Stephanie Maderazzo, who serves on the executive leadership teams of Canyon State Electric Co., Inc. and Super Electric, is a co-founder of Arizona Outdoor Fun and also finance manager on the board of the International School of Arizona and is a member of Entrepreneur’s Organization, discusses the importance of leadership and mentorship, as well as the trust and respect required to build a family-oriented culture where all voices are valued.

Total U.S. construction spending was unchanged during April as residential spending fell 0.5%, while nonresidential outlays rose 0.3%. This month's Department of Commerce construction data shows total year-to-date construction outlays are 0.2% greater than the same period last year.

The seismic reinforcement materials market demand is set to rise from $30 billion in 2018 to around $40 billion by 2025, according to a 2019 Global Market Insights Inc. report. Increasing seismic activities across the globe resulting in loss of life and assets is the prime reason influencing the growth of the seismic reinforcement materials market.

This week, Mortenson Construction and Built Robotics announced that the contractor's renewable projects will get a boost from the latter's driverless excavators and other heavy equipment, making it one of the first major construction firms to adopt robotics on a nationwide scale. Many other big-name companies are jumping on board with the robotics revolution.

Universally, nearly all builder’s risk policies include exclusions for faulty design, materials and workmanship. This exclusion is often tempered by an ensuing loss exception, which essentially states that if the loss is caused by an otherwise insured peril, the resultant loss will be covered.

National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) analysis of the most recent 2017 American Community Survey (ACS) data reveals that the median age of construction workers is 42 - a year older than a typical worker in the national labor force and an increase from the median age of 41 when the 2015 ACS data was analyzed in 2017. Aging construction workers and the ongoing labor shortage are two major headwinds for home builders and the overall construction industry.

The busy season is here, and contractors should be thinking of ways to maximize their time and money to drive the most business this time of year. From the planning phase of a project to onsite upselling, there are a variety of ways contractors can prep for this time of year to ensure they have a profitable busy season. 

Steel has always ruled when it comes to industrial and construction equipment. Steel is strong and when you bend or weld it, it becomes stronger yet. However, steel is heavy and tends to corrode with road chemicals. There has been a push of late to reduce vehicle weight and reduce corrosion on equipment caused by road chemicals. One solution to these problems is the more extensive use of aluminum components.

In spite of recovering major ground after the Great Recession, the construction industry is still facing troubling skilled labor shortages, with a lack of qualified candidates stepping up to take over the positions once held by industry veterans nearing retirement age. The construction industry lost 2.3 million jobs between 2006-2011, and today there are a million fewer residential construction jobs than before 2006, according to Tradesmen International.

Continuous improvement originated with an American named Edwards Deming who took it to Japan shortly after World War II and taught Japanese manufacturers how to become the world's best 
by continually improving their design and manufacturing processes. In order to drive continuous improvement through your business you need to adopt a certain mindset: everything you do in your  business is a process.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimate about 40.3 million people (almost a 100% increase from just two years ago) are trafficked internationally. Most labor trafficking in the United States occurs in construction, manufacturing and mining, according to the ILO. However, promising work in transparency and technology are helping fight modern-day slavery and labor trafficking.

When long term care is needed, there are only a few options available to pay for those types of expenses. Genworth Life Insurance Company and CISCA are working together to provide members with access to long term care insurance protection.

Although leading financial and government leaders like Warren Buffett and Kirstjen Nielsen, the former secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, have called cybersecurity the No. 1 threat to U.S. businesses, many construction industry leaders don’t see it as urgent. The risk is growing - phishing attacks increased by 250% last year - but construction CEOs typically rank data security far down their list of concerns, Philip Weaver, senior director of IT for Warfel Construction Co., said during a session at this week’s ENR FutureTech conference.

It doesn’t take much to be catastrophically wrong in construction; some bad information, a touch of misleading intel, a few biased opinions mixed with human error and perhaps a little bad luck to top it off. A poor decision early in a project plants itself like a weed—it grows benignly at first, and becomes gravely pervasive at the end. Being wrong in construction is dangerous.