Author: Peggy Smedley
Supply-chain officers have several risks that regularly need to be assessed—many of which can be evaluated by leveraging digital technology. One such example is the risk that climate change poses to our supply chain. Many realize climate change risks are materializing and are beginning to identify what this means for supply chains. While there are perhaps too many risks to name, some include the impact of rising sea levels on transportation and the influence of increasingly extreme weather on all industries, just to name a few. From wildfires threating lumber to hurricanes barraging seaside industries, the effects are wide and…
The housing market has been surging for years, but with talks of an economic downturn ahead, is builder confidence finally starting to dip? Let’s take a look at some of the more interesting numbers, breaking it down between builder confidence and the remodeling market. NAHB (National Assn. of Home Builders) conducts the NAHB/Wells Fargo HMI (Housing Market Index) monthly and it also releases the NAHB/Westlake Royal RMI (Remodeling Market Index) quarterly—both of which have declined in July. Developed from a monthly survey that NAHB has been conducting for more than 35 years, the NAHB/Wells Fargo HMI gauges builder perceptions of…
For the past two years, many people have been talking about IAC (indoor air quality) in homes and buildings and how that is a key factor in helping to prevent the spread of diseases. With this at the forefront, the Biden-Harris Admin., has been taking some big steps to stop the spread of COVID-19 and improve indoor air quality. The administration and Congress have provided hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funds that can be used in schools, public buildings, and other settings to improve indoor air quality. The American Rescue Plan provided $350 billion for state and local…
Mark Zuckerberg isn’t the only person waging big with the metaverse. Nearly every executive I know sees big potential with this technology and it could completely disrupt the way we do business in manufacturing, energy, automotive, retail, construction, healthcare, pharma, and beyond. This is a conversation I had in late June with Lucia Mirabella, head of design and simulation systems at Siemens, and it is still very much a topic I am unpacking. The reality is different parts of a company are going to do different versions of simulation and these all may somehow get painted as either the digital…
Appliances are one of the largest consumers of energy in our home and often contribute to a higher energy bill. The more we use our appliances, the higher the energy bill. Today, let’s dig into how much energy common home appliances use, so we can look to reduce energy consumption and take a big bite out of our monthly utility bills along the way. NOPEC is a nonprofit energy supplier in Ohio that provides competitive energy cost savings to residents and small businesses through a buy-in-bulk approach and breaks down how much each appliance consume. HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air…
Digital transformation offers big opportunities for construction companies to keep projects on time and on budget, ultimately improving efficiencies and the bottomline. But with it comes a unique set of challenges, one of which is the need for greater security. And the construction industry has some greater risk than others. The trends related to cybersecurity in construction are vast, and ABI Research touched on a few of them in its The State of Cyber & Digital Security Report. The report points to multiple in-depth trends to watch including citizen digital identities, new cybersecurity applications, digital payment technologies, industrial cybersecurity, telco…
The cost of nearly everything has gone up, as the supply-chain disruptions has impacted nearly every walk of life. Consider the example of the automotive space. The chip crisis caused prices to rise, and now businesses need to consider the long-term impact on operations. The chip shortage stems from COVID-19 lockdowns in the second quarter of 2020, when demand for work-from-home technology increased exponentially. As demand grew, automakers found themselves competing for the semiconductor capacity located in Asian foundries. Initially, car companies cancelled orders, but as production ramped up again towards the end of 2020, there was little semiconductor supply…
There is no better way to be more energy efficient than through trial and error. Consider Charlie Culp, professor, Dept. of Architecture, Texas A&M University, who built and lives in a very efficient experimental house with his wife. This is house number four he has built and house number eight he has lived in. Even having been in the energy business almost his entire career, the first house he built he learned a whole lot. “We have had two builders from heaven, one really good builder, and one from down below.” He suggests there are all kinds of little things…
Safety is a huge priority for many construction companies—and one place that is evident is on the road. Many companies have safety policies for their drivers and workers on highway projects. This week, there is an even greater focus on safety on the roads, as it is Operation Safe Driver Week. The CVSA’s (Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance) Operation Safe Driver Program was created to improve the driving behaviors of all drivers and reduce the number of crashes involving commercial motor vehicles on our roadways through educational and traffic enforcement strategies. This is an annual safe-driving awareness and outreach initiative aimed…
As I like to say digital transformation is a journey, not a destination, and we need all the right tools as we continue forward on our journey, which is why I was eager to be one of the first to hear about Siemens Xcelerator, which drives digital transformation. At its core, Siemens Xcelerator is a business platform that includes a curated portfolio of IoT (Internet of Things) enabled hardware, software, and digital services from across Siemens and certified third parties; a growing ecosystem of partners; and an evolving marketplace to facilitate interactions and transactions between customers, partners, and developers. “Siemens…