Will Sampson's Page

I spent much of yesterday at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York City. I always enjoy visiting this show, which in 2013 marks its 25th anniversary. It is a very design-focused show, typically featuring cutting edge furniture design from all over the world. I was especially looking forward to the show this year because my schedule did not allow me to attend for a couple of years. I did indeed enjoy the show, and I'll be…

I've been amused by an ongoing LinkedIn discussion of woodworkers trying to find an inexpensive starter CAD program. Everybody wants something that has most of the features of the expensive programs, costs nothing, and takes only minutes to learn. Good luck! And reading the responses is a lot…

I've been watching a wonderful debate on a LinkedIn forum for some time. It started by asking the question, "Are we too dependent on machines?" And the first poster added, "Can't beat handcrafted!" Well, you can imagine the responses. Lots of non-CNC users trumpeting the value of handcrafted work and even…

Over the years I've written a lot about where pricing goes wrong in our industry. I've talked about things like poor estimates of time, lack of updating and accounting for increased costs, and even such simple things as bad math. Here's a great discussion of the subject in a blot targeted to contractors. If you…

For those of us who already understand the value of the lean manufacturing approach, it seems like lean is a no-brainer. But the sad truth is that often lean initiatives fail because they weren't successfully sold to management and/or employees. Without full buy-in, no new system is going to reach its full potential, including lean. Furthermore, it's always been my feeling that too many people (mostly high-paid lean consultants) give too much emphasize to all the lean terms (mostly Japanese)…