Modern Woodworking Magazine

I came across a great article in Modern Woodworking Magazine.  The article featured another great Dallas company, William & Wesley – manufacturers of high-end furniture.  W&W’s custom

furniture and draperies can be seen in luxury homes, hotels, and resorts from Las Vegas to the Caribbean to the Middle East.  A truly magnificent company, William & Wesley’s success during the recession caught the attention of Modern Woodworking Magazine, and by proxy, me.

It’s important to benchmark your company’s operations off other successful companies and industries – preferably ones related to you.  As a plantation shutters manufacturer, I felt W&W’s business model was especially relevant.  The opening line of the article really struck a chord: “With so many U.S. furniture manufacturers moving production to China the last thing needed would be another furniture manufacturer doing the same thing.” I really wanted to see how W&W had responded to globalization (and, in fact, reversed its effects by being outsourced from countries in Asia, Europe, and Africa!).

It’s an incredible article, and you can read the full version here.

Here are some of the lessons I learned from William & Wesley:

William & Wesley, Manufacturing Fine Wood Furniture

1) Stand Apart

Really, that’s Marketing 101, but that lesson was reiterated again and again in how W&W responded to furniture outsourcing.  As I mentioned earlier, it’s important to benchmark your operations against other successful ones.  In 2001, when W&W’s founders, Bill Lawrence and Jarrett Ouellette, founded the company, they saw the furniture manufacturing industry as so poorly run they refused to benchmark off it.  They decided to stand apart and develop a unique business model – one where furniture wasn’t what they sold.  They decided to sell something different: TIME.

“We sell time,” says Ouellette.  Obviously furniture provides the income, but what makes W&W stand apart is that they can provide luxury furniture from scratch in four to six weeks – versus the sixteen week norm for importing product from China. “Quality is essential, of course. . . you can’t play in this arena unless your quality is extraordinary.  What separates us from our competition is our additional focus on time.”

W&W rightly discerned that people “people just don’t want to wait sixteen weeks.” By focusing on the niche concerned with quick turnaround for one-of-a-kind custom furniture, William & Wesley set themselves apart and attracted the clientele they were after.

What sets your company apart?

2) Stand and Deliver

Selling to a niche is great, but it’s useless if you can’t actually do what you claim.  William & Wesley said they could produce high-end furniture in four to six weeks, and they delivered on that promise.  Says Ouellette in Modern Woodworking’s article: “Manufacturing is not about machinery, but rather about understanding the bottlenecks.  We took that premise from [the book] ‘The Goal’ and put it to work in furniture manufacturing.  We have a very rudimentary job shop, but it allows us to be totally flexible.”

William & Wesley decided that they could deliver on their promise and took the steps necessary.

Can you feasibly provide what you’re promising?  What steps are necessary to bring this to being?

3) Stand Ready

William & Wesley’s business model was new, and in the eyes of designers and architects, unproven.  Lawrence and Ouellette didn’t deny that; rather they took a sales approach that encouraged these companies to give them a try in situations where produce was absolutely needed in haste.  For example, if a designer made a mistake, it could take their usual vendor another sixteen weeks to provide a replacement.  W&W made themselves available to build a “fill-in” to satiate the customer’s immediate needs.

By encouraging a “try us when you need us” mindset, W&W slowly began to win the respect of its clients.  Eventually, people began dropping their usual vendors from overseas to buy exclusively from William & Wesley.  This is evidence that the patient acquisition of industry respect is imperative to long term success.

Do prospective clients know you’re available to help them in their time of need?  How can you reinforce the “try us when you need us” mindset?

There are many more lessons to be learned from William & Wesley.  I encourage you to read the full article at Modern Woodworking Magazine’s website.

The Sun is Rising.

Lighting Plays an Important Role in Establishing Mood

Slouching is close to a sin in my family. I remember walking alongside my mother while shopping.  Several times she would stop what she was doing, turn, and command me to “Stand up straight!” I’ve grown to agree with her.  Standing tall communicates a confident presence.  Slouching isn’t the best way to visually gain credibility.

The same thing goes for plantation shutters.  One of the reasons people prefer interior shutters over other window treatments is their ability to offer variable light control.  When you set your louvers at a specific tilt, you determine how much light enters into the room and at what angle.  As lighting plays a large role in setting the mood of a room, it’s imperative that shutter slats stay where you set them to provide that effect.

Thus there is a high level of frustration that comes with slouching shutter slats.  It can be very irritating to set your louvers at a certain pitch, only to have them droop downward.

So how do shutter companies avoid slouching slat syndrome?

• Tension Screws

Tension screws are the first line of defense against slouching slat syndrome on every shutter.  It’s plantation shutters 101.  If your provider doesn’t offer a shutter with a tension screw, send him packing because he probably doesn’t know what a louver is either.

A tension screw is roughly 2 1/2″ long and connects the stile to a louver.  When tightened, the screw pulls the louver closer to stile, and the resulting friction helps prevent the slat from sagging.  The size of the shutter panel will determine how many tension screws are needed.

• Tension Pins

Wheras most louver pins are smoothe and simply permit the slat to spin on them, tension pins “drag” in the stile, making it more difficult for the louver to turn.  The ratio of tension pins to louver pins in a shutter stile is dependant on the size of the louver itself.  The bigger the louver, the more tension pins you should have.

Tension pins come in two forms.

• • Single Piece

These pins look similar to a regular louver pin, but the end that inserts into the shutter stile has a groove cut into it.  Every time the louver turns, the groove catches against the wood and causes drag, thus helping maintain louver tension.

• • Two Piece

These pins come in two parts and are ideal for synthetic shutters.  One part is a bushing with grooves all around it.  This end fits into the poly stile, and the grooves latch onto the soft polymer.  The other part is a pin that fits snugly inside the bushing.  When the louver turns, the pin turns within the bushing.  The tight fitting pin causes friction in the bushing and helps hold the tension.

Since tension pins are more expensive and more difficult to insert, some shutter companies avoid using them.  Beware! The price savings you receive up front will pale in comparison to the frustration of slouching slat syndrome.

• Off-Setting the Louvers

Did you know your plantation shutter louvers may be losing tension while they’re not even being moved?  It’s true!  The tilt rod that spans the louvers is constantly being pulled downward by gravity.  As infinitesimal a thing as that may seem, over time the pressure of gravity will cause the louvers to lose tension.  Because of this, some shutter companies choose to install the louvers ever so slightly toward the rear of the shutter panel.  Doing so off-sets gravity’s pull on the tilt rod and reduces the tension on the slat pins.  Just another way quality plantation shutter companies strive to provide you with long lasting quality!

Nobody likes a slouch – either in person or in product.  When purchasing plantation shutters, be sure and ask your provider what measures he or she is taking to prevent slouching shutter syndrome!

Be thankful for the past.  Be proactive in the present.  Be mindful of the future.

Recognize that what worked then may not work now.  Adapt quickly.

What is Your Egypt? What is Your Promised Land?

I was flipping through my Bible the other day, and I found an intriguing story that seems to parallel where our industry is right now.

There was a famine in North Africa. An Egyptian ruler named Joseph had wisely saved his resources, and so he invited his family to move to Egypt and stay with him.  This family eventually grew into a large people group known as the Israelites.  Egypt became comfortable for them; it became home.  Howver, the Egyptians soon began t0 despise the Israelites and evenutally enslaved them.   There home is no longer a welcoming place for the Israelites.  So God sends Moses to lead them out of Egypt to a new land where they will flourish – the Promised Land.

The Israelites braved all forms of danger on their journey and finally reached their destination. A group of spies went into the land to check it out, and they returned will tales of the beauty of their new home.   However, there was a problem.  The inhabitants of the land were really, really big, and were pretty mean too.  Rather than continue their journey, Israel began to tremble and begged Moses to RETURN them to their slavery in Egypt.

Looking back instead of advancing forward became Israel’s downfall. Because they decided that the familiarity of slavery was better than the uncertainty of a free future, the adult population ends up wandering around the desert for 40 years.  Eventually, their children  returned to the Promised Land to defeat the giants and settle down.

In summary:

• Egypt was a great home at one time for the people of Israel.
• Times changed; people changed. Egypt was no longer suitable for the Israelites.
• The people made a bold move and left their home in search for a better place.
• When the Israelites encountered an obstacle, they immediately began experiencing selective memory and wished to could go home to Egypt.

So, what does this mean for us as we operate our window treatment businesses?

• The way we used to operate was good.

The world of the late 90’s and early 21st century had its own unique needs.  For example, if homeowners wanted to buy plantation shutters they almost certainly had to buy from a U.S. source.  American manufacturers were the dominate providers of the product back then!  Furthermore, consumers were more inclined to trust the opinion of an interior designer or home furnishings retailer (instead of trying to find a credible manufacturer who wouldn’t steal their deposit!).

Plantation shutter manufacturers responded by building healthy wholesale relationships with retailers and design firms and thrived from the business they were brought.

• The world has changed.

The introduction of foreign made plantation shutters into the U.S. market began redefining the window treatment landscape.  Cheap labor, low government regulation, and high production volume allowed Chinese factories to sell shutters at a fraction of what U.S. factories sold for.  Window treatment retailers took advantage of lower prices (and potential higher margins) by switching to foreign made products.  There were trade-offs: limited finish color selection, longer delivery time, etc. with Chinese product, so interior designers, etc. still always kept a local manufaturer in their roledex to handle truly custom projects.

• The way we used to operate enslaved us.

Many U.S. manufacturers refused to accept the changing environment.  Owners and managers denounced the  foreign product and fervently argued that the Chinese pricing strategy wasn’t sustainable.  ”They’re bluffing!” was the industry mantra.  ”There is no way an American company can compete with those prices!” was the war cry.  ”If we keep doing what we’ve always been doing, eventually we’ll drive these low-priced companies out!” was the business model.

• We began the search for a new home.

As it became obvious that foreign competition was here to stay, some companies responded by altering their strategy.  Some pursued specific niche markets with luxury woods (like Kirtz Shutters in Stillwater, Oklahoma).  Some developed superior synthetic shutters with features unmatched by foreign competitors (like Danmer Custom Shutters with multiple locations in California).  Others pursued e-commerce solutions.  Some sought to meet Chinese competitors head on by producing a line of shutters with limited options in such high volume that a profitable low price was achievable.

Some manufacturers moved away from selling wholesale and began selling direct to the public, passing along the savings that came from cutting out retailers or designers.

• As challenges arose, many companies returned to what was comfortable.

As companies experimented with new ways of doing business, some of their efforts were successful and some were not.  Change requires tackling challenges in logistics, pricing, marketing – everything.  Because of the difficulty faced, many companies decided “it just can’t be done,” and returned to their old business model – a model that had become an endangered species.  It was only a mtter of time.

As the sun of economic recession rose, it began to burn away all unhealthy companies.  Those with antiquited business models have perished. Some companies are barely surviving.  And some are adapting and joining the ranks of the manufacturing elite.

The Lessons:

Be thankful for the past.  Be proactive in the present.  Be mindful of the future.

Recognize that what worked then may not work now.  Adapt quickly.

The Sun is Rising.

Periodically I’m asked about what separates a sensational shutter from a sloppy one.  While there are many unseen features in high-quality plantation shutters, the one that most people find beneficial is mortise & tenon construction (also known as a tongue & groove connections).  Since plantation shutters are an expensive investment, homeowners want to be assured that their shutter won’t sag or come apart after a couple years.  The way in which a shutter manufacturer assembles the components is key.

In this post, we’ll explore the two most common ways of assembling shutters – and why paying a little extra to have yours built with mortise & tenon connections is the best option!

Wimpy, Wimpy, Wimpy -- Most manufacturers rely on small wood dowels to hold their shutters together.

Most manufacturers assemble their shutters using wood dowels. A dowel is a small, cylindrical piece of wood that forms a bridge between two pieces of wood. If you’ve ever assembled an inexpensive bookcase or filing cabinet, you’ve probably experienced wood dowels.

For a manufacturer, wood dowels are an inexpensive way to quickly construct a mass-produced product like a shutter.  Shop managers are able to pump out more product with less personell, especially if they employ machinery to help automate the process.  Less personnel and faster production lowers overhead costs for the company, and in return, allows them to sell their shutters for less. To further cut costs, manufacturers are moving more and more toward not adding screws for additional strength.  Without the extra screws, the entire weight of the shutter rests on wood dowels.

For wood dowels to effectively hold a plantation shutter together, they must be glued.  To ensure the best connection, it’s best to apply the glue to dowel itself, and then insert it into the hole.  Excess glue is forced out as the dowel is pushed deeper.  Unfortunately, that is a very slow process to do.  Many companies have resorted to shooting glue into each hole, then doweling and clamping the components together.  The result is that excess glue is not forced out; it is merely compressed. Unless the components are clamped together for at least five minutes (which would dramatically slow production down and thus is often not done), the glue will not fully set. Without the extra screws to hold the shutter together, hydraulic pressure from the glue will eventually begin to push the dowel back out. Depending on how much excess glue exists, the shutter will begin to sag and then separate anywhere from six to eighteen months later.

Since most people leave their shutter panels closed, they may not see this in the look of the shutter itself.  But they will notice more and more light breaking through the top of the panel as the shutter begins to sag.  Since light control is a huge reason why people choose plantation shutters, a poorly constructed sagging unit that permits excess light to enter robs homeowners of the value they thought they paid for!

Enter MORTISE & TENON: the white knight of high quality shutter construction.

Heft, Hefty, Hefty -- Sewell's mortise & tenon construction techniques ensure long lasting durability.

A mortise is a hole or groove cut into a segment of wood.  A tenon is an outcropping from adjoining piece of wood that is inserted into the mortise.  Whereas a dowel is a separate tiny connector bridging two pieces of wood together, mortise and tenon actually connects the two segments in a very sturdy fashion.

With Mortise & Tenon construction comes the following benefits:

• Increased surface area for glue application.  More wood surface glued, the stronger the connection.  Because glue is applied to the tenon and then inserted into the mortise, excess glue is pressed out and a tight bond is secured.  No excess glue, no hydraulic pressure, no separation of the shutter!
• A seemingly solid piece of wood is produced from two segments fitting snugly together.
• Two similar wood segments glued together will expand and contract at a similar rate (from temperature changes or humidity), so the connection will not break loose.  Can the same be said for adding a cheap dowel of a different wood species?  What happens if the wood in the shutter expands at a different rate than the wood in the dowel?  The connection becomes even weaker, that’s what!
• Although not absolutely necessary, a quality shutter manufacturer will still screw the the mortised/tenoned segments together for added durability.
• The ultimate benefit – plantation shutters will remain straight and sturdy, never sagging, for twenty, thirty years, and beyond!

At the end of the day, Americans buy homes to invest in their future.  Invest in your window treatments!  The next time you shop for shutters, remember to ask your contractor to build using mortise and tenon!

Gluing Mortise & Tenon

Screwing Mortise & Tenon for Added Strength