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This month I want to discuss costs in a little more depth.This month I want to discuss costs in a little more depth.
Early in the new year is always a great time to make resolutions on how to improve your life (and your business). Here’s a look at five powerful things component manufacturers (CM) can resolve to do in 2015.
This flow chart has taken the informal approach of dealing with industry issues in the past and provided a framework that better delineates a process that any TPI or SBCA member can become engaged in.
As I talked to people throughout the week at BCMC, I kept hearing things that led me to conclude there’s a lot more unity in the industry these days.
Do you ask the right questions to get the best productivity?
Few issues have demanded the attention of the SBCA Board of Directors more over the past five years than the variability of lumber design values. SBCA Legal Counsel Kent Pagel provided guidance to component manufacturers (CMs) on ways to mitigate the potential risk and liability that have arisen in the market as a result of how the lumber industry has chosen to deal with the issue of variable design properties.
- It takes a creative approach to using material to meet customer’s needs, while still providing good quality structures.
- Once innovative framing methods are learned, and framers experience the ease of installation, and discover how all the parts of the framing fit together well, they quickly become comfortable with the techniques.
- Framers must be involved in creating industry standard details, because we are the ones most familiar with actual building construction.
The purpose of changing the dues policy is to ensure everyone contributes on a more even footing to the organization.
SBCA Marketing Chair Jess Lohse considers "innovative framing" and the potential it holds for the future of component manufacturing.
As valuable as time is, SBCextra contributor Jess Lohse can’t figure out why our industry gives so much of it away.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is continuing efforts to strictly enforce regulations pertaining to Form I-9. USCIS states the I-9 “is used for verifying the identity and employment authorization of individuals hired for employment in the United States. All U.S. employers must ensure proper completion of Form I-9 for each individual they hire for employment in the United States.”
SBCA President Jack Dermer reflects on the past year and encourages members to get engaged as the organization embarks on a new year and new approach to quarterly meetings.
Imagine purchasing a new piece of equipment and then finding out once it’s installed you can’t make it work the way it was intended because it doesn’t understand what your software is telling it.
Employee appreciation and incentive programs can lower turnover rate
Communication is always key in relationships, on a team, and especially when running a business where both team and relationships are the foundation.
What’s the secret to great IT support in the component industry? Find a process that’s simple enough that you’ll actually do it, and detailed enough that it’s useful.
Clear up an occasional source of confusion regarding BCSI bracing
Core values live at the heart of Littfin Lumber’s ongoing success.
All three of these experts agreed on the bottom line: pull out and dust off all of your owner’s manuals.
Spend a few minutes with the thoughts of CMs doing business in markets where business is picking up and make sure your company is ready for recovery when it comes.
Xoom. Galaxy. Slate. Iconia. iPad. Unless you’re a technology enthusiast, it’s likely you wouldn’t recognize the products these names refer to (except for perhaps the last one). They are all the latest and greatest tablet computers produced by the computing industry, and they offer a very simple, yet seductive advantage to the business community: mobility. For you, mobility translates into easier sales, quicker response times, more effective repairs, better marketing, streamlined manufacturing processes and, most importantly, more efficient communication and collaboration.
- Component manufacturers have to be proactive locally in pursuing those outside the industry, including building officials, members of the fire service, specifiers, framers and lawmakers.
- It’s not hard to put a value on having eyes and ears like theirs in the market, when they are willing to look out for your business while they’re doing their jobs.
- The more smoothly the installation of CM products goes, the less issues we have to confront in the field and the less we have to overcome challenging building code provisions, the more builders will want to buy and install our products.
Getting IT staff more involved in operational goals takes engagement from both sides.
An unusual design project gives this CM international exposure.
How a better understanding of human needs can improve employee retention.
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.