The Commercial Modular Building Blog

Good employee morale is essential for a well-functioning business. And that’s not only because happy employees are just more pleasant. Happy employees contribute to a better functioning business as a whole, since business itself consists of relations and cooperative actions that take place between people.

If you have a bunch of workers who are constantly in bad moods, or fatigued, or they just don’t work well together, your processes are going to suffer. Think of how long it takes to get a project done when you have that “one guy” who takes forever getting you the information you need, or sending in your report, or lagging on the assembly line. Let alone if there are multiple people that are dragging their feet.

Employee emotions, motivations, perceptions, attitudes, and everything else about their person is going to dictate how quickly tasks get done, and how smoothly the overall process works. Each mini task effects all of the other tasks they relate to, and so if even one gets held up, the whole chain slows.

That’s why it is so important for business to keep their employees happy and motivated. And that’s why there are so many how to articles stressing employee morale and motivation. That’s also the reason for recreation centers and conference rooms and cafeterias and every other social facility that is useful in a workplace. It is important to integrate all of your workers into the company culture.

That said, here’s some useful articles about employee motivation, and even about midday napping that we’d like to pass on.

An interesting trend is beginning to take place among retailers across the country, particularly clothing and sports equipment retailers. 

As companies look into how they can improve their facilities for customers, and as they look into actual surveys they conduct with customers on preferred service improvements, more and more companies are finding that the dressing room has become an important feature in the retail environment.

In one study, as discussed in this article, customers are 71% more likely to purchase a product if they enter a dressing room to try something on. Many studies  are showing that the really serious customers are usually the ones using the dressing rooms, and so there is a general suggestion that a retail company’s dressing rooms be up to date, comfortable, secure, and functional.

More and more retailers are looking for different ways to improve the shopping experience when it comes to dressing rooms as well, such as installing social media-compatible screens and mirrors to communicate with friends before purchase, or enlarging the size of the dressing room, or installing service buttons.

At Allied Modular we have become more interested in dressing rooms as well, utilizing our modular wall system to function as an easy-to-install, affordable dressing room option for retailers looking to open or renovate. Definitely a trend to watch if you are in the clothing industry.

You may hear the term “transparency” get tossed around here and there. Some use the term as a moral proclamation, to illustrate ideals of honesty and good faith when talking about people relations. Another use for “transparency” is when someone is describing a system and how it can be more efficient and coordinated, such as a business. That’s how we’ll be using the term.  

When describing a business’ organization, transparency refers to how easily information travels throughout the organization, or at least, useful and accurate information. This flow of information is ultimately determined by how open and honest a company is with its employees, and how effectively the company’s goals are communicated throughout. In the end, levels of transparency within the business will affect how efficiently the various departments work together, which will in turn make a business more competitive and successful. How so? We’ll let’s run through an explanation.

A successful business offers a solid, consistent product (or service). Can we argue with that? Successful businesses offer products/services that you can depend on every time, and in a crowded marketplace, products and services that have a consistent character, a unique statement that reflects that business’ own philosophy. How do we get products and services like that? Well, we get those things from the people and processes that make them happen. When a company’s employees work together under a common objective and shared information, you get a consistent product or service. Transparency would be the availability of that information.

Transparency also figures into the actual organizational framework of a business as well.  

Businesses can be complex organizations. These organizations are often comprised of multiple departments with different functions, all working together to achieve the objectives of the business. Certain departments may function as information gatherers, while others could function as number crunchers, manual laborers, creative and artistic designers, managers, you name it.

For a business to be successful and productive, all of its subordinate departments need to work together efficiently and effectively. This requires the departments to all be working on the same page, communicating with each other and coordinating their efforts. For this to be possible, every individual must be well versed in the business’ culture and well supplied with information on the state of the business. Individuals who have a clear idea of their surroundings and a clear understanding of the overall objective work more efficiently.

So all in all, transparency describes the clear flow of company information throughout a business. The more open and honest a business is with their employees, the more information the employees have to coordinate with one another. This in turn leads to more efficient processes and quality products and services.

In the end, if you look at a business as a machine with different parts that work together to produce an effect, then transparency serves as the oil to make sure all of those parts are in good working order. Good information helps everything run smoothly, lending to a successful business!

Something interesting is happening in the UK’s housing industry, as detailed in this article posted today.

The article states, “According to an independent report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, traditional housebuilding methods must make room for more cost effective and sustainable designs to help meet the estimated 80,000 yearly shortfall in new homes.”

The article elaborates on the report’s premise that what the housing industry needs is more off-site construction, increased use of recycled material, and innovative design to help build more houses quickly and affordably to make up for the housing depression. 

Traditional construction, according to the report, is costly, time consuming, and hard on environmental standards.

We here at Allied Modular are not surprised at the verdict of this report! In fact, we’ve been singing a similar tune for years. It is encouraging to see that this message is gaining ground on a worldwide scale, and in official terms, no less.

Modular construction is just the sort of technological innovation that can help combat depressed economies and environmental degradation at the same time.

With a struggling housing industry in the United States and parts of Europe, we could certainly use the added benefits of modular construction. Higher efficiency and better resource management are not only useful on a practical level, they are driving sales in a depressed economy, as buyers are consciously seeking out leaner, more efficient, and more sustainable practices.  

We’ve mentioned before that modular construction features some very useful tax benefits.

Basically, when it comes to tax depreciation (the time it takes to recoup costs of purchased business property in the form of tax savings), there is real property and personal property. Real property, which is basically land based property and immovable, such as hard construction, takes 39 years to depreciate. Personal property on the other hand, is generally movable property or equipment, which takes only 7 years to depreciate.

Modular construction usually happens to fall under the category of personal property, which allows it to depreciate faster, thus allowing you to recoup your costs in tax savings faster than if you were to use hard construction. This is a major plus when it comes to purchasing a modular building.

Changes in this year’s tax code could make those benefits even more attractive.

Previously, in the course of a depreciation schedule, a piece of personal property allows tax savings worth 50% of the original cost of the property in the first year. In every subsequent year, that percentage decreases, until the value of the property is recouped.

However, according to the “Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010,” bonus depreciation in the first year has been increased to a full 100%. That means the cost of a property bought by a business to be used by that business can now be recovered in one year!

Qualifying businesses can couple this bonus depreciation with the updated Section 179 code: Businesses can expense up to an increased maximum of $500,000 for qualifying property in the 2010 and 2011 tax years. Over 2 million dollars in purchases will lower that expense amount however.

One thing to keep in mind is this: at the beginning of the 2012 tax year, the section 179 deduction amount will be reduced to $125,000. The phase-out begins with $500,000 in property purchased. Also, 179 applies to a business’ taxable income, so if a company is losing income or has very little, 179 does not help.

This is a great time to expand business. Now when you buy a modular building, the costs of that building can be recovered in not 7 years, but 1 year. However, there is a small window when this is possible. This tax break is effective for property bought and put to use between September 8, 2010 and December 31, 2010. After that period is over, bonus depreciation during the first year goes back to 50%. Also, some companies can take advantage of increased savings by coupling the increased bonus depreciation with the updated Section 179 expensing.

We encourage all of our customers to take advantage of this great tax incentive! Talk to a tax expert and see what sort of tax benefits you can work out.

Among the many modular wall users are doctors and dentists, retailers, manufacturers, salon owners, governments (and armies), airports, researchers, pharmaceutical producers, security agencies, tech companies, photographers, music studios, educators, vendors, sports arenas, and the list goes on.  

So what does this tell us? Well, modular walls are widely used, that’s for sure.

The fascinating thing is, they are so widely used and fitted to so many purposes, but all of those applications are derived from the same wall panel. 

In the past, a construction company had to put up walls using concrete and wood and drywall, which used up large amounts of time, energy, and resources. Not only that, but when the walls no longer served their purpose, they had to be torn down and thrown in a landfill. Each of these walls was specific to a certain purpose. As purposes changed, the walls had to come down, bringing time and waste with them.

Now, walls are actually manufactured as panels, where they can be fitted together to create virtually any kind of building to serve any kind of function. Soon we will go down to the store and grab a couple of walls along with our furniture to expediently furnish a room or office. And like furniture, those walls can be moved wherever we go and placed wherever we want them to be placed.

Anything that requires walls and a ceiling, or even just walls can be accomplished with one universal type of wall panel. 

We cut down on waste, energy usage, labor use, and at the same time allow for more flexibility in our constructions. What an exciting new way to look at construction!

Of course, in the last few months I’ve been beating this point into the ground. But maybe I can’t beat it into the ground enough.

It is exciting to think about where the industry will go next.

A couple of weeks ago I talked about an economy that was slowly recovering. There was fear by some that we might have been heading for a double dip recession, but it seems we are out of the danger zone…for now anyway.

The numbers are definitely looking better.

Stocks are going up again, pay is increasing ever so slightly, and some jobs are being added, even though unemployment remains high.

Economists warned us that recovery would be slow and arduous, it certainly is, but at least we are recovering. If slowly.  

Hopefully the lingering European economic crisis can be contained and not spread to Spain and Italy, which could have ramifications for a persistently weak global economy.

Luckily U.S. stock futures are rising in response to the perception of a recovering economy, which can be seen in this brief story.

Here’s to the hope that these trends continue in the right direction!

Why has the modular building industry been growing so rapidly recently? And why has the industry been talked about so much in business and construction journals? Is it because of new technologies, making the modular building process more advantageous? Is it because of concern about the environment? Or because of concerns about efficiency?

I want to argue that it is all of the above. Due to coinciding advances in technology and various global problems, modular building is poised to set the new standard in construction practices.

Early modular technology saw cheap, quickly put-together prefabricated buildings being put up in a deliberate sacrifice of quality for quantity. As modular technology has improved, efficiency of the building process has not only improved, but building quality has vastly improved as well, a quality that makes modular buildings comparable to buildings of hard construction.

As technologies improve, more architects are becoming interested in designing with modular frameworks, making modular buildings not only functionally desirable, but aesthetically as well, attracting new portions of the market.

These changing trends in technology and design in the industry have coincided with not only economic panic, but environmental panic as well.

In a weak economy, businesses worldwide are looking to cut costs, improve efficiency, and adopt leaner practices in general. Modular buildings naturally account for this, as they save on material, labor, and energy costs. Not only that, but modular buildings are highly flexible and adaptable, and go hand in hand with leaner business strategy.

On top of all this, concern with our impact of the environment has reached a global high. With modular buildings’ recyclability and eco-friendly materials and design-aspects, modular construction can account for more sustainable building practices as well.

It is a converging of all of these seperate forces that is propelling the modular construction industry into a new worldwide standard. We can use technology and ingenious design techniques to solve many difficult societal and environmental problems. Certainly a beautiful thing.

Though many would argue from observation that the economy is still in bad shape (and to an extent it is still in a very fragile position), economic indicators are showing that the economy is slowly starting to recover, even on an international level.

Amidst all the shouting that has been going on amidst the midterm elections, the economy is quietly, cautiously recovering.

According to economists, global manufacturing activity has increased worldwide and retail sales are increasing at a faster rate than previously thought. 

On top of that, small businesses are reporting a cautious job growth but with less hours worked and less compensation than before.

Though all of this is good news, businesses are still waiting to hire in mass amounts, due to uncertainty about where the economy is going. Shouting for victory might not be appropriate yet, but economic indicators are showing low levels are growth, which is great news for business owners everywhere, not to mention great news for everyone else.

There are differing opinions on how a gridlocked Congress is going to affect this slow economic growth, as the recent power change will probably lead to a standstill among Congress members. Some economists believe it is best to let the economy carry on with its own healing, and then some economists believe that it is better to keep implementing policies to nurture the growth and make sure the economy doesn’t slip back into a double dip recession.

The next few years will be very interesting.

Most goods in a modern society are manufactured in factories. They are objects that are formed and assembled in a factory, either by automated processes such as precision machinery and robots, or by skilled factory workers, or both.  

We design often elaborate processes to increase the speed and efficiency with which goods are created. This allows for production on a mass scale, lowering overall costs and making goods more widely available for lower prices.

We see the many advantages of manufacturing goods such as appliances, tools, computers, phones, cars, foods, and more. But why don’t we see so many manufactured buildings?

Well, as I ask that question, we are seeing more and more manufactured buildings being built. But why not sooner? You’d think someone would have thought to start manufacturing buildings a while ago, being as how the manufacturing process has been around for a very long time.

Prefabricated buildings have been around since the early 1900’s, but these types of buildings had their own class and weren’t necessary mainstream, though they were used extensively around WW2 to meet housing needs.

Possibly, it just took time for the technology to develop to be able to mass produce an actual building. Though buildings aren’t yet built and mass produced like cars are, they are being built much more efficiently than before, using similar principles as those in manufacturing.

Today’s manufactured buildings are built in components in factories. They feature units that are manufactured and then shipped to a build site where they are put together. Sometimes smaller buildings are assembled at the factory and shipped whole.

This greatly cuts down on construction time and increases efficiency. Not only are resources being more efficiently used in a controlled environment, but buildings are manufactured and put together without risk of being ruined or delayed by severe weather conditions, or other adverse environmental conditions.

Costs can also be cut. Due to the more efficient use of materials and labor, these savings translate in lower costs.

Perhaps we can look forward to a day when buildings can simply be mass produced like cars or appliances. They can be built quickly and efficiently for whatever purpose they are needed, whether it is housing, retail, education, etc. Machinery can be adjusted to produce different results, or we can just take a modular approach: manufacture simpler, self-sufficient units that can be combined to form different buildings for different purposes. So many possibilities!