Every production supervisor knows that when a larger chord member order—such as an attic or agriculture trusses—are being processed on the tables, the BF count goes sky-high compared to common trusses. The elevated BF numbers have nothing to do with effort or efficiencies within the manufacturing; only the type of units being measured. This imperfection is laid bare every time, and yet we as an industry still cling to this imperfect unit of measure system because of historical practices, upper management insistence, truss software that displays the BF and not having the skill to properly develop MM using industrial engineering practices.

A true story as an example of emotional involvement:

Three people were sitting in the back seats of a minivan during a trade show: myself, a salesman from a plate vendor and a prominent CEO of a large company that both the salesperson and I hoped to influence. I was seated next to the CEO, and the salesman was behind us. I discussed MM with the CEO and talked about how they are more effective than BF for pricing and manufacturing efficiency benchmarks, which is exactly what the industrial engineer John Houlihan did many years ago, except he referred to them as realistic expectancy (RE) or scheduled units (SU), but are the same as MM. As I told the CEO about my proven ideas, he became pleasantly animated and asked questions because he was very interested in this new to him idea. While this conversation took place, I could see the salesman behind us getting physically agitated; His face turned red and he started to shake. I did my best to ignore him. Finally, the salesman had enough and literally yelled that BF has been used for decades, it is still being used every day and to say otherwise is ridiculous. Both the CEO and I were so shocked by his outburst that the three of us hardly spoke for the rest of the ride. To say it was confrontational and downright unprofessional is an understatement. Why did this salesman behave in this fashion? Because he saw that I was gaining the trust of this CEO and that I was a potential threat to his perceived authority of knowledge for the CEO. Also, the salesman’s ego overruled his ability to use a proper response. How could I, a consultant, have any ideas that were better than his when he had just as many decades of experience and knowledge in the industry? Remember, I was discussing units of measurement, not anyone’s perceived skills or knowledge, just plain units of MM versus BF.