A greenfield truss plant is a rare opportunity to implement processes as designed within start-up constraints without the push-back of change by existing plant personnel. It is a breeze to teach and train new people to follow our process organization technology as laid out in a brand new plant....

Floor trusses have been golden for the component industry for over half a century, and their origin is worth recounting and celebrating. Because of their flexibility and utility, wood trusses dominate apartment construction and have taken it up to 5 stories. Getting there, however, has required...

Spida Machinery specializes in the design, manufacturing, and distribution of various types of machinery for frame, truss, and component businesses throughout the world. With three remarkable, dedicated, and machinery-focused manufacturing sites across the globe, we bring together the best of...

A Gordie Howe hat trick is accomplished when a player gets a goal, an assist, and a fight in a hockey game. A “Feed the Beast” hat trick is accomplished when a team of machinery wranglers installs a Lumber PickLine to feed a 3rd party automated saw, a standalone auto-feeding...

The legacy of the Eide name runs deep. Established in 1927, Eide Saw Company was a saw blade repair and supply company in the heart of Minneapolis’ milling and lumbering industry. Over the past 96 years, however, we have grown and expanded to keep pace with the ever-changing woodworking...

Dealing with the industry’s long machinery lead times actually has given everyone an opportunity to get creative, to stop procrastinating, and to complete those naggingly important process improvement projects — even though that’s easier said than done! This month, I am...

Skills shortages, increased costs, margin pressures, and continued demand for new builds across the housing market have in recent years accelerated the focus on automating the prefabrication of lumber wall frames, roof trusses, and lumber floors. Today, the prefabrication of lumber wall frames...

The implementation of a Lumber PickLine is a quick study in lean manufacturing tailor-made for each component plant’s building constraints and saws. A Lumber PickLine can semi-automatically feed any linear saw or any component saw. A saw that is fed lumber from a PickLine is a just-in-time...

Backwards compatibility is a feature that allows newer versions of software or hardware to successfully work with older versions. This point came to mind during my recent visit to one of our long-time Vekta customers. This plant in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne, Australia has been operating...

Immediately after I graduated from high school, my father, never one for complacency, sent me out to find a job for the summer. I remember walking into a local lumber yard looking for work. The gentleman I spoke with didn’t have a position, but he knew that the production manager at a...