Using Technology In Estimating Construction Costs For More Accuracy
A construction cost estimator knows that there are a lot of expenses that need to be tracked when estimating a job. Many people who have been in the industry for a long time have always relied on pen, paper and a calculator to estimate a job. They feel that their experience in estimating out weighs the convenience of the new software programs. However, what they do not

Overcome Traditions That Delay Improvements
INTRODUCTION TO HOW TRADITION STALLS IMPROVEMENTSIf It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix ItA motorist asks a farmer for a glass of water. The farmer obliges, using a hand pump to draw water from a well. The pump handle turns close to a board, and the farmer curses as he scrapes his knuckles against it.Motorist: Why not move that board? It serves no purpose.If you are in the business of shipping products, shipping damage is a very real problem. It occurs constantly and even has to be figured into your shipping budget. It would seem a shame that the big three shipping carriers (UPS, Federal Express and DHL) would have the damage solution under control. Sadly they do not. The problem really resides in people (as usual) If you look at the employment model of the shipping carriers you will find most have a lot of part time employees that work third shift and have other jobs as well. A lot are unskilled labor and just there trying to earn some decent money. The job entails some fairly hard labor, a lot of lifting and working on the backside of the clock. Millions of packages come through the sort facility each night. Your packages (and ours) are travel a rough road to get from point A to point B. Packages are picked up locally then loaded onto an airplane, and flown to a central sorting facility. After this they are loaded on a plane again and then loaded to a smaller facility, sorted and then loaded on a truck carriers (UPS, Federal Express and DHL) would have the damage solution under control. Sadly they do not. The problem really resides in people (as usual) If you look at the employment model of the shipping carriers you will find most have a lot of part time employees that work third shift and have other jobs as well. A lot are unskilled labor and just there trying to earn some decent money. The job entails some fairly hard labor, a lot of lifting and working on the backside of the clock. Millions of packages come through the sort facility each night. Your packages (and ours) are travel a rough road to get from point A to point B. Packages are picked up locally then loaded onto an airplane, and flown to a central sorting facility. After this they are loaded on a plane again and then loaded to a smaller facility, sorted and then loaded on a truc you will find most have a lot of part time employees that work third shift and have other jobs as well. A lot are unskilled labor and just there trying to earn some decent money. The job entails some fairly hard labor, a lot of lifting and working on the backside of the clock. Millions of packages come through the sort facility each night. Your packages (and ours) are travel a rough road to get from point A to point B. Packages are picked up locally then loaded onto an airplane, and flown to a central sorting facility. After this they are loaded on a plane again and then loaded to a smaller facility, sorted and then loaded on a trucabor, a lot of lifting and working on the backside of the clock. Millions of packages come through the sort facility each night. Your packages (and ours) are travel a rough road to get from point A to point B. Packages are picked up locally then loaded onto an airplane, and flown to a central sorting facility. After this they are loaded on a plane again and then loaded to a smaller facility, sorted and then loaded on a truckages are picked up locally then loaded onto an airplane, and flown to a central sorting facility. After this they are loaded on a plane again and then loaded to a smaller facility, sorted and then loaded on a truck again to be delivered to your door. What’s the point in explaining all this? The point is this; your package touches many hands during its journey. Many of those hands don’t care or have accidents. Heavy boxes are dropped. Little boxes have larger boxes fall on them. All boxes fall off conveyor belts from time to time. Boxes are stacked on top of each other. Not many people read your “fragile sticker” because getting packages in and out of the sort facility is a race of time.

So how do you guard against all this? You learn to pack defensively. Simply knowing the fact that your box is damage prone will help you out immensely. If you have an item that could be damaged, you take action before it’s shipped. I know that some college kid that is trying to work his way through school does not care as much about my box as I do. So I take