Product! Product! Get your product here!

Are you listening? You can almost hear that call echoing across the industry. Sales are drying up, and you can hear it in the voices: Maybe if we push painted finishes a little harder, we can grab some high-end market share. Worth a shot!

Painted product! Painted product! Get your painted product here!

But is anybody asking what might happen over the next few years? Is AI simply going to drift through our industry like fog and eventually move on to greener pastures?

One of my favorite scenes in Deepwater Horizon is when Mark Wahlberg's character warns John Malkovich's character about all the problems with the drilling rig. He tells him, "Hope is not a tactic, Don." That is followed by some useful advice in case you are ever thinking about sticking your hand into a catfish hole: You had better be prepared.

So instead of daydreaming about the fog lifting, manufacturers might want to build a real plan to help their dealers transform into the next version of their businesses. Because there will be a next version. Seriously, who are we kidding about how much - and how quickly - this industry is going to change?

Ours is an industry that has rarely experienced anything moving fast—unless you count the “batten down the hatches and hope the 2008 storm passes” strategy. Then COVID arrived and forced everyone to make five years’ worth of changes in about five weeks. We adapted because we had no choice. The difference now is that the companies that move before they are forced to will have the advantage.

Leadership has learned that the pace of decision-making is often tied to how long it takes to schedule four meetings and form two committees. Hey, I have been there. Nothing drains energy from an initiative quite like the bureaucratic apparatus arriving just as everyone thinks the work might actually get done.

Those structures were built for a different era - one that rewarded conservative play and slow, careful movement. But that strategy has been running on the same tires for a long time, and the tread is getting thin. Keep driving without changing them, and a blowout is likely somewhere down the road.

I have said before that roughly $1 billion in manufactured cabinet sales could change hands over the next three years. With AI capabilities accelerating, I now believe that shift could exceed $2 billion, depending on how quickly smaller and midsized manufacturers can scale their plants.

If robotic support is not already part of the manufacturing conversation, it probably needs to be - especially for companies planning to grow.

Suppose a plant currently produces an average of 550 cabinets per plant team member each year. With a deliberate automation plan, that number could rise to 800 by 2029. That is roughly a 45% increase in output for the companies willing to read the tea leaves - or at least notice which way they are pointing. Take a look at Hansen & Company Woodworks in Minnesota for an example of where that journey may already be underway.

When innovation and creativity have been stagnant for a long time, it can be difficult to get the sparks flying again. A friend of mine recently attended a plant tour and training session at one of the industry "biggies." I asked whether AI came up during the couple of days he was there.

"Nope. I don't remember it ever coming up."

Now, perhaps there is a secret AI network running beneath the plant and they are not ready to spill the beans. But if I were a dealer buying from a billion-dollar manufacturer and the company was not even hinting at an AI strategy, I would have questions. My guess is that standing still will not put a manufacturer on the receiving end of that potential $2 billion shift in market share.

To be fair, my friend was very positive about the people leading the training and working in the plant. He said they took real pride in their work and in caring for their customers. And this is not a criticism of one company. Outside of plant automation, I have heard very little about a broader AI strategy from most cabinet manufacturers.

Is that surprising? Not really. Companies are products of their environment. If your customer base consists of 700 dealers using fairly basic software, why would you have built a major technology structure around them?

The better question now is: How long can manufacturers afford not to?

Since we are an advocate of people opening up to change, I want to start giving “shout outs” to people who are at least taking their first step towards learning more about AI so that they can use it as a tool to better serve their customers. Oh, the novelty of it! 😊

Bob Whittlesey from Whittwood Sales in Tenn stepped up and decided that it would be a good idea to start learning more about AI and how it could help their team. He also invited 13 of his closest rep friends to attend when so many other Agencies said no.

"Wat verby is, is verby". It means "What is past, is past".

This must be movie history day with this quote being from Invictus.

Exceptional Leadership is going to be the separator between the companies moving forward with intention for AI and the ones that hold on to the old model as long as they can. The first leader says, “I don’t know shit so I better learn it” while the latter will say, “I got it.”

Either way we are excited to announce the Opening of the “GroveWorks Community” which will go live this Saturday Night @ 8:12pm as the Full Harvest Moon aligns with the stars Neptune and Saturn..  aaaggghhh. Sounds spooky but mostly it’s a place where people can go and discuss changes in the industry. It will have information centers, forums, webinars, etc. It’s open to Dealers, Designers, Manufacturers, Installers, Fabricators, and the list goes on. The purpose is connection, collaboration, and integration. Join before the Harvest Moon and it’s $79 a year for membership compared to $99 a year after the moonset.

Hope to run into you exploring topics in the new K & B Industries Community! thad