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 […]

Can you afford to take time away to go to upcoming trade shows? Well, most of my customers are still as busy as ever, despite the slowdown in new construction and thanks to backorders. But unfortunately, due to inflation and higher interest rates, a slowdown is just on the horizon. Holiday spending will be more […]

I was visiting a customer yesterday discussing the upcoming revised Energy Star requirements that will go into effect sometime in mid-2023 (Energy Star 7.0). He felt confident that, utilizing triple-pane insulating glass (IG) configurations, the majority of his window designs would meet the new U-value criteria, even in the Northern climate zone. This led to […]

Right now, window and door fabricators live in a world where creating demand for their products is no issue. The day-to-day challenges of their business are driven by supply chain issues, labor shortages and long lead times associated with new equipment. But with inflation on the rise, interest-rate hikes being doled out by the Fed […]