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March 1st, 2016 Component Manufacturing #09200 Don’t Forget! dverti$er You Saw it in the dverti$er Page #28 different. As in any manufacturing effort, material flow through your facility is very important. Wall panels are comprised of a great deal of parts - a simple interior wall with a door opening can easily have 25 parts, and exterior walls require different types of 4x8 sheathing as well. Delivery systems are different too, as roll-off trailers generally may not be best for the delivered quality of the product. But you may have a lot of assets you can use including design experience, a customer base, lumber purchasing, shipping experience, etc. If you do not currently do any value-added manufacturing, then the learning curve will be somewhat longer, but assuming you have a customer base associated with wood frame building and a basic a business plan, the “mission” is easily within your grasp. Remember that wall panels were built for decades with little more than a blueprint, carpenter’s square, a hand saw, and a “can do” By: Jay Halteman attitude. So now is the time to buy some very © 2016 Wood Truss Systems, Inc. - All Rights Reserved expensive equipment right? Not exactly. First let’s consider some of our basic criteria and you live in a wood frame home it was made with “wall panels”. No way? Way; ground rules: because every wood frame home is built with “wall panels”. That’s right - wall panels have been used on every wood frame home since the onset of dimensional • Rule #1: Your most likely prospect for lumber and the invention of platform framing in the late 1700’s. Wall panels (a/k/a/ manufactured wall panels is the same wall-frames) have always been laid-out, parts cut, and assembled on a flat surface, person/company that is directly responsible usually on the floor deck or slab of the structure being framed. When completed, the carpenter’s for framing labor. In other words the person crew gathered together to erect the “panel”, nail and brace the wall in position, then start on the who signs the P.O. for wall panels needs to next wall segment. So, wood frame wall panels are nothing new. Everyone uses them; they be the same person that “writes” the check always have, and they always will. for framing labor; as they are the one who benefits directly from field-labor savings. What’s different about manufactured wall panels today is the use of software analysis and design and the growing • Rule #2: From our experience we believe that shortage of skilled, field-framing crews. This combination wall panel equipment is easy to over-invest in. of improved capability and growing need is combining in the market place to create opportunity. The growing • Rule #3: All you must have to build demand for wall panels is being driven by the builder’s wall panels is a flat surface, such as desire for systems to install rather than sticks to be a floor deck on a job site (aside from measured and cut in the field. This demand clearly stems a saw, lumber and nails of course). from the need to build faster and more efficiently, and we all understand that in very real terms, time is money. • Rule #4: Equipment purchases should be based on matters of productivity and So what do these statements mean to you? Possibly a great deal or maybe very little, but we quality; let your combined experience be are 100% certain that every building component plant needs to form a wall strategy. This may your guide as to what is truly sensible. involve building them, developing an alliance with a wall panel manufacturer in your market, or simply “keeping an eye on the horizon”. • R u l e # 5 : Yo u r i n v e s t m e n t i n Either way, we are very confident that this industry segment will only grow and that sooner or e q u i p m e n t i s l a rg e l y d e t e r m i n e d later wall panels will have an effect on your existing marketing strategy. Why? Because roof and by what your daily or weekly linear floor system providers in North America have done their jobs so well. By most estimates nearly feet of wall production objectives are 80% of today’s wood-frame structures use engineered roof and floor systems; these products today and over the next 3 to 5 years. have proven their value in any number of ways (labor savings, waste reduction, better structural quality, faster job completion, less theft, etc.). Now consider that only about 20% of wood frame • Rule #6: The very best equipment for your structures are built with manufactured wall panels. Let’s ask ourselves a few questions here: Are specific needs can be some combination of engineered building systems here to stay? Has a systems approach to construction been accepted new, used, and even “home” made. by builders and buyers alike? Is wall panel use going to grow over the next decade in any given market? Will someone in your market bring wall panels to the table as a part of an overall solution Look to our next installment of the Wall Panel they can offer area builders? For about 95% of you, the answer to all of the above questions is Primer to pick up the discussion with what a resounding yes. So, as you can see, we do believe that manufactured wall panels will (and are the fundamental elements of equipment possibly do) have an impact on your business. necessary to build wall panels. Th e
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Primer for Wall Panels
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Sounds simple doesn’t it? Of course the basic principals generally are, but what about building © 2016 Wood Truss Systems, Inc. - All Rights wall panels, and what does it take to build them? If you already build components (roofs & Reserved floors) then you already have a good start on many elements of the wall business; however, you need to understand that there are several elements of wall panel manufacturing that are very PHONE: 800-289-5627
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