Lean Building

How to Save $5,000 Per Unit

If you knew you were losing about $5K per unit due to just one item of waste in your houses, would you do something about it?

Construction Quality

Defining Value to the Customer

One person's better value can be another's substandard. So how do you define value to the customer?

Purchasing

Consider True Value Before Switching Suppliers or Products

There's waste, and then there's waste-mistaken. Builders must learn the difference 

A la carte insanity – Could it happen in home building?

It’s hard to say who has taken the “a la carte” mentality to the most absurd level, the airlines or the rental car companies. Pay for food, pay…

Down Under II

I just finished a day in Australia, working with suppliers and trades in one-hour Lean meetings. Guess what? If not for the accent, local…

Wonder Down Under

For more than 20 years, I have traveled the U.S. and Canada almost weekly. One-hundred nights or more in hotel rooms is not so much fun, but…

First, Do No Harm

Hoping for something provocative to read on a long trip, I picked up a book of short essays by Kurt Vonnegut. I have always felt an unwarranted…

Scott Sedam

Scott Sedam is president of TrueNorth Development, a consulting and training firm that works with…