Advertiser Forum: Employment: Livelihood or Commodity? Anna Stamm Last month’s article by Thom, “The Cost of Convenience: How Offshore and Remote Design are Undermining the Future of the Truss Industry,” generated a fair amount of feedback, and that feedback was generally fair. But, let’s unpack some additional dynamics. The central... Read More July 2025 Issue #17312 Page 6
Automation is Here, and It Doesn’t Need a Supervisor to Nudge It Along Steve Shrader In an industry long defined by hard work and incremental improvement, a new chapter is being written. But not everyone seems to realize it. Some are still telling companies to squeeze more productivity out of crews by reorganizing work paths, tracking stopwatch data, and optimizing jobsite... Read More July 2025 Issue #17312 Page 48
To Precut or Not to Precut? That is the Question Casey Harless Close your eyes and imagine yourself walking through a component manufacturer’s facility. As you do this, some will see a facility with a relatively well-automated wall panel line, in which full sheets of OSB, gypsum, ZIP, etc. are being applied to the wall in line and the router on the... Read More July 2025 Issue #17312 Page 56
Striking Gold with Posi-Strut in Carson City Landon Boucher A large part of what MiTek’s Design Engagement team does involves meeting with Structural Engineers, Architects, and Real Estate Developers to advance the use of components. We guide them on best practices early in design so that when construction documents arrive at the truss... Read More July 2025 Issue #17312 Page 62
The New Hiring-Zone: A Smart Way to Hire in a Tight Industry Let’s face it—finding the right people in the offsite construction industry isn’t getting easier. Whether you’re searching for a seasoned truss designer, a sharp estimator, or a dependable production manager, the usual massive job boards don’t cut it. That’s... Read More July 2025 Issue #17312 Page 82
Design Connections: Beating the Big Job Board Blues Geordie Secord When you’re job hunting or looking to hire, you’ve got choices. Lots of them. You can go with the big-name job boards that everyone knows about, or you can try something different—something more personal. The experience you get depends entirely on which path you choose, and the... Read More July 2025 Issue #17312 Page 88
Now’s the Time to Pause So You Can Look Ahead Wendy Boyd For many in the structural building components industry, the past few months have been quieter than usual. This has been caused by a combination of factors including economic, regulatory, and operational. I was talking to a customer recently and he put it like this: “where we’re... Read More June 2025 Issue #17311 Page 19
True Employee Motivation and Satisfaction Todd Drummond When discussing employee staffing issues during consultations, wages and long-term employment are inevitably part of the conversation. After decades of advisement, it is no longer a surprise to me about the disconnect between what executives think is most important to the employees versus what... Read More June 2025 Issue #17311 Page 30
What Kind of Message Does Your Facility Send to Your Employees? Glenn Traylor In Quality Assurance, we aim to improve our product by enhancing manufacturing methods. Continuous effort is made to ensure work meets plant standards, with each employee fulfilling their role. Even so, businesses that have a very narrow view of quality might be overlooking an important... Read More June 2025 Issue #17311 Page 39
Is Your Downstream Crew Still Solving Problems Created Upstream? Steve Shrader Too often, systems that claim to be “automated” still rely on people to direct the flow. That reliance on people rather than true automation means you’re still solving problems downstream that were created by things happening upstream. A picker is still compensating for a... Read More June 2025 Issue #17311 Page 46