Measure and Pay for Performance Joe Kannapell A funny thing happened after Toll Brothers erected this “Board Foot Display” in their wall panel plant. Toll workers didn’t complain. In fact, they actually asked for digital readouts at their individual work stations. Hats off to Keith Fell, Toll’s Director of... Read More August 2017 Issue #10217 Page 6
The Last Word: Not the Last Word on Dick Marriott, Retiring President of MiTek Industries, Inc. Joe Kannapell You will search in vain, through the pantheon of sales leaders in the truss industry, for an equal to Richard H. Marriott. You will find contenders, like Charlie Harnden or Dave Chambers, though they left us too soon. You will find a handful of other 40 year veterans, like Dick, but none who... Read More August 2017 Issue #10217 Page 89
Panelization Automation Joe Kannapell The long overdue rebirth of domestic wall panel technology is finally upon us, as U.S. manufacturers have begun to innovate. For the last 30 years, they ceded the upper end of the market to the Europeans, and focused on manual framing and sheathing solutions. For the last 10 years, they have... Read More July 2017 Issue #10216 Page 6
The Last Word: The Last Word on Prospection Joe Kannapell What is driving the quest for automation besides the obvious? Surely it is not our preoccupation with the past, because that would recall the recent near-depression, and painful past calamities. Rather it is prospection, looking ahead, that explains much of our behavior, according to... Read More July 2017 Issue #10216 Page 99
Robotics, continued Joe Kannapell Automation is advancing around the world, but will it yield the quantum leap promised? And how big a margin will it provide over conventional processes? Let’s first assess how various systems affect non-direct-labor inputs to the production process. Later we’ll balance these against... Read More June 2017 Issue #10215 Page 6
The Last Word: Guarding Against Cyber Attacks in Component Plants Joe Kannapell 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... Read More June 2017 Issue #10215 Page 95
Resurgence of Panelization? Joe Kannapell What future does the Blueprint Robotics factory in Baltimore portend for housing construction? This huge German plant certainly rivals Pulte’s former facility in the same market (shuttered in 2008). And it may even eclipse the robotics/automation going forward in multiple truss plants IF... Read More May 2017 Issue #10214 Page 6
The Last Word: The Last Word on Travel Planning Joe Kannapell My best advice is to always deal directly with hotels and airlines, and avoid buying from “middlemen” like Priceline. They don’t save you money anymore according to the New York Times’ Frugal Traveler (see April 18 article by Lucas Peterson). Perhaps they did before these... Read More May 2017 Issue #10214 Page 89
Truss Robotics Joe Kannapell The path of factory innovation is leading us to automated systems rather than true robotics. Though industrial robotics has been used for 30 years in our industry, it has served mainly as a forerunner to later systems. Its earliest commercialization, the robotic arms of the Koskovich component... Read More April 2017 Issue #10213 Page 6
Vivian Hollinshed, R.I.P. Joe Kannapell Not one of the fathers of our industry did more design work than Vivian Hollinshed. Over his 55 active years, on the small drafting board behind his desk, this magnificent man named Vivian crafted countless fine homes and innovative commercial buildings. All the while pioneering trusses in a... Read More April 2017 Issue #10213 Page 80