Where we came from
In 1951, four fraternity brothers from the University of Washington formed Pacific Wood Products to act as a building products distributor to meet the growing needs of the construction industry in the post-war construction boom. In the early 1950s a DBA was added that brought us the name Plywood Supply. Ralph Swanson, one of the four fraternity brothers, became the manager of the operation and arranged to have a 3,200-sqft building built at 115th and (Bothell Way) Lake City Way. In 1955, property was acquired in Kenmore, then serviced by the Burlington Northern railroad. The first of what would become six warehouses was built, and the operation was moved to the Kenmore site in 1956, where we remain to this day.
Original Location
Warehouse Under Construction in Kenmore - 1955
Plywood Supply was growing fast as the 1960s started. Cedar products, introduced at the beginning of the decade, took on an important role during this time and we accelerated the building of covered storage sheds on the lots South of the warehouse buildings. Products such as clear cedar T&G and clear cedar bevel siding filled those new storage areas and as other inventory items were added and our product lines kept expanding work commenced on adding additional warehouse buildings too. By the end of the 1960s all six of our current warehouse buildings were completed. Starting in the1970s and early 1980s the country experienced a federal freeze on wages and prices with inflation over 13% and interest rates over 21%. Plywood Supply persevered during this time by focusing on quality and service for our customers while introducing a profit-sharing plan to our personnel.
Dedicated Cedar Sheds - 1960s
State of the Art - 1980s
It was the early 1980s when Plywood Supply brought in the first computers, Kaypros running CP/M, to modernize business operations. Prior to this, business requirements such as inventory management took place on a multitude of clipboards and transactions were recorded by hand. In 1985, Plywood Supply grew the product line from a plywood and cedar siding distributor to include a full-line of lumber, treated lumber, and glu-lam beams. The growing operation required more room, and in the late 1980s we began the first of several grading projects on the remaining property south of the warehouse buildings. It would eventually be paved and turn into the lumber yard as we know it today. Following the significant expansion of the lumber yard, we also added engineered products such as i-joists and Parallam. Closing out the decade, in 1988 Ralph Swanson bought the company from his partners and brought his son Don Swanson onboard as a director.
Ralph Swanson - Standing in Today’s Lumberyard
The 90s brought more technology including cellular phones for our trucks and sales personnel and another updated computer system for the operation which significantly improved efficiency. With an ever-expanding fleet of trucks and forklifts the paving of the lumber yard continued and an additional 24,000-sqft of material storage buildings were constructed. The end of the decade also saw a new, modern, 2-bay mechanic’s shop added to better serve the needs of the growing and increasingly technologically advanced fleet. With a mind to minimizing environmental impact the shop features a covered wash bay with an oil/water separator tied into the sewer system. It wasn’t all hardware, software, and machinery though, on the personnel front the 1990s also brought the second generation of the Swanson family into daily management at Plywood Supply as Ralph’s son Don Swanson took on an active role in the company. Don would become the president of Plywood Supply in 2002 and would go on to purchase the company in 2017.
Don and Ralph Swanson- Christmas 2005
Don Swanson - President/CEO/Owner
In the mid-2000s Plywood Supply made the leap to a new ERP system with a focus on forward compatibility with new hardware and also the opportunity to reduce the printing of paper copies during order flow, which was better for efficiency, costs, and the environment. 2007 brought exciting new opportunities for Plywood Supply when we became a member of Lumbermen’s Merchandising Corporation (LMC). Before long Don would join LMC’s Forest Products Committee and currently serves on the Finance Committee and on the Board of Directors. The 2000s weren’t all smooth sailing though, when the recession hit hard in 2008 and 2009 the efficiencies and new relationships we had gained in recent years helped soften the blow, but those were still some rough years. People who work for Plywood Supply tend to stick around. Today the office and production areas have many employees who toughed it out during those years, and the lessons we learned then about the value of service and relationships will never be forgotten, and underscore our focus on those as core values to this day.
Even during those dark years new opportunities came to light. One result was the formation of Puget Sound Truss, located in Maltby, WA. As the recession took its toll, Puget Sound Truss was able to hire the best talent and as a group found their footing during this time. When the recession finally eased and more favorable economic winds began to blow, they hit the ground running. Puget Sound Truss has since then pushed the limits of consistency and accuracy in roof truss manufacturing, in some cases taking the best production equipment on the market and modifying it or developing new practices to constantly eek out even tiny improvements as they seek to manufacture the absolute best trusses in the business.
The Very First Trusses Produced at PST
In the mid-2010s, Plywood Supply was among the first in the business to outfit forklifts with computers with direct access to their ERP system, positioning ourselves for another significant leap in operational efficiency. Around this time our delivery truck fleet was upgraded with a GPS system that integrates with our ERP platform and allows our dispatch team real-time access to truck data for more efficient routing. As the pace of technological development accelerated during this time, we focused on identifying and implementing specific technologies allowing us to better serve our customers and our relationships.
Where we are Today
Today Plywood Supply continues to offer a broad range of products including framing lumber, siding, engineered wood products, decking, plywood, treated and concrete form panels. We now occupy 18 acres, 4.5 of which is dedicated to engineered products, and with 85,000sf of covered space serving contractors as well as lumber yards all over the Puget Sound region and Alaska.
Recent improvements in efficiency include expanding the use of computers in our forklift fleet to include photographic records of material loaded for delivery or pickup, which allows for streamlined order management. We constantly review and refine inventory layouts to maximize efficiency when assembling orders.
By 2019 we began updating our computer systems yet again to move to cloud platforms for shared resources. That move proved wise by early 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down many businesses. As part of the building industry, we were considered an "essential" business and while our production staff working outside were naturally "distanced" from each other, the ability to use these shared cloud resources allowed us to rapidly transition our office staff to remote work. This allowed us to continue serving our customers for "essential" projects as well as keep the now-remote office staff safe and healthy.
Today we continue to take advantage of the options we're afforded by this arrangement by being able to bring technology into the field and to customer locations and jobsites. Gone are the days of walking up to a jobsite with an armful of rolled up plans and trying to spread them out on a muddy pile of wood while fighting the wind and rain. Armed with connected devices, our sales representatives have full access to everything they'd have in the office and can provide their customers instant information and support on the jobsite. Inside the office, these same devices allow for immediate collaboration and sharing of information. There aren’t multiple copies of plans at different stages of development floating around anymore, now everyone has immediate access to the same current information. This allows us to be quicker to respond to changes, less likely to make mistakes, and instantly share notes and questions.
It's not just connectivity and technology on our minds, sustainability has become an increasingly important part of how we approach many aspects of our business. For decades we’ve done the basics like recycling and reducing consumption wherever possible. We've moved to energy efficient lighting not only in the office, but also outside in our yard for the darker months of the year. Our computers, servers, and other technology are more energy efficient than ever. We're looking forward too, exploring electrification of our forklift fleet, options for rooftop solar and wind power generation, and considering solar heat gain in the office to reduce dependence on HVAC needs in the cooler months. We’ve been working with our electricity utility, Puget Sound Energy, to graph our power consumption and we’ve used that to tweak thermostat schedules to reduce energy use. We know we’re in an energy-intensive business, from the trucking side, to production, machinery, and office space, but we’re constantly looking for ways to be just a little bit better and we believe that over time those small gains add up to real, meaningful improvements.
The Environment
Plywood Supply is a proud member of MBA's Built Green™ of King and Snohomish County since its inception. Plywood Supply carries a variety of products that are environmentally-friendly. When used properly, these materials can also provide points needed for the Built Green™ building program. As a company, Plywood Supply strives to be a greener contributor to our community. Here are some of the ways we are environmentally conscience:
One of our main material suppliers, iLevel® by Weyerhaeuser, on average uses 99% of each log to produce iLevel and Weyerhaeuser wood products, additional wood products, and energy.
In addition, our in-house TJ-Xpert® operators help put the right products in the right places. This keeps with the ideology of "use only what you need".
We stock products that use recycled and waste materials as a major component such as iLevel®, Trex®, and James Hardie® products.
We stock pressure treated wood that has no arsenic and no chromium. Safer for our children; better for our environment.
We recycle our plastic and metal banding, wood, lumber wraps, sheetrock bunks, engine oil, antifreeze, fluorescent light tubes, office paper, cardboard, batteries, toner cartridges, computer hardware, steel, aluminum, and plastics.
With our operational software system and hardware we are increasingly becoming paperless.
Our knuckle boom can place your order at your project without leaving the street to mitigate the impact to your jobsite and environmentally-sensitive areas. By staying on the paved street we minimize any mud or dirt being transferred from the job site and eventually ending up in storm water channels or sensitive areas.
We utilize GPS to assist in routing our delivery trucks so that mileage and travel time is minimized. Less fuel, less pollution, less congestion on the highways.
We’ve changed 90% of our fleet of 40 forklifts to propane-fueled over diesel. Propane emissions are cleaner than diesel for the environment and for the operator.
Where We’re Going
As mentioned earlier, for us at Plywood Supply moving forward is a process of continuous improvement. Revolutionary ideas or products come along only rarely and waiting for them misses out on so much in the meantime. We are ready to embrace those revolutions when they come, but we also ask ourselves every day how we can do better. Our process is a continuous and open exchange of ideas. It’s a willingness to try something new or step outside our comfort zone. It’s a relentless focus on how we can use the tools at our disposal to better serve the customer, the community, and the future. We’ve been here for 70 years, and we intend to be here for a long time to come. We honor our past by constantly striving to uphold the standards and ideals that got us here and we look forward to a future where that same unwavering focus on being an excellent partner to our customers, our community, and our environment will ensure our best days are still ahead of us.