EMPLOYMENT STRUCTURE AND TRAINING NEEDS IN THE LOUISIANA VALUE-ADDED WOOD PRODUCTS INDUSTRY.

RICHARD P. VLOSKY [*]

ABSTRACT

Research has shown that there is significant employment demand in the wood products industry in Louisiana. The need to develop and sustain training programs for the forest products industry is immediate and critical. Just over a third of respondents

had plans to increase employment in 1999 while 43 percent said they will add employees in the subsequent 3-year period. However, the most prevalent reason why respondents are not adding employees is the lack of adequately trained labor. This paper indicates that in order for Louisiana value-added wood products manufacturers to be able to be competitive in the marketplace, appropriate training of the workforce must become a priority.

Based on forest products industry hiring intention surveys conducted by the Louisiana Forest Products Laboratory (LFPL), the number of desired new employees forecasted over the next 2 to 4 years totals nearly 4,000 positions [14]. Given this employment demand, the need to develop and sustain training programs for the forest products industry is immediate and critical.

The current educational system in Louisiana provides little in the way of workforce training and development for the state's value-added forest products industries. While there are programs under development in select locations for the pulp and paper industry, largely developed by the industry for implementation in the technical college system, there remains a major gap in the skills needed by today's value-added forest products industry sectors [13]. For example, Louisiana Furnishings Industry Association furniture manufacturer members were questioned regarding training they had received to prepare them for operating their small businesses. With few exceptions, the members indicated that they had not taken high school or trade school classes specific to the woodworking industry. Their typical source of education was an introductory level job at a woodworking shop followed by self teaching through reading woodworking magazines and trade journals [13].

Although there has been no program development specific to woodworking, attempts have been made to develop programs in Louisiana specific to the construction industry. To date, these efforts have failed, largely because the construction industry is not a high profile industry with political support. In fact, much of the equipment and staff associated with these construction-training programs are no longer available. With the decline of the construction industry in the mid-1980s, much of the equipment was sold off and staff was reassigned [13].

Although the two are often thought of as similar industries, the construction and woodworking industries are very different. Accordingly, value-added wood processing and manufacturing training needs are also unique. Furthermore, with competition for scarce educational resources from other higher profile industry segments such as petro-chemical and gaming, value-added wood industry educational programs have been overlooked [13].

Regardless of the reasons for the current state of value-added wood industry training programs in Louisiana, in order for Louisiana companies to be able to be competitive in the marketplace, appropriate training of the workforce must become a priority.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

This study was undertaken to generate information that can be used by policymakers in Louisiana to develop value-added wood processing training initiatives. The opportunity to add value, create jobs, and support rural economic development are significant. Specifically, the objectives of the study were:

1. To determine the current employment structure by activity and skill level in the typically rural Louisiana wood products industry;

2. To identify unfulfilled training requirements;

3. To identify impediments to increasing employment in the value-added wood products industry;

4. To develop recommendations that will lead to increased employment in the value-added wood products sector in rural areas of Louisiana.

LABOR TRAINING ISSUES

Regardless of the industry, the need for qualified and trainable employees is recognized as a crucial factor in the ability to become competitive and remain competitive in the global marketplace. Attitudes vary as to where the responsibility for developing and maintaining this workforce lies. Is this task the responsibility of government or the private sector? The answer seems to lie somewhere in-between: cooperative efforts between federal, state, and local governance and the private sector.

The root cause of systemic unemployment is the inability of industry and the workforce to keep pace with rapidly advancing technologies. These and many other changes in emerging high-performance workplaces have pushed the levels of knowledge, skills, and abilities needed for individuals and businesses to successfully compete far beyond the traditional definition of literacy.

Preparing for the jobs of today and tomorrow requires investment in people by governments, businesses, and individuals. A report on human development in Canada identifies issues that have broad-based implications [2]. The report states that everyone, including existing workers, the unemployed, students, etc., will have to upgrade their knowledge and skills on an ongoing basis to get and keep a job. The Canadian government is asking its citizens to help decide how to invest more effectively and cost efficiently in their collective future. Some ideas include:

* greater investment in training and skills development by individuals, businesses, communities, and governments;

* improved partnerships between educators and industry so that people learn skills today that will be needed by employers;

* building better programs and services to assist in understanding the demands of the job market and helping them to prepare themselves for it;

* encouraging lifelong learning: building supports for literacy training, encouraging learning in pre-school years, supporting young people to stay in school, providing incentives for individuals and employers to invest in continuous skills upgrading.

Manufacturers often suffer from a mismatch between the skills their workers have, and the ones they must acquire for the company to survive and grow. Many companies will not open new facilities or expand existing ones if they find the

local labor force incapable of staffing and servicing facilities or operating production lines [1].

Plant owners and managers must respond to new, often unexpected, and substantially different demands for job skills. Training, therefore, assumes an increasingly important role in manufacturing modernization strategies. Community colleges and vocational schools are often leaders in the delivery of training programs. Many have built the necessary expertise to respond quickly and adeptly to the needs of local companies.

In many areas, training programs have not approached their potential usefulness because public development agencies simply are not aware of their effectiveness, their appeal to private business operators, or their potential contribution to an overall economic development incentive package. Therefore, business development advocates, technology service providers, and technical information specialists need to be more aggressive in learning about and promoting training initiatives.

EMPLOYEE TRAINING IN THE WOOD PRODUCTS INDUSTRY

In the secondary or value-added wood products industry, numerous strategies are being undertaken to cope with skill shortages. Companies with the ability to transfer operations to less costly labor markets are doing so. Other companies are investing heavily in new, more productive technologies. Still other companies are targeting specific niche markets to reduce the impact of competitive forces on operations. However, most industries remain faced with the fact that in the current market, the labor force is aging and appears to be getting smaller.

These issues have implications for industries that are not as high profile and socially attractive as the industries generally considered to be related to high technology. One such low-profile industry is the wood products industry. Although not typically mentioned as a high-tech industry, wood products design and manufacturing processes are increasingly incorporating high technology.

A recent study conveys comments from major wood industry association executives on issues that face the industry [5]. Almost to the point of exclusion of other issues, these executives point to the impact of technology and the skill levels of the current workforce as the most pressing issues facing the wood products industry. A survey of 1,250 U.S. and Canadian wood products companies found that a clear majority of the manufacturer respondents said employee issues accounted for their biggest challenge. A full 38 percent ranked employee training as their number one concern. Concerning the adoption of high technology between 1994 and 1998, the number of respondents who indicated the use of computer numerically controlled machinery increased from 20 percent in 1994 to 68 percent in 1998. The use of this higher level of technology, in turn, intensifies employee training requirements.

In a study of forest products industry educational needs in Oregon and Virginia, Hansen and Smith (8) found that identifying new markets, sales ability, plant management/finance, and product pricing were the top educational needs in both states.

Furthermore, in a 1997 survey where wood industry executives were asked to look into the future and expound on the needs of their respective industry sectors, most indicated that it will be technology and the people qualified to operate that technology that will accelerate productivity gains [9].

Thus, confronted by these issues, what is the wood products industry doing to meet the challenge? Efforts in many states are underway to address the training needs of the value-added wood products industry. Even in 1992, there were over 100 programs that had some component that addressed the woodworking industry [11]. These types of programs are often state specific and are typically supported with state funds allocated by legislatures or governors.

THE STUDY

In general, sampling, survey procedures, follow-up efforts, and data analysis in this study were conducted in accordance with well-documented and verified techniques [3, 6, 7, 10]. The following sections describe these procedures.

SAMPLING

The sample frame for the study consisted of all secondary solid wood products manufacturers in Louisiana. Examples of industry sectors represented include hardwood dimension and flooring mills, wood kitchen and bath cabinets, wood household furniture, wood office furniture, store fixtures, pallets, partitions, etc. There are estimated to be approximately 650 companies in this population in Louisiana [12]. The primary source of sample frame information was existing industry directory databases and directories compiled by the LFPL [4].

MAIL QUESTIONNAIRES

Data collection was done using a mail survey questionnaire. Mail questionnaires were chosen as the most cost-effective method of data collection. The method affords a high degree of anonymity and is less limited by rigid time constraints that can impede the effectiveness of other survey methods. Mail survey procedures followed the Total Design Method (TDM) recommended by Dillman [3]. This included a pre-notification letter, a cover letter accompanying the initial questionnaire, a follow-up postcard, and a second mailing of the questionnaire.

RESULTS

Of the 650 surveys mailed, 23 were undeliverable because the company had moved or had gone out of business. Of the remaining companies, 179 returned usable surveys resulting in an adjusted response rate of 29 percent. Second-mailing respondents, often used as a proxy for non-respondents, were compared to first-mailing respondents across all study questions. By examining differences between the two mailings using two-tailed t-tests, statistically significant differences ([alpha] = .05) were found for 10 of the 124 questions that could be compared in the study. Specifically, first-mailing respondents had a greater need for training in sanding, gluing, and sawing; second-mailing respondents had a greater need for information on wood finishing and also had a lesser need for remedial training for employees.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Solid wood forest products (as opposed to pulp and paper products) can be broadly characterized as primary or secondary products. This classification is not always clear, but most industry observers agree on general definitions of the groups:

* Primary products are those that are produced directly from raw timber input. Examples include chips, lumber, veneer, plywood, and their by-products;

* Secondary products use primary products as input for remanufacturing. Examples include various types of panels, engineered composites, or dimension stock. Secondary products can also include final consumer products such as furniture.

Although this study focuses on the secondary, or value-added sector of the industry, respondents manufacture primary products as well (Fig. 1). Cabinets and furniture had the highest frequency of responses followed by specialty products. Softwood and hardwood lumber, both primary products, were produced by 18 and 15 respondents, respectively. Many companies are vertically integrated and manufacture primary products often as raw materials for secondary production.

CURRENT STAFFING AND PLANNED EMPLOYEE INCREASES

Confirming results of previous research by Vlosky and Doucet [12], secondary wood products companies in Louisiana are typically small. Respondents indicated that nearly half of their companies have less than 10 full-time employees and over 80 percent have less than 50 employees. (Fig. 2).

With regard to part-time employees, nearly all (95.6%) of the 115 respondents that answered this question had between 1 and 9 employees. The fact that two-thirds of companies employ part-time employees is significant. This has implications for employee longevity, training, and costs.

Just over a third of respondents (35.7%) had plans to increase employment in 1999 while 43 percent said they will add employees in the subsequent 3-year period. For the companies that plan to add employees, on average, six employees per company are planned to be added in 1999 and seven additional employees in 2000 to 2002. Total planned employee additions for these time periods are 354 and 399, respectively.

The most prevalent reason why respondents are not adding employees is the lack of adequate labor (48 responses). This is followed by lack of adequate markets (31 responses), workmen's compensation costs (30 responses), other labor costs (26 responses), and taxes (10 responses).

Respondents were offered the opportunity to list any additional reasons why they did not plan to add new employees (Table 1). One frequently mentioned reason had to do with technology and process improvements that precluded the need for additional employees. Other reasons included high raw material prices and government regulations.

DESIRED TRAINING REQUIREMENTS

Respondents were asked to evaluate training requirements for different employee types and skill levels. Using a scale of 1 to 5 (1 = least required; 5 = most required), respondents indicated that getting skilled employees is their most pressing need (Table 2). Many companies indicated that they could increase capacity if they had employees to support such expansion. Beyond skilled employees, the second most required employee would have basic woodworking skills. This is followed by management, typically shop foremen. The balance of employee types all had mean scores below 3.0, or neutral, on the 5-point scale.

Mean scores give an indication of what industry needs are in general, but are not extremely useful in developing programs for different company structures and sizes. Accordingly, employee training requirements for each of the options listed in Table 2 were further broken down by respondent company size class. Skilled labor was the highest ranked need across all respondents. There is a positive correlation between company size and need for skilled labor. As companies get larger, production processes generally become more complicated and specialized. Larger companies utilize sophisticated computer-controlled equipment more often than small companies, further increasing the requirement for specialized skills.

DISTANCE, TIME AWAY, AND COST FOR TRAINING

Before training programs can be developed, it is important to know the distance employers are willing to let employees travel to be trained. Figure 3 shows a fairly even distribution of respondents across different distances. Statistical analysis indicates that the distance allowed to be trained is significantly correlated to company size.

In addition, it is important to know acceptable training session time allowances within the constraint of allowed time away from the company site. Figure 4 shows that 21.3 percent of respondents said that they would not allow employees to spend any time away to be trained. Forty percent said they would allow 1 day or less, while almost a quarter (24.5%) would allow 2 to 3 days to be trained. Eleven percent would allow 1 week away and 2.6 percent would allow more than 1 week. Once again, statistical analysis indicates that the allowed time away for training is significantly correlated to company size.

Finally, it is important to know how much money employers are willing to pay for training employees. Consistent with the nearly 20 percent of respondents that would not allow employees to travel or be away for training, 18.7 percent would not pay anything for training (Fig. 5). Over half of respondents (51.3%) would pay between $51 and $499, while 16 percent would pay $50 or less. Statistical analysis indicates that the amount companies are willing to pay for training is significantly correlated to company size.

DESIRED KNOWLEDGE FOR EMPLOYEES

Respondents were asked to evaluate desired employee knowledge for 42 factors. Table 3 ranks these areas. The only two factors that ranked above 4 on the 5-point scale of desire were safety regulations and dealing with customers. These are followed by the need for employees to know about quality and process control, followed by basic problem-solving skills. The balance of the criteria is varied and does not follow any discernible pattern. This is in contrast to a study of Oregon secondary wood products industry educational needs that indicated that identification of new markets was the top education need in that state [8].

DESIRED KNOWLEDGE FOR EMPLOYEES BY COMPANY SIZE

While an aggregate ranking of factors is interesting, as is the case with other training issues, it is important to further segment these knowledge factors to better tailor programs. Therefore, Table 4 indicates the relative importance of each for different company size classes. Beyond safety issues, which were deemed important by respondents in every company size class, we can see that the other factors are more important to certain sizes of companies and not so important to others. For example, dealing with customers is important to mid-size companies (42.3% of companies with 20 to 49 employees and 38.5% of companies with 50 to 99 employees). Lumber grading knowledge is more important for employees in larger companies (50 employees or greater) while wood gluing and wood finishing are more important to companies in the smallest size class category (1 to 9 employees). Even sanding/abrasives, a factor near the middle of the list, is important to 32.4 percent of companies with 1 to 9 employees.

DESIRED TRAINING METHODS

Employee training can be accomplished through a variety of means. Respondents were asked to evaluate the importance of 11 methods (Table 5). Because it is difficult for many companies to have employees be away for any length of time, it is most preferable, or important, to have in-house training on-site (mean score of 5.98 on a 7-point scale of importance). Training manuals that can be read on-site or at the employees' leisure were ranked next with a score of 4.39. The remaining methods all fall below 4.0, the midpoint or neutral point on the scale. Least desirable are national conferences that require employees to travel and be away from the company for extended periods of time.

APPROPRIATE ENTITY TO CONDUCT TRAINING

There are many different ways to deliver employee training in the secondary wood products industry. In Louisiana, in addition to many traditional training entities, the LFPL and the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service (LCES) exist to disseminate information to this industry. Both are units under the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center in Baton Rouge. On a scale of 1 to 5 (1 = least appropriate entity to do training; 5 = most appropriate entity to do training), respondents indicated that industry experts were most appropriate (Table 6, Fig. 6). Second ranked is the Louisiana vocational-technical system, third is equipment manufacturers, and fourth is community colleges. The rest of the entities evaluated all received average scores below 3.0 or neutral. Least appropriate is the LCES just after the LFPL. In the case of LCES, this is surprising since workshops and information dissemination are primary LCES activities. It is not so surprising in the case of the LFPL, which is research oriented.

SUMMARY

The value-added wood products industries in most states in the South are outpacing Louisiana in productivity and training for their employees. This study identifies the manufacturers' perspective on training needs and issues in Louisiana. This information can help policy-makers craft programs targeting this industry. The information can also be useful to value-added wood products manufacturers by identifying needs and issues across the industry. Collectively, perhaps the industry can achieve what has not been possible to date, a strong and cohesive voice for training and development to ensure the viability of the industry.

The current educational system in Louisiana provides little in the way of workforce training and development appropriate for the needs of the state's value-added forest products industries. As a result, there is a major gap in Louisiana between the skills needed by today's value-added forest products industry sectors and the available labor to meet these needs. To help close this gap, manufacturers, potential training entities, and policymakers alike must develop a coordinated plan of action.

The authors are, respectively, Associate-Professor, Forest Products Marketing Program, Louisiana Forest Prod. Lab., School of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries, Louisiana State Univ. Agri. Center, Baton Rouge, La.; and President, Pro-Development Serv., LLC, 56370 Hillcrest School Rd., Husser, LA 70446. The authors want to thank Eric Hansen, Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist, Dept. of Forest Prod., College of Forestry, Oregon State Univ.; and Robert Smith, Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist, Dept. of Wood Sci. and Forest Prod., Virginia Tech, for their help on survey development. This paper was received for publication in April 2000. Reprint No. 9119.

(*.) Forest Products Society Member.

[C] Forest Products Society 2001.

Forest Prod. J. 51(3):34-41.

LITERATURE CITED

(1.) Anonymous. 1999. Secondary Wood Products Training Program. Linn-Benton Community College web page. http://www.lbcc.cc.or.us/swpc/swpts.html.

(2.) Anonymous. 1994. Social Security in Canada: Background Facts. Strategic Communications, Human Resources Development Canada, Quebec, Canada.

(3.) Dillman, D.A. 1978. Mail and Telephone Surveys - The Total Design Method. John Wiley & Sons, New York.

(4.) Doucet, J. and R. Vlosky. 1998. State of Louisiana solid wood products industry directory: Primary and secondary producers. Louisiana Forest Prod. Lab., Louisiana State Univ. Agri. Center., Baton Rouge, La.

(5.) EhIe, S. 1998. White paper. Wood Digest. Oct. pp. 17-20.

(6.) Fowler, F.J., Jr. 1996. Survey Research Methods. 2nd ed. Sage Publications, Inc., Newbury Park, Calif.

(7.) Hair, J.F., R.E. Anderson, R.L. Tatham, and W.C. Black. 1992. Multivariate data analysis. 3rd ed. MacMillan Publishing Co., New York.

(8.) Hansen, E. and R. Smith. 1997. Assessing educational needs of the forest products industry in Oregon and Virginia. Forest Prod. J. 47(4):3&41.

(9.) Koenig, K.M. 1997. Future Shop: 21st Century Predictions. Wood and Wood Products website: www.iswonline.com/archives/ wood/millennium/tech5.html

(10.) Malhotra, N.K. 1993. Marketing Research. An Applied Orientation. Prentice-Hall, Engelwood Cliffs, N.J.

(11.) Sonderman, D.L. and R.L. Brisbin. 1993. Directory of training programs for the woodworking industry. USDA. Forest Serv., Northeastern Forest Expt. Sta., Broomall, Pa. 36 pp.

(12.) Vlosky, R.P. and J. Doucet. 1997. The Louisiana secondary solid wood products industry. Forest Prod. J. 47(7/8):29-34.

(13.) _____ and C. LeJeune. 1997. Louisiana value-added wood products industry development. Findings and recommendations of the Governor's Forest Industry Development Task Force. Vol. I: Summary of findings and recommendations; and Vol. I: Full Report of findings, recommendations and supporting materials. Louisiana Dept. of Economic Development and Louisiana Dept. of Agri. and Forestry. March 4.

(14.) ______ A.N. Koudou, N.P. Chance, M. McDill, and J. Doucet. 1997. The Louisiana solid wood products industry: Resource assessment, industry strncture and value-added market opportunities. Final rept. to sponsor: USDA Forest Serv., Southern Expt. Sta., New Orleans, La. Louisiana State Univ. Agri. Center, Baton Rouge, La. 200 pp.

Reasons for not adding new employees.

Change in business strategy

Don't want to expand due to being a small company (1 to 3 person shop)

Due to innovation and technology, which reduces the need for more employees

Equipment upgrades

Found comfortable formula and present employee/workload ratio

Going to get more efficient with what we have

Government regulations for larger companies

Have to go behind employees and correct problems, which is too much of a hassle

Market is too competitive to expand at this time

Product demand is low

Process improvements

Productivity gains

Raw material prices are too high

                  Type of employee training required. [a]
                          n  Mean
Skilled labor            149 4.02
Basic woodworking skills 148 3.25
Management               143 3.11
Unskilled labor          145 2.93
Remedial education       136 2.80
Seasonal or temporary    133 2.17
(a.)Scale: 1 = least required,
5 = most required.
                   Desired knowledge for employees. [a]
                                               Ranked from most
                                            desired to least desired
                                          n          Mean
Safety regulations                      154          4.24
Dealing with customers                  155          4.01
Quality and process control             156          3.79
Basic problem-solving skills            155          3.72
Inventory control/production scheduling 158          3.57
Plant maintenance                       155          3.52
Total quality management                151          3.50
Wood identification                     156          3.50
Product improvement                     154          3.48
Basic wood properties                   156          3.47
Wood-machining process                  151          3.45
Sawing/cutting technology               158          3.43
Product pricing                         154          3.42
Cost reduction                          155          3.40
Motivating personnel                    154          3.37
Plant management and finance            154          3.37
Lumber grading                          155          3.27
Sales ability                           155          3.27
EPA/DEQ regulations                     158          3.18
Wood-water regulations                  153          3.02
Product promotion                       154          3.02
Wood gluing                             150          3.02
Wood finishing                          152          3.00
Competitive positioning                 153          2.99
Product distribution                    149          2.98
Gluing/jointing                         149          2.95
Plant layout/design                     153          2.94
Sanding/abrasives                       152          2.90
Developing business plan                153          2.83
Dealing with changing raw materials     150          2.82
Strategic market planning               152          2.78
Plant maintenance                       154          2.78
New product development                 152          2.76
Computer education                      152          2.75
Identifying new markets                 152          2.75
Economics                               146          2.74
Finishing and coating                   150          2.70
Machine vision technology               144          2.53
Utilizing composite products            152          2.19
CAD/CAM/CNC                             146          2.17
Green marketing/product certification   146          2.02
International marketing (exporting)     144          1.67
(a.)Scale: 1 = not important at all,
5 = most important.
                Summary of desired knowledge for employees
                   by company size: percent of companies
                      indicating "most desired." [a]
                                           1 to 9  10 to 19  20 to 49
                                        employees employees employees
Safety regulations                           50.7      47.6      33.3
Dealing with customers                       52.7      28.0      42.3
Quality and process control                  37.0      29.2      23.1
Basic problem-solving skills                 39.7       8.3      24.0
Inventory control/production scheduling      28.4      16.0      34.6
Plant maintenance                            23.9      12.0      44.4
Total quality management                     31.9       8.7      30.8
Wood identification                          41.1      24.0      34.6
Product improvement                          23.3      13.0      19.2
Basic wood properties                        32.9      16.0      23.1
Wood machining process                       31.0      17.4      28.0
Sawing/cutting technology                    28.4      16.0      18.5
Product pricing                              23.0      17.4      44.0
Cost reduction                               22.2       8.0      15.4
Motivating personnel                         22.9      16.0      19.2
Plant management and finance                 23.6       4.2      34.6
Lumber grading                               26.0      20.8      15.4
Sales ability                                24.7      23.1      20.0
EPA/DEQ regulations                          19.2      20.8      22.2
Wood-water regulations                       16.7      12.5      24.0
Product promotion                            20.8      12.0      11.5
Wood gluing                                  35.6      13.6      16.7
Wood finishing                               34.7      13.0      16.0
Competitive positioning                      15.5        --      15.4
Product distribution                         17.1       8.7      20.0
Gluing/jointing                              34.7       4.3      13.0
Plant layout/design                          19.4       4.3      15.4
Sanding/abrasives                            32.4      17.4       8.7
Developing business plan                     15.5       4.2      24.0
Dealing with changing raw materials           9.9       4.5       8.0
Strategic market planning                    15.5       4.2      16.0
New product development                       8.3      12.0        --
Computer education                           15.7       4.2      11.5
Identifying new markets                      15.7        --       7.7
Economics                                    14.3        --       4.0
Finishing and coating                        27.4      17.4       4.3
Machine vision technology                    16.7        --       7.7
Utilizing composite products                  8.3        --       8.0
CAD/CAM/CNC                                  10.4       4.2      12.5
Green marketing/product certification         5.9        --      12.5
International marketing (exporting)           3.0       4.8        --
                                         50 to 99 100 to 499
                                        employees  employees
Safety regulations                           38.5       31.6
Dealing with customers                       38.5       23.5
Quality and process control                  46.2       31.6
Basic problem-solving skills                 30.8        5.3
Inventory control/production scheduling      38.5        5.3
Plant maintenance                            23.1        5.6
Total quality management                     23.1       21.1
Wood identification                          30.8        5.6
Product improvement                            --       11.1
Basic wood properties                        15.4       16.7
Wood machining process                       30.8       22.2
Sawing/cutting technology                    30.8       27.8
Product pricing                              30.8       16.7
Cost reduction                               15.4       11.1
Motivating personnel                         23.1       21.1
Plant management and finance                 15.4       11.1
Lumber grading                               38.5       33.3
Sales ability                                33.3       11.1
EPA/DEQ regulations                          23.1       25.0
Wood-water regulations                       23.1       22.2
Product promotion                             8.3       11.1
Wood gluing                                    --       23.5
Wood finishing                               15.4        5.6
Competitive positioning                       7.7       16.7
Product distribution                          7.7        5.9
Gluing/jointing                                --       11.8
Plant layout/design                          15.4        5.6
Sanding/abrasives                              --       11.1
Developing business plan                      7.7         --
Dealing with changing raw materials           7.7       11.1
Strategic market planning                    15.4        5.6
New product development                       7.7        6.3
Computer education                           30.8        5.6
Identifying new markets                        --        5.6
Economics                                     7.7         --
Finishing and coating                         7.7        5.9
Machine vision technology                     7.7        5.9
Utilizing composite products                   --         --
CAD/CAM/CNC                                   7.7        5.9
Green marketing/product certification         7.7        5.9
International marketing (exporting)          15.4        5.6
(a.)Bold indicates over 30 percent of companies.
                     Importance of different employee
                           training methods. [a]
                               Ranked from most
                                   important to
                                least important
                             n             Mean
In-house training          158             5.98
Training manuals           148             4.39
Personal visits            149             3.89
Off-site training facility 150             3.67
Short courses              150             3.63
Newsletter/videos          148             3.60
Magazine articles          148             3.37
Correspondence courses     144             3.04
Electronic transfer        146             2.82
Telephone calls            148             2.61
National conferences       144             2.48
(a.)Scale: 1 = not important at all,
7 = most important.
                      Appropriate entities to conduct
                          employee training. [a]
                                             Ranked from most
                                               appropriate to
                                            least appropriate
                                          n              Mean
Industry experts                        149              3.51
Vocational-technical system             148              3.50
Equipment manufacturers                 148              3.47
Community colleges                      149              3.07
Consultants                             145              2.86
Louisiana Forest Products Laboratory    145              2.80
Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service 144              2.74
(a.)Scale: 1 = not appropriate,
5 = most appropriate.
                     Products produced by respondents
                      (multiple responses possible).
Cabinets             44
Furniture            31
Specialty Products   21
Softwood Lumber      18
Hardwood Lumber      15
Pallets & Containers 10
Molding & Millwork    9
Wood Preserving       6
Flooring              4
Plywood               3
Windows/Doors         3
Other                 8
                      Full-time employees (n = 174).
100-499 employees 11.6%
50-99 employees    8.0%
20-49 employees   15.5%
10-19 employees   15.5%
1-9 employees     49.4%
                          Distance that employees
                        would be allowed to travel
                          for training (n = 153).
more than 100 miles 19.8%
51-100 miles        19.8%
26-50 miles         30.2%
11-25 miles         12.9%
0-10 miles          17.3%
                         Time that employees would
                           be allowed to be away
                          for training (n = 155)
1/2 day          11.0%
1 day            29.7%
2-3 days         24.5%
1 week           11.0%
more than 1 week  2.6%
Would not allow  21.3%
                          How much employers are
                            willing to pay for
                            training (n = 150).
$0-$25         8.0%
$26-$50        8.0%
$51-$100      20.0%
$101-$499     31.3%
$500-$999      9.3%
$1000 or more  4.7%
                    Entity most appropriate to conduct
                     training - percent of respondents
                     indicating least appropriate and
                        most appropriate (n = 149).
                                  Least Appropriate Most Appropriate
Industry Experts                               15.4             29.5
Vocational-Technical System                    17.6             35.1
Equipment Manufacturers                        18.9             31.8
Community Colleges                             25.5             24.2
Consultants                                    24.8             13.1
Louisiana Forest Products Lab                  26.2             11.7
Louisiana Coop. Extension Service              27.1             11.1