Risk Management

Why Lumber Variability Is a Problem for CMs

ALSC’s PS 20-15 has fundamentally changed what this grade stamp represents.

Few issues have demanded the attention of the SBCA Board of Directors more over the past five years than the variability of lumber design values. SBCA Legal Counsel Kent Pagel provided guidance to component manufacturers (CMs) on ways to mitigate the potential risk and liability that have arisen in the market as a result of how the lumber industry has chosen to deal with the issue of variable design properties.

Insurance: Check Your Coverage

SBCA has partnered with Lockton and AmTrust to offer members both a comprehensive policy review and a new coverage option.

Training Doesn’t Stop at Your Task

  • Current and past industry leaders, with the support of SBCA, have invested thousands of hours developing standards, warning documentation, training programs and other tools to help train industry employees.
  • As a salesman or general manager, knowing what to look for on contractual documents is critical even with long-time customers.
  • ANSI/TPI 1 Chapter 2 can provide insight into market expectations, scopes of work, responsibilities and the value of your work.

The Professional Services Endorsement—BEWARE!

Understanding your CGL policy—and its limitations—is an important component of every truss manufacturer’s risk management and liability avoidance strategy.

The Journey from Survive to Thrive Begins with a Single Step

For every step in your process, there is an industry best practice program developed with your operations in mind to help you succeed.

Navigating Obamacare: Charting a Course that is Best for You

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), more commonly referred to as “Obamacare,” first sailed through the treacherous waters known as the U.S. Congress in March 2010. In July 2012, strong waves and adversarial winds threatened to scuttle its hull on the rocks of the U.S. Supreme Court. Somehow, though many are still left wondering how, it coursed through those rocks with nary a scratch. In one final test, a mutiny against this ship’s captain was proposed last November, but, in the end, it was turned aside.

No Risk? Know Risk. A Fleet Safety Risk Management Primer

Take a few minutes to learn more about how to minimize one of your greatest risks as a manufacturer: truck liability exposure.

 

Don’t Be Lulled Into a False Sense of Safety

  • Safety training should never fall by the wayside, particularly when production picks up.
  • It’s important to make an effort to maintain good housekeeping practices, even when you think you’re too busy to do so.
  • Keeping your safety documentation up-to-date ensures you’re catching even the smallest concerns in your facility, and it helps you safeguard against serious safety issues.

Assistance for the “Street Lawyer”

  • Ward shares an experience where a customer contract had the potential to severely damage a balance sheet.
  • Don’t be afraid to admit that you do not understand contract language; if you do not, seek out legal assistance.
  • SBCA’s ORisk program can help with contract fundamentals.

Construction Defect Lawsuits: A Road to Successful Resolution Through Insurance

Knowing what your Commercial General Liability (CGL) insurance policy can provide in terms of a construction defect lawsuit defense and payment is crucial. 

With many property owners still owing more than their properties are worth, combined with the run-up in construction in the mid-2000s and resulting poor quality in many instances, I am led to conclude that thousands of construction defect suits will likely be filed in the next two or three years. Anti-construction defect litigation statutes adopted in many states will have little effect in stemming the tide. Component manufacturers will be among the many in the construction chain having to figure out how to defend and extricate themselves from such suits. 

Knowing what your Commercial General Liability (CGL) insurance policy can provide in terms of a construction defect lawsuit defense and payment is crucial. Understanding the degree to which many insurance companies will go to neither defend nor pay on construction defect claims is even more important. Far too many construction subcontractors and suppliers, including component manufacturers, are, in my opinion, naive when it comes to knowing what to expect from, and how to effectively manage, their insurance companies over a construction defect lawsuit.