Feature: The PS20

By Craig Webb and Andy Carlo

The LBM landscape is an ever-changing mosaic that ProSales has tracked constantly since 1989. Now, to commemorate our 20th anniversary, we present our list of the 20 people, trends, concepts, tools, and initiatives that we believe have had the greatest impact on the construction supply industry during ProSales' history. The PS20 includes business leaders, pioneers, technological achievements, events and, in at least one case, enemies. What it omits is any attempt at ranking these 20; our staff found it challenging enough just deciding who should make the list. You might disagree with some of our choices (and we invite you to write us with your own candidates, or to protest the ones we picked) but we're prepared to argue that PS20 members definitely influenced the industry over the years and made dealers think long and hard about how they should run their business. So click your mouse, and let the discussions begin.

Here's the PS20:

• Joe Hardy, founder of 84 Lumber.
• The Housing Bubble, which caused rapid expansion among all dealers and fostered the creation of some production builder-oriented dealers.
• Information technology, which made it possible for dealers to track and analyze their businesses as never before.
• Paul Hylbert, chief of executive officer of ProBuild, America's biggest building material dealer.
• Random Lengths, the industry's premier provider of lumber product price information.
• Cordless power tools, which transformed the tool industry.
• Mobile telephones, which made it possible for dealers to keep better track of deliveries and, through cellphone cameras, document what they delivered.
• Building Materials Holding Corp., a pioneer in turnkey framing services.
• Component manufacturing by dealers, turning them into manufacturers of trusses, wall panels, and moulding.
• The rise of showrooms at building material dealers.
• Engineered, composite and plastic lumber, which have steadily pushed solid-sawn wood out of homes.
• The increasing share of the homebuilding market provided by the biggest builders.
• The Home Depot, whose growth and ubiquity led dealers nationwide to start focusing on pros rather than consumers.
• Bill Hayward, arguably America's greenest building material dealer.
• Activant's Eagle software, the most popular sales and order-entry system in use at dealers today.
• The optimizer, a machine that scans logs to determine how to saw them most efficiently-and that helped mills use smaller, more quickly grown trees.
• Building material dealers that specialize, such as roofing companies.
• Lumbermens Merchandising Corp., a premier buying co-op for dealers.
• The rise of installed sales by dealers, particularly for the installation of windows, doors and other parts of the house that require special expertise.
• Regional building materials associations, a key source for information, benchmarks and fellowship among dealers.