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Todd Drummond

Three Practical Ideas for Better Margins and Net Profits

Todd Drummond

Too often a repeated mantra within our industry is that everyone sells components at too-low margins. The blame is always on the other guy, meaning the competitor, for selling at a lower margin than what should be market pricing. Well, what can your company do to raise margin pricing? During...

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June 2017
Issue #10215
Page 24
Glenn Traylor

So What is the Big Deal About Member to Member Gaps?

Glenn Traylor

Compliance with ANSI/TPI 1–2014 requires maintaining member to member gaps at less than 1/4 inch. An exception would be for floor truss chord splices where the limit is 1/16 inch. Let us take a look at two different situations, the first being a roof truss and the second being a 4 x 2...

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June 2017
Issue #10215
Page 30
Ben Hershey

Open Your Eyes to Overproduction

Ben Hershey

Part 5 in our TIMWOODS Series Piles and piles of production all around you. No, I am not talking about inventory, I am talking about WIP, finished goods/staged jobs—Overproduction. Overproduction is making products in too great a quantity or before actually needed, leading to excessive...

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June 2017
Issue #10215
Page 48
James Clinich

Limitless Possibilities in Texas

James Clinich

When our Salesman, Ross Black, gave me the plans for the Clark Residence, I knew from the start that this was going to be a special project. I always enjoy working on these large single family custom homes, and this was no exception. For the most part, this home was not too difficult of a...

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June 2017
Issue #10215
Page 54
Robert Glowinski

When Competitors Attack

Robert Glowinski

Lately, competing building materials have been using construction fires as an opportunity to attack wood construction. It’s true; fires do occur in buildings under construction. But they occur in buildings of all material types, including concrete and steel. However, because wood...

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June 2017
Issue #10215
Page 65
Matt Layman

Lumber Briefs: Ideal Lumber Inventory Management Strategy...ELASTICITY

Matt Layman

A fellow lumberman asked me to describe my ideal style of inventory management, or buying strategies. So, here it is. The best way to describe it is “elasticity.” Imagine the lumber market like the waves and tides of the sea. The tide is predictable...it ebbs and flows with the...

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June 2017
Issue #10215
Page 67
Frank Woeste. P.E.

All Things Wood: How to Predict a Bouncy Floor

Frank Woeste

Background The model International Residential Code (IRC) permits a design live load of 30 psf for “sleeping rooms.” The model codes specify 40 psf for all other rooms. Of the annoying floor vibration complaints we have received, the most common scenario stems from the use...

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June 2017
Issue #10215
Page 68
Thom McAnally

Remote Design Trends in 2017

I saw an unexpected jump in the spectrum of employers asking for remote truss designers this year. In 2015–16, some of the big companies were looking for remote designers, but not many smaller companies. Smaller clients didn’t feel that they had the resources to manage the process...

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June 2017
Issue #10215
Page 81
Paul McEntee, S.E.

Installation Errors – They Happen

Paul McEntee

A few years ago, we created an article on creative uses of our products. Most of the uses shown were artistic, or functional do-it-yourself projects, with one odd car spoiler modification. This week, I was reviewing some slides in a presentation that I give a few times a year regarding product...

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June 2017
Issue #10215
Page 84
Joe Kannapell, PE

The Last Word: Guarding Against Cyber Attacks in Component Plants

Joe Kannapell, PE

Could a cyber attack cost you all your layouts and job files? Yes it can, as a truss plant found out last month, a victim of ransomware. Overnight, a despicable cyber robber encrypted all the files on his server, and displayed a warning on his system indicating an exorbitant ransom, with a price...

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June 2017
Issue #10215
Page 95
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