Jody Marshall

Jody Marshall is the Operations Manager/Purchaser at Pacific Rim Cabinets Ltd. in Delta, British Columbia. He started off in the wood industry while completing the Wood Products Processing program at the University of British Columbia, during which he participated in a co-op program working for a number of window and door companies.

According to Jody, the best part of his experience with UBC was that he gained a lot of real-world experience; he learned a lot from the professors who have hands-on experience, so it was a good combination of academic and practical education.  For Jody, the co-op terms were really helpful – they gave him a chance to go out and get some applied experience. It also gave him an idea of things that he did and did not want to do.

With a background in computer programming, Jody was able to work on projects that required programming during school. He knew that he did not want a pure programming role but one that involved manufacturing and purchasing. Jody received information about Pacific Rim Cabinets from one of the professors in the program, and it seemed like a good fit.

Jody started off as part of the operations team doing order entry and some basic technical support and his experience grew from there.  Jody’s move into operations management gave him a chance to broaden his skill set.  He was able to automate some of the mundane tasks in purchasing in this role through the use of software. For example, he has been able to write scripts that tie into the database with all the information for the cabinets, creating automatic outputs from the POS, which eliminated a great deal of error.

In his current role, there are a lot of things that keep Jody going every day. He believes in Pacific Rim’s top of the line competitive product. He feels that Pacific Rim is a small enough company that he feels he has the opportunity to affect positive change. On top of that, Jody says that “wood is a really interesting, beautiful material to work with and I like the idea of building something and creating something that at the end of the day people will get a lot of enjoyment out of. Each species of wood provides its own unique challenges.” He also shares that he likes the idea that using wood the correct way is a greener option than other materials.

When asked what skills are most valuable to his role, Jody says that he is a high-level critical thinker and problem solver, which can be applied to a lot of challenges on the job. Also, his highly technical background is great as it allows him to automate tasks, freeing up time to build relationships with vendors and improve processes.

For those that are looking to explore a career in the wood manufacturing industry, Jody recommends that they should try to work as many different jobs as they can in both the primary and secondary industry to provide a more concrete idea of what they are getting into and what opportunities are available. He thinks that a variety of types of individuals would do well in this industry, from high-level critical thinkers, to self-motivated people, to nature lovers who are into green solutions.

Moving forward in his career, Jody would like to continue on the path that he is on now for the next couple of years, improve the processes that he is working on, build stronger relationships with suppliers and focus more on supply chain management.