When I’m frustrated by something, I’ll tend to keep thinking about it, like a problem to be solved. If I can figure out why I’m so irritated, then maybe I can learn from it (rather than only complain about it). Fictional Stories and Real-Life Budgets In the past,...

Candidates and employers keep asking me the same question — what am I seeing in hiring trends for 2026? The honest answer is “it’s complicated.” The more honest answer is that I don’t think the market has made up its mind yet. It’s April and, under normal...

Let’s face it: growth is exciting, scary, and a great problem to tackle. But in component manufacturing, increased demand can quickly expose pressure points on the floor. What once felt smooth starts to feel tight. Work in progress (WIP) builds up and becomes expensive. Teams must work...

The biggest, deepest report on acquisitions, new-store openings, and closures in construction supply makes clear 2025 simultaneously was both the busiest and slowest year for M&A in this decade. Viewed by the number of facilities acquired, 2025 saw 56% more locations acquired than in 2024...

When your team is set up right, performance takes care of itself. In manufacturing, it’s easy to assume better results come from pushing harder – longer shifts, tighter schedules, more pressure on the floor. But the highest performing plants know something different: real performance...

When I was notified we’d been selected by Construction Tech Review as the Cloud-Based Lumber Purchasing Platform of the Year 2026, I was very surprised, and I hadn’t even known we were nominated. But, as I thought about this news, I realized how grateful I am for the trust and...

I recently had the opportunity to visit Classic Truss and spend time with Marty Scott, Operations Manager, and Clarence Houk, Design Manager. It was one of those visits that reminds you how much this industry has changed, and how much of that change comes from steady, intentional progress rather...

Unlike software or construction projects where scope creep is often tied to timelines, in component manufacturing it usually shows up as added deliverables without added compensation. Here are some common examples: Extra trusses not on the original plans Maybe the framer calls and...

The summer build season is upon us, so the familiar daily time constraint challenges are back. Yet this summer build season is not like the past few years. In many regions, sales are not as strong, so margins are dropping to keep the sales volume needed to remain profitable. During the winter...

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...