It happens. And it will happen again. Time after time, truss fabricators are faced with the awkwardness of addressing a customer’s complaint call. Fabricating a custom product to meet specifications has its challenges. There are codes to follow. Loads to verify, configuration to consider,...

Every August, federal lawmakers take a recess from their work in Washington, D.C. and use the month to visit constituents at home. For our industry, the recess (which goes through Sept. 6) provides an opportunity to schedule a meeting with members of Congress and their staff to discuss issues...

Sometimes people give me a variety of answers when I ask them to describe lean: tightening the belt; doing more with less; reducing inventory; cost-savings program; waste elimination; quality program; reducing head count; and turnaround tool. The word has meaning to many different people...

Recently, several people I know were asked to participate in satisfaction surveys. Though their situations differed, all of the surveys were motivated by good intentions. Even so, the results were mixed. As an outsider observing them, I’ve been struck by the things, both good and not so...

Before I launch into this month’s musings, I would like to thank everyone who has responded so positively to my writing. My hiatus from writing and publishing articles occurred when my primary outlet decided all of their article-writing should be done in-house. Not that I needed one more...

On behalf of all the self-proclaimed industry expert consultants (SPIEC) in the component manufacturing (CM) industry, I would like to state a rebuttal to a published article “Confusion is Starting to Confuse Me” written by Carl Schoening in the May 2016 issue of The Advertiser....

Customers, vendors and friends know that I have taken considerable personal time recently, few know the reason why. While the seeds were planted nearly six years ago, our family embarked on a journey that started three and a half years ago. It all began with a friend, an international hosting...

We better learn mono-tasking (and forego multi-tasking) if we are to excel at component design.  Experts tell us that even a 2-3 second interruption can double the number of errors in an assigned task.  Ouch!  Every designer knows the painful personal toll of errors, and every...

“Do it as if your job depended on it” was a directive that I will never forget, even 45 years later.  Fateful words from an owner, to me, a new employee of Hydro-Air Engineering, long before it became MiTek.  Other lasting words have come to me from SBCA Hall of Fame (HOF)...

Now is the time for you to prepare to move up in management.  Over the last 20 years, dozens of plants formerly run by “hands-on” owners are now run by managers.   During the recent recession, many management candidates left our business.  And in the next 10...