Category: Workshops

Date: Friday, December 12, 2014

Location:

National Hardwood Lumber Association headquarters
Raleigh Lagrange Rd, Memphis, TN 38134
Phone: (901) 377-1818

Brought to you by:

• The Federal State Market Improvement Program (FSMIP) at USDA
• The Center for Forest Products Business at Virginia Tech
• The National Hardwood Lumber Association (NHLA)

 Overview

With  $123.78 billion in shipments in 2011 and more than 710.7 thousand workers, the wood products industry in the United States has become an important link in the economy of the country. Today the industry has suffered many drastic changes due to the rapidly increasing global competition that has pushed the local industry to look for different ways to remain competitive. Manufacturing cost issues, lack of innovation, and poor understanding of customer needs remain as the biggest challenges that the wood products industry still is trying to address and in the last 10 years, other issues have arisen such as logistics costs, lead times, product customization, forest certification, and information technologies.

With this context in mind, today’s wood products companies should be very careful when developing new markets, especially if these new markets are international. Certain European and Asian markets are more receptive to US wood products because there is a reputation of sustainability attached to the product. Also, US wood products offer uniqueness in terms of attractive aesthetics, supply chain reliability, and high quality standards.

Who Should Attend?

• Sales Managers, Export Sales Managers, Sale Representatives
• General Managers, Plant Managers, Purchasing Managers, Materials Planning Managers, Marketing Directors, Product Managers, Plant Supervisors
• Employees with responsibilities in Marketing that would like to increase their knowledge of the current situation for US Wood products in international markets
• Owners and managers of Small and Medium Enterprises in wood products industries
• Personnel related to local organizations that support development of new market opportunities for wood products industries
• Independent consultants and academicians who are interested in updating their knowledge in international marketing for US Wood products

Why You Should Attend?

• Understand the basics of marketing in a wood products organization
• Apply basic marketing tools to turn an idea into a commercially successful product
• Obtain recent marketing intelligence information on specific global markets
• Explore potential opportunities to export to Central America
• Understand the basics issues of supply chain management involved in international trade

Agenda:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Registration:

Investment: $250.00
Investment covers workshop materials, coffee breaks, and lunch
Registration Link: International Marketing for Forest Products Companies Workshop

For more information on this workshop contact:

Becky Miller, b.miller@nhla.com. NHLA
Edgar Arias, earias@vt.edu. Virginia Tech

The Department of Sustainable Biomaterials (SBIO) at Virginia Tech and conjunction with the Virginia Forest Products Association (VFPA) and Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) is offering an educational session on May 15, 2014 as part of the 2014 Richmond Expo organized by VFPA. The educational session is divided in two tracks. The morning track will focus on drying operations and the afternoon track will focus on financial management principles for forest products industries.

The educational session will be conducted at the Four Points by Sheraton located at 4700 South Laburnum Avenue, Richmond, vA 2321. Registration details will be set up soon, so please keep yourself tuned for more details. If you have any questions please contact Angela Riegel at (540) 231-7107 or ariegel@vt.edu. A detailed description of the two tracks can be found in this web address http://sim.sbio.vt.edu/?p=1961

Morning track: Improving The Quality of Lumber Drying Operations

Session Description

Lumber drying operations, no matter the size, must provide a good quality product to maintain their customer base. Drying defects not only lead to product value losses but if passed onto the customer can lead to lost sales. In today’s business environment, reducing warp, maintaining good color and stain free lumber, and producing stress free lumber with the proper MC is critically important.

This session is designed to assist anyone drying lumber from the small-scale lumber dryer to commercial drying operations. The techniques and information presented are relevant to both hardwood and softwood lumber drying operations.

Continue reading “Educational Sessions offered for the 2014 Richmond Expo”

Sponsored by:

     

Goal:

The purpose of this workshop is to inspire and motivate students, research faculty, and local entreprenours into developing their ideas into successful commercial products.

Key Values of Workshop:

•  Updates on new opportunities to support the development of new businesses and innovations into successful commercial products
• Case study presentations by national-recognized innovators on how they developed their business ideas into commercial products.
• Update on current research and academic topics on innovation-based manufacturing.
• Virginia Tech students will present selected business ideas as part of the student innovation competition.

Date

November 7, 2013. 8:30 am-2:00 pm.

Tentative agenda:

• 8:00 am-8:15 am. Welcome and overview.
• 8:15 am-9:00 am. Current research in innovation-based manufacturing topics. Dr. Elisabeth Reynolds, MIT Industrial Performance Center.
• 9:00 am-9:45 am. State support programs for innovation-based manufacturing. Mr. Robert Brooke. SBIR/STTR
• 9:45 am-10:00 am. Break
• 10:00 am-10:45 am. Case study 1: Chad Schlaepfer. AMP Americas.
  
• 10:45 am-11:30 am. Case study 2. Robert Sturges. Arc Ablation, Virginia Tech.
• 11:30 am-12:00 pm. Round panel discussion, all speakers.
• 12:00-1:00 pm. Lunch
• 1:00 pm-2:00 pm. Student Innovation Competition. See guidelines here.
  
• 2:00 pm- 2:10 pm. Closing comments and adjourn

Continue reading “4th Innovation-based Manufacturing Workshop and Student Innovation Competition”

Sponsored by:

Goal:

The purpose of this workshop is to inspire new visions and strategies which address the most pressing energy challenges for contemporary society; it will create new ideas for usage of Lean Principles in reducing energy use and costs. It will also promote collaboration between scholars working across disciplines on Lean Thinking and Energy.

Key Values of Workshop:

•  Attendees will have a better opportunity to understand lean and potential energy savings with the implementation  of lean principles into their process.
• Presentation of an Energy toolkit to identify wastes related to energy, environment, and the processes.
• Attendees will be exposed on “How to use Lean principles for Energy Savings”  using real applications
• Participants will be introduced to Energy Management Systems and their benefits

Tentative agenda:

November 20, 2013. 9:00 am-4:30 pm.

• Welcome and overview
• Current and future scenario of Energy in Virginia. Charles Patton, President and COO. Appalachian Power.
• Lean Thinking Principles. Henry Quesada, Assistant Professor, Virginia Tech
• Break
• Energy Audits using Lean Thinking. Henry Quesada, Assistant Professor, Virginia Tech
• Energy Management Systems. Tyler Gill, Enernoc Systems
• Lunch
• Industry case study I. Brian Bond, Associate Professor, Virginia Tech
• Closing comments and questions
• Adjourn

Who should attend:

• Plant Managers, Quality Engineers, Process Engineers, Procurement Managers, Supplier Chain Managers, Purchasing Managers, Plant Engineers, Energy Managers, Energy and Environment Engineers and Medium Enterprise Manager
• Anybody who is interested in energy savings

Investment:

$50. Includes coffee breaks, lunch, and materials.

Venue:

USDA Forest Service
Wood Education & Resource Center
301 Hardwood Lane
Princeton, WV 24740
Phone – (304) 487-1510

Registration:

To register, please follow this link. Should have any questions please contact Dr. Henry Quesada at quesada@vt.edu. If you would like CEUs please let us know to arrange that option.

If you are a person with a disability and desire any assistive devices, services or other accommodations to participate in this activity, please contact Dr Henry Quesada at (540 231 0978) during business hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. to discuss accommodations 5 days prior to the event. TDD number is (800) 828-1120.