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July 2021 #13264 Page #33
CM Equipment Purchasing Do’s and Don’ts
U
nderstanding the do’s and don’ts for component manufacturing (CM) equipment purchasing (wood trusses and wall panels) can save or waste your company 100’s of thousands of dollars at the time of purchase and long after.
Todd Drummond
Everyone knows the building economy is on fire, so it should come as no surprise that this has a significant impact on equipment and expansion investments for the CM industry. But, as someone who makes a living being a CM operations lean manufacturing guru and has witnessed 100’s of equipment installations and manufacturing setups, I would like to offer you this reminder: the vendor’s promises will not always match the reality of what will happen when/after you make a purchase. Every system and equipment provider has pros and cons. Knowing what is best for your given needs should not be biased toward vendor recommendations that may be based on monetary gain or false understanding of KPI benchmarks.
Labor Shortage Yes, we all know companies are experiencing a huge problem staffing all the needed areas of their overall businesses. This critical need for skilled and reliable labor drives many decision-makers to invest vast sums of money into automation that promises to reduce labor while increasing output. Unfortunately, for both wood truss and wall panel manufacturing, 100’s of thousands of dollars are invested in poorly designed systems and the wrong setup to meet their particular needs. TDC cannot emphasize enough that the equipment vendor’s sales pitch may seem like a very enticing solve-all-your-problems solution, but then it may fall far short of your intended goals. Automation may, but is not guaranteed, create a labor savings, but the key is knowing what works as intended and what may be false promises. Some automation equipment is unreliable and is not the best solution for your company’s needs.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) In the wood building industry, the so-called tried and true KPI strategy of using board footage (BF) units is so widely used as a standard benchmark for productivity that too many people will not listen to reason about the inherent flaws of the BF benchmark. TDC has accumulated data that proves you can achieve significant gains in BF per man-hour while losing millions in untenable sales and net profits. Continued next page
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