ARIZONA SGENEqP

FRANK DAVIS executive vice president

EDOLLSTER Lou Harris was quite F emphatic about the importance of increased productivity as he spoke to a group of executives at a recent luncheon meeting at Sentry West headquarters in Scottsdale.

"If ever there was a moment for a concept whose time has come, now, in the last two decades of the twentieth century, the United States seems prepared to face the implications of reversing the downward trend in productivity," Harris said.

He was revealing the results of a fivecountry survey commissioned by Sentry Insurance and conducted by Louis Harris and Associates, Inc., a comparative attitudinal study on productivity taken in the United States, Great Britain, Japan, Australia and West Germany.

Harris pointed out that 7990 of the American people believe that declining productivity in this country is a serious problem requiring urgent attention and that the public is convinced that better productivity will benefit workers and consumers, not just management and stockholders. This is in contrast to a survey on the same subject taken by Harris ten years ago which showed productivity to be a bad word to most people which meant the exploitation of workers to make money that would line the pockets of executives.

To enhance workplace productivity a great deal the study shows that employees want management to: r Have bonuses that rise or fall depending on company profits. r Give employees financial rewards for productivity gains. o Give employees more and better information about decisions that affect them.

. Have supervisors treat employees with more respect.

The public believes that the failure to turn declining productivity around will result in fewer jobs, declining respect for the U.S. abroad, a lower standard of living and an inability to meet social obligations at home.

Harris, who made no effort to hide his enthusiasm for the value of what is probably one of the most important global surveys on productivity ever conducted, closed his remarks with this observation:

"There is a window open on taking specific and concrete steps to turn productivity in America around. How Iong this opportunity will remain no one can say. Rarely in modern times has there been this much concern about a concept in the economic area."

Northwest News

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(4) Faithful: To illustrate this, take the power company. If you get behind in your bill, it doesn't shut off the lights right away. It sends a polite reminder first. Faithfully remind the person about the problem.

(5) Firm: If the previous steps haven't reformed the errant employee, you simply have to be firm. You must then use the disciplinary action laid out.

Even if you go through the steps and end up firing someone, remember step number one-you can still be friendly while taking action.

Board Lumber Book

A definitive new reference book on the production, grading and uses of Western board lumber has been published by the Western Wood Products Association as Vol. 2, Western Wood Species Book, Selects-Finish/ Commons-Boards.

The 52-page, four.color manual was assembled to fill a void in the industry and to assist buyers and users in properly identifying and specifying grades and species of board lumber produced by WWPA-member mills, WWPA director of marketing Robert H. Hunt said in announcing the availability of the new reference manual.

Size, seasoning and species information; grade classifications such as selects and finish, commons and alternate boards; grade stamps, color photos showing growth characteristics and manufacturing imperfections as well as illustrations of various board grades in western larch, lodgepole pine, sugar pine, western red cedar, incense cedar and hem-fir are included.

The book includes 19 two-page spreads, each showing 19 boards in grade and species combinations, with text explaining why each piece was assigned its grade.

"This new species book joins the Dimension Lumber book as a valuable and highly useful product information tool for all buyers and users of Western lumber products," Hunt pointed out.

Western Open House

Western hospitality and ranch style vittles hosted by the top hands at Lumber Products, Medford, Or., attracted more than 250 people to an open house.

Guests toured the four warehouses to view displays and demonstrations by factory representatives. Sam Asberry, manager, was in charge of the event planned to acquaint dealers with their products.

Wood Sales on Computer

International Paper Company is installing a new computerized system which will give sales and marketing staffs current information on order positions for all solid wood products manufacturing facilities.

West Coast lumber and plywood facilities and its treated wood products plants throughout the country will be on-line by the end of this year. Final system installations, slated for completion by the first half of 1982, include the company's solid wood products export operations.

Our big Woodland, C6., plant has the equipment to do the job for you. Our nemanufacturing machinery includes a planer, moulden, straight line rip, a gang rip, a single and a double resaw and P.E.T.

We'ne neady to help, just call

Portland, Or. [503] 684€440

Berd Brown

Jim Hcbcrlcin

Woodland, Ca. [916] 666-1991

Dick Ghcrmak

Frank Hasy

Ouanc Gha*cr

Itrstth.w Thomae

Ed Caglc

Frcd Duchi

Weed, Ca. [916] 938-2771

Bill Duchi

Joc H*trup

We're proud to be members of the Western Wood Products Association Grading Service.

LIFO Survey Results

Eighty-four 9o of wholesalerdistributors on the FIFO inventory valuation method responding to a National Association of WholesalerDistributors survey reveal they are unwilling to switch to the LIFO method, even though the latter is a more favorable valuation system during inflationary times.

The respondents declared that "LIFO statistics and records are too complicated" and "the immediate tax consequences for those switching to LIFO are too severe." Yet a 1980 Internal Revenue Service ruling will mean "reduced number and availability of spare parts, forced obsolescence and,/or higher prices" for FIFO users' inventory, according to a majority of respondents.

The IRS ruling results tiom a Supreme Court decision in the Thor case which prevents companies from writing down excess inventory at year's end without actually scrapping the items involved or offering them for sale at reduced prices. The IRS ruling, announced in February 1980, applies retroactively to the 1979 corporate tax returns of a variety of businesses, including wholesalerdistributors.

- According to NAW spokesmen, they surveyed members lale hst veai at the request of the Senate Small Business Committee to assess the impact of the Thor ruling and to provide a statistical under-pinning fbr a legislative reform effortof inventory valuation practices. NAW is a federation of ll9 national wholesale distribution trade associations and individual firms which collectively total more than 45,000.

Reportedly, 61 9o of the companies choosing to stay on FIFO stated they will change company policy regarding retention, sale or scrapping of old inventory as a result of the Thor ruling, because if the unsold inventory cannot be written down, taxes must be paid on it although the merchandise actually generated no income. In addition, 57s/o of the respondents stated that the Thor policy on scrapping or selling at reduced prices prior to writing down is impractical because the wholesale distribution industry's customer base is composed in large part of industrial, commercial and government users whose purchases often are related more to need than price. Wholesalerdistributors, therefore, are faced with the option of not writing down excess inventory and suffering a consequent tax liability on goods which produced no offsetting income, or scrapping or selling inventory and then writing it down, thereby reduc- ing potential income and product availability.

Companies responding to the survey varied in size from annual sales under $500,000 to more than $20,000,000 with the median firm at slightly more than $5,000,000.

Cabinet Sales Rise

Ninety-three 9o of kitchen dealers responding to a survey conducted by the National Kitchen Cabinet Association report they sell cabinets for rooms other than the kitchen and bath.

Seventy 9o indicate an increase in "other rooms" sales, although only 5590 actively promote this opportunity for increasing revenue.

Family room installations rank high with 67t/o of the dealers selling cabinets for this purpose. Dining rooms, bedrooms, utility rooms and office-studies, in that order, are listed as other places where cabinets are installed as room dividers, bookcases, wall groupings, hutches, bars, and utility storage.

C. Richard Titus, executive director of NKCA, said the trend towards the use of cabinets in other rooms is a reflection of the demand by the consumer for more functional, livable furniture.

lsland Construction on Poles

Flash floods which last year destroyed key facilities at Campus-bythe-Sea on Catalina Island, Ca., a non-profit conference center sponsored by Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, no longer pose a major threat to replacement structures newly completed at the scenic retreat.

A new three-level, 7000 sq. ft. dining complex, accommodating 220 persons, was designed to make use of pressure-treated poles, serving both as foundation and roof support, and resistant not only to heavy run-off waters but also to severe earth tremors.

The 55 poles utilized for the complex, from 25 to 40 feet in length, were set on concrete pads at the base of l0 ft. caisson holes into which concrete was poured, according to Leon Durham, whose Treated Pole Builders, Inc., Ontario, Ca., was in charge of construction, in association with Tariq Shamma, structural engineer.

For resistance to decay and termite attack, the poles were pressure treated using the Cellon process.

developed by Koppers Co., Inc. The preservative chemical, pentachlorophenol, is carried by a liquified petroleum gas instead of an oil, and because of low viscosity properties, penetration is deeper, through sapwood into the heartwood. Since the carrier is removed as a gas, the treated poles emerge with a dry, natural surface. Cellon is a registered Koppers trademark.

Inaccessibility of the island site, 2l miles off the coast of Southern California, posed a logistics problem overcome by use of a 500 ton barge, with landing ramp, to transport structural materials from the mainland. The barge also was utilized to ferry a 52 ton crane, with 120 ft. boom, plus tractors and forklifts, to facilitate handling of the pressure-treated poles, the largest of which weighed approximately 4000 pounds. A roadbed was laid over the sand to ease movement of the heavy equipment from boat to building site.

Rail Deregulation Brings New Market Destinations

Since the middle of the 1960s, Northwest wood products manufacturers have had their share of the Midwest and Eastern United States markets sharply cut by rising rail freight rates.

With the deregulation of domestic rail rates, the situation threatens to become more critical. To combat this loss, some companies have shifted to exports. Among the most aggressive is Weyerhaeuser Corp., Tacoma, Wa., ideally located to serve the Pacific Basin.

Plans by them to construct a new superport near Tacoma have been in the works for the past seven years although efforts to gain permits for the construction have been unsuccessful so far.

To better serve their export market, said by some to be the envy of their competitors, Weyerhaeuser has assembled its own fleet of eight ships operating from Northwest ports. All have been custom designed for efficient handling of forest products.

To further utilize this fleet, the company has built large lumber operations in British Columbia and now ships large volumes of logs to Japan.

REC0GNIZING outstanding pertormance, Building Material Distribulors, Inc., Galt, Ca. , held its annual salesmen's awards ceremony with (lefl) Vern Miller, sales mgr., congratulating Rick Johnke, salesman of the year for 1981. Bob White (cenler), most im- proved salesman, received a plaque lrom Miller. Clarence Esoinosa and R.B. Dorman (right) are the first two salesmen to be inducted into the BMD salesman hall of fame. Both have over 20 years with the company.