Being in this industry for the last 16 years, I’ve been inside many panel fabrication shops. The one thing they all have in common is the requirement to accurately cut and mark wall components which are then put together as a complete frame. The original and most simple way to achieve this...

Ten years after the Sanford Gantry stormed onto the scene, the DePauw Saw arrived without much fanfare. Their introductions said a lot about their inventors. Carroll Sanford was an ebullient architect, Art DePauw an unassuming machinist. If both men were alive today, they would relish seeing...

When looking for new opportunities for improvements in your operation, it is quite natural to ask for advisement from outside your company to give you a better perspective. Who you should trust to help you take your company to higher performance is not as clear cut as it may appear. Costly...

Those of us in the building materials and components industry have probably all seen inkjet printers mounted to our cutting equipment for labeling, framing layout, and other forms of marking. Let’s face it, nobody wants to get a package of cut pieces for framing a truss or a wall and have...

Happy New Year! We hope that 2021 sees you and your loved ones safe and happy, and your business increasing in output while maintaining your quality. We’re starting off this new year by continuing our conversation around Stiles’ partnerships and how you benefit from them. A close...

Today’s equipment is ever evolving. Innovation has indeed added more complexity than ever for the building components industry. Capital expenditures should be planned and calculating rather than intimidating and emotional. There are several key steps entrepreneurs and businesses should...

Regret – a negative cognitive or emotional state that involves blaming ourselves for a bad outcome, feeling a sense of loss or sorrow at what might have been, or wishing we had made a different decision in the past. Regret originates in a comparison between outcomes of a chosen option and...

College football paired with cooling weather makes Fall my favorite season. This year, the changing season is a little sweeter than most, given that 2020 has seen more adversity than any recent year – and change is exactly what we all need right now. Hopefully, the coming months will lead...

Every component manufacturer has actively implemented lean and best practices customized and optimized to their existing personnel, plant machinery, plant layout, yard layout, and plate supplier’s software. Most component manufacturers are operating as efficiently as possible within their...

I recently had the pleasure of helping our engineering installation crew install and commission the first Spida PieceMaker Linear Saw in North America. While more than 24 saws in the last 24 months have been sold and installed in Australia and New Zealand, this is the first saw to make its way...