CM Toolkit Search

Safety Tip: OSHA released its Top 10 Violations for 2018

If you’re looking for ways to improve your in-plant safety program in 2019, many of these are great places to start.

CM Perspective: Your Customers Want Wall Panels (whether they know it or not)

Annandale Millwork & Allied Systems ventured into the components industry differently from most manufacturers as our original business centered on doors and millwork. We diversified into wall panels in the early 1980s and eventually into roof trusses. From the beginning, we’ve always looked to use innovative processes to solve common construction problems.

SBCA Webinars: Supplier Series

This new webinar series was designed to provide suppliers to the structural building components industry with a platform to give a 30-minute webinar on a topic you think will be most beneficial to CMs as they navigate current industry challenges and opportunities. These are not intended to be a sales pitch for your products or services but rather should focus on new/emerging technologies or marketplace trends.

Industry Job Descriptions

Gear up for growth! Use the job descriptions listed to post open full-time, part-time or internship positions under Manage Career Opportunities.

Employer Resources

Federal and state agency resources you can use to enhance business development and strengthen your workforce.

Editor's Message: What Will Your Company Do Tomorrow?

How often do you contemplate your scope of work (SOW), as it’s formally defined in ANSI/TPI 1 Chapter 2? That standard was originally published in 1995 and has essentially become law with its adoption into the International Residential and International Building Codes. 

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.

Better Safety Can Lead to Faster Truss Production

If you’re only tracking lagging indicators, like OSHA recordables and lost days, you’re missing out on a big opportunity to prevent future incidents and improve the safety culture in your plant. Leading indicators, on the other hand, present you and your team with an opportunity to track improvement and promote proactive behavior.

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.

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.

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 Southern Style Home for Southern Living

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

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.

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.

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.

Safety Tip: Avoid Injuries with Proper Lifting Techniques

Improper lifting of heavy or awkward materials can result in injuries that vary in severity from cuts and bruises to low back injuries and hernias. Whenever possible, use mechanical devices to lift and move objects and, when objects must be moved with manual effort, use the following guidelines to decrease your risk of an injury.