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Component Manufacturing dverti$er
Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
Adverti$er
November 2018 #10232 Page #45
Value Added for Truss Manufacturers By Mike Momb The Pole Barn Guru
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ot quite 20 years ago I interviewed for a position of managing a metal plate connected wood truss manufacturing plant for Anderson Lumber, in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. For several years Anderson had been losing money from their truss operation and higher ups were searching for someone who could turn it around. My being young and perhaps a bit cocky had already led to my parting ways with a previous industry employer (https://www.hansenpolebuildings.com/2011/06/theres-no-education-like-real-life-businessexperience/), however by 1999 I had over two decades of successful truss industry experience. I’d done everything from sawyer to owner and knew, if given an opportunity, I could make money for my potential employer. I felt the interview had gone well – until they asked me for one word describing myself professionally. My answer, “Maverick.” When asked to expound upon my answer, I explained if left alone to make their operation profitable, I could do it, however it meant doing things in an unconventional way. One of these ways would be if my truss truck was hauling trusses to a jobsite, we would haul the “roof package” (roof sheathing, etc.) along with the trusses. After this response, one could have heard a pin drop in the room. My interviewers could not wrap their heads around efficiencies of saving a trip to a jobsite! I knew from experience, when a key gets close to a delivery truck, dollar signs of operation begin to spin. Their idea was either trusses or lumber would somehow be offended by riding upon the same truck. Well, it was not a match made in heaven. And they continued to bleed green. Trucking costs have done nothing but skyrocket, leading me to a way to make those truss truck trips to post frame (pole) building sites more profitable.
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