Posted on Apr, 10th 2012 By Scott Sedam
Today, a sharp young guy named Ryan wrote to me after seeing a Keynote Presentation I did at the recent BuilderExchange meeting in Las Vegas. Two-hundred fifty people attended from 60 suppliers and a like number of builders.
I basically upbraided both the groups by showing them with vivid examples
Posted on Apr, 4th 2012 By Scott Sedam
Last fall the president of one of America’s “Top 10” builders who I have known for years corralled me at a conference. Because I travel this industry about as much as anyone, he likes to pump me for intelligence – as I do him. He wondered, what did I see out there? Who was making it? Who wasn’t?
Posted on Mar, 27th 2012 By Scott Sedam
The NAHB in conjunction with Professional Builder Magazine launched the National Housing Quality Award (NHQA) in 1993 to encourage and recognize best practices and best builders in the continual improvement of product and process. Modeled after the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, over time
Posted on Feb, 29th 2012 By Scott Sedam
Our business picked up in late 2011, started the New Year off well, and we were deluged at the IBS show, beginning with a standing-room-only presentation on Lean Design. Our first quarter is strong and 2nd quarter looks even better. Builders seem to now have sufficient confidence that they want to
Posted on Feb, 2nd 2012 By Scott Sedam
There is nothing in homebuilding that makes less sense than purchasing by the square foot and it is a big obstacle in Lean implementation. Other than the fact that it makes things easy I suppose, there is very little to be said for it. It damn sure makes purchasing inaccurate and confusing, at best
Posted on Jan, 17th 2012 By Scott Sedam
With the February edition of Professional Builder, I begin a series on the evolution of quality management. Here is a more detailed version of an excerpt from that article to come. Be sure to read that.
Can a company really go from worst to first in quality, turn their reputation around, bring
Posted on Jan, 10th 2012 By Scott Sedam
In the past year, during our LeanPlan Workout process, we had the dubious honor of “working on” plans from 3 of the biggest name, most expensive architectural firms in the country (among others.)
Our version of “working on” these plans is engaging 20-25 suppliers and trades in a highly-structured
Posted on Jan, 3rd 2012 By Scott Sedam
Michael J. Fox and I have something in common (besides the obvious – talent, good looks, irreverence, witty repartee, etc.) We both have an incurable “condition.” Fox has Parkinson’s disease, a well-known affliction that continues to ravage his body despite an astounding amount of medical
Posted on Dec, 21st 2011 By Scott Sedam
Last weekend was the annual Christmas sojourn to my wife’s relatives in Chicago. On the obligatory trip downtown to Marshall Field’s to see the Christmas decorations, visions of credit card slips danced in my head as my wife and daughter pursued something precious that surely could not be found
Posted on Dec, 13th 2011 By Scott Sedam
One of the requirements in Lean Operations is harnessing the “Voice of the Process.” Your processes can teach you so much and hence save you a lot of cash … IF you know how to get them to talk to you. How do you do that? Metrics, of course, but usually not the old tired ones that don’t provide much
