Dedication to full-forest utilization, efficient manufacturing, and responsible forest management has propelled the company into strongly competing along the forest products supply chain as a sustainable producer of quality hardwood lumber, industrial products, and wood biomass.

Established in 1993, family-run Thompson Appalachian Hardwoods started as a small green sawmill and has since expanded to a full-service forest products company with a fully functional sawmill, dry kilns, concentration yard, planer mill, and extensive timber procurement program.

The family roots run deep. Founded by Nordeck and Mary Claire Thompson in Huntland, Tennessee, following in the footsteps of his father, W.N. “Bill” Thompson Sr., Nordeck has kept the business in the family, employing three of his six children, including daughter and CFO Claire Getty.

Growing through challenges
“My granddad helped my dad capitalize the business as they got started, and since then it’s been a slow and steady methodical grind every day to do the best we could for that day, but also looking forward to see what could happen next,” Getty says. That approach means not regarding issues that arise as problems, but rather taking them as opportunities and striving to meet them.

“We’ve done that over the last 30 years,” she says. “The basis of it is being in a place with high-quality raw material—privately owned timberland—putting it out and expanding and growing through challenges to the next thing.”

For Thompson, seizing opportunities has also included starting its own trucking company, Thompson Transport, to move its products to and from its mills and avoid the problems that come with relying on third party providers.

“Looking back, my dad knew he needed to do something that would get him further down the supply chain so he wasn’t so reliant on others to get his products,” Getty explains. The company has also invested in a dry kiln facility and a logging company with two crews, more instances of how overcoming obstacles and challenges can catapult a company forward.

A sustainable industry
One ongoing challenge as a forest products company is dealing with the misconception of the sustainability of the industry, Getty adds.

“We get asked every day if we’re running out of trees, if we’re cutting down too many trees,” she says. “But we’re committed to educating people on the importance of the working forest and how it’s imperative for us to have sustainable building products coming from wood by maintaining the economic value of standing forest.”

When you’re a landowner, she adds, you have to think about why you own this land, what its value is, and what you can do with it. “Also, what can my future generations do with this land?” Getty says. “We want lands to stay forests; we do not want lands to have permanent land use conversion. People don’t realize that when you take a 200-acre tract and subdivide it into mini farms, you’ve completely taken out that rotational, working forest.”

Going a step further, when you clear land for stores and parking lots, those places will never grow trees again and never positively impact the environment.

“If we don’t maintain the economic value of timberland, people will choose other things to do with it and it will cease to be timberland,” Getty says. “We’re able to provide a 40-to-50-year economic cycle for families to keep forestland intact, to keep them in their family’s portfolio, and to have a monetization and reward for doing a good thing, which is growing the Earth’s forests and maintaining natural carbon sequestration systems. That’s our main point.”

The next step is intentionally being the best stewards and practitioners of harvesting the woods that they can be. To that end, all of Thompson Appalachian Hardwood’s loggers and procurement agents utilize best management practices, flag property lines, know where the streams are, and sustainably manage and harvest to maintain the area’s optimum ecology.

And while people don’t like clear-cuts, Getty says, they can be very good for the forest, as opposed to simply cutting all the good trees and leaving the bad ones. “At that point, it can be best just to go in and clear everything and let everything grow back, because the best trees are what come back afterward,” she says, adding that young trees actually sequester more carbon and are more productive from a climate perspective than aged forests that have reached peak maturity and are showing signs of mortality.

The result, she says, is that, “as a company and as a forest industry, we’re able to go into those forests when the trees have reached peak maturity and peak value for the landowner.”

Trees at the very southern tip of the Appalachian Mountains, where the company is located, begin to deteriorate from the inside when they start dying. When they fall, they emit all the carbon they’ve sequestered. Thompson Appalachian Hardwoods harvests the trees and creates a solid product that will store that carbon indefinitely.

“Those products are natural carbon storage solutions in a time where we’re all looking for ways to reduce our footprints and store carbon,” Getty says. “We’re all about optimizing the yield and making the most we can of these trees. We don’t want waste, and the waste we do have we can use as biofuel.” Other biofuel byproducts that come from cutting logs into lumber include bark, sawdust, and wood chips, all of which will be burned to generate energy.

In another sustainable initiative, the company recently installed a 600 hp biomass boiler, paid for in part by the USDA Rural Energy for America program and the U.S. Forest Service Wood Innovation Grant program. The boiler assists with turning waste products into steam to run all the company’s dry kilns, eliminating the need to have propane trucked in weekly.

“We produce a product that will burn and create energy,” Getty says. “That’s one of the steps we’ve taken to be a zero waste facility, and we actually burn our byproducts to create energy.”

Boosting safety, managing risk
The company also takes safety seriously, ensuring all employees are trained properly in all areas of the job, and is dedicated to creating a positive company culture.

“We also do a lot of internal training now, which is another area that we’ve invested in,” Getty shares. “We’re tired of everybody talking about how awful it is to hire people and how ‘nobody wants to work and everybody’s lazy’ and so on; it’s not true. Everybody who says that needs to reflect on what kind of jobs and businesses they’re running and whether they’re actually a good place to work.”

For Thompson Appalachian Hardwoods, this has included investing in a full-time Human Resources Manager to help recruit and retain top people, maintain a culture of safety, and create pathways for advancement, all efforts that have helped create a more stable workforce.

Getty is also proud of the company’s improved risk management program. 15 years ago when involved in logging and sawmilling—considered the top most dangerous job by OSHA—the company was expensing its significant insurance premiums, whether for property, casualty, or general liability. “Yes, people had to wear hard hats, but we weren’t going over and beyond in our safety culture,” she says. “We were just doing what we needed to do.”

The company learned that making risk management a primary focus of the business would result in reduced claims and reduced premiums, and it would actually become a revenue stream and investment opportunity with eligibility for alternative insurance opportunities, Getty says. “We started investing on the front end—in risk management, safety committees, safety training, regular internal safety audits, and pre- and post-accident screenings,” she says.

Steady improvement resulted in acceptance into a captive insurance program, so now instead of writing monthly checks, it’s simply a part of doing daily business.

“Now we’re investing not only on the ground in the different ways that we handle risk in our plants but also in how the premium dollars are spent: it’s going into a pool. If we don’t use it, we get the money back,” Getty says. “We got a 30 percent reduction in our premiums this year and got the money back because our claims have gone down. We’re seeing a reduction in claims and therefore a reduction in our annual insurance costs.”

Educating others about the industry is a huge part of the company’s ongoing mandate as well, Getty says.

“We’re thrilled to be able to do that, and one of the things we’re called to do here is help others understand what this looks like and why it’s important to us,” she says. “I’m unabashedly proud of what we do. When others say, ‘you cut down trees,’ yes we do, and this is why and this is how. This is what happens to the forest after we cut down trees, and this is the impact of our business in a rural economy. There wouldn’t be high-paying jobs, jobs with potential advancement in rural Tennessee, if we weren’t here.”

Keeping the business in the family has certainly helped with those successes.

“I came back to work because I saw something that my dad and my granddad had been growing,” says Getty. “And there’s such beauty in that. Our family has been in this industry for a very long time and it’s been respected in the industry.”

While Getty’s educational background and work experience prior to joining the company was in a different field, her dad wasn’t afraid to take a chance on her. “He learned how to do it, taught me how to do it, and put me in contact with people who could also help me learn what I needed to know. And after a while, he let me do it. I think that’s a big part of succession planning—the control piece, and not relinquishing enough control at the right time.”

Looking forward
The company is currently installing a second sawmill which will double its capacity and production, and there are plans to continue to modernize facilities to improve efficiency.

“We want to create an environment of transparency in our supply chain. We want people to see and understand what’s happening, to tell the story of where our products are coming from, where our wood is coming from,” Getty says. “People are very concerned about the sustainability of the product, but they don’t understand what we’re doing is already sustainable, and we’re doing it in a good way.”

The company will never stop trying to do even better in its practices, though, while continuing to educate others about the forestry industry as a whole.

“It’s about letting people see and be proud of what our country’s forests are producing for the world, and how our forests are a climate solution in a variety of ways,” says Getty. “We need to protect them, but we also need to be careful about what we’re trying to protect them from.”

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The legacy of America’s first screen company goes back to the 1940s when JT Walker founded the Clearwater Flying Company of Florida. Initially, the business focused on leasing and selling airplanes and providing flying lessons to civilians and veterans following World War II. By 1947, Walker transformed the company into Metal Industries Inc., utilizing a portion of one of its airplane hangars to build window screens with aluminum frames.

“What JT Walker and his partners began in Florida has grown tremendously over the past 75 years,” says Steve Middleton, Vice President of Sales – West. RiteScreen has seven strategically located plants throughout the United States, and Middleton explains that, “Maintaining our values of honesty, integrity, safety, customer focus, accountability, continuous improvement, and teamwork helped make us what we are today.”

With decades of experience providing industry-leading window and door screen products, RiteScreen has the skills and technology to provide best-in-class experiences for all its customers. The company offers the biggest product catalog in the business at almost 100 pages, showcasing standard and customized window and patio door screen solutions along with components and information on custom color capabilities, outsourcing, packaging options, dimensions, and more.

“Our catalog is updated multiple times throughout the year, providing a standing resource for our customers to rely upon when needed,” says Mark Gwozdz, Vice President of Sales – East. Along with an impressive catalog, RiteScreen recently hired a new Digital Marketing Director, further promoting the company and its resources online for window and door manufacturers.

As an OEM in the screen industry, RiteScreen offers window companies a wide variety of options in both packaging and shipping. In fact, RiteScreen tailors its manufacturing processes to each individual window company, providing highly specific, comprehensive screen solutions normally associated with small, boutique dealers. RiteScreen is even set up to accommodate the most frequent ways in which screens are consumed by window manufacturers: sequenced options for lean efficiency, house-packaged options for manufacturer ease, and even stock bundle options for streamlined, efficient screen solutions.

By providing high-quality screens at a more efficient and affordable rate, RiteScreen enables manufacturers to redeploy people, space, and capital toward more profitable endeavors: making more windows, doors, and skylights. “Simply put, our number one advantage is peace of mind,” says Gwozdz. “At RiteScreen, we are screening experts; it’s in our name. It’s our passion. It’s what we do.”

RiteScreen was purchased by Seven Point Equity Partners in 2014 and the company quickly launched its Total Screen Solution presentation, as well as a confidential “make vs. buy” analysis tool. With these tools, the window industry has realized that making screens in-house is never as profitable as outsourcing. The majority of America’s largest and most successful window manufacturers have been outsourcing screens for years—and for good reason. RiteScreen’s Make vs. Buy tool has made small to medium-sized manufacturers realize the benefits and additional profits of outsourcing.

“We always knew we were effective, but it’s exciting to see just how much value we’re actually providing to our customers,” Gwozdz says. “And with the make vs. buy tool, we can definitively show the specific savings we provide to each unique business. In fact, with all the ‘make vs. buy’ analysis we’ve done, we have never found it to be more cost-effective or efficient for a manufacturer to produce screens themselves instead of outsourcing them from RiteScreen!”

As a reliable single-source solution company, RiteScreen makes outsourcing easy, efficient, and highly profitable. By freeing manufacturers from the hassles associated with insourcing screens, they can instead focus energy and resources on their core door and window business. And with a massive selection of screen products and multiple factories, RiteScreen provides roll-formed and extruded screens for virtually every window and door type installed in America. This includes screens for double-hung windows, single-hung windows, casement windows, awning windows, sliding windows, hopper windows, tilt-turn windows, single slide patio doors, swinging doors, and now even multi-panel sliding ‘big doors.’

Much has changed since RiteScreen was founded, including the materials and production methods used in manufacturing. And now, even the typical door and window sizes are changing! While windows and doors are still designed for functionality, it’s undeniable that these products are becoming larger and more complex than ever. This is particularly the case along the West Coast in California, where property owners want massive doors to enjoy their spectacular ocean or mountain views.

Thanks to improvements in technology, energy efficiency, operations, and hardware, RiteScreen is seeing more requests for bigger screens, multiple panels, and even entire walls to accommodate these gigantic doors and create expansive spaces. Fortunately, the company has dedicated considerable effort to developing screens to meet these emerging needs— whether it’s height, width, or how everything fits together—and has created innovative, dynamic products to cover multiple-panel spaces.

In fact, RiteScreen has solutions that support numerous operating configurations, with screen sizes up to 40 feet wide by 12 feet tall. “Recently, we launched a multi-slide patio door screen where you can go out to eight panels wide, 12 feet tall, and 40 feet wide with a screen system that’s attached in panels,” says Middleton. “You have the door panels? Well, now we can replicate them and produce screen panels in the same exact configurations to cover that space. 10 or 15 years ago, we never would have considered such a product. But now, in response to our customers’ evolving needs, we provide the best option in the industry for screening-in that size of door and that size of opening.”

All businesses faced tough times during COVID-19. Still, RiteScreen was able to successfully deliver an impressive 98.7 percent on-time and completion rate to its highly aligned and most committed customers through the pandemic. This remains not only a point of pride, but a clear sign of the company’s management, efficiency, strengths, and customer dedication.

“That was an important time for us, and we are very proud of that,” Middleton reflects. “Plenty of companies talk about maintaining continuity of supply and remaining on time, but in the toughest of times—particularly over that two-to-three-year period—we came through without any decline in quality or lead time. We know those were challenging times for manufacturers across many industries, so we take a great deal of pride in the collective efforts of our entire team.”

Early in the pandemic, RiteScreen made provisions to ensure adequate supplies of aluminum so it could keep its promises to customers. “We didn’t want to be the reason they had to change their lead time or break delivery promises to their customers,” says Middleton. With seven plant locations, RiteScreen came together as a united entity, rather than individual silos. This collaborative spirit proved to be a huge advantage for the company and its loyal clients.

RiteScreen’s team had to react quickly to ensure continuous production throughout the pandemic. Sometimes, lines had to be pulled down with little notice, but by seamlessly moving production from one plant to another, the company filled orders in full and on time. By ensuring sufficient materials and employing the strengths of all its plants, the company continued to honor the close working relationships it has built with its customers.

“We are very proud that we did not change our lead times during that period, and maintained our ability to complete orders.,” says Gwozdz. “It was a lot of hard work, but everybody at RiteScreen committed to keeping those promises. While many manufacturers focused on bringing in new customers during that time, we really prioritized our existing customers. And I think our customers really appreciated the work we did.”

As RiteScreen grows, it continues to introduce exciting, new screen products to the market. One of the most recent is the proprietary SlideRite adapter, which transforms standard 5/16” screen frames to a larger 3/8” or 7/16” screen frame dimension without increasing the base metal frame size. This unique innovation allows manufacturers to use the same screen design in windows with varying screen pocket dimensions, providing cost savings for manufacturers and alleviating headaches for installers.

In recent months, RiteScreen has also started offering manufacturers the option of ordering patio door screens in a shipping tube or box. This allows for the shipment of more doors in a smaller space, generating significant savings on freight costs. Paused during the pandemic, RiteScreen is also finalizing and adapting a new proprietary blue light adhesion technology. This provides manufacturers with an alternative method for securing screen mesh to a screen frame. Ultimately, this new method reduces the manufacturers’ screen acquisition costs by eliminating the labor and materials associated with a traditional screen spline.

As the company’s 80^th anniversary approaches, RiteScreen is continuing to invest in future endeavors, making improvements to its enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, electronic data interchange (EDI) technology, and just-in-time (JIT) delivery processes as it anticipates the demand for outsourced screens to continue to grow.

“RiteScreen’s market penetration is expected to persist with investments in new plants,” shares Middleton. “In Q2, we are set to launch a new ERP system, enhance our functionality, and expand services to our manufacturing customers. Additionally, we are actively pursuing acquisitions of complementary screening products, allowing us to further broaden our product portfolio for window, door, and skylight manufacturers.”

The post Exceeding Expectations<p class="company">The RiteScreen Company</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Continually evolving to keep up with industry changes, the WDMA in its own words “promotes, protects, and advances the use of high-performance, high-quality windows, doors, and skylights through advocacy, education, standards, and certification.” Based in Washington, D.C., the Association’s team of lobbyists and technical experts champion issues affecting its members to ensure this important sector continues not only to grow but to thrive.

A history of service
Originally founded in 1927 as the National Door Manufacturers Association (NDMA), the Association has undergone several name changes over the decades. Promoting wood windows and doors, the association changed its name in 1949 to the National Woodwork Manufacturers Association (NWMA).

From its early days, the Association devised and developed programs, including the Seal of Approval Program (which became the WDMA Hallmark Certification Program). In 1958, the Association took over the management of U.S. Commercial Standards for ponderosa pine doors, which over time led to WDMA Industry Standards for these wood products.

In its 97 years, the Association spearheaded fire testing of doors, took a firm position on standards and certification development, successfully took on several unions along the way, and became the sole industry association with a presence in Washington, D.C.

“The Association has been evolving through its entire history, starting with a heavy focus on wood windows and doors,” says WDMA’s President and CEO, Michael O’Brien, CAE. With evolving technology and the arrival of new materials, the Association expanded to include windows, doors, and skylights made of other material types, such as vinyl, fiberglass, and composites.

Before coming on board in 2009, O’Brien took on roles with the National Lumber & Building Material Dealers Association (NLBMDA), as President and CEO, as COO at the Manufactured Housing Institute, and at the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), where he served as Assistant Vice President of State and Local Affiliate Services. A career spent in housing and building industry associations made O’Brien a natural fit for the WDMA.

Key initiatives
To this day, the Window & Door Manufacturers Association’s legacy of service continues. The WDMA’s 2023 National Policy Agenda (available at https://www.wdma.com/assets/docs/Policy_Agenda/2023Agenda.pdf) “identifies priorities and offers solutions that will strengthen the U.S. economy, improve the national supply chain, address nationwide labor shortages, and bolster America’s housing industry.”

Enumerated in the Agenda are many recent efforts of the Association, including working with Congress and the Biden-Harris Administration on policies impacting energy, workforce development, affordable housing, trade policy, safety, supply chains, and economic challenges facing members.

One key initiative is the important role that windows, doors, and skylights play in energy conservation; in fact, an entire section within the Agenda is dedicated to energy conservation.

“We try to encourage and support efforts or incentives for the purchase of energy-efficient windows, doors, and skylights to help bring down the cost of window and door replacement for consumers across the country,” says O’Brien.

He adds that there are about a billion single-pane windows still in existence in the United States. Old and inefficient, these single-pane windows allow heat and cold to be lost, making properties much more costly to maintain.

Although there is considerable regulation surrounding new windows, doors, and skylights, many people don’t realize that replacing the existing inventory of single-pane windows with energy-efficient products will save consumers millions—if not billions—of dollars in energy savings.

“Buildings themselves are the largest consumer of energy in the world,” says O’Brien, “and when we talk about energy policy, we don’t talk enough about energy efficiency.” Replacing outdated and inefficient windows, doors, and skylights with new products not only saves money, but also reduces our collective carbon footprint and adds value.

While window replacement benefits the environment, the WDMA acknowledges it isn’t cheap, and is advocating for options for buyers. The Association has been disappointed with the federal government’s unwillingness to incentivize consumers through a robust tax credit to help consumers replace windows, doors, and skylights. “One of the biggest things a government can do is help spur that on,” says O’Brien. The WDMA is constantly faced with code changes and policy proposals that increase the cost of producing energy-efficient windows, doors, and skylights, but the government is doing little to benefit consumers willing to make the effort to replace old, inefficient products.

While O’Brien says there have been some government efforts, they must meet specific criteria, including Energy Star Most Efficient 2023. This designation governs different window types, including vertical slider (single- and double-hung), casement style (awning, projected hopper, tilt-and-turn, etc.), sliding glass (patio) doors, skylights and tubular daylighting devices (TDDs), and others. Buyers can claim 30 percent of the project cost, up to $600 maximum—hardly enough to prompt homeowners to redo all their windows with high-efficiency versions. Energy Star-qualified exterior doors are eligible for a $250 tax credit.

Another of the main functions of the Window & Door Manufacturers Association is, and always has been, product certification for windows and doors. This includes WDMA Hallmark Certification and serving as an inspection agency for the National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC) for energy efficiency.

The Hallmark program certifies windows for air, water, and structural performance for different industry standards, with products tested for energy efficiency by a third-party administrator. “That provides an added layer of confidence for consumers—including builders, architects, remodelers, and the average consumer—that the windows and doors they are purchasing meet certain standards and criteria, and to ensure overall total product performance,” says O’Brien.

Advocating for members
Alongside quality standards, energy efficiency, and affordability, the WDMA is active on many other issues. These include working with the IRS regarding reporting (on tax returns) an individual identification number of windows and doors that qualify for tax credits. As some windows, doors, and skylights come from big box sellers and others are made to order by smaller manufacturers, this presents a complex issue. “Unlike a furnace, we don’t have serial numbers,” O’Brien explains. The Association is still working on this, trying to come up with workable solutions that don’t burden the industry or the consumer.

Other issues facing the WDMA and its members include the latest version of Energy Star, state regulations surrounding chemicals, and packaging used to ship products.

Introduced last October, Energy Star Version 7.0 replaces the previous version regarding residential windows, doors, and skylights, and is the most stringent to date. The Association is working to develop a system for manufacturers to report their data, in an aggregated format, concerning Energy Star production to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as required by the agency.

The Association is also concerned about state regulation surrounding the elimination of Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances (PFAS). These are used in the manufacture of fluoropolymer coatings, which resist oil, grease, heat, water, and stains. Although found in the adhesive used in windows and doors, the WDMA’s position is that PFAS are also contained in many other everyday products, from heat-resistant non-stick cooking surfaces to clothing, furniture, electrical wiring, and even food packaging.

Recently, Maine and Minnesota passed legislation looking to phase out the use of PFAS over alleged harmful health effects, and the Association believes this will become a big issue for many industries. “It will impact a lot of products and how they are used,” says O’Brien. “People don’t realize it’s contained in a lot of products, not just things you ingest or wear.”

Another issue at the state level is to reduce non-recyclable plastic packaging. Windows and doors are shipped with a lot of plastic packaging because they are delicate items. The WDMA is investigating how it fits into that debate, and is working to educate policymakers about the challenges of completely eliminating plastic in shipping. This issue will be on the Association’s agenda heading into 2024 along with others, such as the shortage of workers.

Like construction and most other manufacturing sectors, window, door, and skylight manufacturers are hard-pressed to navigate the current staff situation. It continues to trouble the industry, especially at the entry level for production workers. The WDMA’s challenge has been how to reach Gen Z-ers and younger Millennials and communicate the industry’s many career opportunities and benefits.

The WDMA has a separate website, Open Up To Performance (https://www.openuptoperformance.com/), which covers a range of topics while promoting high-performance products to builders, architects, and remodelers, from newcomers to seasoned industry professionals.

To keep members informed of changes and developments in the industry, the WDMA has a biweekly electronic newsletter, regular webinar updates, and three annual conferences every year, plus an information-packed website. “What’s most effective for us is getting existing members to identify and refer other companies that would benefit from membership,” says O’Brien. “It’s a type of one-on-one recruitment effort that we do.”

As mentioned, the Association’s primary membership is window, door, and skylight manufacturers, but there is also the supplier membership category, which includes suppliers of services. “Those suppliers are typically identified by primary members as candidates for membership,” O’Brien adds.

A clear view
As the WDMA approaches its hundredth anniversary, the future of the Association remains bright.

“It might not be obvious to many, but the window and door industry is very innovative and technologically advanced, and I’m excited to see where it goes in terms of meeting consumer demand, how we’re going to evolve, the products that are going to be produced, and how much of a dent we can make in that reduction of the old inventory of single-pane windows,” notes O’Brien.

“We have a lot of innovative companies in this industry constantly coming up with new products and solutions both to the challenges facing existing homeowners and the demands of builders and architects,” he says. “I expect that by our centennial in 2027, there will be a host of different options available, both for the high-tech home automation that many people are seeking and for affordable products to help meet the energy-efficiency demands that need to be addressed.”

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