The wood products industry has taken great leaps in generating greater awareness regarding the advantages of wood products in construction; however, people often overlook wood’s good performance in building energy efficiency. With pressure mounting to combat carbon emissions and reduce the...

Bucket lists are mentioned regularly today, which got me to thinking – what about a bucket list for structural engineers? ASCE and others have put together lists of engineering wonders of the modern world, so those seem like a good start for sights to see. But for a practitioner, I’d...

On July 1, Square1 Design and Manufacture, one of America’s leading frame and truss machinery providers, joined forces with Spida Machinery. We are thrilled at this merger as it means we are now offering the most compelling mix of machinery, software, and service to the frame, truss, and...

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...

Can quality be determined by examining the environment of the facility manufacturing the product? It seems like the two are unrelated, but, after evaluating hundreds of facilities, quality seems to be proportional to the environment of the manufacturing. By this, I’m not saying that brand...

Recently, a Pastor at our church, Morgan MacPherson, shared a teaching from the Book of James talking about how our Actions Speak Louder. Though there was a lot of “meat on the bone” from what he shared, one of the additional thoughts I brought home was how important our actions are...

The acquisition of Square 1 Design solidifies Spida Machinery’s position at the apex of machinery suppliers for the Building Components industry. Globally positioned to supply machinery around the world, our equipment profile includes options for all component manufacturers—from...

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...

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...

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...