In praise of learning: an unabashed commitment to education and training helps Joseph Cannon Jr. earn Wood & Wood Products' new Jerry Metz Achievement Award.

At first glance, Joseph Cannon Jr. does not appear to be the most likely candidate to champion the cause of continuing education.

By his own admission, Cannon, who never earned a degree beyond his high school diploma, is not qualified to definitively tell professional educators how they should do their jobs. But that admission has not kept the recipient of Wood & Wood Products' first Jerry Metz Achievement Award from getting actively involved in Rhode Island's continuing education system and chipping in his two cents in an earnest effort to help improve it. Nor has his lack of a college degree stymied his own personal development or his will to better the Lives of those who work for him.

Indeed, education and training are vital to satisfying CAS America's mission, which Cannon, founder and president, says is "to become the best equipped technically, the best trained and the highest skilled organization in at least this part of the United States. Beyond that my goals are to create an environment in which people enjoy working, can make a living wage so that they can support their families and educate their children, and enjoy a higher living standard and quality of life. I believe we're well on our way to doing that."

As Gladys Cannon, his business partner and wife of 36 years, puts it, "Joe's always trying to improve things; he's never satisfied. He's always looking at new ways of doing things. He's always thinking 10 years ahead as if he was running a Fortune 500 company instead of just a small woodworking business. I think if we have lived 150 years ago, we'd be on a conestoga wagon heading west."

One Investment Augments Another

CAS America has made a substantial investment in panel processing machinery and CAD/CAM software to manufacture residential, commercial and institutional cabinets and case goods. With the exception of a Morbidelli point-to-point machine, all of the key equipment is leased from Stiles Machinery Inc. This includes a Homag Espana panel saw; a pair of Homag edgebanders, one of which is outfitted with a Ligmatech automatic panel return device; a Weeke point-to-point machine and a Ligmatech case clamp.

The equipment provides more than adequate production capacity for the company to push beyond its nearly $2-million-a-year business. Because the machines are leased, GAS America has the flexibility to upgrade to the next level of equipment needs as it grows.

"To be competitive today you have to be investing in technology and training," Cannon says. "Take a $200,000 machining center and pair it with an employee making $6.80 an hour, which happens in our industry. Personally, I don't want to risk a $200,000 investment on an unskilled operator who can crack the head and cost me $25,000 in a blink of an eye. I want to match the training and education to the machinery that we work with."

Cannon says one of the major reasons he invests in flexible, programmable machinery and systems is so that the employees who are cross-trained to operate them "get paid for using their heads instead of their backs."

Cannon also says he thinks it is essential that "training be done on the management side, including in the areas of sales, marketing and finance. The personal improvement of business owners and managers is critical to raising the level of training of the work force," he says.

Opportunity from Challenge

Cannon's decision to pump up the volume on education and training at his workplace arose from the need to turn a challenge into an opportunity. He recalls reading about the impending skilled labor crisis four years ago and then experiencing it first-hand beginning in 2000.

"You could run ads and do all of the promotion you wanted to do and no one came through the door because we had almost full employment in this country at that point," Cannon says. "So what you would have to do is steal employees from another business. Of course, if you could steal from them, then they could steal from you.

"I began to look at how we could retain our employees and read several articles about developing employees within your business," Cannon continues. "Because I'm a numbers guy, I came to realize that if we could raise everybody's competency in the business by 10 percent, then I would have a 10-percent better business."

Cannon investigated several avail able programs, but "wasn't satisfied" with any of them. "So I decided to de sign my own program which shocked a couple of human resources people because they knew I didn't have an education beyond high school."

Ultimately Cannon helped develop a 15-credit Lean Certificate program that involved brokering a deal between the Rhode Island Manufacturing Extension Service and the Community College of Rhode Island. The tailor-made program combines full- and half-day lean manufacturing workshops conducted by RIMES with semester-long night classes at the community college.

In addition, employees can earn credit units by attending accredited industry-specific training courses. For example, Cannon's son John, who serves as in-house service technician, has received credits for attending several Stiles Education classes on subjects relating to the maintenance, troubleshooting and repair of edge-banders, saws and CNC machines.

"We're pushing for one-cabinet-at-a-time flow through our lean program," Cannon says. "We have the equipment to do it but the success of our efforts depends on a combination of equipment and training. You can add all of the equipment that you want but if you don't train people, not only in machine operation but in systems and how to think on their feet, then you're not going to realize the full benefits of your investment."

Back to School

The RIMES workshops taken by CAS America personnel have included principles of lean manufacturing, value stream manufacturing and organized mapping. The goal is to help manufacturers create agile factories in which production flows as fast as incoming orders.

At the community college, Cannon and nine CAS America employees are beginning their fifth night class together, this one in basic algebra. The class is exclusive to CAS America employees to provide a more comfortable atmosphere and to promote team building.

"The first course was an introduction to computers because they are vital not only to do our studies but for our business," Cannon says. "Then we moved onto a studies program that taught us about the science of reading, utilizing, reviewing and studying the information contained in a text book. The next program was an English course emphasizing communication-writing skills.

"Last semester we took a non-credit math course. Some of our more technical people said, 'We don't need this.' But I'll tell you what, by the fourth week of class everybody was glad that we did it because we had forgotten more than we remembered."

CAS America foots the complete tuition bill for each class. Employees are only required to cover half of the book lees out of their own pockets. "I do that so it's not a freebie or a hand out and so that they have some responsibility for participating in the process," Cannon says.

One question that begs to be answered is why at age 60, and well past, the need to have college experience on his resume, Cannon is taking night classes with his employees--some of whom are more than half his age. Simple, he says. "I believe in leading by example. I believe in getting people to do something because they want to, not because they have to.

"Out of 12 people, 10 including me are taking classes; that's the lead by example part. The others have not been penalized for not participating; it's their choice.

"I've been asked by other CEOs, who were literal]y afraid to put them selves on the line in front, of their team, why I do it," Cannon adds. "I say to them that what I want to have in my business is people who work not for me, but with me. There's a big difference.

"I'm going to get them through the first piece of the process, which is the Lean Certificate. The basic algebra class we're taking and another basic English class that we'll take next semester will put them about a quarter of the way toward their Associates Degree."

Cannon says that some of his employees have already intimated that they want to carry on with their studies, including one who aspires to earn an engineering degree.

"I'm hoping we can accelerate the program and expand on it," Cannon says. "I'm looking to work with other companies So send groups of employees so that more classes will be avail able. I also hope that as I build the company, there win be more of an opportunity for our employees to work on some release time programs so that they can go to classes during work-week hours."

Paybacks & 'Give Backs'

"Business owners are always asking, "What's in it for me?"' Cannon says. "In the case of our business, I can tell you that the training programs have resulted in helping us double the rate of productivity per employee--including office and manufacturing staff--from about $68,000 in 1997 to $140,000 per person today. We also put out a better quality product and experience fewer rejects."

Cannon adds that employee turnover has become almost a non-issue in recent years. "If you invest in training your people, invest in technology, empower your people and give them a chance to grow their career, then I think they are more likely to stay with you and I hope they do. I think we can pretty much double our revenues with the people and systems we have in place," Cannon says. "Instead of hiring more people, we want to pay our current people more money."

Because he is grateful for the support he has received from local institutions, Cannon volunteers as a member of RIMES six-member executive board and of the Community College of Rhode Island's Foundation. "It takes time and energy on my part, but that is something that I feel I have to do. I believe there has to be a give back. It can't be flowing just one way. You have to support the system; you have to volunteer your time.

"RIMES is a tremendous resource for small businesses," Cannon says. "It offers affordable consulting services and does follow-up work and implementation services for long term projects. It can help you obtain federal and state grants. There's a manufacturing extension program in every state. It's a resource that every small business should look into using."

Cannon is equally appreciative of the community college's efforts to support local manufacturers. "I think if we structure the Lean Certificate right, especially for young people coming right out of high school, that we can broaden the talent pool for all of our state's manufacturers," he says.

Looking Down the Pike

Lou Pennacchia Jr., plant manager of CAS America, admits that he was "skeptical at first" about the conversion to lean manufacturing. "I'm used to cutting things in bulk. When you see your high-production saw cutting only one cabinet at a time, the process seems slower. But ultimately, the downstream flow is smoother, the rejects are fewer and the results are better."

Cannon hopes to grow CAS America by building on the foundation of the lean principles and continuous improvement programs, as well as the heightened skills of his employees.

"What we really do in this company is build boxes," Cannon says. "There are hundreds of applications for those boxes. Identifying the best value-added opportunities for those boxes and the ones that we as a small company can penetrate the market easily with is the key.

"We want to develop five of six product lines that will allow us to have proprietary control on products as opposed to being just a job shop. We want to develop these products and bring them to market, first regionally, to test them and see which ones have the potential for national distribution. "We want to pus ourselves in the position of being more creative and more in control over slowdowns in any one region or product category."

Cannon says he is also looking to expand his product offerings beyond those made with melamine and high-pressure-laminated panels. "We already have an initiative where we are beginning to design and work with customers with metal products, which we have manufactured by another company. The interesting thing about products today is that metal, wood and plastics are all blending together as substrates.

"When you start looking at opportunities for a company like ours, there are many if yon look outside the box," Cannon says. "If you run your business from the inside of a cabinet, that's all you're going to see. If that's the limitation of your world, then you're never going to know what's going on, even in your oval business."

About the Metz Award

The Jerry Metz Achievement Award was inaugurated this year by Wood & Wood Products in memory of woodworking legend Jerry Metz.

Metz passed away in February at the age of 93. He spent more than 70 years serving the wood products industry.

Metz enjoyed nearly a 40-year career with the J.L. Metz Furniture Co. of Hammond, IN. Under his stewardship, the company won the National Association of Furniture Manufacturers' Safety/Award more than a dozen years in a row, earning Metz Furniture the reputation of being the "world's safest in its field."

Upon selling Metz Furniture in 1970, Metz became a consultant and contributing editor to W&WP His immensely popular column, "Consult Jerry Metz," repeatedly touched on the four cornerstones upon which the premise of Metz Award is founded: safely, training, quality and productivity.

The second annual Jerry Metz Achievement Award will be presented in fall 2004. Nominations of deserving candidates can be forwarded to Rich Christianson, Editorial Director, [e-mail] of [phone], ext 652.

Evolution of a Career and a Company

Practically a life-long resident of Rhode Island, Joseph Cannon Jr. took his first job right out of high school working at a die mill in West Warwick. "In the wintertime the department I worked in would be 110 degrees," he recalls. "In the summer it would be even warmer. It was quite an experience. R was very hard, very, very poor working conditions and very low pay."

Cannon job-hopped before eventually becoming a salesman for an industrial gas and welding supplier. He parlayed that experience into a sales position with Triangle Pacific's custom cabinet division in Napanee, IN.

"In my search for new business for Tri-Pac, I came across a very small custom cabinet company here in Rhode Island that needed sales and marketing help." Cannon struck a deal and became a partner in the company. The relationship ended after six years. "I discovered that partnerships are not always what you would like them to be and I moved on," he says.

Birth of CAS America

Seeking to capitalize on his experiences in the cabinet industry, Cannon and his wife, Gladys, wasted little time in founding CAS America in 1986. Their company initially focused on assembling kitchen and bathroom cabinets for the booming condominium market.

"We would buy truckloads of components from a couple of suppliers," Cannon says. "The shipments were never consistent. Unless the parts were from the same run and shipped together, they too often would not fit together."

Frustrated by the lack of control over part quality and wanting to reduce his inventory costs, Cannon decided to take matters into his own hands. He began buying woodworking machinery in 1990. One year later, the company moved into its present 12,500-square-foot home that it leases in East Greenwich.

In making the conversion from assembler to manufacturer, CAS America also began to diversify its business, a move that helped it survive the recession of the early 1990s and endure the business hardships wrought by the recent economic downturn. In addition to residential cabinets, the company's markets now include computer command centers, medical and dental case goods, and casework for beauty salons.

"We have a philosophy about how we want this to work. We don't want to have to change the process every time a new project comes through the door," Cannon explains. "We want to select products that fit closely to the core competency of our business and then reengineer them--with the customers' help--so that they will flow through the system more easily."

Cannon's Reflections on Jerry Metz

"I had great respect for Jerry Metz," says Joseph Cannon Jr., the first winner of the Jerry Metz Achievement Award. "I started reading his column in 1979 when I came into the wood products industry as a salesman with Triangle-Pacific. For someone who dad not have a professional woodworking background, I learned a lot about woodworking. I think he filled a need by freely sharing has knowledge to the industry."

Cannon says one of the most important lessons he learned from reading the monthly "Consult Jerry Metz" column was to "continually probe people for answers. By reading has column, I learned to challenge my employees about how they do things and I learned a lot reading Jerry's solutions to other manufacturers' problems."

'Creating Working Partnerships'

Joseph Cannon Jr. is a strong advocate of "creating working partnerships." Case in point, about nine years ago, Cannon helped organize the Rhode Island Woodworking Collaborative, a group comprised of CAS America and six other local woodworking firms. The collaborative successfully applied for a $60,000 state grant for funding a three-month CAD/CAM program that trained 15 workers employed at member companies.

John Cronin, who served as project manager of the collaborative, is now chief executive officer of the Rhode Island Manufacturing Extension Service. RIMES, based in North Kingston, is geared to assist the state's small and medium manufacturers to be more efficient, competitive and profitable. It provides training and implementation services in areas such as lean manufacturing, plant layout, ISO certification, human resources and sales and marketing.

Cannon is in his second year as a member of RIM ES executive board of directors.

"Joe is a very clear thinker and visionary," Cronin says of Cannon. "He was one of the pioneers in small business to take advantage of RIMES' lean manufacturing workshops.

"Joe's very comprehensive in his thinking and passionate. He's always thinking about the next step, such as with the Lean Certificate that he helped to develop," Cronin says.

Thomas Sepe, president of the Community College of Rhode Island, also speaks highly of Cannon. Cannon joined the college's foundation board earlier this year.

"Joe's intense, goal directed and bursting with high energy," Sepe says. "He was instrumental in bringing RIM ES and the community college together to help meet manufacturers' needs for getting more students through the pipeline. His commitment to education just blows me away. He's become sort of a poster child for us about how more business people can get involved."

"Being at the center of several organizations allows me to move information back and forth," Cannon says. "For example, working last week with the Export Center of Rhode Island, I was aware of a pharmaceutical program at the University of Rhode Island that can possibly be tied to the community college and what the center is doing. Maybe we can 'de all three together for the benefit of all.

I'm not an educator and I'm not an expert about the education system except to know that there are a lot of separate entities all doing some of the same things. One of my missions is to consolidate some of those efforts and bring some initiatives together. That's how I see my role."

Books Shape the Mind & Vision

Since his mother turned him onto reading at the age of 18, Joseph Cannon Jr. estimates he has read some 700 books of various genres. Many of them were biographies "of successful people from all walks of life," says Cannon, whom family and friends call "Mr. Encyclopedia." Reading about luminaries ranging from Harry Truman and General George Patton, under whom Cannon's father served in World War II, to the Rockefellers and Vanderbilts, have shaped his core values and business philosophies. In particular, Cannon says reading about the lives of Winston Churchill and Albert Einstein greatly influenced his views on education.

One of the reasons why I'm so driven to improve the education system in the stale was from reading about Winston Churchill, whom I consider a role model. Even though he was not a successful student, he obviously became a tremendously inspiring leader in his own country and worldwide.

"Albert Einstein, especially in his young life, was a failure at school," Cannon continues, "The system couldn't gel him through school successfully. My view is that there was nothing wrong with Albert; there must have been something wrong with the system. He wasn't challenged in the appropriate way."