A
Th e
Component Manufacturing dverti$ dverti $ er
Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
Adverti$$er
December 2021 #13269 Page #88
One Hundred Five Days in 2002 The true story of how Alpine revolutionized saws
n early 2000, sales of truss equipment began to taper off. By the end of the year, the Equipment Division had reduced its employment by more than half and had shrunk its occupied floor space by 40%. The most dramatic reduction took place in Equipment Engineering where 75% of the staff was laid off, and development of new machines was totally suspended. The situation was depressing, especially in light of the fact that connector plate business through that period held to levels near previous years. We were never able to fully understand the dynamics of all that. We simply tried to play the hand we were dealt.
By David McAdoo, Director of Engineering (retired) Alpine Engineered Products
I
Throughout 2001, we continued in the lull. But by this time, we had resized the division so that we could get by with the meager volume of business that was available. Near the end of 2001, Randy Yost started talking about a new saw that was beginning to appear in the Florida market. It utilized a feeding concept that was unheard of in the automated component cutting business. The lumber went through the machine lengthwise. We had been discussing the concept of linear feed through an entire truss operation for two or three years, but never had the resources to pursue it commercially. It was intriguing because it offered many ways to improve the process of building trusses, but there was concern that the industry would not accept it. It soon became obvious that our concern was ill founded. The new saw in Florida began to sell exceedingly well. Throughout the lean times, Dan Rupe and I had many discussions about how we could distance ourselves from our competition. For the most part, advancement of products in our industry had been a tit for tat affair. One of us would introduce an improvement and make a really big deal out of it. Then the other would try to “one up” them with additional improvements. It was a game of inches. One day, they would gain an inch. Another day, we would. Dan opined that we needed something that would “take them out of the game.” It occurred to me that an expansion of the concept of the Florida saw might be the way to do that. In late February, I sent Dan an email outlining two things we could do to put some distance between us and our chief competitor. One was a “one up” over them with our flagship product, the AutoMill RS. At the expenditure of a lot of time and money, we could convert the saw to the premier motion control technology, servo control. But the other was a “do everything” Continued next page
PHONE: 800-289-5627
Read/Subscribe online at www.componentadvertiser.com
FAX: 800-524-4982