With Energy Star 7.0 looming on the horizon, thermal performance ratings have window manufacturers and dealers wondering just how low U-values can go and how much lower makes a practical difference. As fenestration U–values have been pushed lower and lower in recent years, the National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC) should be thinking about other important […]

As we head into the busiest time of the year, fabricators are thankfully reporting that there are no major supply chain issues. However, one thing to keep in mind is the importance of preventative maintenance (PM). Over the last few years of pandemic induced “off the chart” levels of demand, many production managers did not […]

Over the last few years, our industry has lost too many valuable employees. This is due to two major factors. One is the Great Resignation. This is an ongoing trend in which employees started voluntarily resigning from their jobs en masse, beginning in early 2021, due to the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The second […]

This is a very alarming statistic that the FBI recently revealed: House burglary has increased over the years and a home burglary occurs once every 26 seconds in the U.S. Every homeowner must stay vigilant and take preventive measures if they want to avoid being part of this statistic and seeing their house burglarized. According […]

During the pandemic, door and window fabricators lost many of their key people as fears of working in close quarters, coupled with government payouts, made working in a manufacturing plant much less desirable. Fabricators struggled to find people and employee turnover was an ongoing issue. The result was that a great deal of fabrication knowledge […]

I came across a post on LinkedIn by Lippert today, and it is a survey simply asking, “What one thing, when done really well, has the most impact on making it easy to do business with a company?” The choices were: 1. Quality customer service; 2. Self-serve online resources; 3. Timely and clear communication; and […]

A year or two ago, buying doors and windows was all about availability. Due to insane levels of marketplace demand coupled with supply chain issues, lead times were stretched out to six to 12 months. Selling fenestration products was all about availability. If your lead time was faster, you could easily prevail over your competition […]

During the last few years of the pandemic, we saw numerous plant workers walk off the job never to return. We also saw the government paying workers to stay home if they felt unsafe on the job. Many of these workers never returned to their jobs, either. The investment made in their on-the-job knowledge and […]

With all of the supply chain issues and labor shortages we have seen during the last few years, manufacturing costs have risen dramatically. While things are settling down in the supply chain for the most part, the higher costs of materials, components and labor seem like they are here to stay. Because of this, coupled […]

With the insane levels of demand that we have experienced the last few years and an emphasis on non-contact sales, the door and window industry has drifted away from the use of showrooms to launch new and innovative designs and promotions. New business was coming in waves and it was all manufacturers could do to […]