Four Critical Challenges for Wood Finishers—And How to Overcome Them

In industrial wood finishing operations, it can seem like there’s a new challenge around every corner. Whether it’s finding enough people to operate your line successfully or maintaining optimal product quality and production efficiency, there’s a lot on your plate.

But with the right support, it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Let’s explore some of today’s most pressing challenges for industrial wood finishers—as well as how to overcome them with the help of the right partner.

#1. Maintaining Color Consistency. It’s no secret that color is in when it comes to everything from furniture, kitchen cabinets and building products.

But offering on-demand color variety can be a significant operational challenge for small to medium-sized industrial wood shops. Oftentimes, you’re at the mercy of your wood color coatings supplier to deliver an exact match when you need it. What’s more, even when you can be certain of the pigmentation consistency from your supplier, proper application techniques must be followed in order to achieve the desired look again and again.

#2. Finding Skilled Labor. In order to successfully paint and coat the wood products your customers demand, you need the people to do it successfully.

Any wood professional will tell you, though, that finding and retaining those people is no simple task. It’s estimated that 3.5 million new manufacturing jobs will be created by 2025—but over 2 million of those may go unfilled due to a widespread lack of skilled workers. What’s more, attracting and retaining a quality workforce is a top focus for 83% of manufacturers surveyed.

When you do find the workforce you need, there is also the matter of providing them with the proper training to do their jobs effectively. The wood finishing process can be tricky to master, requiring finesse from the applicator to achieve the desired look and feel. Even seasoned finishers can benefit from training opportunities to refresh their skills and abilities.

#3. Production Efficiency. When skilled labor is hard to come by, maintaining process efficiency within your operation becomes even more important.

Optimizing your production process can involve anything from small improvements to complete reinventions. Whether you’re expanding an existing line or adding a new one, there are a lot of factors to consider, including your choice of coating product and equipment, worker safety, and overall sustainability. And even for experienced production managers, it can be a challenge to harmonize those choices in a way that contributes to comprehensive production efficiency.

#4. Maintaining Product Quality. Quality is an existential concern for industrial wood shops—your reputation depends on it. Poor quality products can lead to a loss of trust and the subsequent loss of business.

It means that quality must be built into the finishing process from top to bottom. But challenges to that mission can crop up in unexpected areas. For example, it may only take a small applicator error during the finishing process to cause an aesthetic flaw. Elsewhere, suboptimal weather conditions may cause your wood coatings to hang or dry differently than your applicators are used to.

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