FEATURES

For cabinet, furniture and millwork manufacturers, some of the equipment operates well outside conventional secondary woodworking. But the show offered a look at how other wood manufacturers are dealing with familiar production pressures:…

At IWF Atlanta 2026, automation extended from estimating and part tracking to material handling, equipment integration and production visibility.

At IWF Atlanta 2026, coating, dispensing and sanding suppliers focused on reducing variation in finishing, from faster-curing coatings and repeatable colour mixing to inspection lighting and robotic surface preparation.

Warm woods, matte finishes and tactile textures appeared repeatedly. At the same time, suppliers were investing in synchronized embossing, matching edgebanding, lightweight panel construction, simplified hardware and integrated lighting.…

Across single- and multiple-dwelling construction, national renovation investment increased from about $19.52 billion in Q2 2025 to $23.28 billion in Q2 2026, a gain of roughly 19 per cent. New-construction investment moved in the other…

New U.S. tariffs introduced in August 2026 are broadening the trade pressures facing Canada’s secondary wood manufacturing sector. The measures now reach beyond previously tariffed finished products into selected furniture, millwork, panels…

Housing starts weakened through the second quarter, with the year-over-year decline becoming more pronounced as the period progressed.

IWF 2026 runs August 25–28 at the Georgia World Congress Center and remains North America’s largest wood-products design and technology trade show. This year’s show also reaches further into automation, software, design, prefabrication and…

Summer has a way of showing where a shop is running smoothly and where it is simply running hard. Labour pressure, uncertain markets, rising imports, customer expectations and equipment decisions all become visible in the same places: lead…

The first hour of the day at My Door Factory is not reserved for cutting, sanding or shipping doors; it starts with improvement work. Employees get time in the shop to fix what made yesterday harder than it needed to be. After, The group…

Canadian cabinet, millwork, furniture, store fixture, and architectural woodwork manufacturers are under pressure to modernize. Many have steady demand, tight labour markets, and customers asking for shorter lead times on increasingly…

The convention, held June 11–13 under the theme Built to Lead, brought manufacturers, suppliers, inspectors, specification writers, architects and association leaders into the same room at a moment when the industry is being asked to manage…

Canadian secondary wood manufacturers entered 2026 with less work moving through the system than a year earlier. Shipments were down, new orders were weaker and backlogs had declined in both major industry groups covered by Statistics…

Residential renovation work took on a larger role in the first quarter of 2026, while new construction continued to carry several major categories. The national figures show a construction sector moving unevenly, with different pressures in…

The national totals show the split clearly. Multi-unit housing is absorbing better at completion than detached product, with 73% of completed multi-unit units absorbed at completion, compared with 64% of completed detached homes. Finished…

A new study of British Columbia’s secondary wood manufacturing sector by Lili Sun, Rico Chan, and Bryan Bogdanski examines how efficiently firms convert inputs into outputs, and how the sector’s productivity has changed over time. For…

Canada’s housing-start figures remained positive through the first quarter of 2026, but the underlying construction cycle continued to lose momentum beneath the headline totals.

In a market defined by pressure to expand, adapt, and differentiate, the most effective manufacturers are not those doing more. They are the ones doing the right things with greater clarity, control, and intention. Across this issue, that…