Do You Know This Industry Trivia? Chris Scott The Olympics are underway, football is around the corner, and that means trade show season is about to begin. Everyone loves a good competition on sports trivia, so why not one on industry trivia? It’s time to test your industry knowledge! Who invented the first metal truss connector... Read More August 2021 Issue #13265 Page 71
The Last Word: The Last Word on CM Disruption Joe Kannapell Is component manufacturing ripe for disruption? Two foreign-backed entities came to our shores and tried to do just that for six years: Katerra with billions and Blueprint Robotics with many millions. Both were going to teach us how to build better, but with entirely different approaches. Out... Read More August 2021 Issue #13265 Page 142
Set Up for Success: The Build Phase of Design, Make, Build Katie Kormann In the Design, Make, Build (DMB) approach to construction, we’ve focused on the importance of collaboration. By bringing together the component manufacturers (CMs) and trades with the designers and architects early in the Design phase, they can provide feedback on what is possible around... Read More July 2021 Issue #13264 Page 60
Factory & Line Layouts – Ensuring Success for a Startup Chris Scott As prefab manufacturing continues to have a spotlight thrust upon it, new factories are popping up nationwide. If you have ever been a part of a new factory startup, you probably have the scars to prove it – mentally, emotionally, and physically. Every new factory startup is a lot of work... Read More July 2021 Issue #13264 Page 67
The Last Word: The Last Word on Commercial Trusses Joe Kannapell With surging housing demand, 1981 was much like 2021. Yet, in the midst of overflowing residential orders, a gutsy CM decided to take a chance on a different line of business. His painful memories of housing’s boom-bust cycles, and his Harvard education, told him to diversify. Ricks... Read More July 2021 Issue #13264 Page 145
Has the American Worker Lost the Desire to Hustle? Gary Fleisher Today, thoughts of working on a modular home factory production line isn’t the job many younger Americans want to grow old in. They also do not want to work in many other jobs where “hustle” is a requirement, like restaurants or construction. About 6% of the population or... Read More June 2021 Issue #13263 Page 100
Championing the Design, Make, Build Approach to Construction: Improved Quality, Productivity and Safety in Using Off-Site Manufacturing Marc James The building construction industry faces several challenges created by traditional building methods. One of the bigger challenges is that each trade is largely siloed from the other trades on a project, which can lead to schedule conflicts and communication gaps. MiTek sees the Design, Make,... Read More May 2021 Issue #13262 Page 63
Can US Off-Site Construction Industry Obtain Better Lumber? Gary Fleisher Many of the problems we hear about and actually see on jobsites, both offsite and site built, involve the poor quality of standard SPF #2. When I was the General Manager of a large lumber yard back in the 1980s, it wasn’t much better. I can still remember the yard men cutting the steel... Read More May 2021 Issue #13262 Page 94
3D Printers: How Will They Affect The Construction Industry? Christopher Gould The more I read and learn about 3D printing and its potential utilization, the more amazed I am with human ingenuity. The fact that we can create something virtually, combine it with raw materials and create anything we want from it is simply fascinating. It got me thinking about what this could... Read More May 2021 Issue #13262 Page 106
Industry Ecosystems and the Future Ben Hershey Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I am sure you have heard that statement before, and I am sure you, like 4Ward, have pivoted/changed a program/created a new product/etc. and then seen a competitor imitate it. It might bother you, but most of the time, they just do not have the... Read More April 2021 Issue #13261 Page 46