Blending Craftsmanship With Data To Build Smarter, Faster, And At Scale | Michael Dionne, Lepage Millwork

Michael Dionne: 0:00

Innovation is part of the culture from many years now. We say yes to project that uh some people do not want to do, then I think that innovations start there. Do customers change the mind a lot?

John Wheeler: 0:11

Yeah, it uh very often. Lapage is a company, it's always trying to stay ahead of the curve. It's wood works of art that go into people's home. Their shop floor is full of technology, very data-driven, and they're always looking to the future.

Michael Dionne: 0:25

We are looking about uh how AI can help us right now. We are looking about uh how can we be more efficient inside the shop floor, do more with less. This is what we uh we're trying to do.

John Wheeler: 0:38

Welcome to the Paradigm Industry Insiders Podcast, where real people share real stories about what's happening with doors, windows, millwork, and life. I'm John Wheeler, and along with my co-hosts, we sit down with your peers who are moving our industry forward. These are honest conversations packed with practical insights and lessons you can take and bring value to your team. Here's today's conversation. Hi, welcome to the Paradigm Industry Insiders Podcast, where we talk about the stories of the people and the products and the technology of the window and door industry. Today I'm joined by Michael from LaPage Millwork. Michael, let you introduce yourself.

Michael Dionne: 1:17

Yes, I'm the IT director of uh LePage Millwork in uh Canada, Quebec, Riviere du Lou City, and uh I'm glad to be here, John.

John Wheeler: 1:24

Awesome. One of the reasons that I wanted to have you on, I've been up to LaPage a a couple times, and it seems like you know, LaPage is a company is always trying to stay ahead of the curve. If for anyone that Googles their website, it's wood works of arts that go into people's home. But they're their shop floor is full of technology, they're um very data driven, and they're always looking to the the future. Talk about, you know, that comes from the the leadership down with Mark and Francois. Um down, talk about that that culture and how it comes across you and your organization.

Michael Dionne: 2:00

It's true that innovation is part of the culture from many years now. And uh we do custom woodworking windows and door, and um often we uh we say yes to project that uh some people uh do not want to do, then uh I think that innovation starts there. And after that, uh we um we did deploy a new framework last year. Uh we called it 3 2 Delta.

John Wheeler: 2:25

Nice.

Michael Dionne: 2:26

And what it means is uh we uh have objectives about the innovation, what we need to deliver in terms of uh of teams and and company. And uh it said that uh we need to do three minor innovations by uh by month, two major by years, and uh three uh one uh disruptive every three years. And it gave us objective from uh the leadership to the shuffle to uh innovate in in a way that a client will see something, something new, something uh that we can uh deliver in terms of innovation to them. And uh also in in terms of uh IT, where uh with my team, we always try to push technologies uh to go further. Even with Paradigm, we try to go to see if we can uh do better with the technology we uh we have and try to uh to push it to the limit and uh be able to always innovate with uh what we got. You sure push it to the limit.

John Wheeler: 3:23

And it's cool that you you know you have a strategy of it, because I always think we have to you know define the challenge and solve the challenge and then iterate and repeat that. And if you have a strategy with measurable things, you know, it's kind of how you start um doing stuff or getting to you know in the custom woodworking industry, having a completely paperless shop floor is an example of you know that working, I think. Yeah, I think the I don't want I don't want you to give away too many of your secrets, but um you know when you think about the data that it produces, right? All the different workstations and your sales teams and the quotes that are getting um generated and things, it's been data has always been the number one for the seven years that I've known LaPage uh since I've been here. How has that evolved? Um, I guess before you and then after you got there five years ago?

Michael Dionne: 4:17

When I started with LaPage, uh they were already focused on be data driven. Why is because in the system uh they they didn't have all the the data to produce, uh they were relying on experienced people to uh to do so. Then when I come into the business, one of the things is uh we wanted to have everything inside the system to be able to have the information to produce and also be able to uh implement automatization inside the shop floor. And uh one of the things is we needed to have that data. And after that, when we did the remote re-implementation of our uh paradigm, and with that in mind to be uh data drive and focus and making sure that we have uh everything that we needed inside the system, uh, we saw that we can use the data to do uh much more, like uh getting insight, uh be more uh precise of what we uh see on the on the on the shop floor, even outside the the building, like in the quote system and things like that. And it gave us the ability to uh have uh a better view as of what is going on and uh I think uh be more precise in our uh decision and uh faster than before.

John Wheeler: 5:31

It's interesting because a lot of people you know want to like having a paperless shop floor, a lot of people just want to remove the paper out, but it was almost seems like it was from the inside out with you. You wanted to track those data points, and you can't do that if you're you know just holding one doing one paper to the next.

Michael Dionne: 5:49

Yeah, and gave us to the uh agility to modify the order. And uh before when you got paper, it's uh it's tough. You need to retrieve the papers, make sure, make sure that you don't just forget one to be sure that it will not uh cause any errors, then uh having a paperless uh environment, it gave us the ability to change something inside an order and having it delivery directly to the the paperless station with no dealer, you know, then it's uh more efficient.

John Wheeler: 6:17

Do customers change their mind a lot?

Michael Dionne: 6:20

Yeah, yeah, it uh very often almost all the time.

John Wheeler: 6:25

I think I don't remember it was the first or second time, but you told me one of the times I was up um at your facility that the second the paper comes off the printer, it's out of date. Like the it's immediately out of date. That always always stuck with me. You know, you use the word culture a lot. And so you know, the Mark and Francois, you know, from a leadership perspective, you know, they're bought into that that data culture. You're you're clearly bought into it. How do you get the everyone else in the organization bought into it?

Michael Dionne: 7:00

Uh I think that they uh they buy it uh directly because uh we lose a lot of experience, uh experienced uh employees in the last 10 years, and uh because they were retiring, not because they wanted to leave, but uh uh just kidding. And uh we have no choice to add that data inside the the system uh to help them produce and do their job. Then I don't think that it was hard to uh make them buy the uh the uh the whole reimplementation we did or what we uh what we uh we put in effort to put everything inside the system.

John Wheeler: 7:42

Got it. Uh having seen your your operation, it's a sawmill and it's a lumber company and it's a window company and a logistics company, and when you have all of those, you know, a lot of those take highly skilled people. Uh it's impressive to me that that you'd have so much technology infused in that. But how do you how do you use uh the the technology or any any technology to kind of train people in line? So if I'm you know building a sash or a piece of trim or something and I don't know how to do it, tell me about that.

Michael Dionne: 8:14

Uh training is a challenge. Uh we uh I don't think that we solve all of the the this challenge right now, but uh like I said, 10 years ago, when we looked 10 years uh in the in the future, we saw that every year we will lose 10% of our experience people. These people were uh detaining all the information to produce. And um what we did is first we gather that data, we put that inside the system. It was our first step. Next one, we try to develop uh solution. Like um, we have a web application that gave uh people uh on their tablets. Uh you see on the the shuffler, we have uh uh 22 inches uh tablets that are uh installed for every uh workstation, and they have a web application to access uh instruction, uh video, PDF of what they need to do. And uh we try to capture every uh every instruction, work uh method, everything, and put that inside that system that they can have access every time when they do something. And uh it's not only this application, but uh also we have we team uh new employees with experienced uh people to try uh to learn about learn about the the work to do and uh have a transfer of of the knowledge. Also, um maybe uh three years ago we started uh something with a school in Quebec. Uh they are uh specialized in woodworking uh lesson. And uh every year right now we have uh people that are uh like five or or six week uh full-time with with the school and a teacher to learn and uh elevate their knowledge about the woodworking. And we try to elevate those people and and give them the skills they need to uh to uh to do more.

John Wheeler: 10:22

And they it seems like you know there's plenty of people, you know, the technology and and all of that's fun, but I think a lot of people are switching to you know they want to do things that are hands-on and feel like they're you know actually making something and producing something. Do you see that with those students?

Michael Dionne: 10:39

Uh it's sure that uh in the in in our uh in our city, uh we are struggling with with uh with finding people. And then uh I'm I'm not uh feeling it in the in the local people, but it's sure that uh we have uh people that are coming from outside of the uh the country and uh they want to work with their hand and uh we uh we choose those people because they want to work with wood. I can say with with uh with these people, yeah, we feel it, but I can say that for people that are locally, this is something that we can find. Someone that wants to work with their hands. Uh I'm feeling it more like um when you are over 30, 40, and uh you want to do something in your house, but not very on the shop floor, no.

John Wheeler: 11:31

Uh I will say, you know, woodworking seems interesting. Forty I'm 43. Oh, I just need to go out in the garage and like whittle something. I've been through your shop and I almost tipped over one of those those works of art that was out there. I think it was a four-wide, you know, probably three or four uh mold units tall. Almost tipped it over and killed a bunch of people, which is probably why the second time I went, there was like a very clear yellow path for me to stay on. Um, and from there, uh any any shop I go into, I keep my hands in my pocket. Um it was devastating to me. I was so embarrassed. You know, you talked about bringing people in from out of the country, and there's people that want to um you know work on that. Tell me where are these people coming from?

Michael Dionne: 12:18

Uh right now our people from uh come from uh Africa, Madagascar, to be uh to be uh precise. And uh they speak French. And one of the reasons we uh we select them is uh about the language, and after that they have in their culture culture um the the the skill to work with wood. This is something they they uh they touch a lot, and then it's uh it's why we uh we uh we select uh those people.

John Wheeler: 12:46

Interesting. Yeah, I would imagine I don't know what the e economic situation for these people are, but I would imagine that you know they're obviously signing up for some sort of program or they're they're involved with an organization that helps them find this, but I would imagine that it's relatively life-changing. It's a chance for freezing cold where you where you live in the change. Other than that, that's probably you know just for their whole family, I would imagine. It's a huge change. It's positive.

Michael Dionne: 13:15

They see it as a chance to change their life, change a life or their kid and and wife. Then when they they move, it's not just to uh be there for one month or one year, they move for uh for good, they try to move for good. And this is something that we uh we wanted because we don't want to have uh rolling people inside a shop floor. We want to uh to have uh teams that are for us with us uh for a long time.

John Wheeler: 13:43

What's next? Is there anything fun on the horizon you can talk to us about? Maybe one of the disruptive things that you're working on?

Michael Dionne: 13:50

It's sure that I will not uh talk about what we are working about or disruption, but uh it's sure that we are looking about uh how AI can help us right now. And um we are looking about uh how can we be more efficient uh inside the shop floor. Uh right now we are deploying two lines uh automate uh automatization inside the the shop floor. Uh all of the web preparation department will be completely automated. Uh and we received the uh the new machine just uh last week. And uh after that, we will uh we uh are in process of installing a new glass uh line to uh be able to produce a larger and bigger uh IG. And uh yeah, we're trying to uh make it more efficient, uh do more with less. This is what we uh we're trying to do.

John Wheeler: 14:43

That's uh how big is the biggest glass unit it can make?

Michael Dionne: 14:46

Oh it's a good question. Uh I don't have that information in uh in my head, but uh it's pretty big.

John Wheeler: 14:52

Yeah, I saw I saw one of the one of the newer machines it was doing like 10 feet by 10 feet. I'm like, where do you get the glass from? You gotta store the glass and you gotta figure out all that. Um I think we'll end with you're a a newer dad. Are you going to make sure that your kiddo comes to work at LaPage or in the window and door industry?

Michael Dionne: 15:15

That's a good question. Uh you know, uh the windows and door industry is new for me. It's like five years, but uh before I was not in that industry. And uh I think that at La Page, uh it's a good business. Then uh I will I will uh tell them that uh that's a good business. And if they want to do anything inside the business, it would be great. Then uh but uh you know I don't know the future, then right they will need to make their choice.

John Wheeler: 15:44

He's gotta get get them the bug early. Cool. Oh, I appreciate you being on. It's really, really interesting. Thank you, John. Cool, thanks. Thanks for joining us on the Paradigm Industry Insiders podcast. If you enjoyed today's conversation, be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platforms and follow Paradigm on LinkedIn and YouTube to catch more stories, insights, and ideas from your peers across our industry. See y'all.