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Innovation is a word that is currently criticized in the business world for being over utilized. However, I would argue its actual application is being seriously underutilized in our own industry.
The primary mission of SBC Magazine is to connect with component manufacturers (CMs) from across the country and share their best practices and lessons learned. Of course, the biggest challenge in that effort is identifying the timely struggles of one group of CMs and then finding the CM who has developed a best practice to solve it.
One of the primary missions of SBCA is to help component manufacturers (CMs) gain greater market share. Traditionally, those efforts have been aimed at turning roof rafters into roof trusses, and that focus has paid significant dividends.
You may have noticed the emergence of a new phrase to describe the use of components in certain parts of the country. A method referred to as “offsite framing” is catching on in California, Florida, and other areas of high volume housing production. New techniques always produce mixed emotions of fear, uncertainty, opportunity, excitement, and more.
Past interns are a great fit to attract students. Recently Big C Lumber held a plant tour for 39 students from eight different schools that are in the Michigan Construction Trades course offered through the St. Joseph County Board. After the tour there were at least ten students that showed interest in working at Big C Lumber. That’s a quarter of the students in the tour!
The Baltimore Carpentry Task Force brings students together to explore construction careers
As hiring remote truss designers becomes increasingly common for the component manufacturing industry, ensuring those same designers don’t feel like they’re alone on an island (even if they actually are) needs to be an important factor in your plan. Finding strategies to help all of your employees feel valued and included isn’t a new concept, but shifting the approach for your remote team members can go a long way to establish a solid foundation in your design department.
SBCA is a CM’s best source for understanding the impacts of rulemaking
$270 million project required 9,250 floor trusses, 1,580 roof trusses, and zero call backs
General Manager • Engineered Truss Systems Inc. • Garden City, Kansas
Advantage Truss Company in Hollister, California, had a record year in 2018. They supply exclusively to custom home builders in their market and bid over 1,000 homes last year for the first time in their company’s history (they completed 625 homes). As part of their outreach to the surrounding community, they participate in a local “Lights on Christmas Parade.” Their 2018 entry got a lot of attention.
If you’re looking for ways to improve your in-plant safety program in 2019, many of these are great places to start.
Annandale Millwork & Allied Systems ventured into the components industry differently from most manufacturers as our original business centered on doors and millwork. We diversified into wall panels in the early 1980s and eventually into roof trusses. From the beginning, we’ve always looked to use innovative processes to solve common construction problems.
How often do you contemplate your scope of work (SOW), as it’s formally defined in ANSI/TPI 1 Chapter 2? That standard was originally published in 1995 and has essentially become law with its adoption into the International Residential and International Building Codes.
One of the most valuable reasons to attend SBCA meetings are the unexpected things you learn. At the most recent Board meeting in San Diego, it was mentioned during the IT Committee report that they were discussing ways to educate component manufacturers (CMs) on the risks and impacts of ransomware attacks.
If you’re only tracking lagging indicators, like OSHA recordables and lost days, you’re missing out on a big opportunity to prevent future incidents and improve the safety culture in your plant. Leading indicators, on the other hand, present you and your team with an opportunity to track improvement and promote proactive behavior.
Increasingly, today’s consumers and prospective employees are starting with the internet to learn about a company. What they find on the web generally leaves a significant first impression. Given this, there is a multitude of valuable reasons to have an attractive web presence.
At the Open Quarterly Meeting (OQM) held February 26-28 in San Diego, the SBCA Marketing Committee embarked on an ambitious new effort to map the entire construction industry process through a series of flow charts. These flow charts will track the movement of information, labor, and products through the various supply chain stakeholders.
The first common theme among those CMs who make an effort to engage with students on a regular basis is a clear recognition that connecting with the next generation is important to solving current workforce development issues in this industry. Simply put, “it’s the right thing to do,” says David Mitchell at Engineered Building Design, L.C. in Washington, Iowa.
One of the best ways to ensure your remote designers feel like an integral part of the team is to make an effort to get everyone physically in the same place from time to time. Dan Morris, truss design manager at Apex in Jacksonville, Florida, notes that while they have regular interactions over the phone or through online meetings, they’ve also learned that “you need to have face-to-face time” to keep the team unified.
I first started pursuing a college engineering degree, but had to leave due to some family emergencies. In 1982, I started selling lumber and trusses for 84 Lumber and then with a local lumberyard a year later in my home area of Portage, Indiana. When construction tanked in the early 1980’s, I moved my family to Florida near my wife’s family. I decided to use more of my background from college and found a job in 1985 estimating floor and roof trusses for WD Lumber & Truss in the Tampa Bay area.
Students at the New Jersey Institute of Technology received a gift recently from the Mid-Atlantic Structural Building Components Association, a chapter of SBCA. Their instructor, Frank Golon Ph.D., P.E., reached out to Keith Myers (Woodhaven Lumber) requesting BCSI handbooks as part of his class curriculum.
Improper lifting of heavy or awkward materials can result in injuries that vary in severity from cuts and bruises to low back injuries and hernias. Whenever possible, use mechanical devices to lift and move objects and, when objects must be moved with manual effort, use the following guidelines to decrease your risk of an injury.
As an active member of SBCA, the greatest value I receive is through the relationships I’ve formed at Open Quarterly Meetings (OQMs) over the last few years. Sure, SBCA does a lot of great things with the magazine and the services and products they offer, but the ability to pick up the phone and call a fellow component manufacturer (CM) from somewhere outside of my shipping area is the most powerful tool SBCA has put in my toolbox.
On the surface, your company is selling its people and their expertise in using highly specialized software and equipment to design and manufacture a series of structural components. Additionally, you’re selling your ability to assemble those components as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible and deliver them to the jobsite exactly when the customer needs them.
With respect to your business, what do you dwell on before you go to sleep? What’s the first thing you think about when you wake up in the morning? If I were to hazard a guess, I would say the most common answer in our industry right now is related to labor challenges and greater production. Given all we have been learning at the SBCA meetings over the past year, I would argue we also need to be constantly focused on our exposure to risk.
This article will briefly explore how these calls can impact a CM’s bottom line and a few ways in which CMs can proactively work with tradespeople to avoid such issues. Truss repairs can very easily turn a profitable job into a money losing project. The cost incurred with this type of repair goes beyond the price of the materials. Costs for determining the issue for repair, designing the repair, and implementing a repair solution shouldn’t get lost in your accounting books.
“Internships are a perfect way for us to get to know an individual and for the individual to see what a career in the component manufacturing industry would be like. If both sides come to the conclusion that it’s a good fit, it’s a win-win situation and an opportunity for both parties to be successful,” says Mike Petrina, plant manager at Wisconsin Building Supply. “The internship exposes them to a lot of different projects and you can figure out what their strengths and weaknesses are in designing and determine where their passion lies.”
Rick Parrino will tell you that one of the most important business decisions a component manufacturer (CM) can make is to foster new and beneficial relationships with building and fire officials, builders, elected officials, and all other trades. Doing so gives CMs a new lens through which to view the manufacturing and installation of the trusses, wall panels, and engineered products they sell.