My charge to builders this month is to take time to analyze the management systems within your organization. As the industry goes through an uncertain time of growth, ensuring your systems are efficient and refined will allow you to react better to whatever the market throws at you.

If you really take a look at the way your organization operates, you will find that there are a lot of inefficiencies, rework and dead ends in your systems. By reviewing your management systems, you will be able to find these and determine easy ways to increase efficiency, resulting in greater numbers on the bottom line.

A few years ago at our Executive Summit, Sam Geist-author of Execute or Be Executed-shared a great article from the Harvard Business Review called "Staple Yourself to the Order" (https://hbr.org/2004/07/staple-yourself-to-an-order) that I think is as pertinent to the management of home building companies in this market as it was at the height of the boom times in 2007.

As the management team, you should do this within your organization. Take a closer look at all of your processes. You may be surprised at what you will find.

Things to look at within your organization:

Evaluate the information systems: Not only do you need to evaluate how you are getting information, but you should also look at the information you are getting.

Read More...

Part I, Plans, Take off and the Bid Process, can be found on the Builder Partnerships website here. The third and final part of the series will cover the Variance Reduction Process

In my first article on lumber management, we reviewed the importance of good plans and details. The details on the plans are your company wide procedure on how you expect your homes to be framed. It is also the basis of how you develop your lumber list. The delivery process should follow the same concept as your take offs.

The first person to touch your lumber load after delivery is typically the greenest member of the framing crew. You spent a lot of time and money to develop the plans, compile the lumber list and bid the lumber. Your lumber yard assembled your lumber package in no particular order, and you give the responsibility of a $20,000+ lumber package to the green horn with no directions in how to organize it. I was that greenhorn when I was 16. Even if your lumber list was perfect, what are the odds of a good outcome? Your lumber variance is your answer. 

Read More...

With the challenges in the home building industry, it has been difficult for management to justify spending hard-earned dollars on providing developmental training for their staff. Most organizations were just not able to make the investment to provide the training needed by their employees and, understandably, just made it work so they could survive. Employees were hanging on and making it work because, frankly, they really didn't have any other options.

Now that the industry is improving, things are different. We have seen quite a few builders lose high-quality staff to other companies or even other industries because employees are disenchanted or looking for opportunities for growth. The movement in this high-quality staff that helped lead their companies through the downturn can have detrimental impacts and have caused many builders to seriously revisit what they need to do in order to keep these leaders in their companies.

Employees are jumping ship for several reasons, but, it can be argued, some of the most prominent reasons are because employees are not feeling engaged or appreciated for their efforts. They do not see a path for opportunity and may not feel that management is watching out for their development and growth.

Read More...

The results for the 1st quarter builder submittal period have been pulled together and reviewed, and they are very positive for Builder Partnerships builders and manufacturers. During the 1st quarter of 2015, 80 new builders joined Builder Partnerships, bringing the total number of members who are actively building homes to just over 600 builders. They account for more than 75,000 homes per year. We are very happy to welcome our new builder members to the Builder Partnerships family and look forward to supporting them to connect with our manufacturer member local area reps.

The 1st quarter was a great period for both our builder and manufacturer members in making new connections. In the 1st quarter the number of new documented transactional relationships between builders and manufacturers increased by 52 percent as compared to the 1st quarter in 2014. Overall, 90 percent of our manufacturer members increased their sales with our builder members in the 1st quarter, as compared to the same period in 2014, with 19 percent of our manufacturer members increasing sales by more than 100 percent. 

Read More...

The 100Plus Program will officially launch on June 15, 2015 and will be offered exclusively to Builder Partnerships builder members. Builders who register to be a 100Plus Certified Builder will receive a Free Hot 100 hot water dispenser at the time of registration and will receive a Free Hot 100 for any home in which a Pro Series garbage disposal is installed. The Free Hot 100 is in addition to the standard rebate already available to builders when they install a Pro Series disposal.

Michelle Gross, Director of Marketing at InSinkErator, led the webinar and pointed out that the main objective of this 100Plus Program is to make builders aware of the benefits of hot water dispensers, while also rewarding builders for installing the quieter and more powerful Pro Series garbage disposals in their homes. Gross pointed out, that roughly 75 percent of hot water dispensers are sold to repeat customers, and "once a homeowner lives with a hot water dispenser in their home, it becomes requirement for every future home."

The Hot 100 hot water dispenser is an easy appliance for any plumber to install. InSinkErator provides a full set of installation instructions and support for plumbers and builders. The dispenser includes a 2/3 gallon stainless steel tank, and can deliver 60 cups of 200? water per hour. The water temperature can easily be adjusted with the turn of a knob. The Hot 100 dispenser is available in chrome and satin nickel finishes.

 Interior design trends for kitchens and countertops are constantly changing. Designers are constantly working to develop unique looks using new stones, woods, and textures to make the living space within homes interesting and appealing to their clients. In recent years, Formica has responded to this changing world of design trends by developing new and innovative processes, and hiring a staff of highly qualified designers from across the globe.

During the webinar, Chmiel introduced the very sophisticated process used by Formica to identify new trends, capture the interesting characteristics of the materials in the laminate design, and reproduce the material in the laminate print. Formica Design Managers, such as Chmiel, are involved in every aspect of the process, and ensure the features of the original material are captured in detail in the laminate print.

Chmiel shared some of the latest Formica laminate designs during the webinar, and featured several of the higher-end installations using Formica laminates. The newest Formica designs include dramatic linear stones, white diagonal veining within the stones, and reclaimed wood designs, to name just a few. 

In the May issues, Builder magazine and Professional Builder ranked the largest builders in the country. This year, 70 Builder Partnerships members earned recognition which measures builder activity for 2014.

The magazines differ slightly in their criteria for assessing. Builder ranks purely by closings, and includes an additional 100 in the Builder 100 so the list includes 200 companies. The Professional Builder Housing Giants list, though, sorts initially by closings to get a bottom level, then ranks the builders by revenue. Consequently, a builder doing high-end, move-up product may appear considerably higher on the Professional Builder list than on the Builder list.

On the Builder list, Builder Partnerships placed 49 companies, which is slightly more than half of the member companies that would qualify. About a third of member companies that would qualify appear on the Professional Builder Housing Giants list, which totaled 277 companies this year.

Congratulations to those members who earned this recognition.

Read More...