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...
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...
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? Which cities were ready to emerge and which were not? I gave him my take on things and then he asked a series of bombshell questions, “Who really impresses you? Who truly has the best practices...
Construction projects are complex in nature and prone to cost and schedule overruns. A significant factor that often contributes to such overruns is rework.
I catch myself from time to time spending money on things that I just don’t need to. Whether it’s the cool action video I think I will watch after the (wife selected) romcom, the twenty piece Mcnugget vs. ten, or the third hot dog at Home Depot, it’s all waste – well, usually anyway.
A simple item that builders are wasting money on is the HVAC line set. Locate your air conditioning unit as close as possible to your air handler. There are a lot of factors to be aware of...
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 the NHQA has become the gold standard of awards in homebuilding.
Not to take away from any other industry awards, but the NHQA has the most demanding application, the most broad-based...
Flat, team based and empowered organizations have the potential to out-perform tall hierarchical organizations in most every competitive industry and that includes home building! I have always enjoyed conversations on business improvement with Tom Gillespie, a NHQ Award winning builder, NHQA Judge and consultant. In this blog Tom engages us in a conversation regarding the importance and impact of flat, empowered organizations.
A tall organizational structure has many levels of...
Why bother naming your houses? It would be a whole lot easier and more efficient to identify your homes by their square footage. It could be argued that the Saddlebrook should be called the 2429 plan. It makes perfect sense, the plan is 2429 square feet, so let's call it what it is. The purchasing manager, field supervisor, estimator and trades would love it. A simple designation for the plan that...
Process improvement can often be received with impatience and inflated expectations of its impact. One of the regular problems is that a particular piece of the organizations process is asked to be improved in isolation. This is a little like trying to change a wheel while the car speeds along the interstate! The one minor fix is still influenced by the wider system. It can take several improvements to elements of a process to see an impact overall. It needs to be realized that an entire...
Let me be straight - I am anti-Net Promoting Index (NPI) in the home building industry and this is why...
When I was a manager/leader/owner of a homebuilding company there was a recurring problem that I often saw (and personally committed). Too often, we would manage our company by average numbers. For example, let's say our Willingness to Refer (WTR) declined 5 points from 95% to 90%. We would become upset and meet with the Sales Team and Builders to tell them...
