Several of the three-minute videos in this library are separated into two audience categories: “builder customer” and “framer customer.” The code required to embed the video on your company’s website is provided with each video below. Review the Toolbox Guidance Documents to explore how these videos can be used to promote specific products or your overall marketing campaign in conjunction with other CM Toolbox materials.
- Challenging times force hard and bold decisions that are risky. The survival of SBCA, BCMC, SBC Magazine and SBCRI were dependant on risk-taking.
- Private contract testing business through SBCRI led to the creation of the new and very valuable concepts of benchmark testing and code compliance tools called the Technical Evaluation Report (TER).
- The SBC industry can easily be the center of the universe for providing the structural framework of all light-frame construction and offering great value in engineering innovation.
- Safety training should never fall by the wayside, particularly when production picks up.
- It’s important to make an effort to maintain good housekeeping practices, even when you think you’re too busy to do so.
- Keeping your safety documentation up-to-date ensures you’re catching even the smallest concerns in your facility, and it helps you safeguard against serious safety issues.
Name: Micah Green
Company: Cascade Mfg. Co., Cascade, IA
Position: Project Manager/Estimator
Years in the industry: 9
From BCMC 2012 Educational Session: “Changing Codes & Planning Ahead”
From BCMC 2012 Educational Session: “Preparing for the Future of Hiring”
From BCMC 2012 Educational Session: “Metrics for Managers”
From BCMC 2012 Educational Session: “Lumber Production, Grading & Design Values Part 2: From Stick to Truss”
- WorkForce Development will need to be a corporate focus as the economy continues to improve.
- Showcasing the world of components, its unique characteristics and many career opportunities can be a powerful way to entice fresh faces into our industry.
- SBCA’s WorkForce Development website, wfd.sbcindustry.com, is a great tool for posting jobs and reviewing resumes, with new site enhancements coming soon.
- Examine each operational area for changes that could help improve overall economics.
- Make sure the design department is up to date on price changes of stock lengths of lumber, especially changes due to design value adjustments.
- Factor customer needs into optimization, along with producing a more efficient truss using less material and plant labor.
It was nothing but sunny skies (a first!) at the BCMC Build jobsite in New Orleans this October. In just one and a half days, a team of volunteers from the structural building components industry framed this three-bedroom home.
If you do a web search for current trends in U.S. urban planning, article after article will discuss similar issues. Urban planners face new challenges as a result of the recent economic downturn, and subsequent sluggish growth. A few examples include: a higher percentage of renters over owners due to foreclosures and defaults; delayed housing purchases by Generation Y; a growing desire for alternative transportation choices and shorter commutes; all coupled with a decreasing availability of urban land.
- SBCA President Scott Ward grew up in the business and credits industry pioneers for laying the foundation CMs can continue to build upon today.
- As the housing market improves, CMs need to focus on bringing new and skilled labor back into the industry.
- Technical schools, community colleges, high schools and wfd.sbcindustry.com are excellent resources for finding employees.
A few minutes to a better understanding of the how and why behind the brilliance of local market development.
- The contractor should examine the trusses when they are delivered and determine if there is any damage that would impair the structural integrity of the trusses.
- BCSI recommends that trusses stored outside for more than a week be stacked on blocking and have a cover that provides adequate ventilation.
- The contractor is responsible for the construction means, methods, techniques, sequences, procedures, programs, and safety in connection with the receipt, storage, handling, installation, restraining, and bracing of the trusses.
In case you ever needed a picture to define the importance of diagonal bracing in the context of lateral restraint (i.e., top chord purlins as well), these photos of long span trusses say it all.
Meet Steve Baker from Plum Building Systems, LLC in Waukee, IA.
Apparently, the secret to surviving 50 years in the truss business is to begin by selling lumber, and then working your way into it. Heart Truss & Engineering in Lansing, MI, and Littfin Lumber (Truss) Company in Winsted, MN, are both celebrating half a century of success this year, and they share some common characteristics: one, they both hail from Midwestern states; two, their founders all started by selling lumber and building materials; and three, they all resisted the urge to expand beyond their means.
- President Steve Stroder looks back on the pace of change and some of the industry's top issues.
- SBCA took the tough stands that strong leadership requires to serve the best interests of all CMs when addressing the Southern Pine design value issue, which resulted in SBCA hosting the first Lumber Summit and the formation of the Lumber in Components Council.
- A revamped BCMC may very well turn out to be one of the best shows we have had in some time.
- Scott Ward takes on the leadership of SBCA and is the second father-son combination to serve WTCA/SBCA (Bob Ward President 1991, Scott 2013). The first pair was Don (1992 and 1993) and Ben (2009) Hershey.