When longtime kitchen cabinet manufacturer Wood-Mode closed its doors, nearly 1,000 employees were put out of work and hundreds of dealers were also left stranded. But a new owner, Bill French, bought the company and is reviving it. Will Sampson, editor of FDMC and Woodworking Network, talks about the role employees play in successful ventures, and he interviews French about his plans for Wood-Mode and what it takes to thrive as a wood products manufacturer today.
This episode of the Woodworking Network Podcast was sponsored by the Executive Briefing Conference, being held November 8-10, 2020, at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, CO.
Woodworking Network is a home for professional woodworkers, presenting technology, supplies, education, inspiration, and community, from small business entrepreneurs to corporate managers at large automated plants.
Wood-Mode Fine Custom Cabinetry continues to stand proudly behind its solid commitment to excellence in product quality, customer service and American craftsmanship.
Intro music courtesy of Anthony Monson.
Welcome to the Woodworking Network Podcast where we explore the business of woodworking and what it takes to succeed. I’m Will Sampson.
This episode is sponsored by the Executive Briefing Conference.
Today, my guest is Bill French, the new owner of Wood-Mode who revived the company after it suddenly shut down. But before we get to Bill and his amazing story, I want to start off talking about “People power.”
There’s a common expression in business that “cash is king.” It’s usually taken to mean that a business can’t long survive unless it has plenty of cash flowing in at the right time to cover operating expenses and such things as loan obligations. That’s all true, but I’d argue there is something even more crucial to business success. It’s more important than cash, more important than your equipment, and even more important than the owner’s innate business acumen. It’s the people who make up the business.
It’s a cliché to say that a business can’t prosper without the right people. But sadly, way too many businesses seem to take people for granted, not hiring the right ones, not grooming the best ones, and not hesitating to dispose of them when things aren’t working out.
Of course, there are lots of businesses that seem to carry on this way. They regularly layoff people to match a fluctuating workflow, and they don’t seem to worry too much about the rehiring process when times get better. They know there are always enough warm bodies to fill the slots. But are there? Maybe they have structured their business so workers don’t need to know anything and just have to follow directions. But even following directions can become a skill that’s not easy to come by.
And what about worker productivity. We’ve all encountered the really great employee who can do more and do it more effectively than other employees. What’s that employee worth? What’s it worth to groom that kind of employee? What’s it worth to keep him or her on the payroll even when things get slow? What can that kind of employee do that goes beyond just getting the work done and actually helps to grow the business?
I’ve talked to a few woodworking business owners who really get it. Not only do they see the value of their employees to the business, but also the owners feel a responsibility to those employees. I talked to an owner of a very high-end custom shop in Florida once during the economic downturn. He was working hard to keep all 17 of his employees fully engaged. “That’s not just 17 people,” he said. “That’s 17 house payments, 17 car payments, 17 families to be fed.”
In return, those 17 employees were loyal and extremely productive, helping the company to thrive even in tough times. Not to mention, they helped give the company a reputation that earned respect in the community and made it much easier to find great employees. During the course of my spending about an hour in that shop, I think I remember at least three people coming in to look for work, all experienced.
One of the reasons I constantly recommend lean manufacturing techniques for woodworking businesses is that lean is at its root a people-driven success story. In 1984, when I met Shigeo Shingo, one of the developers of the Toyota Production System, which is the basis for much of lean manufacturing today, Mr. Shingo told me that he got most of his ideas for production improvements from the people working on the factory production lines. He recognized that they know lots of ways to improve their work, if only someone would listen. Workers can add value to a product and company beyond following directions.
In fact, one lean enthusiast, Paul Akers, in his great book “2 Second Lean,” makes an important change to key lean instructions. While the Toyota Production System identifies seven kinds of muda (the Japanese word for waste), Akers adds an eighth kind of waste, that of wasting the brain power of your employees.
You can’t get the full value of your people if you treat them just like cannon fodder, to be used and discarded at a moment’s notice and then just as easily replaced. Good people power great companies.
There have been a lot of business closures in the woodworking industry since the Great Recession in 2008. Every time another company closed and people lost their jobs, we got numb to the numbers. Recently, it came as a huge shock when Wood-Mode, a leading, family-owned, kitchen cabinet manufacturer, unceremoniously shut its doors and put nearly 1,000 employees on the street. That could have been another just-numbers story to add to the list, but something different happened with Wood-Mode. Someone saw the value of those people and the business opportunity they represented.
Bill French, lived just a couple of miles away from the Wood-Mode factory in Pennsylvania. He had been operating a successful modular home construction business. Some say he should have been thinking more about retirement than trying to resuscitate a failed cabinet factory. But he saw value and opportunity. He bought the business and started hiring those employees back. He also saw the important people value in the company’s dealers, who also got left holding the bag when Wood-Mode closed its doors. He started working hard to rebuild their trust and support.
I was anxious to meet Bill French and learn more about what he was doing to revive Wood-Mode. I met with him and some of his people at the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show in Las Vegas, and he agreed to sit down for a podcast interview.
But before we get to that, let’s pause for a word from our sponsor, the Executive Briefing Conference. EBC is a superior opportunity to learn, be inspired, and have face-to-face interchanges with top leaders in the industry. The 2020 EBC will be held at the spectacular Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. In addition to top speakers and presentations, there also will be tours of Concepts in Millwork and The MiLL woodworking training facility. It’s an unparalleled opportunity to obtain business intelligence to improve your enterprise. You can learn more at executive-briefing-conference-dot-com.