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<b>Harvests Engineering design data</b><br>
Idaho Statesman September 8, 1969

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Three years ago the computer operation of Trus Joist Corp. occupied the corner of one room in its Boise offices.
Now, a staff of 13 operates it around the clock in a separate building. The computer center is next to the
corporate offices of Trus Joist at 9777 Chinden Boulevard, facilities became available when a new plant was
built at Franklin and Cloverdale roads and the company's Western Manufacturing Division moved.
<br><br>
Now known as the Data Processing Department, the operation is headed by Wayne Eskridge and is in service 24 hours
daily to furnish engineering design data to the company's six plants throughout the United States and Western Canada.
<br><br>Experimentation with Computer design of structural systems was begun by Trus Joist in 1966. Company engineers found
it necessary to formulate programs which began with basics and progressed to highly sophisticated engineering mathematics.
The Trus Joist, a wood and metal truss which will span up to 150 feet, is utilized as the roof and floor structural
system of schools, shopping centers and commercial buildings of all kinds. Each joist is custom designed and manufactured
for the job and there are no stock sizes.<br><br>
Before computer design techniques were perfected by the company, all designs were done at the drawing board by engineering
draftsmen. Now the computer can turn out as many designs in a day as thirty-five draftsmen
working at top speed. It also eliminates human error.
The design phase begins in the engineering department of one of the company plants. There, the engineer goes over
the architect's plans and decides what load each joist must carry, how long and deep it should be, and other
physical characteristics.
A special data phone is then utilized to transmit the information to the Data Processing Department in Boise.
There the information is fed to the computer which designs the joist and tells exactly how it should be made.
By the end of the normal working day, the computer has done up to 150 different joists for all manufacturing
plants and has stored the information in its memory banks.
<br><br>However, its work is not over.  Each night the computer
automatically turns on a special oversized electric typewriter in one plant at a time.
It then retrieves the designs scheduled for that plant from its memory banks and transmits them to Dubuque, Calgary, Atlanta,
 or another location. In the darkened plant, the typewriter is unattended and briskly
typing out the design data being transmitted from Boise.
The same process is repeated for each plant in the system, and when personnel arrive for work the next morning
the completed designs are waiting.<br><br>
As in every business, there are always special rush jobs, and when one occurs a Trus Joist
plant can get special service from the computer and have a joist design back in 10 minutes.
As good as the service is, said department manager Eskridge, we are planning even better.
We expect delivery in January of a new and larger computer which will be five times as fast as the present model.
That means it will be capable of doing the work of 175 draftsmen, in a day.  We are also planning to install equipment at,
each plant which will feed information directly into the computer so it will not have to be re-handled at Boise.


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