Public Furniture Project Report

Harry W. Watt, NCSU Wood Products Extension

March 25, 2013

In accordance with Federal law and U.S. Department of Agriculture policy, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability. To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA Director, Office of Civil Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call (202) 720-5964 (voice and TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

Introduction

In the US there is a large public furniture market that uses wood, metal and plastic in schools and public buildings for furnishings. Since the 1960’s there has been a replacement of wood furnishings by metal and plastic furniture in classrooms and a reduction of wooden furniture and millwork in public buildings. This reduction of wood markets for furnishings and construction materials has reduced sales and profitability of wood shops capable of providing products for public furniture markets. Given the decline in housing markets since 2006, local wood shops should consider researching public furniture markets in order to maintain sales, profitability and employment of their workforce.

In the past schools contained
large amounts of wooden furniture / Wood furnishings contributes
to a good learning environment / Wood school furniture can be modernized with innovative designs to meet the needs of today’s students

Public furniture includes the service desks in public administrative buildings, classroom and library furniture in schools, public library furniture and the furniture that fills staff offices in schools and public buildings. Overall, the greatest amount of purchasing furnishings occurs when new buildings are constructed. One school district in North Carolina reported their facility managers use a budget figure of $4,500 per classroom for student desks, bookcases and teacher desks when a new school is built, thus showing a sizeable expenditure for school furniture.

Wood is the best material for public furniture items as it offers local shops an opportunity to compete with distant manufacturers. This is true because small wood shops can use local and regional lumber and plywood to produce furnishings using a wide range of equipment that can provide the same function as items made of plastic and metals made in large factories.

This project has two sponsors, the USDA US Forest Service Forestry Sciences Laboratory in Princeton, West Virginia and the Wood Products Extension Department at North Carolina State University. The Forestry Services Lab researches hardwood markets and undertook this project to better understand the potential to grow markets for local wood shops using local and regional wood species. The USFS Forestry Service Lab provided the funding for this project.

The Wood Products Extension Department at North Carolina State University supports the wood industry of North Carolina and undertakes research projects that promote the US wood products industry. The Wood Products Extension Department is active in assisting individual wood products businesses to improve their businesses and also promotes the use of US wood species. NCSU WPE performed the field work of this project.

This project supports the economic growth of US communities by supporting local wood shops to become better competitors in public furniture markets. Wood shops contribute strongly to the local community by being buyers of locally produced lumber and plywood products, its employment of local citizens and the payment of property, generation of sales and income taxes to state and local governments.

The world is currently experiencing increased costs and environmental problems using depletion resources like metals and plastics, thus needing to convert to renewables for furnishings, like wood, in order to sustain the current level of the economy and insure future social and political stability. Continued use of metals and plastics in public furniture will result in quickening the time when depletion resources shortages result in hardships and higher costs.

Project Goals and Objectives

The research efforts of this project were directed at learning how school districts and local government purchasing departments bought furnishings for new buildings and remodeling projects. The purchasing departments operate in the public interest to properly spend taxpayer funds for furnishings that will last from many years with little repair and replacement. The purchasing departments are professionally managed with employees of many years of service. They have formal purchasing guidelines and are supported by state purchasing and contract offices.

The goals and objectives of this project included:

To interview purchasing department buyers in three states and at three levels of local population-large, medium and small. Approximately thirty local government and school district purchasing departments were contacted to fill out a survey instrument that contained fifty-five questions. Twenty purchasing departments cooperated by completing and returning the surveys.

To design fifty wood products that schools and local governments are buying and create a 3-D model for each item with supporting parts list and example costing/pricing worksheet. The models would be instructive to the traditional wood shop that may design products manually and may be using a low tech engineering support system. Also these models designed in SketchUp would be helpful to modern shops that use design software and use computer controlled equipment. These fifty items are available as downloads on the project website at www.cnr.ncsu.edu/publicfurniture.

An outreach effort to wood shops included contacting wood shops in each of the study counties as well as writing publications for wood products industry media publications. The project website included short publications about the public furniture market and ideas of how to enter this market by local wood shops. The outreach effort will include information about writing specifications and how specifications influences who wins bids.

An outreach effort to the purchasing departments included contacting the purchasing departments in the study counties as well as contacting state and national public professional buying associations.

An outreach effort was made in each study county to the leaders of schools and local governments supporting the purchasing of products by schools and local governments.

The project website contains many items of interest to wood shops and purchasing departments supporting the growth of sales of locally made wood products that emphasized lumber and veneer core plywood. The website contains a large number of downloads of 3-D models as well as short publications.

This project summary publication is created to gather the analysis of research of buying practices as well as information on product design and construction.

Overview of Marketing for Small Local Wood Shops

Small wood shops typically lack strong marketing efforts and often operate at lower levels of their potential capacity. Since the housing decline of the mid 2000’s, many local wood shops have scaled down their operations or have closed. This project supports the idea of these shops entering the public furniture market and focusing on replacing products being purchased made of depletion materials like metals and plastics with locally processed lumber and plywood. It is natural for local school districts and governments to want to support local business given the large economic boost local firms return to the community.

In order to compete in a market that has significant regulations and professionalism, local shops will have to implement more formal business practices that include:

Ability to function in a formal bid process where one has to obtain documents, analyze the documents in a bid package, design products that need the specifications and compete against other wood shops that have long been successful in the public furniture market.

Any wood shop that wants to be listed in the offerings of a state’s purchasing and contracts office has to meet the vendor requirements set forth by the purchasing and contracts office. These offices set performance thresholds that insure weak and poor performing businesses are not accepted as vendors.

Wood shops marketing to the public furniture market on a local basis will have to successfully act as the manufacturer and seller unlike national wood products manufacturers typically that have a sales distribution network. The distribution brokers perform the needed function of looking for bidding opportunities, generating bids, promoting the use of specifications of its manufacturers, and installing products at schools and government buildings. Local shops selling to local governments have to perform as manufacturer and sales agent themselves.

Wood shops should challenge themselves to develop wooden alternatives to furniture made of metal and plastic / This is an example of a wooden alternative to the modern metal and plastic student desk. Painted desks can be in a school’s colors as a bonus feature. / These sycamore panels can be used for school and government furnishings and support the local economy from the landowner to the wood shop

Survey of School District Purchasing Departments

The project collected seven surveys from local school districts in West Virginia, North and South Carolina. A copy of the survey instrument for school purchasing department is on the project website, as is a summary of the returned school surveys on the project website. The survey consisted of fifty-five questions that focused on the process of buying furniture and preferences of the purchasing agents.

A summary of the results from the purchasing survey for schools included these points:

About half of the respondents reported being a member of a professional public purchasing association.

The average of school district student population was 16,412 and 44.6 schools per district.

The average count of new schools in the last four years was 2.1 per district.

There was a slight preference for wooden furniture over metal and plastic.

Species preference positive for oak, cherry, maple, birch and beech. Yellow poplar, sweetgum and pine were not preferred.

Painted furniture was less preferred to stain and clear wood finishes.

A strong preference for domestic over imported school furniture.

The buyers thought wooden furniture should be preferred over metal and plastic in staff offices, libraries and media rooms, and arts and crafts rooms.

Buyers thought it would be helpful for wood shops to support the educational aspects of wooden furniture by using local species, using school logos and colors, identifying wood species on furniture and using innovative designs.

Solid lumber construction was strongly preferred over alternative wood construction.

Buyers wanted wood products manufacturers to provide information about their products, have competitive prices, offer detailed specifications and good warranties.

Buyers thought wood was more sustainable and “green” than metal and plastic school furniture.

Most purchasing departments reported the process for buying new furniture was to seek the inputs of users and staff, research options, write specifications and put out the request for bids.

There were mixed responses to having $ threshold limits for approval for bidding versus purchase orders.

Buyers did not report having purchasing policies favoring specific groups or goals.

About half the responders reported having state procurement policies affecting their purchasing methods.

Buyers reported that users are included in the process of buying furniture, as well as finance personnel, upper level administrators, principals and district facility managers.

Outside professionals who also were reported to assist with furniture purchases included designers and architects, sales reps and consultants.

A majority of survey respondents reported having the RTB package available online.

Buyers reported that new construction involved the greatest $ amount of furniture purchases in any given time period.

A majority of respondents reported having a written policy manual for buying furniture.

Buyers reported using multiple methods for buying furniture that included using state contracts, cooperatively bid contracts, competitive bidding, putting out requests for bids, no bid contracts and negotiated bidding.

The buyers reported that they frequently used the Internet to research vendors and products before creating RTB.

Buyers reported that price, meeting specifications and service were the most important factors to select winning bidders.

Buyers reported they wanted more interaction with wood shops on wood species and construction, to see samples and to have more opportunities for their administrators to meet with local wood shops.

Ideas to Grow Sales to School Districts

Wood shops can apply these concepts to become involved in their local communities to sell wood products to school districts:

The companies now selling to schools are national manufacturers with independent regional sales representatives. These vendors scout posting of RTB from local school districts and the state’s purchasing and contracts office. They are also active in pushing their manufacturer’s specifications and the ones to use in RTB documents in order to improve their chances of winning bids. Local wood shops cannot break into this market unless they are proactive and research this market. Local shops must network with the purchasing department buyers and the school district staff and administrators to have an opportunity to sell products in this market because of needed knowledge and personal contacts that result from good networking efforts.

Local wood shops can gain an advantage by using local wood species and offering local elements to their product offerings. This includes using school colors and designs in the furniture that add local themes that national and global manufacturers cannot easily duplicate that adds value in the eyes of local government and school district buyers. CNC routers can easily create school logos and educational designs in item components.

School buyers want more attention and information from vendors that allows local shops an advantage by being close by and easier to meet face-to-face with purchasing department staff.

Local shops can offer more customization and can respond to slight modifications in the design of products than distant manufacturers. It is important to work with the purchasing department staff well in advance of when RTB are announced to get these elements into the RTB specifications. Architects are another important group in the design of school facilities and local shops should network with current and past architectural firms involved in local school projects.

Local forests can supply wood for furnishing local schools and government buildings / Schools can incorporate lessons of sustainability using the wooden furniture located in the school and how forests provide wood for schools / This $16 million middle school was LEED certified and contained almost no wood furnishings but was full of depletion resource materials like metals and plastics. None of the furnishings were made locally.

Survey of Local Government Purchasing Departments