The future of roof truss manufacture rests with companies who are able to sell on a national basis and utilise the latest technology.
This is the view of Philip Bell, managing director of the Crendon Timber Engineering group, who says the industry is undergoing the same changes as housebuilding with fewer but larger companies taking an ever-increasing market share.
He said: “We are increasingly dealing with a smaller number of national builders who want to retain their regional order processing functionality and contact.”
Mr Bell said Crendon’s wide spread of manufacturing operations at Aylesbury, Castleford, Dorchester and Bristol, coupled with the latest roof truss design and production software provided by Gang-Nail Systems Ltd, puts it in an ideal position to meet demand.
He predicts manufacturers will have to cope with continual reduction in batch sizes and increasing “room in the roof” attic trusses. And he expects future technological developments to create closer links between front-end design and manufacturing planning routines with current labour-intensive shopfloor production methods.
Mr Bell believes smaller companies will face pressure if they cannot utilise state-of-the-art design and manufacturing technology. Crendon has used Gang-Nail’s software for 20 years, the latest version of which plots and calculates everything involved in roof design.
