Study: Nov. ‘09 furniture orders increase over Nov. ‘08

The latest Furniture Insights study from Smith Leonard shows new orders for November 2009 increased 10 percent over new orders in November 2008. Also, 51 percent of participants reported increased orders in November, up from 41 percent in October, 33 percent in September and 20 percent in August.
Year-to-date, new orders were down 14 percent compared to the same period a year ago, down from 16 percent last month. Last year at this time, new orders were down 13 percent year-to-date. Some 89 percent of participants have reported lower orders compared to the same, eleven-month period last year.
The study said while many companies are still hurting, most have made adjustments to current volume levels.

Office furniture study results ‘mixed bag’

Michael A. Dunlap & Associates recently released the results of its quarterly MADA/OFI Trends Survey, designed to measure the business activity of the office furniture industry and its suppliers. This survey was completed in January.
Survey results include:

• Gross shipments have improved, but order backlog has declined
• Employment is steady (but below 50), while hours worked has increased above 50 for the first time since October 2008
• Capital expenditures and tooling expenditures declined significantly in the 4th quarter of 2009
• New Product Development has increased significantly
• Raw material costs and employee costs have risen, but not to alarming levels
• The Personal Outlook Index remains below 50, but with little change from the October 2009 Survey

“I’m a little disappointed in the results this quarter. It’s a real ‘mixed bag.’ I was expecting to see improvements in order backlog and personal outlook. I am surprised in the decreases in capital expenditures and tooling expenditures, but I think this will bounce back in the next quarter. The low Personal Outlook index puzzles me, but I think that OFM’s (office furniture manufacturers) are more optimistic than suppliers or service providers. That’s the norm,” said Michael Dunlap.

American Wood Council pledges help to rebuild Haiti

The American Wood Council pledged its assistance to help Haiti rebuild safer, more earthquake-resistant buildings in the wake of its recent earthquake.
AWC also offered its technical expertise to U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton as reconstruction plans are developed, and urged her to consider building materials and methods that can effectively resist earthquakes, such as wood.
“Lessening the effects of a future earthquake in Haiti means helping the country rebuild with smarter materials and building methods than those employed in the past, and that means utilizing wood,” said AWC’s Robert Glowinski.
“Much of the severe devastation we’ve seen is from collapsed, older unreinforced concrete and masonry structures and could have been prevented if these structures had been built from wood. Unfortunately, unreinforced or lightly reinforced concrete and masonry structures can’t dissipate seismic energy or provide ductility under earthquake loads the way wood construction can. A recent full-scale test in Japan demonstrated that a six-story wood apartment building can withstand a 7.5 magnitude earthquake,” he said.

Enter the CabinetMaker+FDM video contest!

The CabinetMaker+FDM Video Contest is open to all qualified subscribers of CabinetMaker+FDM magazine. You can enter as many times as you like in as many categories as you like, but each individual entry must be accompanied by a completed and signed entry form.
Download the Video Contest Entry Form.
There are four categories: Best Marketing Video, Best Plant Tour, Best Training Video, and Most Entertaining Video. Winners in each category will be featured in a future issue of CabinetMaker+FDM magazine and on the www.cabinetmakerfdm.com Web site, plus each category winner will be awarded a $100 Home Depot gift card. In addition, a Grand Prize Winner will be chosen from all entries received. The Grand Prize Winner will be featured in a cover story in CabinetMaker+FDM magazine, as well as on the Web site, and will receive a $200 Home Depot gift card.
Watch a video explaining the contest. 
All videos must be less than 10 minutes in length and suitable for upload to the Web. Deadline for entries is May 15, 2010.
If you have any questions, email William Sampson at wsampson@wattnet.net  or phone 203.270.0025.

OSHA schedules informal stakeholder meetings on combustible dust

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has scheduled two informal stakeholder meetings to solicit comments and suggestions on combustible dust hazards in the workplace.
OSHA will use comments from the meetings in developing a proposed standard for combustible dust. The meetings are scheduled for Feb. 17, at 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., at the Marriott Perimeter Center, 246 Perimeter Center Parkway, Atlanta, Ga., 30346.
Those interested in participating must register by submitting a notice of intent by Feb. 3. Notices can be submitted online. Submissions can also be faxed to 781.674.2906, attention: OSHA Combustible Dust Stakeholder Meeting Registration;” or mailed to ERG Inc., 110 Hartwell Avenue, Lexington, MA, 02421, attention: OSHA Combustible Dust Stakeholder Meeting Registration.

The talk in the hardwood yard

I’ve spoken with many, many owners as well as sales and production managers in our hardwood manufacturing industry within the last three weeks that have given me small pieces into the mosaic which is our current hardwood market. Here are a few of my findings. I hope you find them useful. … Read the full blog on www.sawdustsoup.com.

FDM 300:Most companies survive toughest year

Sales for the FDM 300 companies crashed in 2009. But here’s the important news: nearly all of the companies in this group survived the year. Read the full report in CabinetMaker+FDM.

The future of manufacturing

The current issue of Wired magazine has a fascinating feature on dynamic changes to how manufacturing gets done. While most of us in woodworking think of full scale manufacturing as requiring large plants (here or abroad) and huge startup costs, this article explores how new technology is actually removing the barriers to entry for inventive manufacturers.
Today, there is no need for the factory, the workers, or even big production runs because of breakthroughs in crowdsourcing (outsourcing to an interested community, typically through online connections) and advances in short-run prototype manufacturing. The article opens with a discussion of a Massachusetts-based car company that is soon to release its first product, a $50,000 street-legal rally car.
The article even provides a road map for how anyone with an idea can bring it to fruition with the least amount of expenditure using online resources. …Read the full blog on www.sawdustsoup.com.

CMA session surveys software solutions

Regional meeting shares practical user tips and reveals changes coming to design software. Read the article on CabinetMaker+FDM.

Who’s in and who’s out?

One of the most interesting things in our FDM 300 research this year was that we were able to confirm that only a few companies in the group of 300 are closed and not in operation. There are some cases in which we weren’t able to speak with a live person, but have no other information that a company has closed. I read that Klein Merriman of the Assn. for Retail Environments (http://www.nasfm.org/) made a similar observation about the store fixture industry in a recent issue of ARE’s magazine. …Read the full blog on www.sawdustsoup.com.