Anyone who knows me to any degree will tell you I am not a sports fan. I do not follow any professional sports or know much about the players and culture. So it may surprise you to have me compare component manufacturing (CM) to baseball. To be honest, I mean to compare the management practices...

The rapid rise in cases of Americans infected or possibly infected with the coronavirus made it inevitable that the lumber and building materials industry would be affected eventually. Here are some expert recommendations on how you should respond if one of your employees gets the virus. Note...

The Coronavirus is changing our landscape so fast that the three articles I wrote within the last week are no longer applicable. Because of this, I’ve decided to just give some facts and opinions from my vantage point at TheJobLine.com.  First, as of March 24th, we have not...

An anonymous former lumberyard CEO of 17 lumberyard locations (LBM) explained to me that his two component manufacturing (CM) plants made up only 10% of his sales yet contributed 30% of his net profits. He wished he had given the CM division far more focus and resources. As a guru for process...

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:...

In late January, one of our contributors, Ben Hershey, posed a question on LinkedIn: “If you had to pick the top skill or trait in running a successful business, what would it be?” My immediate answer: “Listening.” Listening for Problems When you hear...

On a recent trip to Japan to observe construction manufacturing methods, I was struck by the amount of time a plant manager spends on the production floor. Comparing this Japanese methodology to our truss industry, our plant managers and upper management spend relatively little time engaged in...

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...

Let’s start out by saying NO to traditional New Years’ Resolutions. That’s a NO to fad diets, new exercise machines, and that new vacation savings account you always planned to open. Blasphemy, you say? What if you were to forget fad diets, over-hyped self-improvement programs,...

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...