All Things Wood: Continuous Learning and Virginia Tech Frank Woeste Whether you’re a novice or a seasoned professional, there’s always more to learn, especially as construction practices continue to evolve. That’s why our colleagues at Virginia Tech are pleased to be able to offer continuing education each spring. In addition, for many course... Read More April 2020 Issue #12249 Page 108
Knowing the Ideal Manufacturing Cycle Time Ben Hershey Building components is really great! It was a lot of fun in the 1970s when several plants had competitions on who could build the fastest run of trusses (for example, see Joe Kannapell’s article, Vertical Presses—The World Record). Back then, it was really easy to calculate cycle... Read More March 2020 Issue #12248 Page 28
Preparing Fast and Accurate Bids with STITCHER Alpine Team Alpine’s STITCHER software makes a big difference for A-1 Roof Trusses providing rapid turn-around of bids—and much more The Product / The Speed STITCHER is a unique software tool developed by Alpine to free component estimators and designers from repetitive tasks and to speed... Read More March 2020 Issue #12248 Page 66
The Hiring Zone: Future Roles for Senior Truss Designers Today, senior designers working in the office are involved not only with designing day to day projects, but also with providing training, solving problems for lower level designers, and working with customers. Their experience and knowledge are invaluable in many respects. But, consider this:... Read More March 2020 Issue #12248 Page 100
Are Your Managers Equipped for Change? Ben Hershey Ask yourself this question, true or false: The most resistant group of employees in many component and LBM companies is the frontline employees? If you answered true, like most people you guessed incorrectly. It’s not our frontline employees who resist change the most, it’s the... Read More February 2020 Issue #12247 Page 50
What If You Ran Your Factory Like a Chick-fil-A? Gary Fleisher I love stopping at Chick-fil-A, not only for the food but also to see how organized and disciplined every store is. The food isn’t bad either. It occurred to me that there must be a secret to their success that modular home factory management could use to ramp up their sales... Read More February 2020 Issue #12247 Page 96
Tall Mass Timber Code Adoptions Continue Trend of Sustainable Design Robert Glowinski The City of Denver is the latest in a growing number of cities, states, and municipalities to recognize the possibilities of tall mass timber construction. Following states such as Oregon, Utah, and Washington, the City of Denver voted in late December to adopt the 2019 Denver Building Code,... Read More February 2020 Issue #12247 Page 102
Trainer to the Pros — How Simpson Strong-Tie Educates the Industry Michael Weber Did you know that Simpson Strong-Tie offers free education and training to the construction industry? Indeed, we do. For several decades, Simpson Strong-Tie has made a commitment to supporting the development of our industry, and each year we educate tens of thousands of industry pros —... Read More January 2020 Issue #12246 Page 114
Small Investments Can Garner Huge Gains for Productivity for Your Sales Team Todd Drummond Last month’s article, “Investment in Employee Training, Not Just Equipment,” produced a lot of good responses from many readers. Now it is time to offer real solutions to help your company improve productivity and reduce costly errors for your sales team and also all of the... Read More December 2019 Issue #11245 Page 27
How Smooth are Your Splices? Glenn Traylor Quality trusses with smooth splices help ensure quality ceilings and floor finishes, but several factors may affect their execution. It’s generally understood by most truss builders that, while creating chord splices on any truss, it’s important to maintain a flush plane surface... Read More November 2019 Issue #11244 Page 38