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Even Lean is local
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...
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Closing the sales fulfillment gap: the missing link in Lean
During Operation Desert Storm in the early 90s, France’s decision to not support the U.S. intervention revived an old joke from the World War II era. Q: How many French troops does it take to defend...
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10 Questions to Ruin Your Year ... Unless ...
March 11, 2015Ever since the harrowing movie The Perfect Storm, where the world’s sexiest man and his fishing trawler perform a backflip off the largest rogue wave of all time, the term “perfect storm”...
View ArticleFear of First-Timers?
June 04, 2015This week I read that Ivy Zelman, generally acknowledged as the top homebuilding financial analyst, was laying it on pretty heavy to builders at a conference that their reluctance to...
View ArticleTrade Shortage Heats Up. Looking for Love (and Relief) in All the Wrong Places
June 09, 2015The shortage of qualified trade contractors is a problem that vexes the entire industry and finally people are waking up to it, largely for the wrong reasons. Suddenly trade shortages as...
View ArticleMerge With Caution
June 17, 2015Last week’s big announcement of the merger of StanPac and Ryland Group, creating a new member of the Top 5 Homebuilders, spawned a flurry of articles and blogs, most of them suggesting the...
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Trade Shortage Dilemma
There is a way for builders to overcome the labor shortageJune 23, 2015I just read a very interesting blog by John McManus stating that the Trade Shortage is not a political problem, but an economic...
View ArticleWhy do Builders avoid facing the facts on process failure?
August 17, 2015“Sometimes life – and work – would be easier if you could forget some things you’ve learned.”So begins my August article in Professional Builder Magazine just out today, the fifth in a...
View ArticleWho Wants To Be A Millionaire?
August 31, 2015In these times of increasing sales with decreasing margins, home builders are on a continual campaign to decrease costs. Every cost category from labor to materials to overhead to...
View ArticleWhat to Do When Everything Is Job #1
September 24, 2015Among the most frustrating work requirements, whether in business, education, volunteering, or any other endeavor, is how to prioritize the myriad things that cry out to be done....
View ArticleMerge With Caution
Last week’s big announcement of the merger of StanPac and Ryland Group, creating a new member of the Top 5 Homebuilders, spawned a flurry of articles and blogs, most of them suggesting the kingdom and...
View ArticleWhy do builders avoid facing the facts on process failure?
“Sometimes life – and work – would be easier if you could forget some things you’ve learned.”So begins my August article in Professional Builder Magazine just out today, the fifth in a series on...
View ArticleWho Wants To Be A Millionaire?
In these times of increasing sales with decreasing margins, home builders are on a continual campaign to decrease costs. Every cost category from labor to materials to overhead to finance is up, while...
View ArticleWhat to Do When Everything is Job #1
Among the most frustrating work requirements, whether in business, education, volunteering, or any other endeavor, is how to prioritize the myriad things that cry out to be done. Serious endeavors in...
View ArticleConquering Complexity: Confronting The Source Of Profit Loss
Complexity kills good process. Good process drives profit. Your only choice is to conquer complexityDecember 15, 2015This is the last column in our deep dive into process improvement. In the series,...
View ArticleFallacies in Home Building
From myths about mayonnaise to myths about the effects of the trade shortage, fallacies aren’t mere errors in fact, but rather errors in thinking and reason—and they could be holding back your...
View ArticleCould Your Biggest Obstacle Be ... You?
12 home building fallacies that get in our wayFebruary 10, 2016Last month I introduced the notion of fallacies in home building—those beliefs we may be completely committed to yet which are errant and...
View ArticleAmerica’s Trade Shortage
The current lack of skilled labor is a massive problem for our industry, but so far little has been done to find solutionsMarch 14, 2016Just over a year ago, at a conference in January 2015, I sat with...
View ArticleWhat's the Toughest Job in Home Building?
Having personally been through multiple iterations of discovering what I consider the toughest job in home building, I still haven't reached a conclusionApril 05, 2016It was a cold Chicago winter day...
View ArticleWhat Are Our Choices and Responsibilities in Solving the Trade Shortage?
With most builders facing a significant squeeze on profit margins, simply paying more for labor than the next guy isn't a viable or long-term solutionMay 05, 2016The late Stephen Covey, author of one...
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