Library

As companies grow and change, we should ask ourselves—what are the essential pillars of support that help companies succeed? While making changes that will transform their businesses, successful companies will rely on core pillars that form the foundation of who they will be in the future....

A process that requires the inspection of each individual unit or component received from a process or manufacturer is said to be “100 percent inspected.” When fabricators initially consider a quality program, this is what they imagine is necessary. This 100% process, however, is...

Most think lack of time is their biggest barrier to achieving their goals, but they are mistaken. “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” This quote by Peter Drucker is one of my favorites. While providing consulting services for over one hundred companies, I have witnessed and...

So far in this series, I’ve talked about how job descriptions have evolved as the industry has matured. Along the way, I’ve emphasized that the objective is not to impress you with the advanced power of the servo—it is to impress upon you the importance of the journey of...

Building Information Modeling (BIM) has started to become a common practice in the architectural, engineering, construction, and facilities management industries. The benefits of BIM have been recognized in commercial and industrial development, but the potential of BIM technology to facilitate...

As the next and final step in the DMAIC process, the Control phase is perhaps the most critical! You have identified and Defined the scope of a challenge. Collected data and statistically Measured the baseline of the current process and/or output. Analyzed the current procedures and...

Building code officials are our security for ensuring safe building construction and they need to know a lot of information. The American Wood Council (AWC) aims to make the job of building code official a little easier when it comes to knowing about wood products and the latest wood-related...

We lumber types have come to expect the unexpected. Hence, there is great value when we can identify, well in advance, what the next price manipulating phenomenon might be. 2018 has been a year of looking for an elusive lumber market top. Early in the year I went so far as to call 2018 a bear...

There are products used in many buildings that are not referenced by the codes or standards. These products can affect structural strength, stability, fire resistance and other building performance attributes, which can impact public safety, health and general welfare. The International Building...

Southern Pine grading greatly complicates the task of making lumber substitutions. The progression of the structural values of Machine Evaluated Lumber (MEL) is nothing like the progression of values of either Visually Graded or Machine Stress Rated (MSR) lumber, which both ascend like rungs on...