1. North America’s largest manufacturer of hardwood plywood
and veneer enlists enlists GE Capital’s expertise to develop new
standards for quality, objectivity, accountability, and teamwork.
Photo courtesy of Wm. H. Fry Construction Company
Columbia Forest Products
Industry
Paper, Packaging
& Forest Products
Challenges
• Strengthen and grow customer relationships
• Increase operational effectiveness and productivity
• Develop leadership and build a strong team
GE Capital
EFFECTIVE QUALITY
MANAGEMENT
HIGHLY
OVER$100,000
WASTE REDUCTION
PER YEAR
Columbia Forest Products finds its roots in
QUALITY
IMPROVEMENT
IN FIRST PASS YIELD25%
ANNUAL
REDUCTION IN
CHARGEBACKS
39%

2. Working closely with GE Capital on a team-based root cause analysis, Columbia Forest
Products boosted quality, curtailing yearly chargebacks and significantly cutting waste.
What we built together
Bringing together sales, manufacturing, quality, and
procurement teams from Columbia Forest Products and one
of its key customers, the Access GE team introduced a process
to mitigate disconnects in quality definitions and improve
profitability. Together, the team:
• Used Six Sigma and Lean practices to identify top challenge
areas with unprecedented rigor
• Unified manufacturer and customer accountability and
objectives, blurring the lines between one company and
another in pursuit of common goals
• Implemented new processes and equipment to reduce
defective plywood chargebacks by 39% annually
• Established dimensional specifications to measure defects
with an objective inspection approach, yielding a reduction
in scrap and labor waste of more than $100,000 annually
for Columbia’s customer.
Solutions beyond financing
Although GE Capital is known primarily as a leading provider of
equipment and inventory financing and strategic capital, we
also help customers address a variety of nonfinancial business
needs by connecting them to the know-how and best practices
of our global GE network. Through Access GE, we can help
customers establish quality standards, reduce defects and
eliminate waste.
We make our expertise your expertise
We put the experience and expertise of GE Capital and
GE to work for your business:
• More than 3,000 GE professionals with Lean certification
• Nearly 30 years of Lean experience throughout GE
• A performance-driven infrastructure that drives continued
growth and success across GE’s global network of operations
To get the skinny on Lean opportunities within your
organization, contact your GE Capital sales representative
or visit www.gecapital.com.
Seeking a clearer path to quality
Producing quality hardwood plywood and veneer is an exacting process—especially when the definition of quality is a
changeable one. So when this preeminent forest products company needed to establish a common quality standard
with a key customer, and establish a standard methodology to reduce costly chargebacks, it called GE Capital.
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More about Columbia Forest Products
In business since 1957, this leading hardwood plywood and veneer manufacturer creates decorative
interior panels for high-end cabinetry, fine furniture, and more. The largest such organization in
North America, it maintains 2,000 employees across 12 locations in the United States and Canada.
“We appreciate the effort of GE Capital
[Access GE] to take us to new levels,
which we can quantify on our bottom
line. This approach is seldom seen in
the corporate finance community, and
we certainly benefited from it.”
—Ron Jorde, CFO,
Columbia Forest Products