So, there we have it. Invest now to update our equipment, capitalise on current levels of interest in the industry and create an industry-wide pool of expertise or go backwards and harm our future. The choice is ours.

My hope is that, as an industry, we become more open to changing the way we work and recognise that the only barriers to a strong future are the ones we impose on ourselves.

Then the future could be very bright indeed.