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Ask a designer why a shop avoids a particular web configuration and you may get a very specific answer. The production crew finds it awkward to assemble. A certain cut creates problems. The preferred alternative uses material the shop always has on hand. You may also hear, “That’s...

Silence. It’s one of the worst things a factory owner can hear Monday morning. Instead of the air compressors humming to life, saws calibrating, and forklift back-up alerts echoing throughout the floor, the only thing felt is the deafening reality of a stalled line. If you’ve...

In 1984, I read a book called “The Goal” by Goldratt & Cox; the theory of constraints articulated in the book was formative in my thinking as an Industrial Engineer. I was surprised to learn that my son’s co-op employer gave it to him as required reading a couple of years...

We had a great week at BCMC. It was good to catch up with customers, meet manufacturers who were seeing Paragon for the first time, and get our team together on the show floor. We had a lot to show this year, and watching people react to what we’ve been working on made the months of...

Over the years, I have walked through more manufacturing facilities than I can count. I have looked at production lines, equipment, material flow, workforce, leadership, automation, safety, quality, inventory, scheduling, and just about every other part of an operation. Recently, I was reminded...

Component manufacturers are operating in a market with little room for waste. Housing demand is difficult to predict. Material prices shift quickly. Labor is expensive and difficult to find. Customers still expect competitive pricing, dependable schedules, and fast turnaround. Those pressures...

Are you ready to see JAX-XL retrieve materials for a lumberyard the way JAX retrieves lumber for a truss plant? In our BCMC booth, you’ll be able to track the movement of lumber and sheet goods from bunks to staging areas live on a monitor via 3D digital twin technology, all without manual...

For years, component manufacturers have faced a classic operational dilemma: choose the high-volume speed of traditional batch cutting on component saws or opt for the simplified material flow of cut-by-truss on linear saws. Because linear saws could “stretch”/optimize lumber, this...

When The Truss Company purchased its first RetroC component saw in 2014, the company was understandably skeptical. At the time, the RetroC was still a relatively new product, and some questioned whether it could hold up in a high-volume production environment. The saw would be expected to...

In the mid-20th century, Toyota revolutionized manufacturing with a clear idea: eliminate waste, optimize the flow of value, and improve continuously. Lean manufacturing changed how physical goods are built by putting the worker’s time and effort at the center of every decision. At...