HARDWOOD PLYWOOD PRODUCT AND SERVICE ATTRIBUTES IMPORTANT TO NORTH-AMERICAN HARDWOOD PLYWOOD DISTRIBUTORS

North American hardwood plywood distributors were surveyed to determin e important product and service attributes, and to assess how well man ufacturers rated with respect to these attributes. Data also were coll ected on current and future use of technology and usefulness of educat ional programs and promotional tools. Absence of panel delamination wa s the most important attribute desired by distributors, followed by sh ipment arrives in good condition, accessibility of the manufacturer, s plice lines tightly matched, plywood face ''on-grade,'' and on-time de livery. The lowest manufacturer ratings were for: manufacturer provide s product training; ability to fill rush orders; manufacturer follows up to see that the product meets or exceeds expectations; manufacturer 's ability to provide samples, literature, ou other support; manufactu rer's awareness of distributors' needs; on-time delivery; and promptne ss of handling customer complaints. Differences existed in importance scores and manufacturer performance ratings across distributors with d ifferent ratios of hardwood plywood sales to total sales, distributors with different levels of total sales volumes, and distributors sellin g to different price point categories. Just-in-time shipments were cur rently being employed by 39 percent of all respondents. Other technolo gies commonly utilized by respondents were electronic data interface, used by 21 percent of respondents, followed by bar coding (17.1%), ven dor-managed inventory(13.8%), and the World Wide Web (9.5%). Use of th e World Wide Web was predicted to grow the most by 1999, with use incr easing by 276 percent, followed by bar coding (226%), electronic data interface (120%), vendor-managed inventory (100%), and just-in-time sh ipments (22%).