Pennsylvania’s timber and forest products industry produces $4.5 billion of consumer goods and commodities each year for both domestic and international markets. Currently the state’s fourth largest manufacturing sector, the forest products industry boasts one of the nation’s largest wood-related workforces, with nearly 92,000 Pennsylvanian workers at over 3,000 locations.

Lee Stover helps businesses in the state's wood products industry through the School of Forest Resources' WoodPro extension program.

To help that part of Pennsylvania’s economy thrive, wood products extension specialist Chuck Ray developed WoodPro, The Pennsylvania Wood Products Productivity Program. This extension program, in combination with existing extension activities, is strengthening Penn State’s ties with the state’s wood products businesses.

“Our constituent groups, instead of landowners throughout a particular county, might be just one mill in a county,” says Ray. “But by working with that one mill, our work may benefit just as many or more people.”

WoodPro works with all stages of the wood production process, including primary lumber processing, lumber drying, secondary processing, distribution, and retail. To serve the changing needs of the industry, Ray developed new program topics and new methods of reaching a larger number of people.

“Penn State has traditionally offered certification and training programs on wood treating, hardwood lumber and log grading, kiln drying, wood structure, and chainsaw safety,” says Ray. “We’ve taken those existing programs and enhanced the School of Forest Resouces’ wood products outreach and extension program with expertise from faculty in engineering, economics, and management.”

To get the word out about the program, Ray developed a WoodPro Web site, which includes information on the mission and services of the WoodPro program as well as descriptions and registration information on Penn State’s wood products short courses and workshops. Visitors can sign up for the WoodPro e-mail listserv, post questions at a wood products discussion board, and explore links to industry and association Web sites and to the résumés of Penn State wood products students. The site also features “Tech Notes,” a page of updates on wood science technologies, and the “Industry News” page, with regularly updated links to industry and corporate news announcements.

Ray, in cooperation with wood products extension specialist Lee Stover, generally works directly with 20 industry contacts each month. They collaborate with the WoodPro Team, which brings together more than 15 experts in wood science, wood product management, industrial engineering, business, agricultural engineering, and agricultural economics to provide input on developing industry solutions.

Typically, industry contacts require a deep level of involvement. Each company has a complex operation and relationships with multiple employees and multiple machine centers. Ray and Stover need to spend extra time with each group to understand their systems and opportunities.

“Our contacts are more than a visit—we need to look at a problem and find its source, then offer the company suggestions for correcting the situation within their means,” says Stover. “One recent project took two visits, two days each. That’s a lot of time, but that company initiated 33 action plans based on our suggestions.”

Penn State’s relationships with the wood industry also lead to research opportunities in facilities across the state. “Many times, we are able to do our experiments in industry facilities,” Ray says. “It allows us to avoid always purchasing new equipment with University dollars, but, more important, we get the benefit of conducting real-world research, with scientific conclusions that were gathered under actual operating conditions.”

Some of Stover’s projects have led to other opportunities, including one company that hired a Penn State graduate student to facilitate new problem-solving initiatives designed in a WoodPro consultation. Both Ray and Stover have also noticed increasing support from the industry for Penn State’s new wood products facilities, which will be located in the new School of Forest Resources building.

“WoodPro has allowed Penn State to have a higher profile in the wood products industry, giving workers something they can relate to in the school,” says Ray. “The resources have always been here for them, but we are now more visible. While WoodPro is still at a very new stage, it is really starting to pick up—our most recent statistics show we’re receiving more than 700 Web visitors per month.”

Stover and Ray have big plans for the future. They currently are working with the WoodPro team to plan a semi-annual Hardwood Industries Special Interests Forum. The event, aimed at an international audience, will showcase successful industry management strategies and also will include a symposium on new wood science research.

“This will be a WoodPro program that helps top managers and owners by showing them how to keep their company competitive,” says Ray. “This conference will help make Penn State the place to come if you are involved in running a hardwood products organization.”

To learn more about Penn State WoodPro, visit its Web site at woodpro.cas.psu.edu.

—Amanda Yeager