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frame & truss
IN A MARKET frantically coping with unprecedented demand for new homes, you could see frame & truss as the workhorse, a reliable engine quietly driving the wheels of the building industry.
It’s added fuel injection over the years for greater efficiency and response.
It’s always had four-wheel drive.
But, just as the internal combustion engine appears to be falling out of favour, faced with the high efficiency of electric motivation, we’re hearing that it may be time for frame & truss to look beyond its usual ways of working.
How to turbocharge frame & truss, we ask?
MENTAL LEVELS OF DEMAND
Mark Buckenham, PlaceMakers’ GM Manufacturing, forthright as ever, describes demand across its frame & truss plants as “unfathomably crazy – you’d think that we’d reached a point of critical mass, not just in terms of supply, but also subtrades...
“But every month the consent numbers come out and the demand that flows in is just bonkers, absolutely bonkers.
“And each month the consents turn into jobs requested, and that puts more strain and stress on the supply chain.”
FTMA Member Services Manager Peter Carruthers agrees that, as a result, “The lead time for frame and truss supplies has certainly extended out and I think that that’s frayed a lot of nerves.
He’s hopeful that customers are “coming to understand that this is a rather unusual set of circumstances and the [frame & truss sector’s] ability to suddenly ramp up capacity is limited.”
Tony Castledine at MiTek NZ agrees that building activity has been “relentless” and that it has placed “a lot of strain on everybody”.
Denied an exemption to manufacture and distribute under Level 4 but relieved that the factory has since returned to manufacturing, seeking to increase efficiency MiTek is now armed with a separate new warehouse and double shifts.
“Fortunately, I think our customer base understands that there’s just no silver bullet solution,” says Tony.
The outlook is no different for Steve White at Pryda: “Everyone is returning to work with the same order books and with their manufacturing capacity already booked out.”
And that’s still the case, he says, with a lot of Pryda customers fully booked out for the next 15 weeks.
ADAPTING TO CHANGE
This sustained and elevated level of demand may be “a nice problem to have” but it’s still a problem.
Supply chain issues have made it even harder for the frame & truss sector to cope, says Peter Carruthers, adding that FTMA members have been trying for some time now to adjust.
Some of these shifts can be seen in MBIE’s Building & Construction Sector Trends Annual Report which was released at the end of September.
The report notes that while solid timber is “still the most common floor joist material, there has been a downward trend since 2017. During the same period, the use of ‘other’ material [e.g., wood and steel composite joists and traditional heavy gauge steel joists] increased from 26% to 45%.”
Changing how frame & truss is doing business at the pragmatic end of things ranges from “if you can get the timber, we will cut it and assemble it for you”, to leaving the builder to do their own framing while the plant makes the trusses.
Old school builders might even get a better result, one operator said to me in no uncertain terms, compared to the low quality coming out of some plants...
Taking a longer view is Mark Buckenham and PlaceMakers, whose shift to centralised detailing and decision to rationalise production by putting its branches on allocation are apparently paying dividends.
Looking further out, in an industry that has traditionally had very low barriers to entry, Mark Buckenham sees a widespread need to raise the bar in terms of technology and capacity and that “A lot of people will have to make decisions around whether they can continue to invest and compete.”
Take PlaceMakers’ additional Auckland site dedicated to cassette floors.
Saying “We probably won’t be making anything of significance until next year,” Mark says the project has been stymied somewhat first by a lack of suitable premises and then by product shortages of LVL, hyJOIST and flooring.
“So now we’ve got the factory and we know the demand is there. Hopefully, supply is going to loosen up a bit so we will be in a position to produce more floor cassettes.”
“Doing it right”
saves time on-site
Unaffected by Alert Levels when we spoke in early October is Hayden Todd, Manager of Truss Tech in Cromwell.
“It’s crazy. We’re the busiest we’ve ever been”, he says.
“Business is going from strength to strength looking after our customers to the best of their ability, we are currently experiencing a high volume of job booking which is creating a bigger than normal lead time.
“We are focusing on this high demand to carry on using our strengths which is quality and doing things right to help the customer to the best of our ability.”
“Doing it right” includes as often as possible value-added extras to speed up work on-site, like using StudLok screws, installing DPCs, truss tie-down fixings and pre-cutting rafters, all of which can be done in the factory and saves time on-site.
“The time that it takes for us to do in the factory is minuscule compared to what it will take on-site,” says Hayden who comes from a building background and understands the advantages.
“Our builders are really appreciative, because what we can
do in the factory saves an apprentice on-site a day going round doing fixings where it might only take us an hour in the factory.”
www.trusstech.co.nz
30 NZHJ | OCTOBER 2021
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