MarketScale Manufacturing

Minimalism in home design has been all the rage for decades, and there’s no dearth of home renovation cable TV shows encouraging a simplistic lifestyle. But on this week’s episode of the Architecture & Design podcast, Erika Egede-Nissen, director of marketing at Walker Zanger, makes the case for maximalism in curating a tile collection.

To really open homeowners’ and decorators’ eyes to the beauty of tiles, Egede-Nissen invited them to Walker Zanger’s slab gallery, an impressive indoor facility where guests can find the perfect slab in a comfortable, temperature-controlled environment.

Walking through the showcase is like traveling back in time as the gallery displays slabs with fossils and gorgeous sentiment that has been pushed through stone over millions of years to form breathtaking patterns.

“You can’t help but think about the beauty of Mother Nature as you walk through the slab gallery,” Egede-Nissen said.

To her, Walker Zanger is a company of designers, creators, and artists, and her job as a marketer is to help folks doing a home remodel or building a house feel great about their decision.

One of the fresher trends she wants to see celebrated is maximalism, and argues that the concept isn’t about big bold colors or using multiple prints. Rather, it can be about selecting layers of colors and textures, or mixing styles such as gold and brass.

“More is more is okay," Egede-Nissen said.

She likend designing a living space to curating a museum collection which isn’t amassed all at once, but built upon over time. Similarly, home designers can collect tiles and slabs over many years and gradually incorporate them into a space.

In the end, Egede-Nissen just wants homeowners to fall in love with where they live and play.

“Have some fun with your design that brings you joy and gives you happiness," she said.

When a restaurant group or retail chain wants to build a series of new locations, how do they go about securing the properties and completing the construction? There are a number of pitfalls to navigate and complexities to be aware of in this process.

Anthony Amunategui and Vinny Catullo joined Tyler Kern to discuss how CDO Group helps some of the world’s most recognizable brands achieve their expansion goals in record time.

“Every one of the deals we look at has individual little values...so we really try to look at projects holistically,” said Amunategui. He went on to emphasize the need to have a process in place for how to approach every project rather than shooting from the hip, which he says wastes time and resources.

CDO Group is pushing the envelope and moving the industry forward when it comes to cutting down on construction times. Vinny Catullo highlighted the importance of the work letter in avoiding unforeseen issues and keeping a project on track, allowing it to be completed in as little time as possible.

“The goal was to get one group of projects down from six weeks to 21 days, and then down to 11 days,” said Amunategui. This emphasis on precision, speed and efficiency is beneficial for all the parties involved, including the contractors, who are able to move on to new projects more quickly.

“I think the biggest thing we do at CDO Group is...we look for people that are constantly challenging themselves,” said Catullo. “We’re questioning all different areas of our process, the construction process, our clients’ process so we make that better.”

Lighting control has come a long way over the years. While many still associate the term ‘control’ with the ability to dim fixtures to a custom level, the industry has moved far past that today. LED technology has opened new possibilities in the space, which include the ability to alter the color and temperature of light.

MetroCon 2019 speaker and system designer for Dallas Sight & Sound Bill O’Connor believes this is an exciting time for the industry.

“This is a revolutionary step compared to what we’ve seen for the last 100 years since the light bulb was invented,” he said.

It’s no secret that America has a crumbling infrastructure problem, notably when it comes to our nation’s bridges which are reaching the end of their useful life. Many of these structures were built to last only a few decades, but are now aging past the half-century mark and beyond. So why were they not constructed with longevity in mind?

On this episode of the Engineering & Construction podcast, Mike Stroia, national marketing specialist at AZZ GalvaBar, shared some infrastructure history and how galvanized rebar can help safeguard bridges against collapse.

“The majority of bridges in the U.S. and throughout the world don’t have any kind of protection whatsoever," Stroia said.

He estimated that only 20% have some form of coating that can act as a shield against harmful corrosion. Galvanizing applies a zinc coating that reinforces rebar steel to give it unbeatable durability. However, rebar doesn’t easily lend itself to galvanizing.

As Stroia explained, galvanizing is a costly process that requires a lot of man-hours and handling. Faced with the added expense, short-sighted governments and private owners simply weren’t keen on investing in long-lasting products. But it seems like all that penny pinching has a price of its own.

“The most costly is the deck structure, and once that begins to fail there’s not a lot of time left in the bridge," Stroia said.

The good news is that mindsets are starting to change.

“We think the marketplace is turning the corner on using corrosion-resistant products," he said.

Those writing checks for new toll roads, parking structures, and bridges finally understand that paying a little more money upfront can buy a lifetime of protection.

Stroia also reminded listeners that AZZ GalvaBar is partnering with Texas A&M and the International Zinc Association to put on a seminar on August 28 which includes a live webinar and an in-person event. He invited interested community members to come and tour the university’s impressive engineering facility at College Station and hear his presentation on the future of galvanized rebar.

“I don’t think it will change. Again, because how do you give everyone a private office and afford to pay the bills? I think there’s probably a sneaky secondary reason, which is employers don’t trust all their employees to focus on their job all the time. So, if you gave them three walls and a door to shut, they might just be on Instagram the whole time,” he said.

Vawter was at MetroCon 2019 to explain the dynamics at play within different office layouts and what each model means for privacy, productivity and how price plays a role. The balance of collaboration and privacy is something each business will have to navigate on its own.

“Outside of a noise cancelling headphone, we’re still very elementary on how we can treat this in those other environments, but we’ve solved some very unique situations,” Vawter explained.

Kitchens and bathrooms have long held a public appeal for their innate cleanliness, crispness, and sense of order. But more than that, these spaces are where we live our daily lives. The kitchen, in particular, is often the heartbeat of the home. Kitchens are not just places to cook, they also serve as meeting grounds, communal spaces, offices, entertainment areas, and an overall central hub of a house.

On this episode of the AEC Podcast by MarketScale, we were joined by Claire Zinnecker, founder of Claire Zinnecker Design, to talk about the materials that define a kitchen or bath, and why they’re so important to the longevity of a happy living space.

Zinnecker explained how kitchen and bath design is different from other interior design. Kitchens and bathrooms are defined with “materials, not furniture,” she said. This means that the surfaces we touch in these rooms are both aesthetically pleasing and industrious, able to withstand everyday wear-and-tear like stains, scratches, spills, etc.

She achieves this balance of beauty and brawn with Caesarstone, a manufactured quartz surface that surpasses the competition.

“Caesarstone has created a manufactured product that holds up to everything and it is beautiful and resembles a natural organic material," Zinnecker said.

For remodeling and redesign projects, Zinnecker empathizes with her clients’ budgets.

“You want to know what you're choosing and paying for in your home is going to live up to its promise," Zinnecker said. She stands by the Caesarstone promise, emphasizing its durability for years to come is a worthy investment for a high-traffic home.

Zinnecker demonstrates her expertise as a designer by juggling various budgets, all the while challenging ideas of texture and materials in unexpected places like using Caesarstone as shower walls or dining room tables.

“Anyone can be a designer if they have billions of dollars. But it takes someone… with a really good eye and a really good brain to be able to make decisions to spend and save... where it's necessary and still come out with a beautiful end product," she said.

Most people would agree that some degree of rules and regulations are necessary to maintain order in a society. However, sometimes we find ourselves bumping up against a rule that wasn't intended to cause us frustration or written with us in mind, but it's affecting us nonetheless. That's the situation that architect Bob Borson currently finds himself.

"The various planning and zoning departments typically have some type of regulation that tells you what you can do and where you can do it," says Borson. "But more and more what we're seeing is that these planning and zoning departments are putting in prescriptive aesthetic regulations in place that tell me what my product can look like if I put it in their city."

As an architect who focuses primarily on residential design with a modern flair, these regulations can often hamper the vision that Borson initially creates.

The issue these cities have isn't necessarily with architects like Borson, but with developers who are building a large number of houses to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Standards and regulations have been put in place to protect consumers from shoddy workmanship and faulty materials.

Unfortunately, these broadly written rules often leave specialists like Borson as collateral damage. To hear more of his thoughts on one of the biggest topics of conversation in architecture, listen to the full interview above.

The ongoing trade war between the United States and China continues to make an impact on businesses even beyond the two nations’ borders.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are currently meeting with Chinese diplomats in Shanghai to find a resolution. Until an agreement is reached though, businesses and consumers will continue to deal with the uncertainty.

“I don’t think there’s much optimism, or I’m pretty sure there is no optimism, that this round of talks is going to get very far,” Southern Methodist University Associate Professor of Economics James Lake said.

The nations announced a deal was imminent just months ago, but both sides have tempered expectations since the breakdown of the last round of talks. With no resolution in plain view, Lake says businesses reliant on Chinese imports or exports can hunker down and wait for the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, or make a significant shift away from China to mitigate any further tariffs.

“Given the uncertainty about the trade war happening in China and also the Chinese market perhaps not being as attractive as it has in the recent past in terms of labor cost, now could be the time to potentially think about moving the supply chain out of China to somewhere else,” Lake said.

The solutions to this uncertainty in the meantime depends on individuals’ circumstances and businesses are approaching this differently, according to Phil Levy, Chief Economist at Flexport, a San Francisco-based digital freight forwarder.

“You see companies sort of able to shift in some cases to products which have not yet been hit by tariffs. You also see companies to some extent rework their supply chain to avoid these tariffs, which for the most part have applied to direct trade between China and the United States, so we see some preliminary evidence of both,” Levy said. “We also see that companies are simply paying a lot of money in tariffs.”

Only time will tell how the trade war comes to a ceasefire, but for businesses that need to make investments presently, their futures will be defined by their decisions today.

"Every plant has a different DNA for overtime, where some places despise it, and some places love it," Litke said.

Litke is a retired supply chain and manufacturing VP who has lead operations for Diageo, Land O'Lakes, Miller Coors, and Pillsbury and has turned to Coleman Consulting for help with overtime issues. Pereira is a US Naval Academy Grad, Gulf War veteran, and UC Berkeley MBA who is managing partner of Coleman Consulting Group. He's worked with numerous Global 1000 companies to help them solve scheduling and productivity issues.

Pereira said overusing overtime can be a vicious cycle where employees come to rely on extra overtime income as almost an "addiction" but risk burning out employees because of long hours and unpredictable schedules.

But when used correctly, overtime is essential to a productive, optimally-functioning shift. "Overtime is your best way to match your workforce to your workload," Pereira said.

The key is using data to discover where the optimal balance is, they both said. On this episode, Pereira and Litke discussed how they found the overtime "sweet spot" at MillerCoors, the importance of ascertaining an individual's tolerance for overtime, and dispel the notion that no overtime is good for business.

Suction cups and manpower. At one time, that was how most all glass was installed because there were no other means to place these large, fragile building materials in place.

Thankfully, technology and construction equipment have evolved to make glass installation safer with less risk of breakage. Today on MarketScale's AEC Podcast, host Tyler Kern sat down with Jerry Nudi, founding partner of Ergo Robotic Solutions, to discuss how glass handling equipment has improved vastly with the help of robots.

Upstate New York-based Ergo Robotic Solutions designs, builds, and sells custom glass installation equipment for client’s specific needs. And those needs have changed dramatically over the years as glass has become heavier, longer, and installed in a variety of architectural angles, Nudi said.

“Architects want to use that because it’s much more aesthetically pleasing and you get a clear view without those distracting separations between the panes,” he said.

When it comes to installing heavy pieces of glass residentially or commercially, no matter how glass design evolves architecturally, safety is always a chief concern when dealing with an inherently sharp and dangerous material.

“There’s a less likely chance someone is going to get hurt if they’re using lifting equipment,” Nudi said, adding that the shortage in skilled laborers has changed the labor market. “There are less qualified trained labor out there and people willing to do that heavy lifting.”