Performing an F1 pit stop for each truss is how to Feed the Beast! Truss builders know that assembling each truss on the truss tables is just like what an F1 pit stop crew does. Both F1 pit stop crews and truss assembly crews strive for efficiency, quality, safety, and teamwork, with a shared goal of optimizing and standardizing performance for repeatability. However, trusses have way more than four tires to swap out efficiently, figuratively speaking. [For all photos and images, See PDF or View in Full Issue.]
Many people have attempted to build work crews as efficient as an F1 pit stop crew. One of the best was the late great Mark Monkman and his record breaking “F1 Truss Pit Crew,” to whom Joe Kannapell paid tribute in his November 2020 article, “60 Years of Machines, Part XII: Best of Both.” When others believed a four-minute truss set up was the best that could be done, they showed that the same work could be accomplished in less than two and a half minutes!
As Joe chronicled, one of the keys to the efficiency of Monkman’s Maple Ridge Truss crew was how “the connector plates were uniquely organized for efficient placement” in trays “mimicking their position in the truss.” That’s the same kind of mindset that I’ve been encouraging, such as my likening of collated plate distribution around the truss to dealing a pair of plates/cards to each truss joint in my past articles, “Enhancing Truss Build Efficiency“ and “How to Squeeze Out More Truss Production.”
Consider the first photo that shows typical collated plate picks for top and bottom chords of trusses ready for efficient distribution at the truss tables.
And, how about the shopping cart approach? Do you have that kind of typical bulk plate pick which will slow down the build crew?
Now consider this, how would you F1 pit stop twenty-four (24) 66 ft trusses as shown above? How would you prep the material for a 3-person build crew? How about for a 4- to 5-person build crew? How do you ensure quality assurance for each of the 24 trusses?
Each truss needs to be “F1 Pit Stopped,” especially with “million dollar truss tables.”
Believe it or not, the average time taken by an F1 pit crew on a pit stop ranges between two to three seconds. Our truss build tables may not be that fast, but we can still aspire to speed in our shops!
Most truss plants employ a dedicated plate picker, however, the plates are picked in bulk for the job and that ends up slowing down truss assembly. What builds trusses faster, 600 pairs of collated plates or 1,200 bulk picked plates? This is the same trick question that I posed in “Batch Cutting vs. Cut By Truss.” The trick is not how many pieces you have but how well you are putting them together.
Now consider the bulk picked list on the piece of paper in the photo. It shows a total of 1,200 plates picked and presented to the truss builders. However, this will slow down the truss build crew by creating a plate huddle to go through the plates, and will waste time figuring out how to re-organize the plate distribution for each truss.
Instead, collated picked pairs of plates for the “Bottom chord Plates” and the “Top chord Plates,” shown as WiFi tablet screenshots within the composite image, represents 1,200 plates or 600 pairs of plates presented to the truss builders. Here, the plate pre-picking and the subsequent plate distribution (like dealing cards) is standardized and organized for efficient plate distribution by the designated “plate dealer” of the truss build crew. The bottom chord plates are to be dealt out for each truss for each bottom chord joint from left to right, and then the top chord plates are to be dealt out for each truss for each top chord joint from right to left.
By following this method of one pair of plates per joint per truss, the chances of missed plating are reduced – and if a plate is missed, it will be caught at the table and not out in the yard or worse at the time of truss installation. Collated plate distribution is an inherent quality assurance measure.
SPOILER ALERT! Enventek will be introducing an innovative machine that will dispense collated truss plates to maximize your investment in “million dollar” truss table automation and enable your truss crew to F1 Pit Stop each truss! Please come visit with us at Booth #937 at BCMC Milwaukee to see our F1 Truss Pit Stop machine.
When you’re ready to Feed Your Beast and see these efficient and effective systems for yourself, let us know! Inside and out, LimTek Process Organization Technology will help you squeeze out more truss production and deliver quality trusses with shorter lead times to better service your customers by organizing your truss fabrication processes to maximize your investment in automation. https://limteksolutions.com/#solutions