Prefabrication

The most recent accomplishment in rapid building in China is getting a lot of press coverage and internet traffic.  "30-story building built in 15 days" is a short, slick video that includes time-lapse photography of a slender, 30-story hotel being erected very quickly.  The video includes a wealth of claims about the efficiency and sustainability of the building, the safety of the construction process, and the speed.


It is a remarkable achievement, as it was designed to be.  The claims bear close scrutiny - the meaning of "20 times more purer air" is not entirely clear, for example – but the basic achievement is still impressive.  In fact, one almost suspects that the projects was designed more for the impression than anything else.


The video subtly implies that the 15 days of erection is the same thing as 15 days of construction.  Prefabricated floor sections are seen being built, shipped, and installed, but that was almost certainly not the case.   


What the editing eliminates is the foundation which must have taken a number of days if not weeks to excavate and pour, not to mention 28 days (hopefully) to cure before the video begins.  It also eliminates the prefabrication time, which was doubtless considerable.


In a way, it's a pity they left out most of the pre-fabrication process.  It may be the most interesting aspect of this project.  One of its best lessons from the project is the power of pre-fabrication

Drive Your Brand

Applying your brand identification on company vehicles can have high impact. You probably have signage on delivery and service vehicles already, so why not extend it to cars driven by sales reps and other field personnel?This vehicle provides a case in point. A sales rep had parked it in front of a distributor's office while on a routine call to deliver new samples. Meanwhile, customers passing the car on their way into the office received a brand impression even before they got to the distributor's door.

Throughout the day, the car is probably parked at many locations where it is visible by potential customers: at a designer's office, construction job sites, a CSI or trade association meeting. Since Cosentino promotes several of their brands to consumers, the vehicle even creates brand impressions while stopped at a traffic signal.

Hilti has been doing this for years. Their distinctively marked fleet of vans are a veritable tool box on wheels at many construction sites. They recently took this a step further, outfitting 55 vans in the UK as field demonstration and training.

Here are some considerations:

1.  The visual design has to be consistent with your overall branding.

2.  The type of car must support your branding. If you have a green message, for example, consider a hybrid vehicle.

3.  Keep the vehicle clean and in good condition.

4.  Train your drivers in safety and driving courtesy.

Changed formulations in building products

An article in January 2011 issue of Consumers Report pointed out the unintended consequences of reformulating a product. According to tests conducted by the magazine, glass baking dishes made in the US have been reformulated. While the new products look the same as the old and generally perform as well under normal use, the reformulated products can shatter and cause injury. This got me thinking about how reformulations effect building product marketing.

Is this old or new Pyrex? New product packaging has safety warnings and handling instructions, but there is no warning on the product itself.

I have always had Pyrex brand glass baking in my kitchen, as did my parents before me. Over the decades, the brand earned a place of trust in my kitchen due to the product's ability to withstood the ordinary wear and tear of household use.

Recently, and without public fanfare, Pyrex brand products were reformulated. Instead of being made with borosilicate glass, they are now made with a less costly soda ash glass. The new products look the same as, and usually perform like. the older models. But I have had newer pieces of Pyrex break during ordinary handling while my older Pyrex products keep on working unless I drop them on the floor.

This reminds me about a story my father-in-law, a dentist, told me about a batch of anesthesia that produced unusual side effects. While the manufacturer insisted the drug was made according to all quality assurance standards, my father-in-law discarded the rest of the batch.  Years later, he learned the manufacturer had finally identified the culprit; the company that made the gasket that sealed each vial had changed its supplier for a lubricant used in the gasket manufacturing process. While the new lubricant met the written performance standards of the previous product, it left a trace contamination that interacted with the chemicals used in the drug.

Continuous process improvement is often touted as a virtue. However, it can become a liability if your customers are not informed about changes. Failure to notify customers can lead to increased product failures when someone assumes the new formulation will work just the same as the old one. Equally insidious is damage to your brand's reputation. My father-in-law found a new vendor and stayed with it for the rest of his career. And even if Pyrex resumes manufacturing of borosilicate products, I will probably remain skeptical, preferring to buy the old stuff in second hand stores than take a risk with an unknown product.

In construction
Product reformulations occur frequently in the construction industry, and usually without the knowledge of the specifiers or builders using the product. Indeed, reformulations often result in superior and more affordable products. But not always.

New products will always lack something that older products offer: the test of time. An old-fashioned built-up asphalt roof might fail in 10 to 20 years, but we reliably knew they would fail in that time period. When a new roofing system comes along, we can look at lots of material tests and even accelerated aging tests. But nothing tests a roof like 20 years of actual exposure. Lab tests usually measure one variable at a time; everything happens at once in nature.

It is generally best to tell customers when changes have been made to trusted brands. Then, work closely with them while they get used to the feel of the new product and learn to use it correctly.

Life-cycle assessments of products

This is an encore of an article Michael Chusid wrote 20 years ago. To a limited extent, increased attention to environmental sustainability have increased focus on life cycle performance of buildings. LEED, for example, requires buildings to be commissioned to ascertain that mechanical systems perform as required. Also, the "cradle-to-cradle" concept encourages examination of the flow of materials from extraction to re-purposing.

Operational costs typically,  exceed construction costs.

Tools that can help architects make life-cycle assessments of products

The architectural community too often disregards the life-cycle costs and operation of buildings. This attitude is not expressed overtly but nonetheless permeates architectural practice:

• We grovel before a project's bid price and all but disregard a building's cash flow, the streams of operational and maintenance expenses, financing, revenue and tax consequences, which spell economic success or failure to a building owner. 
• When designing an addition or renovation, we too often fail to involve the building's maintenance staff in a serious discussion about their resources, schedules, and experience with the building's existing materials and systems.
• We rarely retain qualified building maintenance consultants on our design teams.
• And frequently, we pass along a hodgepodge of submittals and call it an Operation and Maintenance Manual without considering whether the accumulation really communicates.

Over the economic life of a building, operation and maintenance costs will typically equal or exceed first costs. And when we consider how a maintenance program can affect a building's resale or salvage value, the importance of building maintainability becomes even more apparent.

Building Economics
Building design and product selection decisions should be made with benefit of life-cycle cost analysis. Recently issued ASTM standards provide the building industry with clear guidelines for performing an economic analysis of building designs and components. In a life-cycle cost study, each future cash flow must be adjusted for anticipated inflation and escalation and then discounted to a present value. When performed manually, these time-consuming calculations limit the use of life-cycle cost analysis. New computer-based programs, however, make it much easier to conduct life-cycle installations.

Even though calculations have been simplified, a building life-cycle cost investigation still remains difficult because reliable data on product longevity, maintenance schedules, and operation and maintenance expenses are difficult to obtain. How soon will a roof really be repaired or replaced? How frequently will various types of door operators require servicing? How will the selection of a sealant or weatherstripping affect energy use? Such information is not contained in the typical references found in an architectural office, but a new family of facility management publications and references is beginning to fill this gap. For example, Means Facilities Maintenance Standards [now out of date] discusses the mechanisms that contribute to building deterioration, and building maintenance scheduling and management.

Architects must also take more initiative to discuss maintenance issues with their clients and consultants and to collect and analyze the maintenance history of their buildings. This information must then be transmitted to the drafters and specifiers who actually make product decisions.

Product Data
Although building product manufacturers and trade associations are a primary source of product information, few offer well documented data on their product's life-cycle performance, offering only inconclusive laboratory testing or anecdotal case studies to document their claims. They claim they are unable to predict a product's life-cycle because of conditions beyond a manufacturer's control, such as environmental conditions or maintenance procedures. Yet these variables can be quantified and applied to a sampling of historic product performance data. The resulting analysis could be used as a valid basis for predicting product performance and comparing product alternatives.

Some manufacturers have responded to the need for better information about product life-cycle costs. USG Interiors, Inc., for example, offers a computerized comparison of relocatable partitions and drywall partitions. called DesignAid for Walls, the program enables a designer to consider the economic impact of partition relocation, financing alternatives, tax benefits and accelerated depreciation, and the escalation of waste disposal costs associated with drywall partition remodeling. A similar USG DesignAid program compares several floor construction and wire distribution systems to determine life-cycle costs vis-a-vis workstation relocation. [Chusid Associates wrote both DesignAid programs.]

Building productivity is also a life cycle factor.

Operational Assurance
Since many architects assume "building maintenance" means "janitorial services" or occasional redecorating, it would be useful to introduce a new term into our professional patois. "Operational assurance" is a concept more familiar to industrial engineers who must assure that manufacturing equipment is kept at optimum operating capacity. An operational assurance approach to buildings must consider the building operational goals and specify systems and products in view of their longevity and the ease and cost of their maintenance, repair, and replacement. Operational assurance can be applied not just to mechanical and electrical systems, but to the building envelope, finishes, and other architectural components as well.

Capability in operational assurance planning would enable an architectural or engineering firm to differentiate itself from its competitors and position itself for growth in industrial, commercial, or institutional markets. Maintenance programming, value engineering, training of the building staff, and post-occupancy evaluation also could be lucrative extended services and could lead to a continuing relationship with a client.

Have a question you'd like us to answer?
Send an email to michaelchusid@chusid.com 

By Michael Chusid, Originally published in Progressive Architecture, ©1991.

Labeling Packaging and Products

A new hand-held inkjet printer has potential marketing benefits for building products. The Handjet Printer from EBS Ink-Jet Systems can apply any text to almost any surface. While it is primarily designed for applying labels to packaging or products, it can also be used to print notes, quickly and legibly onto a product to simplify field installation.

This could be especially useful for customized products fabricated with CAD/CAM equipment where each part can be potentially unique. In current practice, such a product would be shipped into the field labeled with a part number. One would then have to look at a set of drawings to identify its location in a project. The drawings may also have notes indicating erection sequence, attachment locations, warnings, and other information related installation of the part.

With the Handjet, these notes could be readily printed on the part itself, simplifying the installers time cross referencing between the parts and the drawings. The convenience, and potential labor savings, can become a marketable feature of your product.

Similarly, information typically found in an maintenance manual could be printed on a product, simplifying building operations.

I can visualize other uses for the technology: In-plant applications include quality control, inventory. and shipping. In the field, it could be used to create attention-getting notes to installers or other trades people. And as job site robots come into use (and they will), ink jet printers like this could be used to mark survey and layout points to speed installation.

Samples on Beaded Chains

In an era of high tech marketing, remember that customers still want to see and touch samples.

An effective way to do this, especially for small samples, is on a beaded chain. The chain can be conveniently hung in a sample library in a designers office, or behind the counter in a distributor's showroom. They take up less room than a wall-hung display board. They are usually inexpensive to produce and ship in a compact package. Customers can readily remove a single piece if needed for further examination or a mock-up. And the chain keeps your samples together, so you can keep your act together.

Chusid Client wins Innovative Product Award

Hanley Wood has announced that the new SPD Protector by Lythic Solutions, has received the Editors Choice award in their Most Innovative Product competition held during World of Concrete. Chusid Associates helped Lythic Solutions with their entry into this contest.

Contests such as this give building product manufacturers great PR exposure. The award provides an important testimonial, it gets announced by the sponsoring magazine, and the manufacturer can use the award on its website, product labels, and press releases.

Remember: You can't win unless you enter.

Product Packaging - Slimming Down the Waste

During this time of year, we are surrounded by a lot of packaging waste -- shopping bags, boxes, food packaging, and other wrapping paper from holiday gifts fill our living rooms, hallways, closets, and hopefully recycle bins.  This got me thinking about how we can reduce the waste generated by construction products, and how these changes can become part of your marketing strategy.

Building products need to be shipped around the world to distributors and construction sites.  Shipping requires packaging, and that packaging has to protect its contents from rough handling, inclement weather, and other abuse over which a manufacturer has no control. The one thing you have control over is the type of packaging you use. By streamlining your packaging and ensuring that you have only the basic necessities for safely delivering your product to its destination, you will save the environment, money, and can better market your green message.

A video describing how a major shoe manufacturer has cut down on their company's ecological "paw print," is a good example about how your packaging can become part of your branding. The video, created by Puma, has gone viral.  People are sharing this video link with their friends over social networking sites, getting the brand name in front of millions of people.  As a building product manufacturer, once you streamline your packaging, why not create a video that shows how much time and effort you put into making your product packaging as eco-friendly as possible?

Share your video across social networking sites and others will spread your green story.  This viral effect will put your brand name in front of potential customers, along with your green story, making you highly desirable when it is time for them to re-supply or specify.

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Specifiers and builders are increasingly concerned about packaging waste - due to increased waste disposal costs and incentives like earning the LEED credit for improved construction waste management.

Here are some steps our clients have taken to green their packaging:

• Concrete admixtures are packaged in sacks that disintegrate when placed into a concrete mixer, eliminating a waste disposal problem.
• Instead of single-use cartons, light fixtures are delivered in special racks that can be returned to the distributors.
• Manufacturers pay customers to return plastic pails. This gives the customer an incentive, and provides the manufacturer a saving compared to buying new cartons.
• Job-site production can eliminate the need for packaging altogether.

In each of these cases, the packaging has become part of the product offering.

Samples on Beaded Chains

Photo Credit

Beaded chains of plastic laminate samples, as shown in photo, are a standard way of distributing small samples to customers. Compared to other methods of displaying samples, such as display boards, chains are economical and easy to assemble and ship. They can be displayed simply on a hook in a distributor's showroom or designer's library. When needed in the field or to bring to a customer's office, they are compact and easy to transport; unlike boxed samples, pieces will not fall out if a chain is tipped over. Chains allow samples to be held up against other materials for color matching, or to be readily removed if necessary for closer examination. Flipping through chain engages the customer kinesthetically, creating a stronger sales impression.

Environmentally, chains minimize packaging, and can be readily recycled with other metal scrap.