Learning the Supply Chain: How Education and Visibility Strengthen Hardwood Markets

As the hardwood industry enters the second quarter of 2026, many companies are navigating familiar challenges, including shifting demand, global competition, and the need to remain relevant in an evolving building materials market. Yet one recent visit hosted by NHLA offered an encouraging reminder: the hardwood industry still has powerful strengths rooted in collaboration, education, and shared standards.

In February this year, Cambium, a company focused on improving visibility and efficiency within wood supply chains, visited the NHLA headquarters in Memphis to deepen its understanding of hardwood grading standards and the broader industry ecosystem. The visit also included time at Classic American Hardwoods, where the Cambium team toured operations so staff members could see firsthand how hardwood moves from logs to finished lumber at scale.

The experience offered a unique opportunity to connect modern supply chain technology with the traditional knowledge that has guided the hardwood industry for generations.

WHY STANDARDS STILL MATTER

One of hardwood’s greatest strengths is also one of its most misunderstood: natural variation. 

Grain patterns shift, color varies, and each board carries its own character. “Every piece of white oak doesn’t have to be exactly the same color,” Will Donoho, Vice President of Sales and Purchasing at Classic American Hardwoods, says. “That variation is part of what makes it natural.” That variability is part of hardwood’s appeal, but it also requires a shared system for defining quality and communicating expectations.

NHLA grading rules provide that system. “Wood isn’t uniform,” explains Rae Tamblyn, Sr. Manager, Supply Initiatives and Partnerships at Cambium. “That variability is part of what makes it beautiful. But it also means everyone needs to agree on what they’re buying and selling.”

Grading standards create that agreement. They give mills, distributors, manufacturers, and designers a

common language that ensures the entire supply chain understands what a specific grade represents.

Uniformity has long been a selling point for synthetic materials, but hardwood offers something those materials cannot replicate: authenticity. Educating customers and designers about those characteristics remains an important opportunity for the industry. As more architects seek authentic, sustainable materials, hardwood’s natural variability may become one of its strongest selling points. 

During their visit, Cambium saw how that language translates into daily operations. At Classic American Hardwoods, organized yards, disciplined processes, and consistent quality control demonstrated how grading standards make hard-wood dependable at scale.

CONNECTING FORESTS, MILLS, AND MARKETS

While standards provide structure, the modern hardwood market faces another challenge: visibility.

For decades, different parts of the wood supply chain have often operated with limited connection to one another. Forest inventories, mill production, and architectural specifications don’t always align in real time.

When that happens, valuable material can be overlooked. Underutilized species may never reach designers. Structurally sound grades might be dismissed simply because they are unfamiliar.

Technology is beginning to bridge that gap. At Cambium, the goal is to make wood supply chains easier to understand, not more complicated.

“When architects can clearly see what’s available, including local sources, underused species, and different grades—and understand their possible uses, design options expand,” Tamblyn explains. “Better visibility leads to better decisions.”

Those decisions can improve efficiency across the entire industry. When designers understand what mills actually produce, more of each log can be used productively, waste is reduced, and mills receive clearer demand signals.

EDUCATION STARTS WITH THE CUSTOMER

For Classic American Hardwoods, one of the biggest lessons in market adaptability has been understanding exactly what customers need and communicating that clearly throughout the

production chain.

According to Donoho, the process begins with education on both sides of the transaction.

“Most of my customers don’t actually care what the NHLA grade is,” Donoho explains. “They care about whether the material works for their application.”

That doesn’t make grading standards irrelevant. In fact, it makes them even more important.

The NHLA rules provide the technical language mills use to trans-late customer expectations into consistent production practices. Without that shared framework, communication would break down between buyers, mills, and employees on the production floor.

“We have to have a common language for all of those things to happen,” Donoho says. “That’s what the NHLA rules give us.”

FLEXIBILITY IN A MOVING MARKET

Market conditions today are far more complex than they were a generation ago. Thirty years ago, lumber buyers often ordered full truckloads of a single item. Today, customers frequently require mixed loads of highly specific products tailored to particular applications.

To meet those demands, Classic American Hardwoods has built its operations around flexibility.

Rather than focusing on a narrow range of products, the company can manufacture multiple products from the same inventory in response to market demand.

“Our goal is to service what the market needs at the time,” Donoho says. “That’s been a moving target for the last ten years.”

Maintaining that flexibility requires significant investment in equipment, employees, and planning. Regular forecasting meetings help the company monitor sales trends, log supply, and emerging demand signals.

Even so, unpredictability remains part of the business.

“Red oak might be strong today,” Donoho says. “By June, it could be even stronger—or you can’t give it away. There’s no perfect way to predict that.”

Instead, the strategy is to maintain a balanced inventory and remain ready to shift production quickly as demand evolves. This is where better supply chain visibility shines. Platforms like Cambium’s help make wood visible and discover-able across a national network, allowing buyers to find available material quickly—even as market conditions shift. 

By connecting what mills have with what designers and manufacturers are looking for, technology helps keep wood moving and ensures strong mate-rial doesn’t sit unseen in a yard.

A SHARED FUTURE FOR HARDWOOD

Cambium’s visit to Memphis illustrated how experience and innovation can complement one another.

The hardwood industry brings decades of craftsmanship, operational discipline, and trusted standards. Technology brings improved visibility and new ways to connect markets.

Together, those strengths can help the industry adapt to changing conditions while maintaining the qualities that have defined hardwood for generations.

For Tamblyn and the Cambium team, the lesson was clear.

“There’s tremendous value already in the hardwood system,” she says. “When forests, mills, and designers are better connected, the industry doesn’t have to reinvent itself—it just has to tell a more streamlined story of  what it already has.”

By Brennah Hutchison, Hardwood Industry Liaison & Content Director