WoodDigest.com |

WD: You have your own sawmill and are Smartwood, FSC and Green Building Council certified. Why?

Tushoski: We feel the need to take care of our environment and our forests so they are available for generations to come. Since we are located in the state of Michigan, all state forests in Michigan have been FCS certified. We have a great supply of logs available, and the state is helping by having the forests certified. Many companies can say they are being green, but many can’t back it up with facts. We manufacture product from FSC material, with NAUF plywoods, we use water-based environmentally friendly finishes, and we burn our waste for heat and steam for our kilns. We feel we are producing product that is truly green, and we can back it up.

When the final product you are purchasing has been made from 70 percent or more of materials that can be traced in supply chains from managed forests, it is considered certified by SmartWood. Not only do we produce FSC/Smart Wood lines of furniture, our lumber mill is also certified. Most of our product is either certified or made from controlled wood. SmartWood is the most recognized and trusted independent third-party association, which the Rainforest Alliance endorses for the training and education of business, governments and communities to change their land-use practices and set standard for their long-term use. This council assures consumers that the wood products they purchase come from companies that support responsible and sustainable forestry practices. Some of our customers know we’re certified and many of them came to us specifically because we are certified.

We use Aspen, ash and birch for our main production; however, for a larger contract, we can purchase and cut just about any species. Our sawmill cuts all hardwood species. The Emerald Ash Borer has significantly impacted our ash production. Ash is hard to purchase from lower Michigan because without the proper paperwork, you can’t cross the Mackinaw Bridge. Sawmills in lower Michigan have to heat treat the wood to eliminate the ash borer in the lumber. However, ash is readily available since so much is being cut. What impacts us is moving it across the state. As of now, the ash borer is not in our area. Our local conservation district has been closely monitoring this invasive species and has monitoring traps located all across our region.

WD: Describe your manufacturing process from the order-taking stage to shipping.

Tushoski: This process is very simple but varies depending on what we are selling. With our own furniture collections, orders come in by e-mail, fax and phone. The orders are entered into our computer system, and production jobs are created off those orders. Each part has a drawing and a routing, but we print them on different color paper before sending them to the shop. The colors are scheduled through the shop as a visual system for the operators and the supervisors. Each color has a priority, and all the operators know that they run the parts with the higher priority color before all other colors. This allows us to pull the parts for full units through the shop at the same time. Once the parts are completed, we assemble the cases and they are moved into finishing as soon as they come off the assembly line. After they’re finished, they’re boxed and loaded on trucks. This process is usually a three- to four-week lead-time. If the product is a contract job, we usually have to quote the product, engineer it, program CNC equipment, prototype and get approval prior to running the production process.

We use AutoCAD 2003 for our design and engineering drawings. We’ve designed some of our bedroom collections, but for the last five years we’ve contracted with a couple different professional designers who do a great job for us.

Last year we took a leap of faith — in a down economy — and purchased the two C.R. Onsrud CNC machining centers, one 146C and a 98C with two tool changers on each. We decided we were going to purchase them with all the bells and whistles so we could reduce our setup time and increase our efficiency through the shop. With these new machines, many of our machine operations were reduced from several operations down to one. We were also able to take out of operation many small machines, which saved us a lot of floor space. This allowed us to move our finishing department under the same roof as the rest of the operation. The parts that we run on these machines range from simple parts such as side panels and drawer fronts to complicated curved moldings or legs.

WD: Where do you see the residential furniture market going in the next year or so?

Tushoski: That is a good question. I don’t think anyone has an answer for this question, but my hope is that more and more manufacturers will come back to the United States and want someone to make their furniture for them.