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Wood building component manufacturers are facing increasing financial pressures as tariffs and supply chain disruptions drive up the cost of essential materials and equipment. Industry insiders report rising concerns over the impact on production costs and project timelines. The Key...

When we started down the path of creating the JAX automated retrieval system, it had to work with our existing saws from three different suppliers. So, one of our first tasks was to bring their disparate cutting files into a common format to feed JAX. We also had to bring the sequence of jobs...

Today, 93% of America’s new homes are built of wood-frame construction. If fully enacted, the implemented and pending tariffs will reduce lumber supply and trigger an increase in lumber price, resulting in a one–two punch for the wood-frame construction industry. As we once again...

You don’t wake up one day and decide to start a truss plant. This kind of business isn’t a side hustle. It’s not something you launch from a playbook. A successful truss plant is built slowly—through long hours, tight margins, and a steady stream of challenges most people...

Manufacturing operations rely on efficiency and accuracy. But is that limited to the literal manufacturing process only, or can companies take the same logical approach to evaluating all aspects of employee performance?  A well-defined set of Standards of Performance ensures employees...

“What do you mean you are stopping the QC inspections?” I could not believe what the operations manager was telling me when it was decided that we would no longer have each truss inspected at completion. Our truss company had always prided itself on delivering the highest quality...

Building engineers rely on maximum gravity reactions (R+) from Truss Design Drawings (TDD) to design structural components. These maximum reactions are calculated based on load combinations specified by building codes, representing the highest downward forces which allow engineers to determine...

Product testing is the backbone of quality control in engineering and manufacturing, ensuring products are reliable, durable, and safe before reaching the market. Over the years, the testing processes have evolved dramatically, transitioning from manual inspections to highly sophisticated...

A benefit of using Simpson Strong-Tie’s CS Truss Studio™ is managing the relationship between the truss self-weight and the dead load. Truss self-weight is checked against all applied dead loads to verify that there is enough assumed “extra” dead load to account for the...

What’s inside your home today, and what will be on top of your house in the future, was or will have been handled by Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs). These are the small under-riding robots that carry all sorts of items from point A to B in plants or warehouses, eliminating manual...