Nikita and I recently undertook a Western Victoria and South Australia road trip where we managed to meet most plants in the region.
These road trips provide me with the opportunity to meet our existing members and non-members and discuss the issues they see as important to our industry whilst also reminding them of the great benefits FTMA provides for fabricators.
It also allows me the opportunity to tour plants and discover improved or new ways of doing things as everyone does things differently and by sharing this information it helps our industry continually improve without recreating the wheel each time.
One of these new technologies was during the visit to FTMA Member Keith Timber where Michael showed me the Road Pods (pictured right) which were very impressive. So, what are Road Pods? They were designed in conjunction with Langs Building Supplies to specifically look at improving transportation safety and efficiencies within the frame and truss industry.
The pods are custom made loadable trays designed to fit any size truck, so loads can be packed on the ground either by hand or forklift, eliminating the need for your crew to load deliveries at heights, which comes with the potential risk of falling.
We hope to provide you more information on Road Pods in the near future with some case studies on costings and efficiencies but I for one was excited by this great innovative product as I truly believe it has huge safety and efficiency benefits for the sector and lets face it transportation is an area where safety is, at times, an issue.
The trip resulted in two new members joining the FTMA Family. The Pickard Group runs truss plants in Adelaide (Pickard Trusses) and Melbourne (Direct Timber & Trusses) signed up as did Walls Plus in Ballarat. We welcome Phil, Ashley, Ian and Sue along with their teams and look forward to seeing them at the National Conference next year.
Pickard Trusses (L-R): Hayley Jacobs, Phil Badcock & Veronica Jayet
New member Walls Plus Trusses
FTMA Supplier Members Willing to Help Your Business
FTMA Australia is the only national Association representing the Frame and Truss Sector and we have never shied away from the fact that we exist to provide a voice for the fabricators. However, we have a growing number of suppliers who continue to support the industry through their sponsorship and membership of the Association.
FTMA’s motto for fabricators is to support those who support you and which applies to our Annual Sponsors, but there is also many supplier members providing other services for our members.
Take our three new supplier members, Tuff Plans, Borg Construction and Laser Electrical Carrum Downs. All three of these suppliers are members of FTMA to not only show their support for our sector but also to promote the services they provide which are very much targeted at the fabricators.
I met Tuff Plans Managing Director, Peter Haszard at the FTMA NZ Conference and was automatically drawn to his product. TuffPlans® produce waterproof building & construction plans from client’s PDF’s, using Tyvek®, an extremely durable environmentally sound synthetic paper and the latest technology wide format printer. This product is waterproof, tearproof and colourfast, and is ideal for building plans and means no more laminating!
Laser Electrical Carrum Downs contacting me in June as they have had a long relationship working on all the electrical needs for many fabricators including the office and factory set up. In fact, this was the company that worked on getting the electricals back in order for JH Williams following their flooding which completely swamped their factory. Even though Laser Electrical Carrum Downs is the member, Laser Electrical has operations Australia wide and the team at Carrum Downs can ensure you get the best people with the right knowledge to help you.
Borg Manufacturing purchased the CHHWP Tumut particle board manufacturing plant and are now offering a wide range of products in to the industry with STRUCTAflor being one that fabricators may be interested in, especially with cassettes.
FTMA Australia also has a strong policy when it comes to Suppliers attending events such as the National Conference where only suppliers who are members of the Association can attend. This ensures maximum networking opportunities for those that support our members by supporting the Association.
FTMA Australia welcomes supplier members and we encourage fabricators to visit the FTMA News Preferred Suppliers section which provides a full list of our suppliers in the various categories ready and willing to assist our fabricator members.