Lean Design Lean Design Blog: Feeling a bit schizo on Fat Tuesday I am of two minds today. I have two entirely unrelated topics to discuss: A. Show Village at IBS B. Windows Show Village at IBS...
Customer Satisfaction IBS 2012 – What you may have missed The bottom of the market is clearly in and most builders know it, especially those that attended the International Builder Show (IBS) in...
Quality Management Impact your bottom-line: Apply for the 2013 National Housing Quality Award The NHQA is open to home builders, trade contractors and remodelers. Whether you are building production or custom homes, within communities...
Flooring Lean and Green Blog: Sustainable products highlights from IBS 2012 As the building world concludes another International Builders’ Show, the sentiment shared by many of the attendees was one of hope for a...
Lean Design Lean Design Blog: Check out this 2,800-square-foot Lean design Typically I like to save my drama for my mama – not this time. This time I packed it all into this 2,800-square-foot Lean-designed home....
Quality Management ‘They’ are sure sign of improvement opportunities We have all heard of ‘they’ or ‘them’! You know, ‘they’ never give us enough material to do the job. ‘They’ didn’t leave it ready for us...
The Sweet Spot Is this the year employees walk? Employers have had it pretty good the last few years when it comes to managing employee turnover and keeping workers happy. The state of...
Quality Management 20/20 Insights on Performance Excellence (Free downloadable book) In this free book, leaders of Baldrige Award winning, World Class, organizations from all sectors share their success stories and eye...
The Sweet Spot IBS Pre-Show Thoughts and Observations Having arrived in Orlando for the International Builders Show and NAHB Winter Boards, a few quick updates and observations: Still no...
The Lean Builder The Lean Building Blog: Buying by the square foot — an anti-Lean practice There is nothing in homebuilding that makes less sense than purchasing by the square foot and it is a big obstacle in Lean implementation....
Quality Management Implementing Quality Management at Wathen-Castanos Hybrid Homes This case study details the implementation of an extensive program of quality management at Wathen-Castanos, including training, the...
Building Operations Do your Sales people act like this? Recently I visited a host of builder sites in Florida. My objective was to have a direct comparison of many builders’ models, sales...
Quality Management Quality culture (with link to video of Coca-Cola on the topic) Quality culture is essential not only to implement and establish quality management in an organization but also to sustain it. A Quality...
Building Operations Don't encourage bad bird behavior! I recently made the decision to relocate from Rochester, New York to Sarasota, Florida. Leaving annual accumulations of snow averaging 130...
Design The Lean Builder: Fixing Architecture I In my blog two weeks ago, I launched into a tirade about how so many residential architects are not doing their job. Each week, I link this...
Lean Design The Lean Designer: Paying too much for trusses? Here is a quick test. When it comes to trusses "Piggyback" is a four letter word. Piggyback trusses are little trusses that sit upon larger trusses to allow the...
Quality Management A new series of papers available on performance excellence The Organizational Excellence Committee for the Quality Management Division of ASQ has launched a webpage with a series of papers to support...
Quality Management Diversity in Our Workplace Diversity in the workplace is a key issue in Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. Diversity creates new perspectives, new...
The Sweet Spot Megaupload case shows danger of 'cloud' Over the last few months, I've talked to a lot of remodelers that are opting to use the cloud to store their files and share them with subs...
blog_entry Oakland, Philadelphia, 6 other cities to get free advice on LEED-ND Philadelphia, Oakland and six other U.S. cities will get free help this year from sustainable building and development experts with an eye...
The Sweet Spot What is your key to success in remodeling? We reached out to dozens of remodelers for this month’s cover story, asking them what they saw as their top challenges and opportunities for...
Quality Management ISO9001 Impact on Construction Workmanship Performance A study published in ASQ’s Quality Management Journal this month (Jan 2012) found that ISO9001 Certification (Quality Management Systems...
Design The Lean Designer: The best way to prepare for a plan review As many of you know by now Professional Builder is holding three days of plan reviews by some of the top designers and architects in the...
The Lean Builder The Lean Builder: Our future – Fairmont or Fusion With the February edition of Professional Builder, I begin a series on the evolution of quality management. Here is a more detailed version...
Green Design The Lean and Green Builder: Lesson 9 - WaterSense makes cents Walking in my home last evening, I was greeted with the usual excitement of children running around, the dog barking and my wife sharing the...