Challenges and Opportunities for North American Hardwood Manufacturers to Adopt Customization Strategies in an Era of Increased Competition

Clicks: 317
ID: 75798
2018
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Abstract
Much of the North American wood products industry was severely impacted by the recession of 2008–2009. In addition, many sectors within this industry face intense global competition. Against this backdrop, we examine economic opportunities for hardwood manufacturers to achieve greater competitive advantage via product customization, through a literature review and synthesis. We also discuss several related themes including agility, lean manufacturing, and clustering. We found that, in globally competitive environments, hardwood producers must be agile to adapt to economic conditions and dynamic customer demand. We discuss how some sectors of the hardwood industry have effectively exhibited customized production, and subsequently fared relatively well in the current economy. We conclude the synthesis by evaluating the importance of supply chains to achieving customization for hardwood producers. In the future, supply chains will need to be configured to rapidly respond to changing consumer demands, and pressure to provide more services will likely extend further back up the supply chain to hardwood sawmills. It is expected that sustainability practices, including green supply chain management, will impact operational and economic performance of hardwood firms as well.
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nicholls2018challengesforests Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Nicholls, David L.;Bumgardner, Matthew S.;
Journal forests
Year 2018
DOI
DOI not found
URL
http://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/9/4/186
Keywords
Technology (General) Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General) Technology environmental effects of industries and plants renewable energy sources environmental sciences plant ecology management. industrial management marketing. distribution of products production management. operations management

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