Lumber Sourcing, Procurement & Mill-Partnership Expert — Dominican Republic

Lumber Sourcing, Procurement & Mill-Partnership Expert — Dominican Republic DanKen Industries is seeking a highly experienced lumber sourcing, procurement, and mill-partnership expert to design, negotiate, develop, and implement our lumber supply and wood-processing program primarily within the Dominican Republic. This is not a general sourcing-agent, supplier-list, or research-only assignment. We need a hands-on professional with proven experience in timber/lumber procurement, sawmills, kiln drying, grading, wood conversion, furniture-grade lumber, supplier development, cost engineering, mill negotiations, and toll/contract manufacturing or strategic mill partnerships. Direct lumber/wood-products industry experience is required. General sourcing or procurement experience without meaningful exposure to timber, sawmills, lumber processing, or wood-products manufacturing will not be sufficient. ABOUT DANKEN DanKen Industries is developing premium furniture and sleep products for the U.S. market. We intend to use qualified manufacturing partners while retaining control of engineering, BOMs, material specifications, quality standards, target costs, supplier relationships, and supply-chain strategy. PRIMARY MANDATE The selected expert will help own this program from strategy through operational launch: • Define lumber requirements, specifications, quality standards, and procurement strategy. • Determine the most economical point in the supply chain for DanKen to purchase materials. • Reverse-engineer mill, factory, wholesale, landed, and final usable costs. • Identify, audit, qualify, and develop mills and wood processors. • Develop toll, contract, dedicated-production, and strategic mill partnerships. • Prepare RFQs, analyze quotations/cost structures, and lead negotiations. • Coordinate trials, inspections, corrective actions, and supplier approval. • Establish primary and backup supply sources. • Implement the selected structure and help stabilize ongoing supply. We need an executable program—not a report ending with a supplier list. GEOGRAPHIC STRATEGY The program should be developed primarily within the Dominican Republic using local timber suppliers, procurement organizations, sawmills, kilns, processors, CNC facilities, and furniture-frame/component producers. Nearby Caribbean or Latin American countries may be considered when their total economics are substantially better after raw materials, processing, freight, duties/taxes where applicable, import/customs costs, inland transportation, labor, quality, yield/rejections, lead time, inventory, working capital, and risk. A lower FOB quote alone is insufficient. Decisions should be based on final usable cost delivered into our Dominican production system. LUMBER REQUIREMENTS Requirements may include: • Structural/secondary hardwood and softwood • Green, rough-sawn, kiln-dried, graded, and dimensional lumber • Cut-to-size lumber • Finger-jointed or laminated stock • Appearance-grade wood • Plywood/veneers and engineered wood where applicable • CNC-machined frame components • Production-ready parts or complete frame kits Recommend species, grades, and processing requirements based on strength, fastener retention, moisture/drying, stability, machinability, availability, recovery/yield, durability, consistency, and total usable cost. TIMBER PROCUREMENT Evaluate alternatives including: • Direct forestry/timber producers • Timber procurement companies/agents • Aggregators/plantations/log yards • Sawmill-controlled timber supply • Long-term timber agreements • Other proven procurement structures Determine the best combination of cost transparency, quality, legal/traceable supply, consistency, availability, working capital, and operational simplicity. TOLL MANUFACTURING & MILL PARTNERSHIPS A primary model to evaluate is: DanKen purchases/controls timber → Dominican sawmill/processor → sawing → kiln drying → grading/defect removal → secondary processing → furniture-grade lumber or production-ready components. DanKen could own the material while the mill performs processing for a transparent conversion fee. Services may include sawing, kiln drying, grading, defect removal, planing, dimensioning, finger jointing, lamination, CNC machining, labeling, packaging, and delivery. Compare this against: • Mill-purchased timber under open-book costing • DanKen-purchased green lumber + contracted drying/conversion • Mill-direct rough kiln-dried lumber + secondary processing • Graded dimensional stock • Finished/semi-finished frame components • Ready-to-assemble frame kits • Fixed-fee, cost-plus, dedicated-run, reserved-capacity, volume-based, vendor-managed inventory, or long-term agreements • Hybrid Dominican/regional sourcing • Other structures recommended by the expert Determine which structure provides the best usable cost, quality, control, cash requirements, reliability, and scalability. COMMERCIAL STRUCTURE & RISK The expert must develop the commercial structure—not simply identify mills. Determine: • Who purchases/owns material at each stage • Who carries inventory, yield, defect, and rejection risk • How waste, offcuts, and recoverable material are treated • How conversion fees are calculated • How timber, energy, labor, and freight changes affect pricing • Payment and lead-time terms • Cost transparency/open-book requirements • Supplier incentives for yield, quality, productivity, and cost reduction The objective is competitive near-mill economics while maintaining a reasonable, sustainable partner margin. REVERSE ENGINEERING & SHOULD-COST Using furniture samples, drawings, cut lists, or BOMs, determine species, grade, dimensions, net/gross lumber requirements, board-foot/cubic-meter consumption, recovery, drying loss, defects, machining waste, usable yield, processes, labor, and cost. Break quotations/costs into: • Timber/raw lumber • Sawmill conversion/recovery • Kiln drying • Grading/sorting • Secondary processing • Labor/energy/overhead • Packaging/logistics • Mill/manufacturer margin • Distributor/wholesale/intermediary margins Establish ex-mill, delivered, landed, and final usable costs per board foot/cubic meter, component, frame, and furniture set. Develop evidence-based should-cost and target-cost models to eliminate avoidable markups and negotiate direct-factory or near-mill pricing. SUPPLIER DEVELOPMENT The strongest partner may require development rather than already meeting every DanKen requirement. Evaluate mills/processors for equipment, kilns, capacity, management, workforce, yield, quality, financial/operational stability, and willingness to improve. Where appropriate, help develop moisture control, grading, yield measurement, process control, inspection, traceability, packaging, cost reporting, production planning, and quality consistency. Determine whether existing partners can be developed to DanKen's requirements more economically than establishing additional suppliers or processing stages. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES / OUTPUTS • Establish moisture, grade, defect, tolerance, inspection, packaging, storage, and traceability standards. • Map and qualify Dominican primary/backup partners. • Prepare RFQs, audits, cost models, and quote comparisons. • Lead price, conversion-fee, yield/waste, MOQ, payment, capacity, lead-time, confidentiality, and continuity negotiations. • Structure recommended toll/contract/strategic mill agreements. • Manage trials, validation, corrective actions, approval, implementation, and launch. • Develop sourcing strategy, technical-quality framework, verified shortlist, procurement-model comparison, should-cost/target-cost models, negotiation strategy, and implementation plan. REQUIRED EXPERIENCE Applicants must demonstrate direct experience in several of the following: • Timber/lumber procurement and direct mill negotiations • Sawmill operations/economics and recovery/yield • Kiln drying and lumber grading • Hardwood/softwood and furniture-grade lumber • Secondary wood processing • Toll processing/contract manufacturing • Strategic mill partnerships/supplier development • Should-cost, mill/factory-cost, and landed-cost analysis • Supplier audits, negotiations, trials, and implementation • Furniture, cabinetry, millwork, or other wood-products manufacturing experience Caribbean/Latin American experience is highly desirable but not required. Spanish and existing Dominican/Caribbean timber, sawmill, kiln, or processor relationships are strongly preferred. Plywood, veneer, MDF/HDF, or particleboard experience is advantageous, but the primary requirement is strong timber, lumber, sawmill, and wood-processing expertise. ENGAGEMENT We want an expert who can design the program, develop suppliers, negotiate partnerships, implement the structure, and continuously improve cost, quality, yield, and supply reliability as production scales. Company: DanKen Industries Industry: Furniture Manufacturing Primary Location: Dominican Republic Engagement: Contract/Fractional with long-term potential