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Society is currently experiencing “The Great Resignation,” and it only continues to be exasperated by the pandemic. Yet, for many industries, building safety especially, this is not a new phenomenon. In fact, for the skilled trades like construction, the shortage of incoming talent...

A new museum/hanger in British Columbia mirrors the shapes and curves of a plane Reprinted courtesy of Engineering News-Record, copyright BNP Media, February 7, 2022, all rights reserved. While having lunch with his executive director at the Four Points hotel in British Columbia’s...

Connector Selection Guides (CSGs) are tools Simpson Strong-Tie has created to assist users in designing and building with engineered wood products (EWP). They consist of a series of short fliers (available as PDFs on strongtie.com for printing or mobile use) guiding builders on how to select...

From the quirky advance of truss machinery described in my Sixty Years of Machines series, one might conclude that we’re a quirky industry. We may be, but innovation in truss manufacturing is no different than advancement in U.S. industry in general. And, in fact, we are the epitome of...

It seems like every (Pick a word: day, month, year) we attempt to bring order to some chaotic part of our (Pick a word: jobs, homes, lives), only to be thwarted by something we didn’t foresee. Try as we may to maintain consistency, something always interrupts the balance. So, what can we...

Downstream and upstream, the linear saw continues to improve the flow of truss manufacturing. Increasingly, cutting and assembly are treated as interdependent processes and have begun to be tied together. Jim Urmson started this, others have followed, and a “cut truss-by-truss”...

Decisions, decisions – how do you decide between a retrofit for your plant or upgrading to a new truss line? It’s all about the options. Let’s Start with the Retrofit Retrofitting an existing table is not for the faint hearted, so it’s important to know you have...

One of my clients’ most often asked questions is, “How exactly do we track and implement an incentive program?” Most companies are willing to pay their manufacturing employees more wages (incentives) based on greater output. Yet, the vast majority of wood truss component...

Due to the nature of wood, lumber characteristics can vary in every piece. Even “in grade” lumber can have drastic variations in performance. How can we deal with and adjust for natural defects and variability? We have discussed roof trusses in previous articles, including...

One unique thing about our industry is the diversity among markets across the country. The upper Midwest does things very differently than the South. The methods used in the West don’t align with the those used in the East. None are wrong, but most are very different. At their core, each...