A Millwork Manufacturer Looks at his lndustry

George Dufr, Marmger ol Cd-ld.a Lum'1,\. ber Compny, here speaks out fran"Hy on ;:iu,.conditions and, probl,ems tha,t affect his ; @mryny and. the entire ind,ustry.

, In speaking for Cal.Ida Lumber Comi'r'- pany, I would like to leave with you the '1' 'Ieeling that we are going to be more intero.i ',ested in the California lumber and millwork ljl:'tnarket, than we have at anytime in the l, past. We have always done some business i within the state, but we have not been I favored with our just share. For this we , 'must apologize to all concerned, and we j;' f€el that the past is past and from here f .l - on we are going to ship more of our prod- processed into mouldings, millwork, box shook and various lumber items.

The manufacture of mouldings and millwork is much more complicated today than it was a few years ago. This, I presume, is true of most any pres€nt-day business.

Take our operation as an illustration: We normally maintain at least a six week order file-give or take two weeks. We are now talking about 90 cars of millwork to be obligated for, or another way to look at it: a million dollars worth of business. Now our complications begin to arise I in one customer being entirely out of a certain moulding item or jambs. This will require some strong thinking and planning as to how this extra car can be worked into the scheduled production. Somehow it is accomplished and another good account is protected. ucts to outlets within California. outlets

We are fortunate in having the lumber production from three of orir own saw- to help maintain a steady volurne oot Aulurn plant. Perhaps you might be amazed if I told you we also are re- quired to ship into our Auburn plant each t year around 1200 cars of lumber, to be

Our place in the moulding and millwork picture is perhaps more complicated than most manufacturers of such items. We maintain schedules for approximately seven cars of White Fir and Douglas Fir mouldings and millwork each month. The California market wants Douglas Fir jambs and is a large user of pine finger joint jambs and moulding items. We ship approximately 12 cars of finger joint stock each month and with the California market demanding more finger joint material, we hope to be in a position to supply a larger percentage of this business. You can see from our overall production that finger joint and fir represent approximately 25/o of. our total shipments.

Any lumber manufacturer, like Cal-Ida, who handles the product from the forest through to the finished product, has his (Continucd, on Page 78)