Closing the Design/Manufacturing Gap: How Informed Design Helps Both Manufacturers and Architects Build Better Buildings

Hear the story of how Cascadia Structural Timber Solutions went from being a small hand fabrication and truss manufacturer to a fast-growing glulam fabricator, looking to lead the way in new mass timber buildings using Informed Design in Inventor software. The mass timber industry is on the rise, and with it comes unique challenges on the jobsite. As many projects move to a hybrid of steel and wood, we need to be able to provide products that can be easily used and understood early in the design process. With Informed Design we can predefine structural members—from columns to beams to preassembled trusses—that can be added at the beginning of the design process. We can provide flexibility for our customers by giving them specific parameters they can change while still allowing the design to be easy to manufacture. With our push to implement lean manufacturing principles, these designs allow us to scale our business and increase profitability while providing a great experience for our customers.