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Commercial construction is big business in and around the USA. In fact, the entire commercial building industry is worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Commercial construction refers to the business of leasing or selling structures. Structures, in this case, could be manufacturing plants, standard space for offices, retail shopping centers, restaurants, or even medical centers. Each project is unique, and will vary in size and scale of operations, depending on the commercial builders and their area of expertise.

The dynamics of commercial building projects

Business cycles and population growth largely influence the commercial building business. As the population grows so does the demand for existing workspace. As a result, more schools, hospitals, retail centers and rental offices become a necessity. The same surge in demand leads to an increase in commercial builders in the industry.

Bidding for projects

Before any groundwork begins, a commercial builder first needs to engage in a bidding war with other builders and win. During the bidding stage, commercial builders will submit their architectural designs and budget estimation and pitch them against other bidders. Generally, the builder with the best cost and building specification wins the rights to begin construction at the chosen site.

Specialization in the industry

The building industry is quite broad and most builders have resorted to specializing in a single commercial market. There are those who specialize in retail stores and offices while other hone their expertise in solely constructing medical centers or manufacturing plants. A commercial builder with significant experience in manufacturing and assembly plant structures will have a competitive edge when bidding for such types of commercial projects. Working with specialized contractors is a sure way to guarantee quality and realization of expectations.

How to excel in the industry

Success in this field comes down to how well a builder can maintain a steady flow of projects under construction. This entails dealing with reliable suppliers to ensure you don’t run out of building material and having a constant flow of skilled labor. Similarly, you need to be in the good books of banks and other lending institutions, financing such projects requires bringing lenders on board. In summary, the success of a builder depends on how well they co-work with suppliers, lenders, sub-contractors and building inspectors.

When moving to a new location, you get engrossed in packing up the household stuff, and only realize later, that you have not considered how the car will get to the new location. Taking a car across long distances comes with certain challenges. The car will build up a lot of mileage, thus affecting its resale value. The car will also undergo plenty of wear while on the road. The drive will also be exhausting to you, and you may have to sleep in several hotels before you make it to your destination. Car transport services are the best option when you need to move your car across several states, and they ensure that the car remains in the same condition that it was when you handed it to them at their terminal.

When you consider costs, you will note that using a car transport company to ferry your car, is more economical than driving it yourself. The cost of fuel is shared among the owners of the vehicles being ferried by one truck. The expenses incurred by the driver are much less than the cumulative expenses that would be incurred if each owner drove his or her car. Basically, these companies pass real savings to the owners of the vehicles, including you. Consider quotes from different companies and see which one will give you the best bang-per-buck, for their services.

Because of the competitive nature of the industry, you can be assured of getting quality services from several providers. Whether you are an individual, or a motor dealership, you can expect the same quality of service across the board. Each car is carefully inspected before it is loaded onto the carrier. This report is placed on file, and you can ask for a copy, for your own records. The carrier will give you a tracking number, which you can use to trace the movement of your vehicle while in transit. The company will take details about the date that you will be moving, and they will give you a date, on which to expect your delivery. The customer service departments of these companies are very helpful, and will give you pertinent information whenever you request it. Basically, you can expect top-quality service from a car transport service.

To ensure that you get the best quality from the players in the car transport industry, you should rely on credible information sources to get referrals, reviews and testimonials. Your friends, and family, who have used the services of such companies in the past, will give you valuable feedback. The Better Business Bureau is another great source of credible information that will tell you which the best companies are, considering your budget. It is your responsibility to ensure that you precious car gets to its destination in pristine condition so do your due diligence and research the experience and reliability of the companies available. Once you have done this, take your car to the pickup terminal, and then travel to your destination, and wait for it to be delivered.

On a recent Boise a/c repair I was asked.  What is a heat pump and how does it work?  Is a heat pump right for me?  A heat pump is an air conditioner that will do both heating and cooling from the same unit.  To understand how a heat pump works you have to understand how an air conditioner uses Freon to move heat around from one place to another.  The compressor in the a/c unit takes Freon in a gas state and pumps it through a coil outside that has a fan on it.  The air from the fan changes the hot gas from a gas to a liquid.  That liquid Freon is then pumped toward another coil and thru a small hole called a metering device.  At the metering device the high pressure liquid passes thru and a portion of that liquid picks up heat by boiling back into a gas.  This process cools the remaining liquid which is then passed thru the coil removing heat from your home by boiling off the remaining liquid as it absorbs the heat from the air passing through it.  At this point the (mostly cool gas) heads back to the compressor to start the job over again.  On a typical day where the outside temp is 90 degrees and your home is 75 degrees, the air coming from your cold coil (inside) would be about 55 degrees and the air coming from the hot coil (outside) would be about 120 degrees.  These temperatures will vary as the outside and interior temperatures change.  Freon does not go bad under normal use and never wears out.  Think of it as water boiling to steam as you heat it and then turning back to water as it cools again.

So a heat pump then, has what is called a reversing valve that simply reverses the flow of the Freon so that the outside coil becomes the cold coil and the inside coil becomes the hot coil thus removing heat from outside and returning it to you inside.  So it stands to figure then that the warmer it is outside to more heat a heat pump will return to your home and the more efficient it will work.  On most heat pumps you will also have (back-up) heating elements.  These heaters are electric coils that heat up as electricity passes through them (like a space heater or electric stove element).  These (heat strips) are used in several ways.  When set up correctly they add extra heat to your home when the heat pump cannot do the job alone, they can be used instead of the heat pump when the temperatures outside are too cold for the heat pump to work well, and they provide heat to warm the air during a defrost cycle.

Good question “what is a defrost cycle”?  When the temperatures are very cold outside, that cold coil we spoke of is below 32 degrees and will start to form ice on it from the surrounding humidity in the air.  Too much ice means low heat transfer, so we need a way to remove the ice so we can get back to heating correctly again.  This is called the defrost cycle.  In defrost the reversing valve changes back to cooling mode (causing the outside coil to get hot) it also shuts down the fan motor so the coil gets hot faster to melt the ice in the fastest time possible.  During defrost the unit sends a signal to the heat strips to turn them on so that the air entering the house is not so cold.  A typical defrost will happen about every 30 to 60 min. of running time and last for between 1 and 15 min.  Your unit knows when to go into and out of defrost by using a sensor, most sensors measure the coil temperature and will start  defrost when the coil is below 30 degrees and end it when it reaches 60 degrees.

For this Boise a/c repair a heat pump was the correct choice.  The only other option to her was propane which for our area is very expensive.  Other important factors are how cold does it get where you are?  Heat pumps are better in areas where the temps stay above 25 in the winter such as Las Vegas or Phoenix.  In colder areas such as Boise, often times natural gas heating is a much smarter move.  

Manufacturers turn out an impressive amount of product, junk, paper, and garbage. Recent cultural trends are helping them focus their attention on reducing the amount of waste in their lives.

Landfills are filling up fast with things that could be reused. Production plants may be overproducing things that aren’t needed.

The following are a few ideas to help manufacturers reduce the waste they produce. These are just a few examples though and if you have any ideas, please post them in the comments below.

Go with Packsize for your packaging needs. Packsize is a packaging company dedicated to protecting the environment.

This packaging company has finally built the dream machine for reducing costs and reducing waste. They created a machine that will single-handedly reduce packaging, corrugated costs, product damage, shipping costs and much more.

What is this packaging company doing different? They are putting the power to decide the exact size of your box into your hands.

Packsize machines allow you to input a custom size into the computer. It then cuts out a box to your exact specifications.

Having a custom shaped box will save you costs on air pillows, peanuts, and other packing materials. They also help your product fit more snuggly into a box, reducing chances of product damage.

The smaller sizes weigh less, saving you money in shipping every year. The more compact sizes also allow you to fit more products onto the truck.

Your customers complain less because of the excessive girth of the box. Little storage space is needed to place the machines and supplies.

The best part is that this packaging company is helping manufactures reduce their waste. The smaller boxes they produce, the less corrugated waste that goes in the landfills.

When companies produce or ship on a massive scale—like Staples, Amazon, or Dell—they reduce their addition to the landfills by significant amounts every year. How can you say no to those benefits?

Companies like Staples have jumped on board with this idea. More and more manufacturing plants are converting to this packaging company and its ideals every day.

Packagingisn’tthe only problem though. Large companies pound out tens of thousands of paper products every year.

Companies should turn to email marketing as often as possible. How often do people actually look at paper ads and how much more personal is an email?

How many paper ads do they receive in their mail from day-to-day? Although there is a conversion statistic for how much conversion a company receives from these ads, how much does that rate decrease the more and more people use it?

Clutter never helped anyone sell anything; you have to stand out in a different way. Get into email marketing to get the same conversion rate as your paper mail marketing and save a few bucks on the materials.

Reducing your packaging and papering will help you save money, space, and the environment. Become a better steward of the world around you and your financial situation by taking advantage of your technological opportunities.

According to National Tooling and Machining Association (NTMA), lights-out machining or unmanned machining is increasingly gaining prominence in many machine shops and industries throughout the United States. It is a great way to improve both efficiency and productivity. Once the automated system has been fully implemented, the machine operator’s job would be reduced to just inputting commands/instructions into the computer. The machine follows the instructions to the letter. The end result is exemplary workmanship. However, just like any other technology, lights-out machining comes with its own unique set of challenges. Because of this, it is important to note that there is nothing like unmanned production. However, there is industrial production or machining that is largely automated and requires minimum human attention. Irrespective of the perspective that you look at it lights-out machining presents factories, machines shops and industrial plants with several tangible benefits. However, it is important to carry out a detailed analysis before jumping into the lights-out machining bandwagon.

New technology is almost always used in the monitoring of machining conditions. This task was previously undertaken by human operators. More often than not, lights-out machining means swapping labor costs with costly capital expenditures. Capital expenditures may be beneficial in the long term, but they do not offer quick paybacks. Being a new technology, lights-out machining comes with its own risks. Before implementing such a system, you should carefully review the associated risks. A thorough review should include tool monitoring systems, power monitors, fire suppression systems, part gauging techniques, bar feed machines, replacement tooling systems and multipallet pools.

Tool monitoring systems are a vital part of lights-out machining. For example, an automated bar-fed lathe may be set to run from 6pm to 11pm. Once the tap, drill and turning tools are properly set, the drill is set to on-mode. Should the drill bit break at around 8 PM without a tool monitoring system in place, the tap will be next to break and the machine will continue to process scrap parts till the programmed 11 PM stoppage time. Three hours worth of metal scrap is by no means a small loss. Tool monitoring systems avoid such eventualities by engaging emergency shutdown procedures. These systems also eliminate costly damage due to simple malfunctions and human errors.

Multipallet tools enable the machining of one part in a single cycle. There are stand-alone systems that process complicated work pieces in a complete unmanned or lights-out situation. A single machine is capable of churning out up to 32 unique parts in a single cycle. So, the next time you visit a machine shop in Boise and witness lights-out machining, remember the owner may be operating second and third shifts with few or no machine operators. On average, these machines return roughly 30 percent reduction in labor costs.