For years, I’ve seen efficiency in component manufacturing judged by how well a plant performs when conditions are stable — consistent orders, familiar product mix, reliable labor, and enough lead time to keep work flowing. But stability is not always guaranteed, and I believe that...

In last month’s article, “NEXPLATE: Achieving F1 Pit-Stop Speed in Truss Production,” we analyzed a production run of 80 long-span agricultural trusses using an “all-or-nothing” approach to automated plate distribution. We demonstrated how Enventek’s NEXPLATE...

At a high-volume truss plant just outside Denver, Colorado, one person now keeps 14 build stations supplied with plates — truss by truss, across six tables. Not long ago, that same job meant carts of partial plates scattered across the floor, boxes and totes stacked wherever space was...

By July, most manufacturing leaders already have a good idea how the year is going. They know where orders are strong. They know where labor is tight. They know which customers are creating pressure. They know which departments are struggling to keep up. But the more important question is not...

When one of the largest truss companies came to see JAX The Wood Retriever picking for three saws, they asked, “Why not five saws?” Watching our one gantry doing a good job, it became obvious that the JAX system could operate with more than one JAX gantry, like a roof truss...

There is a quiet transformation happening in the backrooms of North American truss plants. Faced with a chronic shortage of experienced local design talent and unyielding demand for faster turnarounds, owners and general managers are turning to overnight, overseas design services. On paper, the...

As discussed in The Last Word in May, “John Houlihan’s Contributions,” John Houlihan introduced a proven way to manage plant labor, applying his trade to plant systems as they were, rather than how they could be, which was reflective of his background outside our industry. When...

Frame and truss machinery has always competed on mechanical engineering design, and it still does. But, when you ask a plant manager where the day-to-day pain and gains in their plant actually come from, increasingly the answer is software. Throughput, uptime, operator experience — these...

Affectionately dubbed 3.0, the latest generation of Enventek’s NEXPLATE injects Formula 1-style velocity to truss build tables. Building on the foundation of version 2.0 — which debuted last year at the Building Component Manufacturers Conference (BCMC) in Omaha — NEXPLATE 3.0...

One of the most common problems in component manufacturing is not that companies lack effort, experience, or good people. The problem is that many companies are still trying to price, schedule, and measure labor using methods that were never accurate enough for the decisions being made. Board...