Todd Drummond

Mistake-Proof Your Process with Must-Have Communication Features

Todd Drummond

Last month’s article, Continuous Improvement (Kaizen) for Enhancing Performance to Ensure ROI Retention, is a natural lead-in to Poka-Yoke. In lean terminology, roughly translated from Japanese, Poka-Yoke means to mistake-proof the process. A more accurate translation could be...

#16294 Cover image
January 2024
Issue #16294
Page 24
Todd Drummond

Continuous Improvement (Kaizen) for Enhancing Performance to Ensure ROI Retention

Todd Drummond

Over twenty years ago, I struck out to help companies improve their operations through best practices based on lean manufacturing and industrial engineering practices. Helping hundreds of companies improve their operations has been an extremely rewarding experience. After all of the 35 years I...

#15293 Cover image
December 2023
Issue #15293
Page 24
Todd Drummond

Better Than 10% Labor Savings Proven Method Endorsement By Scott Arquilla

Todd Drummond

For years, TDC has promoted the idea of using reliable estimated work minutes (R.E., S.U., Man-Minutes) for scheduling, pricing, and understanding true labor efficiencies. The most important aspect of properly developed work minutes is that you can create a short scheduling time standards...

#15292 Cover image
November 2023
Issue #15292
Page 25
Todd Drummond

Proof That Even the Largest Wood Truss CMs are Not Immune to Losing Tens of Millions of Dollars with Outdated Reporting

Todd Drummond

Despite the fantastic profits these past few years, some of the largest wood truss component manufacturers (CM) are losing tens of millions of dollars hidden in plain sight. Talk to any of the executives at these CMs, and they will be able to rattle off the EBITA or other P/L results, yet they...

#14281 Cover image
December 2022
Issue #14281
Page 26
Joe Kannapell

The Last Word: The Last Word on Great Plant Engineers

Joe Kannapell

Who will step forward to direct the increasing automation of our truss plants? Only the best qualified need apply. For example, people with the discipline of Dick Rotto, the in-plant experience of John Houlihan, and the analytical skills of Keith Fell. Each of whom possessed unique abilities...

#13263 Cover image
June 2021
Issue #13263
Page 142
Joe Kannapell

The Last Word: The Last Word on Roof Truss Wizards

Joe Kannapell

Four roof truss innovators have changed our industry, from its beginning to the present day. Their names may be largely unknown now, but their work lives on and is worth assessing. The most notable is A. Carroll Sanford, whose machines are still cranking out trusses (see my March 2020...

#12255 Cover image
October 2020
Issue #12255
Page 144
Todd Drummond

The Drummond Short Schedule Time-Standard System

Todd Drummond

Using Man-Minutes to Manage Your Labor Industrial engineering – “The branch of engineering that is concerned with the production of industrial goods, especially by the design of efficient plants and procedures and the management of materials, energy, and labor.” (Source:...

#11236 Cover image
March 2019
Issue #11236
Page 39
Todd Drummond

Estimating Truss Labor Using Board Footage Versus Proper Man-Minute Time Standards

Todd Drummond

For many years, I have been beating the drum that board footage (BF) is an imperfect unit measurement that our industry should abandon. The better alternative is the proven method of time estimations which uses man-minutes (MM). Man-minutes are derived from time-in-motion practices that have...

#10228 Cover image
July 2018
Issue #10228
Page 22
Ben Hershey

How Does Your Company Performance Measure Up? The Importance of Benchmarking

Ben Hershey

I read a book recently that discussed the term “benchmark” and its origins as relates to business. Surprisingly, the term originates within the history of guns and ammunition. In fact, with the same aim we use it today—comparison and improved performance. The book talked...

#10228 Cover image
July 2018
Issue #10228
Page 34
Joe Kannapell

Wood Components in Multi-Family Housing, Part Three

Joe Kannapell

Part Three:  Apartment Survival Strategies in the 1980s A few stalwarts “lived to tell” how they survived the Eighties, but none knew magic. What they did then works just as well today—expanded markets, refined quotes, and controlled costs. And in the collapsing...

#10226 Cover image
May 2018
Issue #10226
Page 6
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