About Component Runner, LLC

Component Runner, LLC is a design overflow company specializing in the SBC industry. We're not owned by MiTek, but we're fully authorized by MiTek to provide design services exclusively for MiTek component manufacturers. We know that your design needs are variable and like most areas in business there are ebbs and flows that make it challenging to staff accordingly and surges in volume create times when your existing staff just can't keep up with the demand. Regarding the MiTek software, we pay MiTek directly for the use of their software, so there are no additional software charges to you. We carry Errors and Omissions insurance plus we're highly professional and easy to work with.

Meet the Component Runner Team

J. Chip Dean - President

Chip started in the truss industry in 1977 in Sacramento, California as a truss designer using the Gang Nail System. Working under the direct supervision of an inhouse professional engineer, Chip learned the business from a design and engineering perspective. After three years he moved to Washington state and began working at a truss plant in Woodinville as a production scheduler and computer programmer. Chip wrote production scheduling software, cutting software, framing software and accounting software while at that plant. Within a few years he was promoted to Engineering Manager and was instrumental in helping that company develop a strong commercial truss presence as until then they were primarily a residential truss manufacturer. In 1986, Chip moved back to the Boston area. His love for computers and his natural skills as an instructor led him to Gang-Nail Systems in 1986 where he became the first dedicated Regional Technical Support Specialist in the industry. He supported Gang-Nail customers computer and software needs in 16 states and was promoted to District Sales Manager shortly thereafter. In 1993 Chip and his family relocated to St. Louis and began working at the MiTek headquarters. While there he ran Software Product Management, the Technical Support department, Global Technical Support, eventually becoming Director of Marketing. In 2005 Chip relocated to Marshfield, Massachusetts to be closer to his family. In Marshfield, Chip and his brother David Bailey, started Component Runner, LLC in July 2007 With a blanket software license from MiTek to provide component design services exclusively for MiTek connector plate customers. Chip continues to find ways to add value and expertise to his company by focusing on excellent service, high quality and a passion for the SBC industry and the MiTek software that makes it all possible. Contact Chip here.

David Bailey - VP Operations

Dave started in the truss industry in 1989 in Edgewater, Maryland working as a truss designer using the Gang-Nail system.  His interest in computers and the truss design software resulted in him being assigned the task of testing new beta versions of the software as they became available.  He managed the implementation of the new MiTek 2000 program at that truss plant in 1994, and continued to manage and maintain all MiTek software installations from that point forward.  In addition to his daily responsibilities as a Truss Designer, Dave also spent time in an IT support role assembling Windows-based PC's and configuring those systems for networked use and running the MiTek software.  He trained newer fellow employees in Truss Design techniques, as well as the MiTek software itself.  Over a fifteen year career in the building components industry, he helped establish a new truss plant installation, and the organization and implementation of the design practices and software use there and also continued his role as the person who maintained the MiTek software on all designers' PC's.  Dave spent over five years serving as a Design Department Manager, handling daily design duties, as well as managing a team of truss designers plus a CAD operator.  He understands, from personal experience, the challenges a Design Manager faces, trying to balance the amount of plans that needs to be quoted or prepared for the shop with managing the designer resources available in a design department.  He appreciates the value of having a "half-of-a-designer" available at any given moment when busy times would hit and the design department is stretched too thin.  After a three-and-a-half year break from the building components industry where Dave worked full time to run the worship ministry at his church as well as serve as the Worship Leader and principal keyboardist, he returned to the components industry in 2007 to start Component Runner with his brother Chip Dean. Dave's daily duties involve managing our customers' data setups in the Component Runner system, and managing the flow of all work back and forth between our Component Manufacturer Customers, our Project Managers and Design Team.  Contact Dave here.

Component Runner is proud to work with a talented team of SBC Design Professionals:

All of our Project Managers are leaders in their own right. Component Runner is comprised of individuals whom have not only mastered the art of component design, but have displayed leadership skills in their lives and careers. In our world where each customer has individual needs and requirements it's paramount that our people are able to manage this added level of complexity to an aleady complex job. We are proud to introduce you to our team of Component Runners.

John Workstus - Project Manager

John began his career in the truss industry in 1986 designing trusses in a small building home center located in Vermont. One might also find him on the production floor helping to build those same components when an extra hand was needed. The position grew to include sales, interfacing with field project managers, and as Vice President, managing all aspects of the manufacturing end of the business. He has been involved in start up companies, setting up pricing schemes, work flow, sort schemes, scheduling methods and technical design departments. John has extensive experience in training designers and managing design teams. 
 
John started out with Gang-Nail Systems software (now MiTek) and was a BETA user on Truss Framer software. As a certified level 3 designer, John brings a strong, detail oriented, yet creative eye to component design.   Whole house design with components is the future of the building industry, and John offers his expertise to meet this vision.
 
John in based in Kingston NY area and currently is chapter president of SBCA-NY.  Contact John here.

Walter T. Grasmick - Project Manager

With over 30 years of experience in the Structural Building Components industry, Walter has done almost every job associated with the the component design process. Modeling, Design and training new designers has always been a prime function of any position he's held. Walter brings a strong sense of detail and creativity to every job he's held.

Walter started in the truss industry in 1982 as a draftsman for a small truss plant in Riverbank, California. He soon moved to sales and then to a design position where he became the youngest chief designer in the company’s history. He's worked with several different software packages throughout his career. The first software package he used was developed by On-line Data Inc. Then he moved to Gang-Nail System's AutoTruss program. In the early 90's Walter moved to the brand new MiTek 2000 software, the predecessor to the current MiTek SAPPHIRE suite. Walter then moved to Utah and eventually, Idaho where he worked as the Assistant Manager at a new truss plant. Since then he's held positions as Sales and Design manager as well as Plant Manager.

Walter is based in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Contact Walter here.

Bradley Ferris - Project Manager

Brad has been a well-known wood truss specialist in the Northeast for over 22 years. Brad’s career in the truss industry began in 1990 when he began managing a small truss plant in South Deerfield, Massachusetts. As the operations manager, Brad oversaw the design and manufacturing of trusses as well as wall panel systems. Managing a small truss plant peaked Brad’s interest in wood trusses and he began his successful career in the wood truss industry.

Throughout the years Brad has worked for truss companies in New England, New York, and Canada offering his design and management expertise. Brad has designed trusses for wide variety of applications in the construction industry with an open vision of truss design — finding creative solutions with builders. Brad has spent many years in sales and design, working closely with builders and site supervisors to ensure proper bracing and installation of trusses. Brad’s experience as dealer, distributor, and manufacturer of wood trusses gives him a well-rounded knowledge to make your truss project successful.

Brad is an active member of the Structural Building Components Association Northeast Chapter, formerly the Wood Truss Council of America, since its inception. He is the past President and currently the Education Committee Chair. Over the years Brad has presented programs and training seminars for architects, engineers, and code officials as well as for lumber retailers and contractors.

Brad is based in Northampton, Massachusetts. Contact Brad here.

Steve Lawrence - Project Manager

Steve started in the truss industry in 1986 in San Diego, California, as a truss designer, estimator, and salesman for a small truss plant. He left the truss industry after 4 years and attained his General Contracting License in the state of California. Working mostly in residential remodeling and design, Steve worked for the next seven years in this capacity plus two years working in the entertainment industry as a set carpenter.

Steve has 2 associate’s degrees, in Business Management and Construction Technologies. In 1997, Steve returned to college and received a degree in Civil Engineering from San Diego State.

After graduating in 2002, Steve returned to the truss industry where he took a job in New Hampshire with a well-established truss company using MiTek software, working his way to Assistant Design Manager. During this time Steve designed and built his own home.

In the last five years, Steve has worked from home as an independent truss designer for several New England truss companies, using TeeLok, MiTek eFrame Layout, and MiTek SAPPHIRE Structure software. In addition to his component design work, Steve has designed several single-family homes, senior living apartments, and small commercial buildings.

Steve brings to Component Runner years of hands-on experience in the construction industry and over 11 years of Structural Building Component design work.

Steve is based in Wilton, New Hampshire. Contact Steve Here.

Brad Rose - Project Manager

I began my career in 1992 working for Universal Forest Products. My first assignment was building & testing truss samples for the manufactured home market to meet the HUD code. After doing that for a few years, I was offered an office position as a software developer writing programs that would help speed up the truss design process and also writing a database program that tracks jobs and trusses similar to the MiTek MBA program.

When I started designing trusses, we were using the PPSA method and eventually we moved to the Tee-Lok software. Around 2002 we moved to the MiTek 20/20 software suite. By then I had moved on from truss design to a design coordinator role which is similar to the Project Manager role at Component Runner, LLC.

My years in the industry have allowed me to play many roles, which included truss design, software design, working with both MiTek & Tee-Lok software programs as well as developing proprietary software enhancements for the purposes of setting up & training off-shore design groups.

If there's one thing I would say about me, it's that I take pride in my work!

Brad is based in Ada, Michigan. Contact Brad here.

Chris Martin - Project Manager

Chris began his career in the Truss Industry in 1988. After working in all facets of manufacturing and production management, he began his design and engineering path in 1997 working for one of the largest manufacturing housing roof truss and building components corporations in the USA under the direct supervision of a highly regarded Industry Professional Engineer. After a couple years in design, Chris was promoted to the design manager position, and soon thereafter he was promoted again to the Director of Engineering.

In 2006 Chris moved into Design Management over the commercial and residential building components division where he managed the entire design team for roof and floor truss and wall panel design.

Teaching Lean Design Fundamentals and training individuals on the MiTek software suite were daily routines throughout his tenure. Chris was the in house “go-to” guy for software set-up, maintenance and training. Chris excels in customer service and customer satisfaction, with many customers requesting he be involved with their projects based on excellent past performance.

Chris has the experience needed to understand the importance of each customer, each job, and every detail as they are choreographed through every stage of estimating, design and production.
 
Chris is based in Bristol, Indiana. Contact Chris here.

Bill Corgan - Project Manager

Bill began his truss design career at a new plant in Springfield, Illinois in October 2001.  In January 2002, the plant switched to MiTek’s eFrame Layout program when the product was still in Beta testing. Due to Bill’s efforts they became the first truss plant in the USA to use MiTek eFrame Layout for production and due to Bill’s passion to get “under the hood” they remained a beta test site for MiTek for the next 8 years.  During his 11 years as the senior and sometimes, only, designer, he was responsible for all aspects of a job from the initial quote to the final shop drawings. He was also responsible for the company’s computer network and managed every installation of the MiTek software on all machines. Bill stayed with that company until September of 2012.

Due to his outstanding abilities at maximizing the power of the MiTek software above and beyond the typical user, Bill was invited by MiTek to attend a unique meeting in Orlando, Florida called, “High Performance Designers”. This was a think tank setting comprised of the country’s most progressive designers and design managers and MiTek gleaned much from Bill’s participation in this event.
Bill was also responsible for training all new employees on the proper use of MBA, MiTek eFrame Layout, MiTek TrussFramer, SAPPHIRE Structure and MiTek Engineering. He’s a firm believer that an exacting model for every building creates less opportunity for mistakes and his work produced very few errors in the field. Because of that conviction, all his building models included interior walls, proper ceiling planes, proper roof planes, posts and beams. He preferred to service his customers with exacting layouts, making sure everything was as geometrically perfect as possible rather than pacifying an unhappy builder with timely service in producing field repairs.

Bill is located in New Berlin, Illinois. Contact Bill here.

John Klozik - Project Manager

John entered into the SBC industry In 2004 as a Field Superintendent for a component
manufacturer where he provided daily leadership to multiple work crews and optimized
project quality. John also trained and oversaw other superintendents to ensure continued high performance.

John began working as a panel and truss designer in 2006 after a total of 12 years in the framing trade. After becoming a skilled framer, John was a vital piece in leading two framing companies to success before running his own framing sub-contracting company. For two years, John maintained continuous work for his crews, added sub-contract crews, and oversaw all operations of his corporation.

For the past seven plus years, John has developed his structural component design skills doing whole house design on the MiTek software platform as well as ITW's. During this period, John helped build the design department by developing and implementing department protocols and production standards. John also created the training manuals and program for incoming designers. John provided his skills to design, prepare, and install the components for two separate Extreme Home Makeover projects. A highlight in John's design experience is, with the help of his wife, the design and construction of their own home.

John recently completed his MBA to provide a compliment of business skills that he intends to use to increase customer satisfaction. John brings an eye for detail, reliable performance, and valuable design skills that will enhance the productivity of any project.

John is based in Kansas City, MO. Contact John here.

Michael Robarge - Project Manager

Michael’s career in the Structural Building Components industry began in 1997 when he was hired as a production worker in Southern Ohio. During his time working in the manufacturing side of the business, Michael worked at wall panel, floor panel, roof truss, stair manufacturing and finishing stations.

After a few years working a production capacity Michael was promoted into a design technician role. Since 1998 Michael has held roles in component design and design management. In addition, he was responsible for training new designers in design methodology, plan reading, load development, modeling and design software. Michael was instrumental in implementing an in-house quality assurance program and oversaw quarterly TPI plant inspections.

Michael has worked closely with Architects, Civil and Structural Engineers, Job Superintendents and Framers which has gone a long way towards rounding out his design skills, making him focus on geometrically and structurally correct designs yet framer and shop “friendly” at the same time. Michael has broadened his experience in the SBC Industry by not just understanding the importance of individual component designs for estimating and production, but also Michael has embraced the value of “Whole House” design, mastering MiTek’s SAPPHIRE Structure early in its release cycle.

Michael has drawn many residential plans and routinely performs proper column, beam and connector sizing, as needed, to ensure accurate and quality results. Michael prides himself on “one-time” designs, legible / framer friendly layouts and most importantly, meeting and exceeding customer’s expectations.

Michael is based in Waverly, Ohio.  Contact Michael here.

David Lococo - Project Manager

David brings to Component Runner over 35 years’ experience in the SBC Industry. He’s worked in both the component manufacturing side and the supplier side of the industry.

In 1988, immediately upon graduating from Bucknell University with a major in mathematics and a BS in Civil Engineering, Dave went to work for one of the largest connector plate companies in the industry at the time. Dave worked with some of the industry’s icons in the early Fortran development of truss engineering software. Dave began to learn the truss industry from visiting many plants and providing design and technical support to their customers.

A few years later, Dave left the supplier side and move d to the manufacturing side, working in central Florida designing and learning the complex framing that is used in that market. He learned volumes about manufacturing and the value of efficient design.

Dave then accepted a position at Gang-Nail Systems in Miami, FL working in their Technical Support department helping customers from all over the country. Dave was later transferred into Gang-Nail’s Wood Products Division where he helped create their design department.

Dave has started truss plants, developed and ran multiple design departments, owned his own engineering consulting business and is expert in all facets of truss design for estimates and production.

Dave is located in Merritt Island, FL. Contact Dave here.

Randy Bailey - Project Manager

Randy started in the component industry in 1991 in Barrie, Ontario working as a truss designer using AutoTruss on a Sun Microsystem.  From there, he moved to Gang-Nail Canada testing MiTek 2000 software as it was being developed and helped develop the MBA software for the Canadian market.  He later worked as a technical representative for MiTek in the southeast United States where he held MiTek designer training classes, installed software and maintained customers PC’s and networks.  He also consulted with truss manufacturers to develop custom MBA reports to track shop efficiencies.  Giving his customers the ability to track time based on certain truss characteristics was key.  The data was analyzed for that particular shop, and a model was created to predict future shop time and labor costs for any job based on complexity.  He also designed and sold components in the south Florida market to high end, custom builders.  Later as a design manager in Georgia, he was one of the first to implement truss framer into production.  More recently he has designed trusses, EWP and panel jobs in Atlantic Canada.
Randy brings to Component Runner over 23 years of experience in all aspects of the components industry. He has sold, scheduled, managed, designed, cut, built and delivered roof and floor trusses, panels and EWP products from the artic region of Northern Canada to South Florida and the Bahamas.

Randy is located in Newfoundland, Canada. Contact Randy here.