Position your company in 1988

By Pete Niebling Executive Vice President North American Wholesale Lumber Association

Story at a Glance

Another good year for the lumber industry. 1.55 to 1.6 million housing starts. ..good markets for industrial lumber excellent remodeling market in'88.

provide us a boom but theY should keep a lid on outrageous money costs.

NAWLA projects a 1,475,000 housing start year; good markets for industrial lumber; an excellent remodeling market in 1988; and further pleasant surprises in the 1988 export market.

On the negative side, we found a ereat deal oftalk about a serious business decline in 1989 as we conducted our Regional and Sector Meeting schedule last fall.

This leads us to conclude that lumber producers and distributors should use 1988 as a time to achieve internal excellence in operations. Objectives might include some or all of the following: o Is your sales operation as lean as it could be? Is your sales staff as professionally excellent as it could be? o Is your firm taking new precautionary measures on credit

exposure?

of highdoors in

Story at a Glance

Over half of all sales for rehab. increased glazing and other technological advances trend of more windows Per home will continue.

Several factors are influencing the demand for wood windows anddoors. First, and foremost, homeowners are placing a high demand on quality in the products theY select in both new construction and in remodeling. They are selecting wood windows not only for their strong aesthetic appeal but because of their thermal eiliciency, durability and ease of maintenance.

Wood windows and doors are hiehlv thermally efficient, and manufictlrers are improving this performance even more through new glazing systems, such as Low-E glass. NWWDA sees a continuing trend toward use of technologicallY advanced glazing systems for the foreseeable future.

Manufacturers also will continue to employ exterior cladding systems.

A trend toward the use of more windows in new single-family homes began in 1986. The single-familY detached home built in 1986 had an average of 14.2 windows per home, compared to 12 in previous Years. That number is expected to remain steady in 1987 but will close in on the l5-windows-per-home level in 1988. Average window usage in sinele-familv attached homes also willrise in 1988, closing in on the l2windows-per-home level, an increase of almost two windows Per home compared to 1986 and 1987 levels.

Average door usage per home will remain relatively steady in 1988 for all housing types.

If your hrm is engaged in distribution, are you improving vour value added services to both your supplier and customer? What new customer services can you perform profitably?

Are you properly measuring your supplier and/or Your customer? You can be assured that they are measuring You, no matter which end of the board you are holding on to. Have you noticed improvement in staff productivity and staff motivation?

r Are you prepared for good times next spring and bad times next December? Just how flexible can your company be?

This is a tall order for management. Lumber firms, by their nature, must perform daily tasks leaving limited time for strategic planning and implementation. Yet, if the latter can be accomplished, it will keep the bottom line healthy in good times or bad times.

Our final thought is that it doesn't seem possible that a great boom in 1992 or 1994 or whenever, will occur. In other words there may be no "feast" beyond the next "famine."