What I’ve been Up To

Posted on by johnlwheaton1

My business partner and I have been very busy for the last 9 to 12 months on quite a few fronts at www.wheatonsprague.com and affiliates, so here’s an update on some of what’s going on.

EOS

We’ve implemented a new operating system known as The Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS.) It’s built on a Visionary – Integrator (V/I) relationship with a Leadership team. The “visionary” (Me-“CEO” for us) is the “big idea” person, big relationships, innovation, brand, growth. The “rainmaker.” The Integrator (President and COO for us, Richard Sprague) manages the business, P & L, oversees the leadership team. The “gatekeeper.” It’s built on LMA (lead, manage, account), clarity, Level 10 Leadership meetings, and evaluating placing people in positions under the acronym “GWC” (get it, want it, capacity for it.) There’s no hiding in EOS. It’s all visible, connected, and results driven. People report scorecard values that are developed by the leadership team to asess the health of the business, the department, the project, etc. Meetings are substantive and get traction. I’ve cut my internal business meeting time by 3x to about 6 hours per week.

What has it led to?

We defined as a leadership team our Core Purpose, Core Niche, Core Focus, Core Values. It was hard work, but very gratifying and unifying. The core values, collaboration, integrity, client-conscious, communication, capable, are not aspirational. They are real. They are “who we are” as people and as an organization. This clarifies hiring, staff retention, annual reviews, client types, and more. Our Core Purpose (our “why”) is to Enable Facades that Inspire. Our core niche is engineering, design, science, and consulting for building facades. We also defined our ideal client demographic and psychographic. All of this was done as a leadership team with an implementer. It’s not a “panacea.” The work has to be done. The topics dealt with have to be relevant to the need. But EOS provides a format for a path to sustainable, self managed, growing business not dependent on ownership alone or a charismatic leader playing “hero ball.” We’ve tried different forms or operating systems and EOS is our choice long term. Nothing else has made as much sense as EOS.

What about Creating Structure?

So, I have this registered service mark and brand named “Creating Structure” which is no longer part of our core purpose statement. We still own the brand name. My Podcast still bears the name, and will stay as such. Creating Structure dates back to the start of the company, when our primary purpose was viewed more as structural engineers and designers doing facades, building structures, forensics in a broader manner. But it was time for a change. The new core purpose “Enabling Facades that Inspire” will take us a long way on our journey. At heart, this is who we are- curtain wall, facade, enclosure, architectural component engineers, designers, consultants, scientists. BUT with owning the brand name Creating Structure it gives me and us options as we consider other forms and divisions of the business (stay tuned!)

Welcome New Staff

We’ve been rebuilding our engineering department and I couldn’t be more pleased than to have Mark Enos, PE (December 2021) and Nestor Perez, PE (February 2022) back at Wheaton Sprague. Both men are insightful, pragmatic, solution oriented engineers, that align with our core values, purpose, and niche. They are a great complement to Jeff Cook, PE as our core group of PE’s. Our foundation is strong, and with our other engineers, present, and future, we can build a deeply rooted group that can deliver solutions to clients.

Our Operators

Michael Kohler is our Director of Building Envelope Engineering Operations. Mike leads, manages, and accounts for our delegated design, drawing, BIM, engineering, system design, thermal analysis, area of the business delivering work products to glazing subcontractors, exterior wall subcontractors and architectural metal fabricators.

Paul Griese, is our Director or Building Envelope Consulting Operations. Paul leads, manages and accounts for all consulting activities which includes a variety of design, analysis, investigation, QA, QC, field and shop observations, testing and forensic support and more.

John Wheaton, yours truly, is the Director of Marketing. This position has always been a primary focus for me and will always be linked to the visionary and external role for me whether I do the marketing work directly or through a person, team or outside resource. I also still do a lot of engineering work, support, PE review and stamp, advisement, coaching, and participation in the engineering work. I get to also now communicate with everyone in the business more as “good cop” since I have no direct reports outside of the marketing function. When “in the business” I get to help, support, coach, lead, and interact with our people. The staff in our operating divisions work for the directors. Yes, as an owner of a small privately held business I can make any call I choose if I see a problem, but it is only done with and through my partner and the leadership team.

Richard Sprague, my business partner at WSE and affilates, is President and COO. Richard “runs the business.” All the operators in all the business report to Richard. He is a fine steward, a clear thinker, and a focused gate-keeper. He makes the decisions in the business on what gets done and what does not. Richard leads the EOS L10 meetings for the leadership team. In my work “in the business” I work for him

That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more of my focus and perspectives in market dynamics, trends, the Creating Structure Podcast, thoughts on results vs performance mindset, what I’m listening to, the power of LinkedIn and more

Checking In

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Welcome to September. Hard to believe that it’s already “that time of year” where we are looking at the end of summer coming soon, the end of Q3 2020, and the planning for 2021 business. Crazy how time flies, even in a COVID19 environment (or perhaps ESPECIALLY.) I thought I’d take the time to catch up again for a minute on a variety of topics

The Creating Structure Podcast: We have posted two podcasts, and the next one will record tomorrow, September 2, 2020. The first two sessions have a total of exactly 100 downloads as of today. Thank you for the support. Spread the word! We will continue to interview people around topics of business, architecture, facade, construction, and more. We record and upload every other week, so the next post will be around 9/8/2020. You can subscribe through Buzzsprout, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and many other major platforms. You can find us here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1236827/episodes

Glass Build: The last Podcast session was centered around relevant topics for #GlassBuildConnect which is happening through September. NGA/Glass Magazine will post our session the week of 9/7/2020. I think many in the field of curtain wall, glass, glazing, delegated design, and construction will enjoy the content.

Expansion: We have other affiliate company entities associated with Wheaton & Sprague Engineering, Inc. One of them is Wheaton Engineering & Consulting of NY, LLC. This is our New York State entity. We provide engineering, design, and consulting services for all types of facade, exterior cladding, curtain wall, in many forms and functions, to the entire State of New York. If you have any questions or needs in NYC, or other NY State metropolitan areas, please go to the “contact us” section of our website at http://www.wheatonsprague.com and you can send an email to the “info” email address.

Calling all Curtain Wall Engineers: We have job openings right now for positions centered around our Minnesota office and our Ohio Office. I say “centered around” because of the manager to whom the recruiting effort is attached. We prefer “in-or-near-office” candidates, but remote are considered as well, based on the times we live in. There’s a Senior Engineer opening for our Ohio office, and an Assistant Engineer opening in our Minnesota Office.

Focus: A quick word about focus. There’s thousands of “things” that we can do or get into, but we need to prioritize. “What are the most important items?” “What are the ‘game-changers’ (urgent and important)?” “Which ones offer the highest ROI or ROT (return on time)?” “What will have the most profound positive ‘stewardship’ impact for the business, staff, clients?” Once we sort this out, and this should be done with inputs from others to help clarify the goal, then define it clearly, put a timeline to it, and execute. It’s easy to always respond to the tyranny of the urgent, but we’ve got to make time for the important as well. Seek to SIMPLIFY. Growth and new initiatives fundamentally create more COMPLEXITY. Part of our job in leading, managing, and stewarding, is to seek to simplify and create order. Prune the branches. This is particularly hard for me as a visionary person with a growth and multiplying mindset. Having a great team of integrators, operators, and implementors is key. They are the “glue” in the “growth” process.

Again, welcome to September 1st. Hang in there. Focus on today, look ahead to the anticipation of tomorrow. Take care of family, friends, and the neighborhood. Control what you can control. Focus on mindset improvement. It’s up to all of us to help make it a better tomorrow by bring a better us to the table. Make it a great day.

Curtain Wall Engineering

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Curtain Wall engineering, a subset of the delegated design and engineering field, is a worthy craft and endeavor. Here’s some principles I practice and promote, personally and organizationally, to bring successful outcomes and value to clients.

Collaboration: Good engineering is collaborative engineering. It engages the client. This includes their project manager, designer, fabrication manager, field installer, and other vested constituents.

Construct-able: Solutions must be practical, able to be constructed with available materials, sequenced properly.

Client Centered: Collaboration starts with the client. It’s about mutual solutions, not the engineer’s solution alone. Start with the end goal and work backwards. This is simple on some projects, more complex on others. And most tradespeople are not used to engineering professionals talking to them, respecting their opinion, valuing their input. Win over the installers and project managers, and win the client long-term (and learn something in the process.)

Code Compliant: Our solutions must be compliant with the building code, which is the minimum standard for buildings and structures. Mastery over the code and applications of AISC, AA, AAMA, ACI, ASTM and other reference standards is critical. We’ve got to have “the right tools in the tool chest.”

Communicative: Communicate regularly. The number one predictor of successful outcomes, client retention, good solutions, and lowering of risk, is communication; no question. And just because a direction was established at the start of the project doesn’t mean it’s going to bear itself out at the end. Keep the client engaged in communication and be consistent.

Correct: We’ve got to be technically solid, technically correct, make proper judgements and support it with the math and physics. The “numbers” have to be right to protect the client, the project, the public and the PE in charge.

Creative: All projects are not created equal. All installers do not practice the same techniques. All architects want their project to bear the unique “signature” of their firm. Owners want a product that is attractive to tenants. Every problem has a solution. Be creative, both in engineering approach and in the elegance of the solution. Say “yes” as often as possible. Find a way. Back it up with the numbers, or develop a blended solution.

There’s much more, but let’s stop here for today. Of course, we need to make use of the most effective use of the tools of the trade; software, hardware, templates, allowable stress rules, product information, vendor support, 3-D analysis programs, and more. Those are support elements, not the value propositions. It’s what we “do with the tool” that provides the difference in the outcomes.

Master your craft, and deliver value in increasing measure.

Work Backwards

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Clients engage design professionals for the RA or PE stamp, the expertise, the capability, or the capacity. But the value does not reside in the statutory compliance and capability. I’ve met plenty of practitioners that couldn’t engineer client-centered solutions. The reason? Well, there’s a lot of them, but I say it’s mainly from not thinking like the client; not “working backwards” from the necessary or desired solutions. The engineering supports the solution for the client, not the reverse. The engineering has to be satisfied but we have to “think backwards” from the envisioned end result to the start of the design and engineering process.

Think like clients. Think like a builder or a constructor who happens to be an engineer or architect. Get inside the mind of the builder, the glazier, the installer, the fabricator. Get into the “voice of the customer.” Listen. Respect their role. Work to solutions that are simple, sequenced, practical.

We exist for the client; their problem is our opportunity. Their complexity is our unique selling proposition. Every client and every project is unique.

Work backwards to help achieve value.

Solution Sets 

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Schedule & budget are also determining factors in a solution set and in providing problem solving and deliverables to clients. It’s not “provide solutions at any cost and for as much time as they take.” Also speed of response, speed of performance, and prompt project delivery almost always win, and are typically the top or near the top priority for clients.

It’s hard as technical professionals sometimes to consider budget and schedule as equal variables or boundary conditions with other more direct technical issues.

We’ve got to ask ourselves “how can I get this done in the allotted time frame and budget” and use that as part of the boundary conditions around the solution and deliverable.

When we do this on every project and task within the project, it mitigates loss, makes the potentially marginal job profitable, and makes the good one really great.

Every person, on every team, at every level should have this reality in mind. They should be accountable, and also empowered, to call timeout and to take action with the project leaders and principals.

And it means not being a slave to the defined technical and software processes when there’s an issue slowing us down. Remember, procedure and technical tools are supposed to serve us, not the opposite. These days that often gets reversed, spending more time on the process and software functionality than we spend on the problem or creative aspect of the solution.

Provide serviceable solutions while staying in business.

Panels, Panels, Panels

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L/60

L/120

L/175

L/180

No deflection limit?

Stress only?

Center of panel ?

Gross or net?

What about the stiffener itself?

Why the inconsistency in metal panel deflection criteria? Is it a lack of understanding on the part of specifier’s? Is there no cohesion or clarity in the panel industry? Not a clear standard? All of the above? I have my viewpoint, but I’ll be silent on that for the moment.

I’ve performed deflection and stress calculations on thousands of panels and hundreds of jobs. Allowable deflection criteria changes on a job by job basis depending on the specifier, consultant, or architect. There’s no need to have a subjective performance standard.

A panel is a flexible membrane element. It’s not stiff like glass; it’s not brittle like stone.  It takes multiple forms. It’s an infill element in a curtain wall across a pressure gradient. It’s a pressure equalized panel in a spandrel cavity. It’s a rain-screen panel over a stud wall. It’s formed, bent, part of a sunshade or louver. It’s a soffit panel or fascia. It’s composite ACM, sheet, plate, perforated, aluminum, stainless, copper. Panels take many forms.

Whatever form it takes as a facade element in the enclosure, AAMA (the American Aluminum Manufacturers Association) calls for a deflection limit of L/60 for panels under pressure (glazed-in panels or across pressure gradient.) This is the correct standard and most balanced with stress considerations for panels under load. However, some manufacturers, installers, and facade engineers don’t even want to recognize deflection as a criteria. They only want to consider stress. This is a worthy debate.

For sheet and plate that is 4mm, 6mm, 1/8″ or thicker , or gauged stainless steel, we should establish and support a consistent standard of L/60 for panel deflection.  I’ve never seen a metal panel fail at a Mock-Up or on a Project due to deflection issues if stress is within allowable limits and L/60 is used as a criteria. Just be mindful of the context (like all design considerations.)

Certainly there may be contexts where a panel should have a smaller deflection limitation, but this should only matter if it’s at a seal line or adjacent element could be jeopardized due to a typical deflection. Design professionals making subjective decisions based on lack of knowledge or fear, creates conflict and difficulty for panel manufacturers, engineers, and others that support the facade industry.

I’d like to hear from others in the industry.

A Tale of Client Acquisition

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Tami: “John there’s a message on your desk from a contractor. They are looking for some documents from us from 2007. The GSU job.”

Me (not enthused): “GSU? Hmm. Let me check this out and see what he wants. I’ll call him back when I can get to it. We’ll have to get the archive company to pull the boxes and deliver to the office.”

Next day:

Tami: “John there’s a gentlemen on the line. He’s a glazing subcontractor. He’s calling about the GSU project.”

Me (slightly more interested): “OK. Thanks.”  “Hello, this is John. How may I help you?”

Glazing Sub: “I’m looking for some reference material; some calculations on the GSU project. We are removing 12 lites of glass to make way for a new bridge connection and integration of its new enclosure. The GC said that you had done some work on the project.”

Me(eyebrow raised): “Interesting; Are you doing both the demo/removal and the new cladding for the bridge?”

Glazing sub: “Nope. We are just preparing the opening.”

Me: “Hm. That sounds like a potential coordination issue. That’s a unitized curtain wall on the existing building. What is it that you need?”

Glazing sub: “I need the calculations so I can get them to an engineer to provide some anchor design and sketches for us. I need to know how to hold the remaining wall in place.”

Me: “We are an engineering firm and I was the engineer of record for the job for XXXX (no names) Glass in 2007. Have you secured someone to do the work?”

Glazing sub (future client): “Not really. I mean, I have a guy that can do it, but it’s not 100%.”

Me: “Well would you be interested in working with us? I mean, we do this stuff. I’ll send you our electronic services catalogue. I’ll include my contact information. If you’re interested, and can send me the scope of work, I can review it and see what you need. I’ll let you know what we can do, and I’ll provide a quotation. Does that work for you? What is your email address?”

Glazing Sub (interested); “Yes. That could work. It’s xxxx@xxxx.com. Thanks. Send me your stuff and I’ll send the architectural drawings to you.”

Me: “Where are you all located? ”

Glazing Sub; “Oh, we’re in North Carolina.”

Me: “Really? We have a North Carolina office and business. Do you have a need for these kinds of services on a regular basis?”

GS; “Yes actually, we do. We may need to have you guys in our system. When you forward me your info, I’ll share it with other folks here.”

Me: “Thank you. I’ll send it right over.”

Email is sent, info shared, scope of work document received, cursory reviewed. Next day; new phone call:

Me: “So describe to me again in more detail what you intend to do.”

GS: “We want to anchor above and below at the wall that remains, prior to removing the curtain wall between. We will need to have an anchor at the bottom of the top unit, and the top of the bottom unit.”

Me: “I hear you. Let me do some more digging. I think it would make sense for us to do this work for you if the scope and fee is aligned with your expectation. We know this building and the curtain wall details. Did you include budget for engineering?”

GS: “Yes we did. Any idea what you would charge for something like this?”

Me: “Hmm. Good question. Often times this type of work will be in the $2,500 range, but there is no guarantee. I can better define the fee once I dig into it.”

GS: “John, if you get me a proposal in that fee range I’ll sign it, get you a purchase order, and get you in our system. I’ll have our admin send you our information. In the meantime, we will need a W-9, certificate of insurance, and other information to get you all set-up.”

Me: “Got it. Let me get that in motion on my end.”

The next day, I review the information, pull the drawings and calculations. I know this location exactly; this 6-unit wide “notch” area in a nook of the building. There’s now a bridge intersecting it. The architectural drawings reveal incomplete detail and vague concepts at the wall system that is being removed. As I review, it becomes clear that there is much more time involved than what I outlined on the phone. I place a call.

Me: “Hey Mr. Client, hows it going? Well, there’s much more here than meets the eye and now we’ve both got quite a bit of time invested in this process. The slabs are variable depth across the three units between L5 and L6 that are being removed. The top unit is being removed right at the stack joint. Every anchor is a dead-load anchor at the floor line. The top anchor will now be exposed to the interior of the building since the stack is right in line with the top of slab. If not, there will have to be some type of mullion extension to reach the face of slab. It’ll have to stab up inside the cavity of the vertical mullion if that’s the case. The top of the bottom unit is cut at an intermediate horizontal. The verticals run-through. It’s now gonna hang  three feet below the slab. It might have to be dead-load anchored with a kicker or supplemental piece of steel spanning across the opening because there is nothing there to which we can attach. If it’s steel or a kicker, that will mean post-installed embed plates to the bottom of slab to support the steel and then some kind of knife plate or duplication of the prior anchor to the steel. Plus, the mullions will have to extend through where glass is being removed and project upwards in order to provide an anchor surface to which we can attach. We also have to re-analyze the mullions to get new reactions. Now there are two jambs with different loads as well. All the mullions are two piece assemblies. We have to check stress and deflection of the four vertical mullions remaining across the opening, define the anchor loads, and then sketch anchor concepts. This will be iterative. I can’t do it for the fee I outlined. Is that a going to be an issue?”

GS: ” Well John, I’ll be honest; I’ve got about $6,400 in this engineering budget. Can you keep it around or within that number?”

Me: “Well thanks for sharing that info. That sure makes the conversation much easier. I think I can do it for a little less. I’m in the $5,600 range right now in my tasking. That would leave some margin in the event there’s something unexpected.”

GS: “That works. Get it to me and I’ll have a P.O. in your hands by the end of the day, or 1st thing tomorrow. Can you start immediately?”

Me: “I can start next Monday (three days later) and get an engineer on it full-time.”

GS: “That works. This will be good. We are looking forward to working with you. Glad we made the connection. Thanks for taking care of us.”

Me: “It’s my pleasure. I had no idea you all existed. Shows me that no matter how much I think I know about the market, there’s always a potential client out there that has a need that we know nothing about. I’ll get that proposal to you by the end of the day.”

My take-away?

A simple phone message that I didn’t follow through on right away becomes a new client, a new project, a new relationship, a need to service, a problem to solve, a monetized activity, a collaboration, a possible future together B2B.

So……

Never take anything for granted.

Create a dialogue

Tell a story

Connect the dots

Speak from a platform on knowledge and understanding

Be clear, be concise, listen, understand

Take it one step at a time

Be humble

Enjoy the process

Curtain wall Engineering

Posted on by johnlwheaton1

Curtain Wall structural engineering, often referred to as “providing calcs” or “doing calculations” is far more. I started as a structural engineer in the cladding and curtain wall field in 1984 and I’ve been involved ever since, focusing on facades in total, expanding from structural engineering outward to all aspects of exterior wall systems.

Providing curtain wall structural engineering “calculations” vs. providing value-based structural and systems engineering are related, but are two different things. Properly performed, value-based structural engineering of curtain wall systems involves optimizing metal, assessing viability and ease of installation, looking for benefits in system performance that can save installer’s and fabricator’s time and money, minimize risk and more. “Good” structural engineering involves more than cranking out a set of calculations from a set of shop drawings. The work should be collaborative (there I go again with the collaboration theme) and if properly done, can save many times more than the cost of the fee. I can name many examples where clients saved tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars in material, in shop and field labor, in shipping, project management time, and more. I also want to point out that minimizing risk and providing thorough, vetted, experienced, due diligence structural engineering pays dividends down the road, which lowers insurance costs, improves performance, and makes a subcontractor’s or fabricator’s work and business more desirable and profitable.

I’ve got buckets and chapters and truckloads more of observations, experiences, insights and technical inputs to write about in subsequent discussions and blogs on this topic. Remember, never did such a “small” line item in a bid, have such a broad impact as design and engineering. It is the point through which all other work flows and takes place. “Good engineering” can make a job better. “Bad engineering” can break the job beyond the point of repair.

For now, choose your engineering firm wisely, and be collaborative.