October 25, 1916 



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The Lumberman s Round Table 



Specialization or Concentration? 



This is undoubtedly the day of the specialist, in the lumber business 

 as elsewhere, but now and then one sees evidences that the idea of 

 concentration is just as valuable as that of specialization. That is 

 to say, concentration on a certain section of tlie field may mean mak- 

 ing a variety of products, giving the impression that instead of spe- 

 cializing, the manufacturer is doing just the opposite. 



Yet some of these plants making a number of product's seem to 

 be just as successful as those which confine themselves to a few items. 

 The conditions imder which the business is handled make all the dif- 

 ference, and determine whether success can be won by making one 

 thing only, or by putting in equipment for the manufacture of every- 

 thing which can be produced from the raw material. Perhaps that ex- 

 plains why so many combination plants are found in the Ohio valley, 

 where the cost of timber is greater than it is further South. 



For example, there is one mill in Indiana which makes not only 

 lumber, but veneers, and which turns out not only random widths and 

 lengths, but dimension stock. The meaning of this is simply that 

 this manufacturer is thus able to utilize all of the timber in his terri- 

 tory. The good logs go into veneers, the common ones into lumber; 

 and the lumber is worked up to best advantage by giving the user the 

 exact sizes he wants. All of this takes a little more equipment than 

 is needed in the exclusive sawmill or veneer mill, but at the same time 

 its gets the results. 



Then there is another plant, this one in Kentucky, which operates 

 a sawmill, veneer mill and panel plant combined. There are not many 

 of this sort, and yet the combination apparently works out all right 

 here. The sawmill manufactures the flitches needed, and works up the 

 low-grade stuff into crates for veneers. Being in the lumber busi- 

 ness, by reason of running its sawmill, this concern is able to market 

 the back-boards accumulated by the operation of its saws and slicer 

 to better advantage than the concern which is not engaged in selling 

 lumber. And in making corestock for its panels, this company like- 

 wise can use its sawmill to good advantage, while the log-buying end 

 of the business is simplified by the ability of the concern to utilize 

 timber for various purposes, according to the character of the material. 



Down in Tennessee is a manufacturer who has carried out the idea . 

 of working up his product to the last stick as well as anybody the 

 writer has ever seen. He has a sawmill, a planing-mill, a flooring 

 factory and a crate plant, and while there is still plenty of waste to be 

 sold for kindling wood, the percentage, compared with the plant spe- 

 cializing on only one item, is very small. These examples prove noth- 

 ing, perhaps, except that it pays to study the proposition from all 

 angles, and then adapt your scheme of operations to the peculiar con- 

 ditions under which you are working. No two plants liave exactly the 

 same problems. 



The Ideal Combination 



In the lumber trade, as elsewhere, there are constant changes and 

 shifts in the personnel of the concerns in the business. A consider- 

 \able number of these are due to lack of team-work on the part of those 

 who must pull together in the promotion of their enterprises. When 

 one considers how many concerns have dissolved because of difficulty 

 of this kind, it is evident that the lumberman who is about to join 

 forces with someone else should endeavor to determine in advance 

 whether the combination has at least a fair chance of being success- 

 ful. 



The ideal arrangement seems to be one where the abilities and in- 

 clinations of one partner complement ttiose of the other; that is, 

 where one man can do one necessary thing well, and the other cafi do 

 something else equally well. Such a combination automatically di- 

 vides the business into departments, and makes each responsible for 

 the operation of his own department. The division of responsibility 

 thus created makes for harder and most consistent effort, to the end 

 that neither will have cause to complain of the results of his part- 

 ner's work. It is when two men are trying to do the same thing that 

 most of the friction is generated. 



—20— 



There are a good many ideal combinations of this kind in the 

 hardwood business. One of the best -known hardwood concerns, which 

 operates several mills, is headed by a man who is a " bear ' ' in sell- 

 ing, while his partner is a wonder at building and operating saw- 

 mills, the sort of rough-and-ready chap it takes to get the most out of 

 a logging crew or sawmill hands. With one man responsible for the 

 production of the lumber in the right quantity, of the right quality 

 and at the right cost, and the other charged with selling it, this con- 

 cern has gone right up to the top of the heap, a result achieved 

 largely because of the way in which the special abilities of these men 

 fit together. 



Another team of this kind is composed of brothers, one of whom is 

 remarkably able in the financial and executive end of the business, 

 while the other has the practical details at his fingers ' ends. This 

 doesn't mean that neither knows anything of the other's department, 

 but that each is able to specialize to good advantage along certain 

 lines. With one man originating and developing big plans for the 

 promotion of the business, and the other working out the practical 

 side of these propositions, it is easy to understand why the past ten 

 years have seen a wonderful rise to fame and fortune on the part of 

 this concern. 



Some men are temperamentally unfit to work in harness with others. 

 They may be big enough and strong enough to carry the burden them- 

 selves, and too independent of spirit to be willing to compromise and 

 concede, as any partner must do occasionally. One of the greatest 

 hardwood men the writer ever knew, whose success was nothing short 

 of remarkable, had a career involving partnerships and dissolutions of ^ 

 partnerships in number until he finally realized that he was not cut 

 out for team-work, but must go it alone. Then he pitched in and 

 organized his business with subordinates of ability in charge of the 

 work he could not attend to personally, and from then on his success 

 was unquestioned. 



A big figure in another field recently made a remark which applies 

 with unusual definiteness to this proposition. It was this: 



' ' The vital feature in any business is not machinery, but men. ' ' 



The right men, working together, can accomplish anything; and 

 the wrong combination wUl make a failure, no matter how promising 

 the pros])ects. The personal factor must be right. 



The Average Boiler Gets Too Much Air 



Perhaps your engineer has suggested that your plant needs 

 a higher chimney and more boiler capacity. Nine engineers out 

 of ten are obsessed by the idea that they need more draft. Cure 

 your excess air troubles and it will probably be found that you 

 have more chimney and more draft than your circumstances call 

 for. There is a relationship between the draft that you ought to 

 use and the thickness at which the fuel (be it coal or slabs) should 

 be carried upon the grates in the furnaces. When you are work- 

 ing for economy, the more draft you employ, the more fuel you 

 should carry upon your grates, and vice versa. The tendency in 

 most lumber mills and manufacturing plants is to use strong drafts 

 on thin fires; no combination could be more wasteful. . 



The average boiler is operated with about three hundred per 

 cent excess air — one portion of air employed in the operations of 

 combustion and three portions permitted to rob the boiler of the 

 heat provided by that combustion. Again, the chimney of the 

 average mill or plant does work enough to carry three such mills 

 at full capacity with maximum economy, and yet one will hear 

 complaints. 



Loss in handling the plant is due entirely to carelessness and 

 slovenliness in nearly every plant and is preventable. The wood 

 and coal handlers must be made to understand that every piece 

 has a money value. Your good wife would discharge a poor 

 liousekceper; you should do likewise about your mill. 



A penny saved in the boiler room is many times a penny earned 

 on finished lumber. 



