Home building is an extremely complicated business and as such requires very intelligent people and systems. Think about it for a second. To build a home, over 400,000 pieces/parts and 2,000 people must be precisely coordinated to bring these pieces, parts, and labor all together at the right time in the right sequence – and often at a remote address that may not have even existed 2 months earlier, WOW! It takes very dedicated, intelligent people and solid, well...
Blogs
1 year 4 weeks ago
By: Todd Hallett
With Costco, Sam's Club and all the other "buy in bulk" stores out there today pantries are becoming larger and larger. Builders are finding it tough to compete if they are offering standard cabinet pantries (even in smaller homes). The answer to this is to provide a corner pantry. It takes up relatively little real estate and eliminates a blind corner.
The problem with the corner pantry is...
1 year 4 weeks ago
By: Jonathan Sweet
The 100 Best Kitchens & Dining Rooms
This new book from Beta-Plus is a nice collection of design ideas, but definitely more of the coffee table variety than for the pro.
That said, it could definitely be a source of inspiration for you or your clients. There's a nice mix of contemporary and traditional designs, but to be clear this is a book of European homes. Not surprising, as it is from a European publisher, although the book is being marketed...
1 year 4 weeks ago
By: Denis Leonard
Being creative and innovative is something that is widely touted, but how do we actually do it?
This may be needed for a particular issue during land development, most certainly necessary during design and of course during construction. In todays economy cutting costs is a constant factor and to do this whether you are using lean, value engineering etc etc at the core is being creative and innovative. While there are a range of issues that go into making a company or team...
1 year 5 weeks ago
By: Jonathan Sweet
Excuse me if you've heard this before ...
In what we can't exactly call a surprise, another government program aimed at helping underwater homeowners is falling well short of it's goal.
This time it's the Obama administration's "Hardest Hit" program, which was announced in 2010 that targeted states and communities most affected by the housing crisis.
In a report issued today by the Special Inspector General for TARP, the program was found to have spent only $217 million...
1 year 5 weeks ago
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 that neither was doing their job. If they did, however, Suppliers would sell a lot more stuff and Builders would make a lot more money – without compromising quality or abusing trades. Then...
1 year 5 weeks ago
By: Todd Hallett
My Aunt Janice (rest her soul) gave amazing Christmas gifts when I was a kid. One of my favorites was “Hugo the man with a thousand faces.” It was basically a bald plastic head with a case full of disguise equipment. Hugo had mustaches, glasses, eyebrows and wigs galore. Cool gift, wish they still made ‘em.
This week we will look at a Lean-designed, 2,400-square-foot home designed for a growing family. This home picks up on many current trends in housing and, like Hugo, it has the...
1 year 5 weeks ago
By: Denis Leonard
A Risk Management Benchmarking Survey in 2010 showed that 65% of businesses conduct no form of risk analysis prior to making major corporate decisions. While on 42% have any form of risk management audits or procedures. However, a study in the Accenture Global Risk Management Study in 2011 showed that for 98% risk was now seen as a higher priority than just two years ago. With US companies impacted by the global supply chain interruption after the Japanese Tsunami they realized that with an...
1 year 6 weeks ago
By: Charlie Scott
A builder would never build, merchandise, and maintain a model without staffing it, would they? Of course not - this would be abuse of an asset! The return on this asset (ROA) would be zero, zilch, nada. No competent manager would ever allow an asset to exist without some expected return on that asset, right?
Most builders expect their model, community, and marketing to return at least one sale per month and cover the bulk of the costs. Two sales per...
1 year 6 weeks ago
By: Jonathan Sweet
When you look at your trade contractors, your suppliers, product distributors, what do you see?
Are they a line item, an expense, a necessary evil or are they true partners?
It’s easy to look at your drywall guy, your lumber yard or your window supplier as someone with which you simply do business with, but finding new ways to partner can be an important way to succeed.
While the market seems to taking a slow turn for the better lately, it’s still tough out there, and...
