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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Measurement Techniques for Lean Building

Lean implementation requires a new mindset for home builders when it comes to measurement of the design and building process

Lean Building

Lean Design for Home Builders? A Primer

The home building industry’s approach to design, plans, and specifications needs a comprehensive overhaul to find and eliminate waste in product and process

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A la carte insanity – Could it happen in home building?

It’s hard to say who has taken the “a la carte” mentality to the most absurd level, the airlines or the rental car companies. Pay for food,...

Lean Building

Using Lean Principles to Solve the Green Building Cost Equation

By eliminating waste in the home building product and process, builders can negate the added costs for going green, writes Lean building guru Scott Sedam in his latest column

Lean Building

10 Steps to Adopting Lean Building

Implementing the principles of Lean in home building is no easy task, but the payoffs in waste reduction and cost savings can be substantial. Here's a road map for getting started

Road leading up grassy hill with hedges on either side

The Lean Builder

Down Under II

I just finished a day in Australia, working with suppliers and trades in one-hour Lean meetings. Guess what? If not for the accent, local...

The Lean Builder

Wonder Down Under

For more than 20 years, I have traveled the U.S. and Canada almost weekly. One-hundred nights or more in hotel rooms is not so much fun, but...

The Lean Builder

First, Do No Harm

Hoping for something provocative to read on a long trip, I picked up a book of short essays by Kurt Vonnegut. I have always felt an...

Lean Building

Building Lean? Beyond Value Engineering

Builders rightly obsess about cost reduction, but there's a revolution brewing under the banner of Lean operations. On the surface, it resembles traditional value engineering, but there are crucial distinctions

Value engineering house plans for Lean building and a healthier bottom line

Business Management

Tampa Builder Puts Lean Building Into Action

An interview with Florida builder Jim Deitch on how he keeps his building operations lean

Labor + Trade Relations

Hang on to Good Relationships Between Home Builders, Suppliers, and Tradespeople

Scott Sedam reminds home builders to maintain good relationships with suppliers and trades

Business Management

Take the Voodoo Out of Home Building Process Improvement

With a few notable exceptions, builders haven't figured out that if they create a disciplined, bulletproof building process, they'll have very few customer issues. And for those who do, they have time to deal with them

Customer Satisfaction

The Customer Satisfaction Acid Test

Most home builders are seeing their worst margins in 15 years. Thus builders in America now face the acid test on quality and customer satisfaction, when you can no longer afford to give away

Business Management

The Gospel According to Gary Grant

In this column, Gary Grant — who just retired from Pulte's Minneapolis Division — imparts his lessons learned from 40 years in the industry

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Customer Satisfaction

How to Lose a Happy Customer

A sad story about how a builder goes to the trouble to find a great piece of land, build a good house, do all of the hard stuff well, then blows it over four or five details

Sales

Queen Elizabeth II: The Reckoning

The lesson of the two Elizabeths is that as an industry we must begin to see salespeople in a holistic manner, as complete members of the team. It's no longer enough to simply bring in the bucks

Human Resources

You're Fired!

Think through your termination process; set mutual expectations with new employees about what you want from them - and what they want from you

Labor + Trade Relations

Lesson on the Road to Everywhere

The legions of hard-working immigrants that enable our livelihood go mostly unnoticed. Get out to the jobsites and listen to their stories—their journeys of what they left behind

Business Management

Can You Pass the Bonus Test?

Profit-based compensation systems have the proven potential to motivate employees while increasing their focus on critical business issues such as revenue, cost control, profit, and customer satisfaction

Incentive compensation systems in home building

Regional Builders

Housing's Underdogs Live On: Part 2

Does the notion popularized by some housing industry analysts and the popular press that large national home builders have advantages destined to render local and regional builders helpless and unable to compete hold true?

Customer Satisfaction

The Customer Experience: Overpromised and Underdelivered

Avoid flying into the customer expectation trap