Have you heard of “locavores?” These folks are interested in eating food that is produced within a 100-mile radius of their home. The idea is to minimize fossil fuels from shipping and nutrition lost from farm to table. We like to consider ourselves a small part of the locavore movement. We started three years back …
On Tuesday, I posted about our local partner Superior Mechanical and their use of Lean, a system that fuels efficiency. The Lean Enterprise Institute summarize well by saying, “The core idea is to maximize customer value while minimizing waste. Simply, lean means creating more value for customers with fewer resources.” I was intrigued by what …
Recently, our friends at Superior Mechanical were kind enough to give me a tour the new half-billion dollar Children’s Hospital expansion here Birmingham. I was interested to see how they are integrating Lean construction initiatives with their BIM work to be more efficient, and save their ultimate customer time and money. As background, Lean is …
In this economy, do you feel like you have to be in 1000 different places at once? If a customer or prospective customer has an opportunity, you want to be there, always staying close. But never too close. I know the feeling. The good news is, being out of sight no longer means you have …
A while back, I mentioned our desire to explore Building Information Modeling (BIM), a database which catalogs a structure throughout its life cycle in real time 3D. We felt the system would provide a value-add large enough to merit hiring someone to manage our efforts. I’m pleased to say we found the right fit. William …
Recessions don’t have many redeeming qualities, but they do create opportunities that wouldn’t exist otherwise. Let me explain myself with an example. During our current economic downturn, commercial and retail spaces have often been leasing at reduced rates. Many of the prime locations already have been scooped up by opportunistic businesses. There still are good …
In short, sometimes. Last week, I was reading an article in Engineering News Record titled, “When Does It Pay to Use Innovative Concrete Construction Products?” The piece details a study by the Construction Industry Institute where three recent innovations in concrete were investigated, comparing them to traditional counterparts. The article explains the “why” behind their …
There is an old story about a brilliant scientist who boasted that he could examine a book and tell you anything about it–what type of ink was used, the composition of the paper, even details about the molecules that made up the book. But when the scientist sat down to actually read, he realized the …
We are in the midst of summer’s “dog days.” While the heat might be novel to our Stewart Perry team, having a dog around isn’t. For several months, my canine companion has been coming to work with me. Pal, a 12-year-old Springer Spaniel, used to stay at home whenever I went to the office, enduring …
We recently made a presentation to a prospective customer who had an adaptive reuse project that seemed perfect for us. It involved revitalizing an area of the city, which is exactly the type of project we enjoy. We confidently answered all the questions in the RFI, and the presentation seemed to go flawlessly. As we …
Last week, I was having a conversation about pricing on an HVAC system with Heath Cather in our office. Why had the mechanical engineer chosen hot gas reheat? It’s more expensive and sometimes unnecessary, I offered. He mentioned a trend he’s noticed. With all the mold law suits lately, we are seeing recommendations for a …
When we built our corporate campus a few years back, we were thinking about how to create a better workplace for our folks. Our goal was to create an environment to promote teamwork, break down cylinders and be fun. To accomplish this, I considered multiple designs: –minimum walls and many open work areas, our customer …