Navigating Employee Consolidation After an Acquisition: A Blueprint for Success In the dynamic landscape of corporate growth, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have become a common strategy for companies aiming to expand their market presence and enhance their capabilities. While these endeavors hold promises of increased efficiency and amplified market share, the process... Read More February 2024 Issue #16295 Page 72
Navigating Productivity Improvement Programs: The Vital Role of a Change Agent In manufacturing, continuous process improvement is critical to maintaining profits and quality. Transforming and enhancing operations, however, demands more than good intentions; it requires a dedicated change agent focused on ensuring the program is implemented and ingrained into ongoing plant... Read More January 2024 Issue #16294 Page 72
Building Your Own Home, Part X: Final Thoughts In this final article about building our home, let’s talk about money and scheduling. We wanted our dream home to have the highest quality we could afford, built on time, without overspending. Here’s how we did it. Budgeting, tracking expenses, and cost accounting are in my DNA.... Read More December 2023 Issue #15293 Page 82
Building Your Own Home, Part VIX: The Home Stretch – It’s a Wrap! As we approach the finish line of our construction journey, it’s the perfect time to reflect on the progress we’ve made and the final touches that will bring our home to life. We’re thrilled to share the latest updates on our project, which has been a labor of love every step... Read More November 2023 Issue #15292 Page 84
Building Your Own Home – Part VIII: Moving Inside and Cash Flow As construction moves forward, the focus shifts from the exterior to the interior, making it harder to track progress from the outside. However, there’s still important work ahead. Tasks like leveling the surrounding area and ensuring proper grading away from the house are crucial.... Read More October 2023 Issue #15291 Page 92
Building Your Own Home – Part VII: Managing Inevitable Problems We are in month seven and have managed to maintain the schedule, give or take a week. At this stage, I am spending a lot of time walking the site, crawling around the attic, down in the crawlspace, and everywhere else, looking at work and asking questions. In addition, I am watching the schedule... Read More September 2023 Issue #15290 Page 102
Building Your Own Home – Part VI: Exteriors and (Almost) Utilities Last month, I thought we would be completely dried in with utilities run by the end of July, but instead we are almost dried in and utilities remain on the to-do list. We had some issues matching the metal siding and roofing colors with the stone color, which necessitated having a hands-on look... Read More August 2023 Issue #15289 Page 78
Building Your Own Home – Part V: Coming Out of the Ground Since breaking ground, the progress made by the foundation and framing crews has been amazing. I know everyone says the fastest part is drying it in, but still I was surprised with the speed everything happened. The foundation crew, an Amish group out of Logotee Indiana, about 2 hours away,... Read More July 2023 Issue #15288 Page 78
Building Your Own Home – Part IV: Project Management Prior to JobLine, I was a General Manager, and before that a Project Manager. That was more than 30 years ago, but hopefully I can shake off the dust and continue the process of building our forever home without too many problems. Project Management is a catch-all name used by people who may... Read More June 2023 Issue #15287 Page 74
Building Your Own Home – Part III: Permits, Inspections, and Scheduling With the loan in-hand, for construction to begin the next hurdle is permits. In my case, I received a combined shop/home permit, rather than separate permits for our house and then our shop. Even the building commissioner said I had put the cart before the horse, but we needed to build the shop... Read More May 2023 Issue #15286