Sorry to Burst the Bubble! Shelena and Ed Serrano Congratulations! You’ve just purchased a new, state of the art machine to add technology and automation to your factory processes. Concerns about safety, inefficiency, and your bottom line are now in the past. Your staff will be happier, work will be easier, and your customers will be... Read More September 2019 Issue #11242 Page 58
The Hiring Zone: Remote Offices – This is How We Do It! Sitting in my Home Office, after 27 years of working from home, I get it. The perks that come with working from home are great and the freedoms that come with it are priceless. There are downsides too. If you haven’t worked from home long term, I will just say that I hope your positives... Read More September 2019 Issue #11242 Page 84
Top 10 Bookkeeping Mistakes to Avoid Gary Fleisher To say I was surprised that almost 80% of all small independent home builders, both site and offsite/modular, build less than 4 homes a year is an understatement. That means that only 20% of all small builders in the US build more than 4. Who knew! If your business falls into the 80%,... Read More September 2019 Issue #11242 Page 88
Two Common Mistakes Cost At Least 2-3 Points of Net Profit Every Year Todd Drummond Most, if not all, are now caught up in the summer building season to make serious money for their component divisions. However, far too many companies are allowing tens of thousands of dollars to be lost because of commonly accepted bad practices. Practices such as using non-precise labor... Read More August 2019 Issue #11241 Page 24
The Hiring Zone: Bonus Plan or Performance Plan—Is One Strategy Better? The goal is the same for both a bonus plan and a performance plan—reward an employee for performance. The higher the position, the more defined are the goals. Not many bonuses that are consistently over $10k are subjective. It can’t be about how well departments out of your control... Read More August 2019 Issue #11241 Page 80
Offshoring and Outsourcing—Lessons from a Personal Journey Andrew Carr How did this Australian component manufacturer become involved in offshoring? It started with a trip to Vietnam in 2004, and it ended much differently than I would have expected! I had been operating my company in Australia, Truss-Rite, for 16 years, selling prefabricated wall framing and... Read More August 2019 Issue #11241 Page 86
You’re Only As Strong As Your Weakest Link Chris Scott Being only as strong as your weakest link is not only true in sports but also on the production line, whether we are talking about people or equipment. Diagnosing the slowest and least efficient point in any production line is key to having a successful and profitable manufacturing... Read More July 2019 Issue #11240 Page 14
Measure the Tempo of Your Operation Ben Hershey My wife Dianne and I were recently going through some of our old family photos and I came across this photo of Dianne’s Dad, Jack Hendershot, as a teenager on his bike delivering ice in the early ’50s. For those who may not know, before the advent of refrigeration and freezing... Read More July 2019 Issue #11240 Page 22
How Your Plant Can Benefit From a Spida Extruder Wall Panel Framing Line Chris Scott Powered by people, a manual line in an average component plant is composed of a rough opening station, a subcomponent station, a framing station, a squaring station, and a sheathing station. In the configuration, typically 8 people are on this line, and 1000 LNFT of output is the average goal... Read More June 2019 Issue #11239 Page 14
Do Connectors on Both Sides of a Truss Ever Need to be Placed Exactly? Glenn Traylor Once in a while, I’m asked—Is there ever an occasion when connectors on both sides of the truss need exact placement? Well, the answer might surprise you. There are, in fact, several situations where the top face connector and the bottom face connector need to be exactly... Read More June 2019 Issue #11239 Page 38