Stumped growth: despite value-added forestry opportunities, stakeholders are groping in the dark, seeking direction.Kenora Forest Products is one of several wood products manufacturers agonizing over how to marry the operation with a value-added component. Kenora Forest Products produces 80 million board feet annually of spruce spruce, any plant of the genus Picea, evergreen trees or shrubs of the family Pinaceae (pine family) widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere. The needles are angular in cross section, rather than flattened as in the related hemlocks and firs. , pine and fir studs, railway ties and squares. A portion of the company's waste is turned into fence pickets for fencing and lath, which is made into lattice (theory) lattice - A partially ordered set in which all finite subsets have a least upper bound and greatest lower bound. This definition has been standard at least since the 1930s and probably since Dedekind worked on lattice theory in the 19th century; though he may not panels, Rod McKay, manager of the plant says. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As a member of Kenora's local value added Value Added The enhancement a company gives its product or service before offering the product to customers. Notes: This can either increase the products price or value. committee, McKay is continually searching for ways to capitalize on Cap´i`tal`ize on` v. t. 1. To turn (an opportunity) to one's advantage; to take advantage of (a situation); to profit from; as, to capitalize on an opponent's mistakes s>. secondary products. He has been approached by Kenora Mayor David Canfield can·field n. Games A form of solitaire. [After Richard Albert Canfield (1855-1914), American gambler.] Noun 1. to manufacture prefabricated pre·fab·ri·cate tr.v. pre·fab·ri·cat·ed, pre·fab·ri·cat·ing, pre·fab·ri·cates 1. To manufacture (a building or section of a building, for example) in advance, especially in standard sections that can be easily shipped and houses--a concept that has piqued his interest, particularly since homes are constructed largely from building studs, McKay says. As of yet, he has no plans to approach the government with funding requests to kick-start prefabricated house manufacturing. Instead, company officials are exploring opportunities, and examining how to best fit into the value-added market. Both McKay and Canfield understand the need to bring in people who will move such initiatives forward. Canfield is committed to getting value-added wood opportunities off the ground. Last year he invited forestry company officials and town representatives to a brainstorming session where up to 112 different possible value-added wood products were considered. Now that the group has shortlisted some items, small- and medium- sized sawmill sawmill, installation or facility in which cut logs are sawed into standard-sized boards and timbers. The saws used in such an installation are generally of three types: the circular saw, which consists of a disk with teeth around its edge; the band saw, which operators and entrepreneurs are getting a push from the town leader to move ahead with the ideas. "We are slowly getting there," Canfield says with a slight laugh. Businesses like Devlin Timber, Laclu Industries, Kenora Forest Products and carpenters eager to cut out a niche, want to know how they can optimize their forestry waste or begin new initiatives, Canfield says. Ontario's Living Legacy Trust stated in a recent announcement an over supply of lumber lumber, term for timber that has been cut into boards for use as a building material. The major steps in producing lumber involve logging (the felling and preparation of timber for shipment to sawmills), sawing the logs into boards, grading the boards according to exists in the marketplace, and more innovative ways of selling lumber could improve the health of the forestry sector by $2 billion between 2003 and 2010. But the window is narrowing, and more skilled workers will be required to ensure a secondary industry reaches its fullest potential. "We've been told there is a huge market out there for re-manufacturing and value-added products," Canfield adds. "We know that it will help us offset some of the softwood softwood Timber obtained from coniferous trees (mainly of the pine and fir families). With the exception of bald cypress, tamarack, and larch, softwood trees are evergreens. lumber problems," He holds faith in Minister of Natural Resources David Ramsay David Ramsay may refer to:
"The governments have to take a leading role with value added," Canfield explains, since venture capitalists Venture Capitalist An investor who provides capital to either start-up ventures or support small companies who wish to expand but do not have access to public funding. Notes: Venture capitalists usually expect higher returns for the additional risks taken. are hard to come by for small- and medium-sized companies. Ramsay says all he can do is point the forestry operators in the right direction. The largest opportunity the government can give the industry is wood allocation, but ultimately it will have to be the company's decision to take up the call for value added. Ramsay cites the Kenora Weyerhaeuser Trus Joist plant in the northwest as a value-added success story, and is looking to entice the northeast into developing a similar manufacturing facility since non-traditional timber types can also be found in the northeastern region. Because of the way timber allocation is structured, the "quickest way to compile this efficient fibre for such an operation would be through business-to-business relationships, and the companies know that," Ramsay says. Other initiatives are on the burner A drive that writes write-once optical discs such as CD-Rs and DVD-Rs. A "burner" implies a one-time recording, but the term is erroneously used to refer to drives that "write" to re-recordable CD-RW and DVD-RW/+RW media as well. See burn, CD-R and DVD-R. . The whole idea of premanufactured housing has caught the interest of Ramsay and Peter Woodbridge, author of a value-added report for Living Legacy Trust. "I met with Woodbridge a couple of times and talked about this, and he has identified an opportunity for Northern Ontario Northern Ontario is the part of the province of Ontario which lies north of Lake Huron (including Georgian Bay), the French River and Lake Nipissing. Northern Ontario has a land area of 802,000 km² (310,000 mi²) and constitutes 87% of the land area of Ontario, although it to be a world leader in this modular housing business," Ramsay adds. In fact, private business leaders and academics have also jumped on the prefabricated house idea. Gordon Hobbs, president of Tryllium Industries Inc., former vice-president of Black and Decker Ron McKitrick, and president and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. Pat St. John of Shad International, along with a consortium of people are looking to develop a Web system with tools for users to view, alter, preview and buy a new house online. Included on the site would be the exact house price, building codes for all of United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. and Canada, as well as materials and labour costs. Once a prospective homeowner purchased the house, the lumber would be sent to a milling operation where it is cut, then moved to a manufacturing site. Workers would assemble the product in modular sections, then ship it to the location; all in seven days, and all at half the Canadian price of a conventional house, Hobbs explains. "The whole idea is to have entrepreneurs, government and existing mill operators setting up a relatively simple manufacturing facility, a couple of thousand feet, nothing fancy, at least just to get started," Hobbs says. McKitrick has written letters to approximately 40 federal ministers in hopes of eliciting support for funding. "We have had positive responses from the people in Kenora and they have spent some time trying to make things happen, but as far as the federal government's concerned, it's been a lot of talk and no action," McKitrick adds. In the meantime Adv. 1. in the meantime - during the intervening time; "meanwhile I will not think about the problem"; "meantime he was attentive to his other interests"; "in the meantime the police were notified" meantime, meanwhile Hobbs is looking to secure an appointment with officials from Living Legacy Trust to discuss the concept further. Hobbs met with FedNor officials last August, and also with officials from the Industrial Research Assistance Program's National Research Council to stir the economic juices. Although the excitement was palpable Easily perceptible, plain, obvious, readily visible, noticeable, patent, distinct, manifest. The term palpable usually refers to some type of egregious wrong, such as a governmental error or abuse of power. , it waned, he says. "We need a champion to direct this (value-added sector)," Hobbs explains. Natural Resources Canada Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) is a department of the government of Canada responsible for natural resources, energy, minerals and metals, forests, earth sciences, mapping and remote sensing. funded a national value-added wood research program worth $4 million between 1998 and 2002, which was delivered by Forintek Canada Corp. Forintek is a national government corporation with a mandate to support the forest products industry. Their goal is to optimize manufacturing processes and help in the production of high value products for customers. The same institute won another federal program, Value to Wood, this time worth $15 million over five years beginning in 2002 and ending 2007. The program is set to explore research and development around second-hand manufacturing. The second stage would include funds for technology transfer between Forintek Canada and small- and medium-sized manufacturing businesses. Jim Farrell, director general of the industry economics and program branch of the Canadian Forestry Service, says ideas like pre-manufactured housing are not new, but questions why a firm attempting to develop a marketing tool for a secondary industry would want government nosing around in their business. "Why would they share (a competitive edge) with anybody else?" Farrell asks. "It is an advantage to their firm, it gives them an advantage in the market place. The (private sector) generally doesn't welcome government plowing around with big feet." That is why the government is cautious on where it stands in terms of free competitive research for all, he explains. Farrell says, as research and development funds become available, there is a general view across the industry to "stay out of it and let the competitive forces play. Let the winners win and losers lose." But who may be the losers? As Canfield sees it, industry players and government who are slow at the start may be the losers in the end. "Canadians in general exercise a lot of caution when we shouldn't," Canfield says. Based on conversations with company officials in Kenora, McKitrick says forestry onlookers south of the border may be interested in this pre-fabricated house idea as it would be a nice fit into their portfolio. He knows competitors south of the border are pursuing ways and means WAYS AND MEANS. In legislative assemblies there is usually appointed a committee whose duties are to inquire into, and propose to the house, the ways and means to be adopted to raise funds for the use of the government. This body is called the committee of ways and means. of pre-manufacturing housing. To keep the initiative in Northern Ontario, Canfield is looking to Forintek Canada to become involved in a three-year value-added program aimed at identifying and marketing secondary products from existing forestry waste. He has approached Ramsay on the topic in hopes of drumming up some government support. Now, he says, the ball is in the government's court. "If we are still talking about this two years from now, then there is a serious problem," Canfield says. By KELLY LOUISEIZE Northern Ontario Business Northern Ontario Business is a Canadian magazine, which publishes monthly in Greater Sudbury, Ontario. The magazine covers business news and issues in Northern Ontario. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion