60 Years of Machines, Part XII: Best of Both Joe Kannapell Once auto-jigging enabled 4-minute truss setups, some thought we could go no further. Not so, said our Canadian compadres. Their claim was hard to fathom, since our last Benchmark Test results seemed unbeatable. But it was worth investigation, even if the plant involved was 2500 miles away. So,... Read More November 2020 Issue #12256 Page 10
Building Better Walls with Spida Cullen Ellis As wall panel production techniques evolve, Spida is at the forefront of the industry in offering a range of machines to provide efficiently and accurately built walls. About 3 years ago, we introduced the first of the new generation of Spida wall panel extruders. This new generation is designed... Read More November 2020 Issue #12256 Page 16
Fight the Management Drift Ben Hershey Many of us started 2020 with resolutions/goals both for ourselves and our businesses, but then our year was turned upside down with the Covid worldwide pandemic and other issues such as lumber prices topping highs we thought we would never see. While many LBM/component businesses are working at... Read More November 2020 Issue #12256 Page 26
Are You Missing an Opportunity to Market Your Product? Glenn Traylor Last month’s article, “Are Your Deliveries Making the Right Impression,” talks about aligning your product so the installers’ first impression is a positive one. Let’s expand this further. I am sure you have noticed the freight trucks on the highway moving product... Read More November 2020 Issue #12256 Page 35
Preparing for the 2021 Build Season Todd Drummond Despite all the turmoil of the skyrocketing lumber prices, pandemic, and elections, the building industry is doing very well. Hopefully, your company is doing very well, and now your attention is focusing on potential growth for 2021. Most companies are looking for modest tweaks to their current... Read More November 2020 Issue #12256 Page 43
Sharing Information Without Constraint Tracy Roe Our industry has always been heavily reliant on information and details from our customers. Sometimes a customer is a homeowner, building designer, an architect, or even an engineer. A common constraint for many truss fabricators across the country is the lack of accurate or timely information.... Read More November 2020 Issue #12256 Page 58
No Regrets! Ed Serrano Regret – a negative cognitive or emotional state that involves blaming ourselves for a bad outcome, feeling a sense of loss or sorrow at what might have been, or wishing we had made a different decision in the past. Regret originates in a comparison between outcomes of a chosen option and... Read More November 2020 Issue #12256 Page 63
Power Edit Improves & Simplifies the Wall Panel Review Process Diego Polanco Every time a company is ready to manufacture a wall panel project, they need to ensure the design specifications are reviewed and approved by all parties involved. A large panel project can go through many changes from the original design specifications. A gap in communication between invested... Read More November 2020 Issue #12256 Page 68
Stiles Machinery Is Ready to Be a Part of Your Team Chris Scott College football paired with cooling weather makes Fall my favorite season. This year, the changing season is a little sweeter than most, given that 2020 has seen more adversity than any recent year – and change is exactly what we all need right now. Hopefully, the coming months will lead... Read More November 2020 Issue #12256 Page 73
All Things Wood: The Enduring Problem of Truss Partition Separation Frank Woeste For more than 40 years, truss partition separation, often loosely referred to as “truss uplift,” has been a practical (and annoying) issue for homeowners and homebuilders. While it was first investigated at the field level and researched in the laboratory in the 1970s, an October... Read More November 2020 Issue #12256 Page 78