Before leaving the subject of floor trusses, two machines deserve special attention, the Tiger Cat and the Structur-Span. Both included features that were way ahead of their 1970s provenance and both were markedly faster than even present-day machines. Both plated the truss with a single pass,...

As I sit here thinking about what the New Year will bring for Spida Machinery, I send our warmest gratitude to those customers who became our machinery partners in 2023. I can now bid farewell the challenges of the past 12 months and welcome the promise of a fresh start and new opportunities in...

Last month’s article, Continuous Improvement (Kaizen) for Enhancing Performance to Ensure ROI Retention, is a natural lead-in to Poka-Yoke. In lean terminology, roughly translated from Japanese, Poka-Yoke means to mistake-proof the process. A more accurate translation could be...

As we all plan for a productive and profitable 2024, I would like to celebrate three 2023 Feed The Beast success stories: a multi-million-dollar plant expansion, a complete saw shop makeover, and a plant renovation. All three of these projects implemented some or all of Enventek’s...

It’s hard to believe that it is already the New Year, but we had another successful year at Panels Plus in 2023. Despite some ups and downs in the housing market and all the buzz around high interest rates, we had our busiest year on record. The incredible value that our wall panel and...

Building intricate floor truss details may bedevil a robot, but they provide the inherent advantage of floor trusses over I-joists. There are also things that floor trusses can do that I-joists cannot. And they facilitate the most efficient use of materials. Visiting an I-joist cut-off yard...

Christmas has come around so quickly – where has the year gone? Many great things have happened for Spida in 2023, so before we celebrate another Christmas and New Year, let’s reflect on our journey this year. The start of 2023 was all about planning for the year and executing...

Over twenty years ago, I struck out to help companies improve their operations through best practices based on lean manufacturing and industrial engineering practices. Helping hundreds of companies improve their operations has been an extremely rewarding experience. After all of the 35 years I...

2023 was quite a year for Feeding the Beast of all sizes. That is a testament to the simplicity, utility, and robustness of our Process Organization Technology. The RetroC as a standalone auto-feeding component saw can anchor truss plants of all sizes from a single truss jig to over 10 jigs. A...

Wood Tech Systems (WTS) has traveled thousands of miles and spent several years researching robotics while trying to find the best fit for the North American wood component industry. There have been many challenges in our industry when it comes to integrating robotics, but the biggest one in my...