In our January 2011 edition, we introduced an exciting new product from our AL Tech™ division, the EZ Access™ sliding door system.  The system was originally designed for the specific requirements of a global accounting firm.  We are now pleased to report that working with our long time partner ASD Architects (Washington, DC), we will be involved with two new projects for this global accounting firm.

  

We have worked with ASD on many projects over the last nine years, so it was not surprising when they selected us again for these important projects.  We are supplying our EZ Access™ sliding door for new offices in San Jose and Irvine, CA.  We recently completed a similar project in the accounting firm's Denver, CO offices.  The installer in Denver was Horizon Glass (Denver, CO), while Walters & Wolf (San Francisco, CA) is handling the installation in San Jose and New Century Door (Fullerton, CA) is installing in Irvine.  ASD chose our sliding door system because it provides more floor space and is more accommodating to the proposed office furniture layout.  The San Jose project is nearly complete and the Irvine project will start installation in July.

  

  

Custom Components Company announces the award of a new project in San Diego, CA, Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine (SCRM).  The new $104 million project is a 144,000 sq. ft. facility and laboratory for stem cell research and is being built adjacent to the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) campus in Torrey Pines, California.  The facility includes innovative architectural elements and mechanical systems that not only drive collaboration and scientific productivity, but also improve the building's functional and operating economy.  The site totals 7.5 acres and is owned by the University of California and is designated for academic use by the University's overall development plan.  The SCRM facility will achieve the principal functional purpose by incorporating design features such as horizontally and vertically open laboratories, and strategically placed informal and formal meeting and education spaces, all intended to maximize face-to-face interactions among SCRM resident and non-resident scientists.  Movable features on a traditional model will add functionality to a building designed to serve more rapid team science in a field with constantly changing technologies. It will also include state-of-the-art cyber-linked education and conference facilities.

 

SCRM's project team includes the San Diego based architectural firm Lankford and Associates.  The general contractor is Hensel Phelps Construction Company.  Completion of the project is targeted for the November of 2011.

 

Custom Components Company is currently installing custom design 700 Series railing, which incorporates �" clear tempered glass and stainless steel components.

  

Everyone wants quality, quality products, quality services, quality results.  The question is what is best way to get there?  Much has been written and spoken over the years, and, of course, everyone has an opinion.  One of the best treatises on the subject comes from W. Edwards Deming, often characterized as the father of the modern quality process.  Deming (1900-1993) was an American statistician, professor, author and consultant.   He is perhaps best known for his work in Japan.  He is regarded to have transformed Japan into an economic superpower in the post WWII era by significantly improving their product quality.  Despite being something of a hero in Japan, he was only just beginning to win widespread recognition in the U.S. at the time of his death.  The philosophy of W. Edwards Deming has been summarized as follows:

  

"By adopting appropriate principles of management, organizations can increase quality and simultaneously reduce costs ( by reducing waste, rework, staff attrition and litigation while increasing customer loyalty).  The key is to practice continual improvement and think of manufacturing as a system, not as bits and pieces."  When people focus primarily on quality, quality tends to increase and costs fall over time.  However, when people and organizations focus primarily on costs, costs tend to rise and quality declines over time.

  

Deming also believed that the primary factor driving success in the quality of the product, service or result was not the people using the system, but the system itself, or as Deming himself put it:

  

"A manager of people needs to understand that all people are different.  This is not ranking people.  He needs to understand that the performance of anyone is governed largely by the system that he works in, the responsibility of management."  Thus it is the structure of the organization, rather than the employees alone, which holds the key to improving the quality of output.  

  

So the next time you are tempted to blame the people in an organization for problems or substandard performance, look at your systems first. 

  

  

  

A project manager, a superintendent, and a field engineer are in Ft. Lauderdale for a two-week period helping out on a project. About midweek they decide to walk up and down the beach during their lunch hour. Halfway up the beach, they stumbled upon a lamp. As they rub the lamp a genie appears and says "Normally I would grant you 3 wishes, but since there are 3 of you, I will grant you each one wish." The superintendent went first. "I would like to spend the rest of my life living in a huge house in St. Thomas, with no money worries and surrounded by beautiful women who worship me." The genie granted him his wish and sent him on off to St. Thomas. The field engineer went next. "I would like to spend the rest of my life living on a huge yacht cruising the Mediterranean, with no money worries and surrounded by beautiful women who worship me." The genie granted him his wish and sent him off to the Mediterranean. Last, but not least, it was the project manager's turn. "And what would your wish be?" asked the genie. "I want them both back on site after lunch" replied the project manager.

 

Source:  www.contractorcity.com 

Custom Components Company recently completed a project to supply custom stainless steel glass railing  and hand rails for the newly constructed Makena Medical Center in Escondido, CA. The project is a three story medical office facility featuring state-of-the-art technology in a sustainable, earth-conscious and LEED certified design. The offices are custom designed to the doctor's particular needs.  It is the only authorized off-campus medical office building in the Escondido Research and Technology Center. Just three parcels from the hospital campus, Makena Medical Center gives physicians the time to make rounds at the hospital and be less than � mile from a full day patient schedule. MMC is the culmination of a partnership between Makena Medical Buildings, LLC; Medical Real Estate Development and J. Reese Construction, Inc.  J. Reese partnered with tenured McArdle & Associates Architects to provide an innovative design-build project.

Custom Components Company supplied custom stainless steel point mounted glass railing and handrail.  Rossin Steel, Inc. of Escondido handled the installation.

 

The latest federal government figures on construction spending have been released showing April 2011 construction spending estimated at a seasonally adjusted $765.0 billion annual rate, 0.4% (+ or - 1.6%) above the revised March estimate of $762.1 billion.  The April figure is 9.3% (+ or - 1.6%) below the April 2010 estimate of $843.1 billion.  During the first 4 months of this year, construction spending amounted to $222.7 billion, 8.4 percent (+ or - 1.4%) below the $243.0 billion for same period in 2010.

  

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Of course, you could jump out of an airplane without a parachute, but you shouldn't.  Or, you can try to dig a hole to the center of the earth, but not likely. This isn't what I am talking about.  The one thing a business leader shouldn't do is have a bad day and let it show to everyone else in the organization.

 

We all have bad days, no one is immune.  Whether business related or personal, once in a while, you have a day that is so upsetting that it gets to you.  As a business owner or manager, though, you have the responsibility not to let that bad day take your company down too.

 

Maybe you publicly yell at Mary for doing something stupid, rather than taking her aside for a private thought, you then ruin every one's day who heard you.  If Bill mismeasures a job, and you let the whole company know it, you drag down every one's morale.

 

If you know you are having a bad day, step away from the business for an hour.  Go sit in your car.  Get a cup of coffee.  When you get your sense of calm back, go back to work. 

 

I am not saying it is wrong to be upset at work.  Often times you have to show your disappointment or frustration to an employee.  But do it correctly, and be a professional.  Don't drag a whole department down because you are upset with one person.  And don't let this one person drag you down.  You have a business to run, and if one person is hampering the team effort, take the appropriate steps.

 

If you are upset with your kid's report card, don't bring that to work.  If you worried about losing money on a job, get the figures, understand what you have to, and go on.  Being Grandpa Grumpy won't help the company pull ahead.

 

 

Originally posted by Paul Bieber at http://usglasspaul.blogspot.com/