Industry Mourns Loss of John “Chip” Dean Joe Kannapell, PE Published August 07, 2026 On August 4, 2026, John Chipman “Chip” Dean passed away at his home in Placerville, CA after a battle with cancer. Chip served component manufacturers for nearly 50 years, in a wide range of leadership and entrepreneurial roles. He took what he learned in his first eight years... Read More
The Necessity of Having High-Capacity Utilization Joe Kannapell, PE Published June 29, 2026 Ed Ryan said it in the 1960s, Dick Rotto in the 1980s, and Pulte in the1990s and 2020s, but it took a PhD, Ricardo Brites, Director of Engineering of Mercer Mass Timber, to layout some good evidence that a successful manufacturing plant needs to operate at a level of at least 75% of capacity. In... Read More
How AI Will, or Won’t, Overtake the Truss Industry Joe Kannapell, PE Published January 12, 2026 My monthly column, The Last Word, focused on a very hot topic for January, “(When) Will AI Overtake the Truss Industry.” Delving further into this burning issue, I turned away from random YouTube AI sessions and went to a better source, the School of Data Science at the University of... Read More