1. Our industry is faced with an unprecedented shortage of qualified/experienced design technicians. It's estimated that over 50% of experienced truss design technicians left the industry during the downturn of 2008-2012. Training design technicians from scratch is typically how companies grow their design staff. This process can be time-consuming, non-productive, and expensive as oftentimes new designers tend to learn from their mistakes. This has been referred to as the “School of Back Charges”.

 

At Component Runner, our Project Managers are industry experts with a minimum of 10 years of experience in component design and component design management. They understand the business and know the MiTek software inside out. We assign a Project Manager to each customer and they become your point of contact for all jobs in our system.

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2. All Component Manufacturers experience surges in their design volume. Staffing for the surges creates high overhead especially when the Component Manufacturers are located in regions affected by winter. Keeping your design staff intact during slow periods is a common practice because increasing design staff when the building season kicks into high gear can be difficult, risky, and expensive if a recruiter is involved.

 

When you become a Component Runner customer, we are available when you need us. We have no minimums and you only pay us for work performed. This is the perfect solution for managing surges in design. This allows you to staff accordingly and keep your overhead as low as possible.

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3. Large commercial jobs can cripple a design department. Typically, these jobs can take your best designers out of the mainstream for weeks and sometimes months at a time.

 

Component Runner is a perfect solution for large jobs. In fact, a large portion of our work are commercial projects. We handle all aspects of the process including direct communication with the Architect and Engineers on the job if requested. We will create and manage all RFI’s and will create and revise all engineering submittals allowing you to keep your design staff focused on production jobs.

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4. Most Component Manufacturers reserve their best designers to focus on production orders which can lead to missed opportunities in sales if the amount of estimating work exceeds the capacity of the design department.

 

Most of our new customers will use us for estimating work until we are familiar with your design preferences for production work. Some of our customers want us to model and design the building components for the most accurate price, and on larger commercial jobs we have developed a “Quick Quote” process where we break the jobs into different zones. We will design some of the trusses and apply the square foot cost of these representative trusses to each of the zones and deliver a spreadsheet with all the zones represented. Our customers then add their overhead and profit and quote the job. The feedback we get from these “Quick Quotes” is very positive.

 

5. Approximately 70% of the total design time is needed for building modeling (layout) and the remaining 30% of the time is needed for truss design. This creates an opportunity to outsource the modeling portion of the job and keep the truss design process in-house. Outsourcing component design can be risky if the component manufacturer does not stay actively involved in each of the jobs that are not designed in-house. If your design staff can delegate 70% of the work to us it frees them up to do other jobs without losing control of the larger jobs. We have many customers who have used us in this manner.

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6. People get sick, go on vacation, and sometimes need to take a leave of absence for personal reasons. When this happens wouldn't it be great to have a resource you can depend on to step in and help out during these times?

 

We have many customers who only contact us under these circumstances. Once you are set up as a Component Runner customer, you can order work from us only when you need help and we will be there for you.

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7. Understanding the complex data environment of the MiTek software is necessary for a remote designer to ensure they are providing you with MiTek job files that fully utilize your material inventory and default settings. Every one of our customers is unique in what they expect of us. Our team is an expert in managing the MiTek data and we keep each of our customers database in a secure place on our servers. Our team is very good at ensuring that each job we do uses the current MiTek software version that is running in your office along with the current database that you have. This allows us to guarantee that our jobs will be completely compatible at your end without lumber and plate substitutions.

 

8. When you work with a remote designer you sometimes experience frustration if they are difficult to reach or are generally non-communicative. Many independent designers have full-time jobs and are moonlighting to make extra money. This can be a challenge when you are getting pressure from your customers and you can't reach your designer because they are at their "day job". All of our Project Managers are available when you need them. They don’t moonlight, they are full-time professional design technicians who are focused to keep you informed and to make you a happy customer.

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9. Work from independent designers is often incomplete and late in delivery and may include design approaches which do not match your company’s way of doing things. When you become a Component Runner customer, we will begin with a comprehensive interview with our VP of Operations and the Project Manager assigned to you. They will work with you to complete a Preferences form that becomes our go-to document for all the jobs you send us. This is a living document that will be revised as needed to ensure that the work you receive from us looks like it was done in-house. When you order work from us via our website you will specify the delivery date. Our people work diligently to meet that date and will inform you as soon as possible if they feel the due date is not achievable.

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10. Working with independent designers may be expensive especially if they are not organized and do not provide accurate time-sheets showing where every minute is being spent.

When we invoice you each month for the work we do, you will receive an accurate time-sheet that details every minute we spend on each job. This transparency is important to us as we feel it is very important for you to feel comfortable with our pricing. If you see something on these time-sheets that does not look right to you, we will be happy to discuss the details and, if necessary, we will make adjustments to the price.

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Our goal is to be a resource that is available when you need us which will allow you to keep your design staff at the right levels for your business. We have created a team of very good people who will not let you down.

 

Please consider using Component Runner for your overflow design needs.