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...

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...

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...

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:...

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...

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...

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,...

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 —...

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...

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...