Alpine Engineered Products’ new owners greenlighted both a new linear saw and a major upgrade to their component saw, but they gave Dave McAdoo a nearly impossible deadline. He would have to deliver both by BCMC 2002, just 3½ months away. And the most difficult of these, the linear saw, couldn’t be just a copycat saw. It would have to do what no saw had done before, “cut each and every truss part imaginable.” After all, this was the task that McAdoo had spec’d after learning of the TCT’s success. He strongly believed that the ability to “cut anything” by itself would propel Alpine’s machinery to unassailable dominance in the truss industry. But he also realized that the linear sawing process would fundamentally change truss manufacturing. He just had to get his arms around such an unreasonable time frame.
McAdoo’s secondary task was also a formidable one, upgrading Alpine’s flagship component saw, the AutoMill RS. This was a redo of the entire motion control system to simplify calibration and improve trouble shooting and reliability. McAdoo had proposed hiring an outside contractor to do the electronics and to have his staff modify the mechanisms and develop the software. Assuming he could pull together the necessary talent, he estimated that at least 6 months of effort would be required. But he had only 3½ months. That would leave no time for onsite (beta) testing.
This was not a shot in the dark for McAdoo, even though his company was late to the saw business, beginning a dozen years after its largest competitor. In 1991, they acquired long-established Clary Corporation and its Master Saw, and in 1994 they doubled down with the purchase of Speed-Cut and its Timbermill. Soon thereafter, these acquisitions enabled Alpine’s initial offering, the AutoMaster component cutter. But McAdoo wasn’t content with just incrementally improving these legacy saws. He went after major advances with the Concept Saw at BCMC 1994, which led to the launching of the AutoMill in 1996. But with sales languishing five years later, he needed a catalyst to leapfrog the competition. And if he came to the Show with the best of both, component saw and linear saw, he’d give the competition double-trouble.
Fortunately, the upcoming October 16th Show was not Dave’s first (BCMC) rodeo and bringing prototypes was nothing new. In 1988, Alpine brought a revolutionary auto-jigging system to the Nashville Show way before it was ready to be quoted as the AutoSet. In 1994, they exhibited a “Concept Saw” in Louisville, without intending to sell it. Both ventures gained considerable attention, raised CM’s expectations, and ultimately paid off. However, these successes were characteristic of the entrepreneurial, Charlie Harden Alpine. Could this be replicated under the current corporatist management?
For Dave McAdoo’s firsthand account of Alpine’s rush to bring two highly sophisticated innovations to BCMC 2002, see his article on page 88, “One Hundred Five Days in 2002.” Dave wrote this in late 2002 mainly to commend the incredible work of his development team, but it is truly history-in-the-making worth reading. I believe it is highly unlikely that any comparable effort has ever been attempted, nor will it be attempted in our industry. The risk is too high.
Next Month:
Competing in Columbus