Article Number : 622 |
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| Date | 9/25/2005 8:57:56 PM |
| Written By | LGM & Associates Technical Flooring Services |
| View this article at: | //floorbiz.com/BizResources/NPViewArticle.asp?ArticleID=622 |
| Abstract | Charlotte, N.C.—A coalition of wood industry representatives and research institutes has been awarded $87,864 through the Wood Education and Resource Center (WERC) to help fund... |
| Article | Charlotte, N.C.—A coalition of wood industry representatives and research institutes has been awarded $87,864 through the Wood Education and Resource Center (WERC) to help fund an initiative to improve the timeliness, scope and frequency of statistical information about U.S. wood floor manufacturing. Coalition partners will fund the balance of the $176,200 project, dubbed the Wood Flooring Information Initiative. WERC is operated by the Northeastern Area State & Private Forestry division of the USDA Forest Service for the purpose of enhancing opportunities for sustained forest products production in the Eastern hardwood region of the U.S. To more effectively compete in today’s global environment, American wood flooring manufacturers need accurate and timely information about domestic raw material consumption, flooring production and inventory, noted Dan Meyer, project coordinator for the Wood Flooring Information Initiative. “Publicly available industry information is outdated, overly simplistic and widely distrusted by the industry,” he said. “Privately produced reports are prohibitively expensive and suffer from similar deficiencies both in timeliness and thoroughness.” The first phase of the Wood Flooring Information Initiative will be a comprehensive survey of U.S. wood flooring manufacturers. The survey is currently in development and testing and will go out to the industry during the first week of next month. The second and loftier objective is to create a mathematical model of the wood floor manufacturing industry from the survey results that will generate quarterly estimates of performance based on regular data inputs from a small, but representative sample of producers, noted Meyer. “While growth and yield modeling is common in the forestry sector, this will be the first attempt to model a wood-manufacturing sector. If proven effective in an industry setting, such an approach would have wide-spread application in the hardwood lumber industry and other hardwood manufacturing sectors.” The National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) and the Wood Flooring Manufacturers Association (NOFMA) believe this ground-breaking work will have significant benefits for their members and everyone in the distribution chain, from the forest to the finished floor. “This is a great first step U.S. manufacturers can take toward improving their global competitiveness,” said Ed Korczak, NWFA’s executive director. “Every wood flooring manufacturer needs to participate in the initiative.” For more about the Wood Flooring Information Initiative, call 704/543-4408. —Louis Iannaco |