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BCMC session evaluations indicated that the BCMC Committee hit a home run in choosing the topics they did. Take a few moments to catch up on what you might have missed at this year's show.
- A renewed sense of optimism was everywhere you looked on the BCMC show floor.
- For the first time in six years, BCMC was exciting, encouraging and fun! Everyone was smiling.
- The CM Roundtable is where the issues that will define our industry going forward are raised and hashed out. The next CM Roundtable is in Tucson. I guarantee it is worth the investment to attend.
- The truss industry’s innovative products and software form the link between new science-based discoveries and their application.
- The mission of any professional engineering endeavor is to deploy innovative materials, designs or methods of construction that meet or exceed all regulations, protect the consumer and preserve free and unfettered competition as the rule of trade.
- The SBC Research Institute (SBCRI) acts as our industry’s “flux capacitor” and will transport us to a brave new world of construction we haven’t seen before.
- The future is now and our industry only has two choices—we can each grasp at it individually, or we can hold onto it firmly through a collective effort.
- One of the best places to get active in SBCA is by attending a component manufacturer’s-only roundtable discussion at a SBCA Open Quarterly Meeting (OQM).
- A good place to start a training program is by covering basic truss industry terminology, along with your company’s terminology and approach to serving customers’ technical needs.
- Example math and complete truss design problems using sample plans are a good way to coach new designers and bring them up to speed with your business practices.
- Each new hire and, in general, all staff needs to know who is responsible for client communication at each stage of a project.
- Innovation brings change that builds vigor and excitement in an organization or industry.
- We should challenge ourselves to look for ways to innovate and foster the discomfort of change.
- I am a proud supporter of the innovation revolution taking place within the SBC industry, and I invite you to join me as an advocate for change.
- The challenges of turnover leave some CMs hesitant about justifying the costs of training programs, such as SBCA’s TTT.
- It’s worth implementing new strategies for retaining employees, such as reconsidering previous policies that may be hurting your company under current conditions. An example includes careful consideration when an employee makes a special request before automatically saying “no.”
- SBCA President Scott Ward calls on CMs to share their thoughts on employee retention; send suggestions to Emily Patterson.
- When a stick of lumber's dressed size is less than the minimum required dressed size, the grading agency includes the size in the grade stamp as required by PS 20.
- Reduced dimensions can result in actual design overstress, unless the actual size is put into the lumber inventory of your software provider’s program.
- It is incumbent on the purchaser to decide whether or not to use specially marked lumber; buyer beware if there is a downstream design issue and the grade stamp was not accounted for in the design.
- When the IRC provides a solution that cannot be supported by testing of real buildings in a code-compliant application of braced walls, more accurate and technically correct engineered solutions will never be able to compete.
- There is some resistance in the market to establishing standard factors for product equivalency or system performance because it may result in non-wood products graining an advantage over traditional OSB market share.
- A top testing priority for SBCA is “Framing the American Dream III,” which seeks to test a typical stick framed roof and compare its performance to an identical engineered truss roof.
Looking for an economical way to add square footage and an alternative to decreasing spans? Read on!
I had an interesting conversation recently with an engineer that I have known for at least 15 years.
- Everyone’s looking for good people right now, and SBCA’s WFD website connects CMs with job candidates; CMs can help this effort by posting openings and viewing resumés.
- SBCA’s online training programs show new hires how our industry can become a career, and gives them the skills to quickly integrate and be productive at the plant.
- BCMC and BCMC Build are the perfect ways to recharge and help us build an industry community where new ideas, strategies and friendships can converge.
- Combining fiber reinforcement with finger jointed lumber could be a win for both the lumber and component industries.
- With in-line framing, CMs can remove studs and plate material, and spread the stud spacing out to 24", which, in some cases, allows for better insulation methods.
- The key to new product development is generating sales revenue immediately by establishing design values and engineering reports that give assurance of the product’s equivalent code-compliant performance.
Housing is fixed.
At least that is the belief of most members of Congress, based on feedback from lawmakers and legislative staffers on Capitol Hill. If you were to only listen to the national media to formulate an opinion on housing, you would probably reach a similar conclusion. While it is true that the residential construction market has definitely improved, with April housing starts over 850,000 and total U.S. permits just over one million, housing is certainly not “fixed.”
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), more commonly referred to as “Obamacare,” first sailed through the treacherous waters known as the U.S. Congress in March 2010. In July 2012, strong waves and adversarial winds threatened to scuttle its hull on the rocks of the U.S. Supreme Court. Somehow, though many are still left wondering how, it coursed through those rocks with nary a scratch. In one final test, a mutiny against this ship’s captain was proposed last November, but, in the end, it was turned aside.
- CMs need to develop new strategies for hiring, given the tight labor supply to fill the jobs available in the SBC industry.
- There are a wide the range of jobs and great opportunities for advancement in the SBC industry; spread the word.
- SBCA's WorkForce Development site, wfd.sbcindustry.com, could save CMs a tremendous amount of time and money when hiring new employees.
- The truss industry follows the requirements of the building code and ANSI/TPI 1 for general project scope of work concepts.
- The Truss Designer identifies the location of required individual truss member lateral restraint and diagonal bracing on each Truss Design Drawing.
- The JOBSITE PACKAGE can prove invaluable in documenting that the CM provided industry best practices on truss bracing, particularly when a project goes in a bad direction.
- The entrepreneurs who started this industry faced a big challenge getting trusses accepted in the market; we should be glad they didn’t give up.
- Even today, there is resistance in the construction industry to innovation.
- SBC and SBCRI foster innovation by thinking through how a building reacts to loads and then employing engineering fundamentals and common sense.
When Goldilocks went to the bear’s house, it took her a while to find something that fit her just right. Fortunately, whether you’re a large manufacturer, a small one, or somewhere in between, a formal in-plant QC program is always a perfect fit. In this second article of our series looking at QC, we reached out to component manufacturers of all sizes and asked them about their experiences using the In-Plant WTCA QC program and TPI’s third-party inspection services.
Here’s a quick history lesson. In reviewing public documents surrounding the 2010 Final Action Hearing of the ICC with regard to proposals RB31-9/10 and RB87-9/10, one would gather the following information:
- From NAHB’s perspective, the ALSC/SPIB Southern Pine design value effective date of June 1, 2013, is optional until local building departments enforce those values.
- Scott Ward shares a first-hand experience of the devaluing of engineering where the new lumber design values apply only to the “truss people.”
- Engineered components result in a safer, more reliable, better quality, and more affordable structure; now we need to demonstrate definitive proof, and SBCRI was built for a time just like this.
optimization using SBCRI truss assembly test data.
- A key SBC industry value proposition is to sell a value-added product by providing unique engineering and supply-chain management solutions to customers.
- SBCA members should have passion for and speak with a united voice in advocating for supplier and supplier association initiatives that positively support the SBC industry.
- Applied loading take-offs are critical to truss design efficiencies.
- Communication between the Truss Designer and Truss Design Engineer is key to minimizing truss design inaccuracies.
- The SBCA Load Guide is a free tool that can help Building Designers and everyone involved in the truss design process ensure that the applied loads are correct.
A good headline and photo draw in the reader's interest, but in reality, this is a very scary photo. This news item on the home page of MSN.com caught the attention of Steven Spradlin, President of Capital Structures in Fort Smith, AR. Most notably, this is a great real-world jobsite example of framer engineering that doesn't comply with construction site safety requirements. To put it in Spradlin's words, “Holy crap, someone call OSHA!” (This is what he wrote, so it’s probably a paraphrase of what he actually said.)
- The future holds great promise for component manufacturers, as we continue to evolve our collective engineering acumen.
- Greg Brooks’ online blogs gave us an opportunity to share the great work taking place at SBCRI.
- Our industry is at a pivotal moment in its history with regard to the value of the engineering that goes into producing structural building components
Quality. It’s the word you want each and every one of your customers to attribute to your products. It’s a word that implies reliability, a characteristic that builds trust and respect. It’s also a concept that points to superior craftsmanship that differentiates you from your competitors.