Photo: WMCO
How do you know how you are doing compared to others?
Our ongoing discussion on the importance of plant tours and peer-to-peer learning continues to stress that it is also important to observe diverse operations across all of the wood segments: cabinetry, commercial millwork, furniture, and other wood component manufacturing. On April 23, 2025, WMCO members had the opportunity to go behind the scenes at one of Ontario’s most innovative manufacturers during a dynamic and insightful plant tour hosted by Cayuga Displays, renowned for their cutting-edge custom-food-retail fixtures. Their processes include both wood cabinetry manufacturing, plus metal fabrication divisions, and a sophisticated powder coating line.Often the best ideas sometimes come from plants that make a different product from you. WMCO plant tours happen at least four times per year, sometimes five depending on availability, and they are free for members.
What are some of the ways to optimize the opportunity of a plant tour? External benchmarking (comparison of what they do to what you do) is the exercise you must take, and WMCO focuses on two main themes: best practices, and a host challenge that leads to a Kaizen (continuous improvement problem solving) discussion.
The day began with a lively morning networking session, where members reconnected over coffee and conversation. Michael Petrie, WMCO’s cluster manager, opened the event with welcoming remarks and shared updates on several exciting WMCO initiatives aimed at fostering growth, innovation, and collaboration across the sector. After the introductions, attendees were split into smaller groups and guided through Cayuga Displays’ impressive 57,000 sq. ft. facility. Tour leaders Ryan Schotsman and Tom Snyder provided an in-depth look at both the wood cabinetry manufacturing, metal fabrication divisions, the company’s sophisticated powder coating line, and its unique approach to cross-border logistics
Best Practices: Best practices can be anything that the host considers to be a strength in their operations, and it can be anything from very simple to the complex. Examples of simple ones are plant visuals, work space organization and housekeeping (5S), morning meeting structure, and visual inventory management. More complex can be digital integration from CAD to ERP, paperless work flows, parts tracking systems, automation adoption and integration, and automated finishing processes.
Its always good to look around at the employees to get a sense of culture by their behaviours and tone of their demeanour and body language. How busy do they look? Are they happy to see you? How does the host culture compare to yours? What are they doing (or not doing) that you are (or not)?
What truly stood out was Cayuga’s forward-thinking mindset in navigating an increasingly complex trade environment. In the face of recent tariffs and global supply chain pressures, Cayuga has taken bold steps to remain competitive. Attendees heard firsthand how the company is:
- Strengthening key supplier partnerships,
-Differentiating its product line through quality and customization,
And modernizing operations through strategic investments in a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system and a shift toward paperless workflows.
Tour debrief & discussion: Tariffs, digital integration, and future readiness
Following the tour, members participated in a valuable Q&A and debrief session, where the conversation focused on how Cayuga is addressing ongoing tariff-related challenges and leveraging process improvements enabled by funding from WMCO’s FedDev Ontario Digital Integration Program.
This funding has supported critical investments in digital systems that improve operational efficiency, data tracking, and cross-departmental coordination — tools that are helping Cayuga future-proof its operations and serve customers with even greater agility.
Host challenges: WMCO members who host tours have the choice of offering a challenge to the visitors that they are experiencing and solicit feedback and suggestions during a debrief discussion after the tour. This is often the best part of the tour, where ideas flourish from outside eyes providing rich discussion and take-away ideas as common solutions to unique problems. Members ask the host questions about why something is done a certain way, or why an employee was doing a certain task in a certain manner.
Host challenges take many forms. Examples include through-put challenges and bottlenecks, to finishing quality to lean initiatives, to employee engagement and ERP implementation. Some have included the front end of the value stream in administration where often bottlenecks take place before production. Equipment optimization is another and challenges with employee training, recruitment and retention are others. All of these themes have driven valuable solutions and take-aways at the WMCO plant tour events. The discussion is facilitated by WMCO staff so it stays on track, nurtures participation, and keeps the discussion moving.
This event lunch was proudly sponsored by Microvellum, a long-time advocate and pillar of support for the WMCO community. We extend our sincere appreciation to Tim Scholman and the entire Microvellum team.
Plant tours are one of the most valuable opportunities open to you. Ask yourself how often do you take the time to look outside your operations? Hosts of tours want to learn too, and are open to sharing what they do well, and gain insight to their challenges, just like you do.
External benchmarking is extremely important for our industry if we are to become globally competitive and thrive in an ever-changing market place. The ecosystem of manufacturers who are on the same journey allows you to compare and benchmark with your peers; this is part of the value of cluster networks.
WMCO and its members welcome you to join in the journey to being the best you can be. Non-Members are welcome to attend as our guest at WMCO tours anytime.
Next WMCO plant tour:
Aug. 28: Timmerman Timberworks: Timmerman Timberworks.
Get involved now with the only cluster for the wood industry in Canada.
You can learn more here: www.wmco.ca, or contact us at mbaker@wmco.ca n
