Scott Sedam | ProBuilder

Scott Sedam

Scott Sedam is president of TrueNorth Development, a consulting and training firm that works with builders to improve products, process, and profits. A senior contributing editor to Pro Builder, Scott writes about all aspects of the home building business and won the 2015 Jesse H. Neal Award, business journalism's most prestigious prize, for his commentary in Pro Builder. Scott invites you to join TrueNorth's Lean Building Group on LinkedIn and welcomes your feedback at scott@truen.com or 248.446.1275.

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Labor + Trade Relations

Choices and Responsibilities in Solving the Trade Shortage

Scott Sedam examines popular conceptions on how to fix the trade labor shortage

Human Resources

‘Brick & Kick,’ Open the Borders, or ... ?

Scott Sedam takes a look at the choices and responsibilities in solving the trade shortage

builders-trade labor shortage-photo-masonry and trowel

Labor + Trade Relations

America’s Trade Shortage: Failure of an Industry

The lack of skilled labor is a massive problem for the construction industry, but so far there's been little effort made to find solutions

Construction worker wearing yellow hardhat

Business Management

Could Your Largest Obstacle Be ... You?

12 home building fallacies that get in our way

Business Management

Bust These Home Building Myths

From myths about mayonnaise to myths about the effects of the trade shortage, fallacies aren’t mere errors in fact, but rather errors in thinking and reason—and they could be holding back your business

Business Management

Conquering Complexity: Confronting the Source of Profit Loss

Complexity kills good process. Good process drives profit. Your only choice is to conquer complexity

man with scribble for a head shows confusion and complexity at work

Business Management

On the Road to Simplicity in Home Building: A Way of Thinking and Operating for Business Success

Simplification is never about merely stripping out features or dumbing down the product. In fact, simplification is a way of thinking, designing, and operating that can improve product along with profits

Business Management

Consequences of Complexity in the Building Process

When complexity exceeds capacity, everyone loses. Here's the first step in fixing a broken process

Business Management

Improving Process With Clarity, Priority, and Focus

What to do when everything on the list is Job No. 1

The Lean Builder

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

In these times of increasing sales with decreasing margins, home builders are on a continual campaign to decrease costs. Every cost category...

The Lean Builder

Why do builders avoid facing the facts on process failure?

“Sometimes life – and work – would be easier if you could forget some things you’ve learned.” So begins my August article in Professional...

Business Management

Process Failure: Product Waste in Home Building

The desire to deny it is strong, but it's time to admit: Most product waste in home building has its roots in bad process. Let's look at what to do about it

houses with labels showing money lost through product waste in home building

Business Management

12 Processes for Sustainable Profit

How to establish sound business systems that ensure a healthy bottom line

The Lean Builder

Trade Shortage Dilemma

There is a way for builders to overcome the labor shortage

The Lean Builder

Merge With Caution

Last week’s big announcement of the merger of StanPac and Ryland Group, creating a new member of the Top 5 Homebuilders, spawned a flurry of...

Business Management

Listen Up Home Builders, It’s All About the Process

Significant savings can be found in being more efficient with trade labor, materials, and employees, but that isn’t how you find the real cost savings in production building. The route to the margin you seek is through process

The Lean Builder

Trade Shortage Heats Up. Looking for Love (and Relief) in All the Wrong Places

The shortage of qualified trade contractors is a problem that vexes the entire industry and finally people are waking up to it, largely for...

The Lean Builder

Fear of First-Timers?

This week I read that Ivy Zelman, generally acknowledged as the top homebuilding financial analyst, was laying it on pretty heavy to...

Housing Giants

Process Perils and Profit for Home Builders

There are at least two dollars of process waste for each dollar you find in product, and the larger the builder, the greater the waste

The Lean Builder

Higher Growth/Lower Margins ... 'It's Happening'

One of my “guilty pleasures” – you know, things that you should be embarrassed to admit you love – is the John Travolta movie, The...

Business Management

Additional Margin: Find It, in These 6 Buckets

2015 will be the Year of Building Dangerously, unless ... you find additional margin. Here’s where to look for it

Business Management

10 Questions to Ruin Your 2015, Unless ...

If you think you’ll get significantly higher retail prices in 2015 for your homes, you’re kidding yourself—but there are some factors you can control

Business Management

Opportunity Lost: Tough Love for Suppliers and Trades

There's much that builders can do to build better homes while eliminating waste, but suppliers and trades have a part to play in it

Business Management

Home Building: Is It a Case of Failure to Communicate?

Why home builders and other businesses have communication problems and how to address them

Tools of communication in business: a laptop and a phone

Housing Giants

2014 Housing Giants: The Resurrection of Orleans Homebuilders

Pennsylvania-based Orleans Homes navigated through Chapter 11 bankruptcy to rebuild a family company

Single-family home by Orleans Homebuilders

Home Builders Institute's Schools to Skills Grant Application Open Through December

As Mortgage Rates Rise, Buyers Lose Purchasing Power

Renters Are Choosing Single-Family Homes for These Features