Posted on Apr, 17th 2013 By Scott Sedam
It has been long been said that “homebuilding is a local business” and as much as I’d like to think that Lean always transcends locality, that is not always the case. Last week during one of our LeanWeek events in Austin, the head of a drywall installation company asked about using 54” width
Posted on Feb, 5th 2013 By Scott Sedam
As often happens in my articles and columns in Professional Builder Magazine, I set out to write one article, which quickly morphs into one, two or three … or in the case of the Quality Management Series, that will soon be up to six. I wrote my first article on the coming trade shortages
Posted on Jan, 31st 2013 By Scott Sedam
When I travel with my wife, or sometimes just run to the grocery, cleaners or hardware store, she frequently has to remind me, “Scott, remember, you are NOT in charge here.” Many of you fellow Leanistas know the drill. You hardly ever see a restaurant, a checkout, a meat counter at the supermarket
Posted on Dec, 18th 2012 By Scott Sedam
My December column just came out on HousingZone.com and you can read it here: http://www.housingzone.com/scott-sedam-how-do-you-lead-leader or in the Professional Builder magazine.
I hope you will give it a quick review (it is a short one) and offer some feedback, ideas, successes, and failures –
Posted on Aug, 21st 2012 By Scott Sedam
I travel this country meeting with builders virtually every week and between my monthly Professional Builder article, my weekly blog on HouzingZone.com and our Lean Building Group on Linkedin.com, I hear from many more. As housing is picking up in most parts of the nation, I am beginning to hear a
Posted on Aug, 16th 2012 By Scott Sedam
Todd Hallett and I are running a LeanPlan Workout session this week in Tennessee with one of my favorite builders. In the years I have known them they have grown from #11 in their market to #2 last year and this year there’s a good chance they will be #1. They are beating all the nationals. These
Posted on Aug, 7th 2012 By Scott Sedam
The 5th article in my series on Quality Management was just published by Professional Builder Magazine and appears concurrently on www.HousingZone.com. It is titled “10 Steps to Mastering Field Quality” and at the end of the piece I offered a PDF with all 5 of the articles in a single document. I
Posted on Jun, 13th 2012 By Scott Sedam
I have spoken at PCBC, the big West Coast building conference most of the past 15 years and I always enjoy it. The event has been very well-run, quality of programming is excellent, the staff is great and you can do a lot worse than hang out in downtown San Francisco for a few days. I have been
Posted on May, 24th 2012 By Scott Sedam
My son Tyler (second of 4 children), age 29, is taking a new position with a homebuilder after having two good building industry jobs in the past, both of which vanished in the housing recession. Despite the previous disappointments, he sees this as a great opportunity with a real chance to grow
Posted on May, 1st 2012 By Scott Sedam
During an orientation recently with a room full of suppliers and trades for one of our “LeanPlan Workout” implementations, I was interrupted by a woman who clearly did not appreciate my message. Despite my saying it 6 different ways and illustrating with numerous pictures, she was not buying my
