When the idea of a Scottish Forest Industries Cluster was mooted, sceptics suggested an initiative built around forest industry collaboration would prove unworkable. The preoccupation with confidentiality among competing companies, as well as the perceived absence of trust and understanding between certain links in the forest industry chain, would ensure that little worthwhile benefit would be derived from the venture, they argued.
John Kissock, managing director of James Jones & Sons and a member of the Cluster Leadership Group, does not deny the existence of tensions within the overall structure but insists these have not prevented substantial progress on key fronts during the organisation’s first year.
Priorities were to develop knowledge, new products/markets, the Cluster network itself and links with the wider community. Notable successes to date include substantial progress towards the formation of a Centre for Timber Engineering at Napier University and moves to encourage e-compatibility within the forest industry.
The Cluster was never intended to break down confidentiality within the forest industry but to achieve greater ‘transparency’ for the benefit of the sector as a whole. ‘There is a point beyond which you can’t go for competitive reasons but it should be part of the Cluster exercise to find out where that is,’ said Mr Kissock. ‘There have to be symbiotic relationships in the industry.’
Indeed, Mr Kissock insisted that there is a need to introduce ‘even more transparency’, with the aim of increasing the level of understanding of how individual elements of the supply chain operate and the limitations placed upon them either through cost or raw material.
In the first year, Cluster activities came under the general guidance of its Leadership Group comprising such diverse industry luminaries as Forestry Commission chairman David Bills, Central Scotland Countryside Trust chief executive Simon Rennie, Building Research Establishment‘s Dr Peter Bonfield, Iain Dickson of architect George Watt & Stewart, John Stoker of Hickman Industries, David McElroy of Nexfor and outgoing Cluster chairman Sandy Brownlie of BSW Timber. However, the detailed work was generally performed by focus groups consisting in many cases of volunteers and experts from interested industries and organisations.
One focus group has carried forward the idea of a new learning centre of excellence for the use of the forest, processing and construction industries not only in Scotland but throughout the UK. Mr Kissock, the leader of this project, explained: ‘The idea of a centre of excellence for timber engineering was first mooted three years ago but cost was a problem. The Cluster wanted to develop the knowledge base and so the two ideas came together.’ In this way, the Cluster ‘provided the vehicle’ for the project funding and for the involvement of all interested industry parties.
The Cluster project team received widespread support for the centre, and subsequently put the project out to tender within the higher education community. Edinburgh-based Napier University emerged as the preferred bidder because of existing expertise within the Faculty of Engineering and Computing’s Integrated School of the Built Environment. The institution also had a track record in timber engineering and other relevant subject areas.
The £2.3m budget drawn up for the first five years of the centre calls for an industry contribution of £390,000 and Mr Kissock remained ‘pretty confident’ that this funding would be forthcoming from the primary processing, timber frame and other sectors.
He added: ‘You go to any timber industry meeting and people complain about the lack of knowledge and skills, so £390,000 over three years is not a lot to come up with in that context. If we can’t get this money together, then we don’t deserve the centre.’
Assuming the necessary funding package is put in place, the Centre for Timber Engineering (CTE) will open for business this summer, with the Cluster starting the search for a director in the spring.
The CTE’s remit is to enhance the professional knowledge base in timber engineering, promote the transfer of technical knowledge, provide research services to industry and conduct strategic research. Courses will be at various levels, from technician, through graduate and on to CPD. They will be open to newcomers and existing timber industry employees interested in timber engineering.
Using digital libraries, the aim will be to develop a ‘virtual gateway’ to learning and teaching activities in timber engineering and to act as an advice service to support the industry. CTE will provide workshops, institutional visits, roadshows and conferences to assist professional development, as well as a suite of timber-orientated modules covering, for example, computer integrated manufacture, advanced design, construction/project management and building regulations. CTE will also be involved in strategic and applied research, with priority given to the development interests of industrial sponsors in establishing Teaching Company Schemes and EU-funded industry-university collaborative projects.
‘The ultimate aim is to get distance learning packages in place so people do not have to attend the centre itself’ – a particularly important point given that the CTE was intended as ‘a UK and not just a Scottish resource,’ emphasised Mr Kissock. ‘The timber and construction industry UK-wide should be involved.’
He sees the CTE as a logical support to the wood. for good campaign as it will train people to learn about wood and its advantages.
‘We have got to sell timber as much more than a commodity,’ he said. ‘There has got to be a technical element to it, providing design solutions to construction problems rather than individual elements.’
The CTE project represents a prime example of the catalytic effect of the Cluster. The involvement of Scotland’s enterprise agency network has facilitated investment in worthwhile projects that might otherwise have failed to attract sufficient industry backing, such as a pilot study into the viability of engineering native sitka spruce for use in joinery manufacture.
Other initiatives include a campaign to promote use of home-grown timber in the design of furniture and timber buildings, with a showcase pavilion due to be constructed at the new Scottish Plant Collectors Garden at Pitlochry. It has also been involved in a pre-feasibility study into a Scottish softwood pulp mill capable of consuming two million tonnes of domestic timber per year and work to co-ordinate timber transport and the transfer of substantial volumes from road to rail. Projects have also included seminars for woodland managers and owners to explore the benefits of co-operative marketing ventures and entering long-term contracts with buyers.
The Cluster is supporting an on-going e-commerce initiative at panel producer Nexfor as well. Objectives include development of ‘downloadable’ information for suppliers and customers, evaluation of internet forum possibilities and creation of a document management system. Speaking at the Cluster conference in Dunblane last month, Nexfor’s Dave McElroy said he was hopeful of developing an on-line ordering and tracking capability by the middle of this year.
According to Mr Kissock, the key challenge for the Cluster over its second 12 months will be to increase the level of industry ‘engagement’ in its activities. The strategic framework document ‘Roots for Growth’ had set the Cluster agenda but there was now a need for the industry at large to come forward with ‘new ideas, development of current ideas and general input’, he said. ‘The major aim of 2002 is to engage more people, particularly from all those markets we have an opportunity to access. People who understand the market are extremely important to this process.’
And, of course, all the activities of the Cluster are set against the prospect of a rapid increase in the UK log harvest over the next few years. As Mr Kissock said: ‘That’s the big issue now – it’s about market development in its broadest sense.’
