A Vekta Trip Down Under Aaron Bahner For anyone who’s ever wanted to take a trip Down Under, I have the perfect reason for you to go – visiting Vekta! December brought an exciting opportunity for me to make my first trip to visit the Vekta headquarters and factory in Perth, Australia. I started as the General Manager of... Read More January 2023 Issue #15282 Page 60
The Last Word: The Current State of Robotics Joe Kannapell, PE I’ve been covering the industry’s evolution toward robotics, but I’d like to stop for a minute and recall the days of corrugated fasteners. These clever clips proved themselves whenever trusses were flipped or ejected. Now, perhaps ironically, they still have a role to play... Read More January 2023 Issue #15282 Page 128
Innovation, Pride, Passion, Professionalism Wendy Boyd Generally speaking, I write most of the editorials for Component Advertiser – but when I was speaking to Tony McCoy, our Sales Manager from Texas and South Central, he asked if he could write an article from the heart, and I just couldn’t resist publishing his thoughts. Tony has been... Read More December 2022 Issue #14281 Page 19
Proof That Even the Largest Wood Truss CMs are Not Immune to Losing Tens of Millions of Dollars with Outdated Reporting Todd Drummond Despite the fantastic profits these past few years, some of the largest wood truss component manufacturers (CM) are losing tens of millions of dollars hidden in plain sight. Talk to any of the executives at these CMs, and they will be able to rattle off the EBITA or other P/L results, yet they... Read More December 2022 Issue #14281 Page 26
In-Line Truss Production Starts With Lumber Picking Edmond Lim, P.Eng. This month, we get a sneak peek at a greenfield truss plant that drank from the same punch bowl as some established truss plants to Feed the Beast! Previous articles have highlighted existing truss plants that have literally banked on Enventek’s proven in-line lean manufacturing system to... Read More December 2022 Issue #14281 Page 54
How Panels Plus Nailed It This Year Tim Grahn This has been a very busy year for Panels Plus with shipments up 47% from 2021. I’m glad to see all the work out there and I’m grateful for the customers that have asked Panels Plus to help them increase their production with our equipment. As we look back on this year and look... Read More December 2022 Issue #14281 Page 70
Reap the Rewards and Labor Savings From Wall Lines Wendy Boyd From the BCMC 2022 event, in which we displayed our Framing Line and several other pieces of machinery, it became apparent that our customers are hunting for ways to save labor and costs – which includes producing wall frames for their markets. We were overwhelmed in the Spida booth with... Read More November 2022 Issue #14280 Page 19
Labor Shortages Worse Than Most Understand and Automation is Not Going to Be the Cure-All Solution Todd Drummond Time and again, executives state they are having problems finding enough qualified people to staff all the needed positions within their company. The truth is that this problem will get much worse, and you need to understand why to fix it. TDC has found that companies with the best employee... Read More November 2022 Issue #14280 Page 24
A Weekend Install and a Packers Home Game Edmond Lim, P.Eng. The majority of our machinery installs are requested to be done over a weekend, usually starting on Friday. A weekend install requires key personnel to give up their weekend in order to minimize production interruption. The weekend of September 30, 2022 in Green Bay, WI was a particularly... Read More November 2022 Issue #14280 Page 52
How Important is Optimization Rob Bellian Today, linear saw technology provides unmatched efficiency with profound differences to productivity, service, and reliability. An automated linear saw can also reduce the lumber cut waste by batching and combining different cuts of various pieces known as lumber optimization. So what is the one... Read More November 2022 Issue #14280 Page 60