Construction Informer

Promoting from within a company carries a lot of benefits. Current employees already have an understanding of the company culture, they know the ropes, are known (both their good points and not so good points), and the paperwork already exists. So assuming the person isn’t really a better candidate for firing there is some basic stuff there to work with.

The trick is to find the right method for advancing them. A promotion usually carries with it more responsibility and often means the person will begin supervising others when they may not have been doing that before. Short of sending them to a management course one option is to use on-the-job coaching.

Coaching actually happens spontaneously in construction all the time. Whenever a supervisor explains a new technique, or a seasoned co-worker evaluates the finished task of a junior worker, there is coaching going on. In the case of grooming someone for a promotion however coaching is made into a more formal process with plans on how it will be accomplished and with the establishment of some evaluation criteria so progress can be qualified and quantified.

Choosing the coach is of top importance. The coach will undoubtedly spend time on tasks and how to accomplish them but since the individual may very well need to become more sophisticated in how they communicate and view things the task itself may be the smaller part of the equation.

It wouldn’t be unlikely for a coach who is preparing a seasoned lead carpenter for the role of superintendent to be getting into areas related to communications, ethics and discipline. Not that the carpenter hasn’t been involved in those before, but they will now be involved with those things at a totally different level. Relating to subs on contractual items, dealing with bank representatives, and a host of other new communications situations will be necessary. So the coach needs to be someone who is well seasoned and has the patience to take the time needed to not only tell the person how things need to work, but also demonstrate how it is done effectively.

And that is one of the major advantages of coaching your people to their next jobs - they actually get to see the expected behaviors in action.

Read more in Part 2 tomorrow.

In the world of construction where people end up being scattered all over the place throughout the day it’s often a nightmare to get some face time, or to get everyone together for a meeting. By pulling people to a central place to attend a meeting not only is their time tied up for the meeting itself, but often there is some kind of a commute involved. Besides time, that also uses fuel.

There are a growing number of online meeting options springing up where you can call a meeting via email and at the designated time everyone logs into the meeting. During the meeting the presenters can be alternated and also anyone can put documents on the screen. Citrix’s GoToMeeting is one example where you pay a monthly flat fee starting at $49 and you can have up to 1000 meetings with up to 12 people each. The person calling the meeting sends a link with the meeting notice. The attendees click the link at the appropriate time and everyone gets connected. The screen shot below gives an example of the work space.

Over at Microsoft there is Live Meeting with voice and video ability as well as the usual characteristics like on screen collaboration and file sharing and editing. Microsoft lists the advantages as reducing travel, increasing productivity, reducing costs and accomplishing training - and all of this in a very immersive way.

What’s really interesting about this option is that when there are several participants in one room they all show up in video in a panoramic view, just as if you were looking at them in a conference room. This takes a piece of hardware that sits in the middle of the conference table and plugs into a presenter’s computer. Meanwhile, those remote participants show up on each person’s computer in a side pane. On the common screen people can share documents, web pages, screen shots and can work on a white board as well as take polls. Live Meeting costs from $4.58 to $15.42 per month/per user just depending upon how many you want in the meetings and whether or not you want the recorded meetings stored for a year. There are other options as well for volume purchasers.

Other options include Webex, Packetel and OfficeScape to name just a few.

While I was working on a project about digitizers for Construction Software Review the phone line connected to a quiet place where the once-hectic pace of business had all but ground to a halt.

A stately-sounding gentleman with a thick accent answered the call. I inquired about the digitizers I had seen like the one here and if these were now interfacing with computers. He said they would but then informed me rather nonchalantly that the company had sold the last one a month before. He said the company had been founded by German immigrants and that he had been with it for 58 years but that now it was “time to go home.” He talked rather vaguely about earlier survey instruments the company had made since 1929 and how the business changed after the war.

“After the war we branched out and made all kinds of things,” said Maximillian Berktold, vice president for LASICO (Los Angeles Scientific Company). “Our instruments were all mechanical but in the 70s or 80s we went into electronics. But nobody wants to think anymore, they just want to press a button, and that is what it is. We still have quite a few other instruments in stock. No digitizers.”

My mind conjured up a picture of a bespeckled man sitting at one of those old steel desks with a single pendant light hanging low , like they often do over billiard tables. He told me more about automation- “all you do is start your program, put your values in and that’s it.” He said most of the digitizers the company sold were “long arm” digitizers, and those arms were 35 inches long. He said having that arm made the instrument more accurate.

“The Army bought quite a few,” he said. “As a matter of fact we just got two in for repair. When we opened up the processor, and pulled the housing, there was a bees’ nest in there. I called in the girl (who works on them) - she already retired, but when we get a repair she comes in. She jumped up a mile in the air when she opened it. What’s the matter, when they use it they don’t hear the bzzzzz? I took photos and sent them to the guy. No wonder the darn thing doesn’t work.”

According to Maximillian, LASICO closed July 1st. He offered to send a packet of information to me, and did. Thanks Maximillian for the information, and sharing some perspectives on life, and the world as you experienced it. May the coming years truly be golden.

The next volley in the battle about radon and granite countertops has been fired, this time by the Marble Institute of America. According to the Marble Institute of America the EPA has stated that “granite countertops pose no significant health risk.”

However, if you really read what the EPA wrote you might come to a different conclusion as to what it seems to be saying. I have lifted the parts of the statement that deal directly with radon and granite. There were other statements included about testing a home’s air for radon and the advisability of that.

While natural minerals such as granite may occasionally emit radon gas, the levels of radon attributable to such sources are not typically high.  EPA believes the principal source of radon in homes is soil gas that is drawn indoors through a natural suction process. While radon levels attributable to granite are not typically high, there are simply too many variables to generalize about the potential health risks inside a particular home that has granite countertops. It is prudent to limit your family’s exposure to radon whenever possible. Granite is a natural mineral formed by earth’s geology. It is mined and used to produce commercial products such as countertops. It is possible for any granite sample to contain varying concentrations of uranium that can produce radon gas. Some granite used in countertops may contribute variably to indoor radon levels. However, EPA has no reliable data to conclude that types of granite used in countertops are significantly increasing indoor radon levels. EPA is aware of a few studies that have conducted limited research on radon in granite countertops. EPA will continue to review this research. EPA will continue to monitor and analyze the evolving research on this issue and will update its recommendations as appropriate.

I don’t know about you but what I get from that is that granite could emit radon gas and contribute to indoor radon levels, but in reality the EPA has no reliable data on the subject. So, who knows why it bothered to make a statement.

If you need to give an old building a new look there could be a lot to recommend using aluminum composite panels (ACPs). This material has been around for a long time but there are many efforts over time that have improved upon its original qualities. As you might expect,  Reynolds Aluminum is one manufacturer of the material that is essentially a layer of plastic bonded between two layers of aluminum. The variations to this use other types of metal, like stainless steel or copper. The building pictured is Voke-III in Vilnius, Lithuania, and has been finished with Reynobond.

China has become the largest supplier of ACPs at 80 percent of world output, and production there is growing at 30 percent per year. Some other countries producing the material include Taiwan and India.

I recently heard from Carol Wong at Shanghai Jixiang Technology Development Group (SHJIX) regarding her company’s line of these products. This company also adds a range of coatings that help to give the material longer life and minimize environmental effects and it offers an amazing array of attractive colors and styles like wood, stone and brushed metal.

You work with ACP much like any metal but with some variations like using a router to score it before bending. Once a framework is attached to the mounting wall the panels are fastened to that. If you get the exterior finish in PVDF there are some advantages like very high gloss preservation, minimal color change, and minimal changes from weather.

Almost all manufacturers list the attributes as lightweight, impact resistant, easy maintenance, excellent sound proofing, thermal resistance, fire retardant, and a 20 year guarantee on the PVDF sheets.

Now, nanotechnology has been applied to the process yielding new properties for the material like self cleaning, anti-pollution, acid-resistance and alkali-resistance. The self cleaning action is established by the low-tension coating that inhibits dust from sticking to the surface and allows rain to do the washing.

Not surprisingly these approximately 4′x8′ panels are also favorites of artists for creating murals that hang on buildings. The one in this picture is entitled Safe Passage and was cut, painted and installed on a brick wall in Windsor, Ontario by Steve Jamieson, Donna Mayne, Bernadette Robertson, Jacqueline Raulin, Sherrill Tucker and JoAnne Weston.