Business Logistics

CM Perspective: We Need You to Attend SBCA Meetings!

As an active member of SBCA, the greatest value I receive is through the relationships I’ve formed at Open Quarterly Meetings (OQMs) over the last few years. Sure, SBCA does a lot of great things with the magazine and the services and products they offer, but the ability to pick up the phone and call a fellow component manufacturer (CM) from somewhere outside of my shipping area is the most powerful tool SBCA has put in my toolbox.  

Parting Shots: The Gift that Keeps on Giving

Students at the New Jersey Institute of Technology received a gift recently from the Mid-Atlantic Structural Building Components Association, a chapter of SBCA. Their instructor, Frank Golon Ph.D., P.E., reached out to Keith Myers (Woodhaven Lumber) requesting BCSI handbooks as part of his class curriculum.

Faces of the Industry: Howard Gauger

I first started pursuing a college engineering degree, but had to leave due to some family emergencies. In 1982, I started selling lumber and trusses for 84 Lumber and then with a local lumberyard a year later in my home area of Portage, Indiana. When construction tanked in the early 1980’s, I moved my family to Florida near my wife’s family. I decided to use more of my background from college and found a job in 1985 estimating floor and roof trusses for WD Lumber & Truss in the Tampa Bay area.

Get the Whole Gang Together!

One of the best ways to ensure your remote designers feel like an integral part of the team is to make an effort to get everyone physically in the same place from time to time. Dan Morris, truss design manager at Apex in Jacksonville, Florida, notes that while they have regular interactions over the phone or through online meetings, they’ve also learned that “you need to have face-to-face time” to keep the team unified.

A Southern Style Home for Southern Living

Apex and True House Collaborate to Make an Idea House a Reality

Giving Tours to Students – The Only Wrong Way Is Not at All

The first common theme among those CMs who make an effort to engage with students on a regular basis is a clear recognition that connecting with the next generation is important to solving current workforce development issues in this industry. Simply put, “it’s the right thing to do,” says David Mitchell at Engineered Building Design, L.C. in Washington, Iowa.

A Chart is Worth a Thousand Words

At the Open Quarterly Meeting (OQM) held February 26-28 in San Diego, the SBCA Marketing Committee embarked on an ambitious new effort to map the entire construction industry process through a series of flow charts. These flow charts will track the movement of information, labor, and products through the various supply chain stakeholders.

Are You Using This Powerful Tool?

Increasingly, today’s consumers and prospective employees are starting with the internet to learn about a company. What they find on the web generally leaves a significant first impression. Given this, there is a multitude of valuable reasons to have an attractive web presence.

President's Message: Learning from the Sometimes Painful Experiences of Others

One of the most valuable reasons to attend SBCA meetings are the unexpected things you learn. At the most recent Board meeting in San Diego, it was mentioned during the IT Committee report that they were discussing ways to educate component manufacturers (CMs) on the risks and impacts of ransomware attacks.