The Centre for Advanced Wood Processing (CAWP) is Canada’s national centre for education, training, and technical assistance for the wood products manufacturing industry, based at the University of British Columbia. CAWP offers a wide range of training courses, professional e-learning programs, in-plant training, product development, and manufacturing improvement services.
CAWP offers a Management Skills Training Program in nine short online training courses for wood product manufacturers. The Wood Manufacturing Council funded program development in 2009 and is open to all. CAWP will offer Supply Chain Management and Business Finance from October 24 to December 5.
The Supply Chain Management course module will demystify the topic of supply chain management and relate it to other operational decision areas such as production and business finance. Supply chain management is poorly understood but a source of significant potential cost reductions and operational efficiency gains for those in the know. Examples from the wood products industry will be used to illustrate the concepts covered. The course will describe the various transportation options, benefits, and drawbacks of different modes of transportation and basic logistics management methods. Furthermore, it will explain the importance of information collection, forecasting, mapping a supply chain, selecting supply chain partners for the short and long term, operational decisions, inventory control, and the need for multiple sources of supply. Students will also learn to customize specifications for their needs based on available supplies. The course will also summarize the importance of just-in-time delivery, reserving supply, negotiating for time, and inventory control.
The Business Finance module is aimed at management-track employees without formal financial training who need a basic grounding in financial concepts to manage budgets, analyze return on investment of new acquisitions, produce forecasts related to sales or operational costs, etc. It may also be helpful for small business owners and entrepreneurs wishing to refresh or upgrade their knowledge.
The course modules each require approximately 35-45 hours of study over a six-week or eight-week period (depending on the module). They are written specifically for the wood products industry and include numerous case studies and industry examples.
Participants can either take just one or two courses to fill a particular interest or gap in their knowledge or choose any six modules (or five plus a supervised individual project) to obtain a WMC Management Certificate qualification. Each module is offered at least twice a year, and learners move through each course together, interacting and sharing information and experiences.