In an age of global competition and compressed margins many industries are embracing lean manufacturing practices, a system designed by Toyota fifty years ago when it faced the challenge of entering a global automobile market with severely constrained resources.Participants in the construction ...

We are at a crossroads that will change the way construction is managed, and construction contractors will benefit in a big way from this. In order to respond with limited resources to the $3.6 trillion US infrastructure investment need by 2020, project owners will require that the infrastructure ...

If you do a Google search for 'construction product tracking' you will find a number of links to services that track construction equipment, laborers, and labor hours, but you won't find anything about tracking construction products. (That is until you find the link to our recent post: The Instant ...

What are the secrets to outperforming in a very competitive envrionment? Why do some companies thrive while others find competing increasingly difficult? Are some companies just lucky or do they possess some advantages that others do not? The truth is, they DO possess superior advantage. However, ...

The secret to building value in a business is consistently producing new customers while expanding the revenue produced by each customer over time. In addition to contributing more revenue, the new products/services also tend to bind the customer more closely to the business which, in turn, tends ...

In today's world of global competition and pricing transparency, companies are facing margin pressures unlike ever before. Longstanding customers now routinely review their vendors for price advantage. New competitors enter markets at unprecedented rates. And companies with human resource costs ...

Lean production is generally associated with manufacturing but the principles apply equally well to service industries.The construction industry is naturally inclined to benefit from lean practices because winning bids require the contractor to provide superior customer value on the thinnest ...

Contrary to what the term implies, lean manufacturing is not simply a system of reducing expenses or “trimming fat”. The central goal of lean practice is the elimination of muda, activities that do not add value to the customer. By extension, this means that investments in activities that provide ...

If asked, what would you say sets UPS apart from its competitors? Your first response will likely be that you can track your shipment and trace its progress through the delivery process: track and trace. While all logistics providers provide this service now, UPS set itself apart years ago by being ...