Are there any noncustom manufacturers left out there? Orlando FL

Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places. Maybe I fell down and hit my head. But in a month of Mondays I haven't run into a secondary woodworking manufacturer who isn't a custom — or at least semicustom — producer.

It seems as if those who make a fairly standard product, and make finished goods and a lot of components to stock, are as rare as an on-time airline. I'm not saying this is a bad thing. Let's let the commodity producers stick to pork bellies and children's action figures (just not covered with lead paint).

What happened to those days when cabinet and case goods producers cookie-cut their offering of fiber-based clones? Where are the manufacturers who would turn out three shifts of essentially the same stuff, with the exciting (whoo hoo!) option of choosing white, gray or almond laminate overlays?

I'll tell you where they're at; they're either dead, retired or running a completely different kind of business — like a Quickie Mart franchise. I'll tell you where they're not at. They're not doing what they were doing 10 years ago. Or even six or eight. You'd have to look to the places where deep fried dog is a delicacy to find where that sort of product and manufacturing mind set is considered new and exciting.

Granted, the RTA sector still has some stars. Sauder and some of the other leaders are still filling a strong niche, particularly as their products become more stylish and durable. The fact that shipments in MDF set a record earlier this year points up the fact that panel producers are making strides somewhere. But I'll bet you a Jefferson nickel to a Washington dollar that those MDF customers — particularly those small, medium and almost-large producers — aren't stamping out products like Keebler elves.

Another exception is the office furniture sector where 2007 is expected to top 2006. But, again, here's a group of manufacturers who have embraced value-added principles while marching to the drum beat of creative customer-focused product development.

I conducted an informal poll at the 2007 AWFS® Fair in Las Vegas. When a manufacturer approached our booth inquiring about subscriptions or whatever, I asked him or her what they did and were they making primarily custom products. To a person the answer was yes, custom was king.

A friend told me recently that a major U.S. importer of German-made machinery is embarking on a mission to bring together American secondary producers and component manufacturers with potential European-base customers. They're not talking about a pen-pal club; they're talking about face-to-face discussions and negotiations. Forever and a day, most capable secondary woodworkers on the monkeys-with-tails (for the most part) side of the Atlantic have either ignored the European markets or have felt reluctant because of real or perceived obstacles.

Hopefully, this effort and others afoot will initiate a growing number of containers of fiber-based products migrating east to this other strong world market. Two things to consider: the dollar's current value compared to the Euro, and our stable and endemic resource of raw materials, particularly our hardwoods and upper grade softwoods. Europeans like those wood grains, just as we like those imported exotic woods and veneers.

So, where have many of the other U.S.-based mass producers gone? They're funneling their manufacturing expertise into the value-added, custom product sectors. And, you know the real encouraging thing — they're not looking back; they're looking east. Way east.