WOOD PRODUCTS INDUSTRY OFFERS AN IMPROVED SERVICE IN E-BUSINESS

This year the wood industry and its customers are starting to use the sector's first common international standard for e-business, papiNet WoodX. Having just one universal global standard will benefit everybody, from the product manufacturer to the product's final user. Thanks to this standard, customers will now be able to obtain more quickly up-to-date and error-free information about, for example, the product they have ordered, its transportation, and billing.

In conjunction with its e-business the wood product sector will already be using the new, global papiNet WoodX standard sometime during the current year. Through papiNet WoodX the industry will be able to serve its customers better, if they too adopt the new standard. Customers will have access to detailed information about, for instance, goods they have ordered, delivery times and transportation details, plus billing, quickly and in an error-free form. Compared to the mail, telefax and copies this represents a significant step forwards.

"WoodX will improve our efficiency and reduce our expenditure. With the entire wood industry using the same standard we will be able to develop our operations to make them more streamlined,” reports wood product manager Martin Cunliffe from Travis Perkins Ltd. Travis Perkins is Britain 's largest builders' merchant chain.

The European-American papiNet is an electronic information communications standard now serving the pulp, paper and wood industry, as well as paper recycling companies. WoodX, on the other hand, is the first electronic e-business standard that has been developed for the entire wood product sector. All of Europe 's major wood product industry enterprises, as well as many of their customers, are already committed to developing the WoodX standard. WoodX was born in 2002, when the paper industry's papiNet organisation combined forces with the Finnish and Swedish wood product industry to develop a common standard for the wood product industry.

WoodX suitable for companies of all sizes

WoodX has progressed so far that enterprises have begun using its state-of-the-art version. The majority of firms will most likely be offering their clients a WoodX service by the end of the present year. At the moment the standard is being used or tested in over a hundred customer relationships.

"The largest wood product suppliers in Finland and Sweden will be adopting WoodX this year. They will be offering the service to their entire clientele, irrespective of the customer's size. At the same time, the largest buyers will be requiring their suppliers to adopt WoodX”, says IT manager Marketta Vuorjoki from Stora Enso Timber. Vuorjoki is the wood industry's WoodX standard working group's chairperson.

WoodX is ideal for companies of all sizes because it is based on an XML language. XML enables standard communications, i.e. documents, to be used in Internet browsers and Excel, as well as between information systems. The standard features all the normal documents needed for business activities, including billing, ordering, package information, and dispatch instructions.

A universal standard benefits the whole sector

One common global e-business standard benefits everyone involved, from the product's manufacturer to its final user. "Parties make savings in both work input and costs,” says Vuorjoki. “The customers' information accessibility improves and management is simplified: the firm acquires a competitive advantage from the fast information transfer. The use of a single standard also reduces errors and makes operations more efficient.”

Thus far the wood product sector has been using several e-business standards because many customers, suppliers and business associates have their own applications. An urgent need exists in the sector for a uniform, international standard, since the use of a number of different e-business standards creates problems and their development, maintenance and adaptation to customers' requirements call for a lot of resources.

"The introduction of the WoodX standard means punctual, fast and effective information transfer between businesses. For instance, some 2000 bills a month pass between UPM-Kymmene Wood Oy and Puukeskus Oy. With the help of WoodX the bills pass directly into the electronic bill handling system in an automatically accounted form,” explains Arto Parikka , head of UPM-Kymmene Wood Products IT. Parikka is the WoodX standard's technical manager.

Standard is being methodically developed

The industry and its cooperating associates are actively developing the papiNet family's WoodX standard. Other standards in use will be retained for as long as those in the sector need them. "Although the standard's communications will always be developed in the future on the basis of needs, the basic form of the communications will remain unchanged. An attempt will be made to accommodate changes so that the necessity for meddling with the current systems could be avoided,” Parikka stresses.

Those companies that have committed themselves to WoodX hope the entire wood product sector will start using the standard. "The strength of WoodX increases the more firms and customers use it. Dedicated cooperation between the different trade interests will ensure that the standard will continually prove to be useful to all. We'd like to see new users from the various subsectors of the wood product industry, so that WoodX will span the entire customer chain,” says Vuorjoki.

Further information:

Aila Janatuinen, Department Manager, wood-based panels,

Finnish Forest Industries Federation
Tel. 358 (0)9 132 6670, firstname.lastname@forestindustries.fi

Arto Parikka, Chairman of IT group, The Finnish Forest Industry Federation, and IT Director, UPM-Kymmene Corporation, Wood Products Division

Tel. 358 (0)204 14 7006, firstname.familyname@upm-kymmene.com

Marketta Vuorjoki, IT Manager, Sales and distribution, Stora Enso Timber

Tel. 358 (0)2046 48541, firstname.familyname@storaenso.com