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7 Contract Provisions to Never, Ever Overlook

  • Being aware of the big, bad seven is a step toward establishing a fairly-worded contract instead of a one-sided contract. 
  • “Pay-if-paid” or conditional payment provisions mean if the Builder is not paid by a project owner, the CM is not entitled to be paid. 
  • You are likely to see many lengthy insurance requirement provisions in most Builder contract forms.

Some Guidelines for Truss Collapse Investigations

  • WTCA Legal Counsel Kent Pagel has presented many of the risk management and liability avoidance programs, which will soon be available online in an up-dated and modified format.
  • At BCMC 2004, one question in the Manufacturers’ Roundtable was the im-portance of handling truss collapses proactively and the need to establish guidelines on how to properly conduct truss collapse investigations.

The Time to Implement Risk Management & Liability Avoidance Procedures Is NOW

  • Use a checklist to make sure you don’t skip an important step in your risk management procedures.
  • Don’t reinvent the wheel—use the SCORE program, BCMC and ORisk as tools to develop best practices around.
  • Effectively use attorneys, and be very careful when agreeing to allow an insurance company to defend you.

He Who Supplies the Jobsite Package "Makes the Rules" in Litigation

  • Builders and condominium developers have seen an increase in construction defect lawsuit filings asserted by homeowners whose homes are valued far below their mortgage balances. 
  • The increased numbers of construction defect lawsuits will inevitably involve lower tier suppliers, including component manufacturers. 
  • Being able to document that a Jobsite Package was received by the customer and the truss erector is a risk management measure that can protect component manufacturers from products and completed operations risks. 

Antitrust Primer for WTCA Chapter Associations

  • The benefit of belonging to an association is that it is the one place where a group of competitors can work to positively protect and advance the industry in which they are involved.
  • The detriment of belonging to an association occurs when anti-free-market activities begin to take place. 
  • Knowing where competitors can collaborate and where not to tread is extremely important.

ORisk Is OReady (OReally)

  • Pre-start checklists can be likened to regular maintenance on your car at a "quick lube place"—fast and necessary. 
  • Having all of the safety hazards in order while managing your maintenance scheduling means that pre-start checklists will actually save you time in the long-run, and they may even save one of your employees from a possible injury, too!

Our Legal Reality: Know Your Insurance Options

Our Legal Reality: The Cause & Effect of Insurance Premium Increases for Component Manufacturers

Our Legal Reality: Whose Mold Is It?

Our Legal Reality: Monitoring Specifications to Manage Risk

Parting Shots

Camber

  • Gravity loads causes trusses to deflect.
  • Dead loads are permanent loads.
  • Camber is an upward curvature built into a truss to compensate for dead load deflection.

Examining the Supplier-Buyer Relationship

  • Toyota is known for using lean manufacturing in its operations, and many manufacturers (like Shelter Systems) in our industry use them as well.
  • Since acquiring lumber just in time isn’t possible, Shelter Systems adjusted its lean principles and decided to stockpile lumber to manage price volatility.
  • The uncertainty created by lumber price volatility is a huge risk for all component manufacturers.
  • Through SBCA, manufacturers could pool their purchasing power and get lumber producers to listen to concerns about this volatility and other issue

Parting Shots

A Lifer's Journey Through the Ranks

  • Joe Hikel from Shelter Systems Limited (Westminster, MD) is this year’s SBCA President.
  • Hikel worked up through the ranks in the family business, doing everything from component assembly to truss design to sales.
  • SBCA plays a very important role in Shelter’s pursuit of running a state-of-the-art operation.

What Does BCSI Mean by Stress-Graded?

  • BCSI recommends that lumber used for restraining and bracing trusses be stress-graded.
  • Stress-graded lumber is graded for mechanical properties like strength and stiffness.
  • Stress-graded lumber can be found in visual grades, MSR and MEL grades.
  • AF&PA’s Supplement to the National Design Specification® (NDS®) includes the design values for all commercially available lumber in the U.S.

Parting Shots

BCMC Build Brings Excitement

  • Thank you for your SBCA membership!
  • Our industry is unique in that we are willing to help people who need it more than we do.
  • BCMC Build 2010 will take place September 27-28 in Charlotte.