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“If I didn’t care for him so much, I’d let him go,” said the late Vivian Hollinshed about an aspiring young designer, Chuck Rogers. Chuck knew nothing about trusses when he came to Vivian’s company, Comtech in Fayetteville, NC. And now, nearly 20 years later, thanks...

A quick internet search of the term “legendary” will reveal this among the possible definitions: “remarkable enough to be famous; very well known.” Unfortunately, our industry has lost another member who was very well known, very well respected, and very well...

Our team is often asked how a single operator can produce over 1000 lineal feet of wall panels. The answer comes from both the process flow and the material flow. We know, when an operator leaves their workstation, production is lost. Production can be lost at their station as well as other...

I said I wouldn’t write again, but I felt compelled to, at the very least, commemorate the passing of a great human being. In the past few weeks, many of you have read articles about the passing of Dwight Hikel. Dwight was something pretty special. Not just as a businessman or component...

The linear saw and auto-jigging reduce plant labor but they don’t increase the selling price of components, like the Blueprint Robotics panelization does, in spades. And, as more plants automate, component sales dollars may actually be eroded by price-cutting in a flat housing market. Is...

In the wood truss component industry, we have the independents, who are not associated with lumberyards, and then we have those who are owned by lumberyards. What I found striking is that the lumberyard owned and operated component manufacturers (CMs) consistently make far less money than the...

When you write a letter or series of paragraphs, sometimes it’s difficult to proof the very thing you just wrote. Why is that? Because you don’t approach it with a clean-slate perspective but with an expectation of what you think it says. Likewise in our industry, it’s often...

When I got the plan for the Edwards Residence, a two story home in Midland, Texas, the Architect had already worked with a Structural Engineer to come up with a framing plan. I worked closely with Siboney Diaz-Sanchez with Overland Partners Architects to be sure that our truss designs would meet...

Part 3 in our TIMWOODS Series Our friend, TIM WOODS, has been busy in many LBM and component operations and, as we continue our series, he has been seen sweeping “Inventory” down several operations’ drains. Inventory is another waste word in our TIMWOODS acronym for the...

Mass timber, including cross-laminated timber (CLT), has been in use worldwide for over 15 years, but most notably in Europe. However, North American designers and engineers are increasingly showing interest in picking up the trend. Building with mass timber for taller buildings has...