Huntsman Hall Construction is Expected to Take About Two Years

Ken Snyder

Now that Lund Hall is down and the tunnel project is just wrapping up, the most common question people ask me is “How long will it take before the new building is done?” The timeline shows this major project will take about two years to complete.

Things will go down before they go up because a strong foundation must be laid for this new building before the framework can rise. The area that is now fenced off will be that way for the next two years. This is inconvenient for those who must walk around it each day, but as work progresses it will become quite clear why that space is needed.

For the next two years, all of us will have a front row seat to watch the progress because we’ll be able to see it unfold live from our webcams. I hope you’ll continue watch my blog, however, because often the updates I will share will be about what’s going on inside or behind the scenes.  

Lund Hall – It’s All About Recycling

Yes, I have noticed that Lund Hall is still standing. And yes, I know I wrote in my last blog that it would be coming down on April 1 or 2. And no, I’m not going to do the easy thing and say, “April fools!”

Lund Hall

It’s all about recycling. In order to attain LEED status , we need to recycle as much material as we can from the demolition of Lund Hall. Specifically, we need to recycle all of the metals, dry wall, plastics, and especially the brick. In order to do recycle the bricks, we need to get all the contaminants, or parts of the building that are not brick, out of the building. That means things like doors, window frames, cabinets, and drawers are being removed from the building. This step has taken longer than anticipated. Notice I said recycle the brick – not re-use the bricks. My understanding is that the bricks are ground down into a powder and then the powder brick material is recycled.

Our latest estimates are now that the walls will be coming down sometime early in the week of April 7. You can keep a watch on things by going to our page where the two webcams are posted. Soon it will not be a matter of watching for the walls to come down as it will be to watch them go up. And the brick from Lund Hall, in some recycled form, will live on in another location.

Ken Snyder

Lund Hall to Make Way for Huntsman Hall on April 1

Ken Snyder

Next week the walls will come tumbling down. Lund Hall will be coming to an end to make way for the new Huntsman Hall.

On April 1 and 2 the building will come down, with most of the visible work happening on April 2. If you are traveling or can’t get away from your computer for a few minutes, you can watch this historic development from webcamsmounted on the Agriculture Building and the Merrill-Cazier Library. 

For a long time my blog has been about planning, visualizing, and preparing for the construction of Huntsman Hall. It will be very rewarding on April 1 to see tangible evidence of our progress beyond the tunnel construction in front of our building. Please feel free share a link to this blog and webcam with the friends and alums you know. I’ll keep you updated on the progress, just as I did before, but now you’ll be able to see it yourself. From here forward the phrase, “Watch this space,” will have added meaning.

Lund Hall 

A Student's Implementation of CPI

One of the key initial understandings of Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) is that improvement is a journey not a destination. My personal journey with CPI has been extremely rewarding and has substantially enriched my current state of life.

I was first introduced to CPI philosophy by my father. Some of my early lessons include my dad executing a list of five words beginning with the letter "s" — sort, store, shine, standardize and sustain.These early lessons sparked my interest and started me on a journey of discovery that has impacted my current state more than I could have ever imagined.

Up to this stage in my process as a student I have been given several internship opportunities. I have been able to network with numerous professional practitioners of CPI. Many career building doors have opened because of my knowledge of CPI. During each of these professional opportunities I have been fortunate enough to add value to my employer by applying CPI principles that has impacted the natural work group.

Even though I have been fortunate enough to have great career building opportunities because of CPI, the greatest impact CPI has had on my current state is my ability to be a successful student. Being a student is a process and as such, improvement principles must be applied in order to reach an ideal future state. The ideal future state as a student could be graduation or being accepted to graduate school. CPI allows me to apply principles to bridge the gap between my current state as an undergraduate and my ideal future as a Utah State University graduate. I am constantly looking to recognize and eliminate waste, unevenness, and overburden in the way I accomplish my responsibilities as a student. I look for ways to Plan Do Check and Adjust the process of gaining necessary knowledge to succeed in my classes. I implement the "five S's" my father gave me in my study area, backpack and notebooks to be more efficient, and I consistently track daily goals that will allow me to move closer to my ideal future state. I allow myself to pull information from my classes which allows for my experience to be much more enjoyable. All of these CPI principles are unavoidable side-effects of a sincere passion for improvement given to me by my father, and the continuous improvement philosophy. I will never be the most effective student at this university but due to the continuous process improvement philosophy I will always be trying to improve.

CPI is an amazing philosophy that can give opportunities to anyone who is willing to learn it. CPI can positively impact any industry. I would invite anyone to take the journey of discovery of continuous improvement.   

— Ryan Willis
     Lean Leaders Club

Continuous Improvement: A Way of Life

Typically the phrase "continuous process improvement" swirls around in a pool with other jargon terms such as lean, kaizen, and operational excellence. These terms have had stigmas of being cost-cutting tools mostly applicable in a manufacturing type setting. 

Continuous process improvement can be applied in all industries as well as in your own personal life. It is a matter of determining what true value is and seeing the wastes intertwined in the current process and then actively making small improvements. The top lean leaders and change agents in business today consider continuous process improvement to be a way of life that all employees are involved in no matter the industry or area of profession.

When I was first introduced to this principle at the Shingo Prize, I was under the impression that lean and continuous improvement was a cost-cutting tool used in manufacturing. Upon walking through the Shingo doors my mind was opened to a whole new world of possibilities. Often times in life we get used to the regular mundane way of doing things. Some of us have come to a point where we accept things the way they are because that’s the way they have always been. Some people have wild hair that drives them to think about something and then change it for the better, in turn, making life a little easier for many others. The concept of continuous improvement suggests making continual and incremental positive changes to make something better. It applies to life in that it encompasses anything and everything from work, and school, to your personal life. It could be a process on the production floor that you could make easier, faster, or safer. It could be the way you do paperwork in your office — you realize a small change that will save you time and cut out needless busy work. At home it could be as simple as where you store the toilet paper for quick and purposeful action! 

The truth is, that as we start to focus on this concept and apply it, it becomes easier to catch a positive fever driving you to be better and accomplish things you never thought possible. This fever is often times contagious and begins to create an ever-valuable culture desperately needed to be successful in business today. There is no end to the journey and as we learn principles of continuous process improvement and operational excellence, we start to see the endless possibilities.

If you think about your life, job, or school, what things have you accepted as the norm because that’s the way it’s always been?

— Justin Corbridge

Lean Leaders Vice President

Courtyard Will Prove a Low-Cost Way to Add Great Value

The Courtyard at Huntsman Hall

Once we decided to seek funding for a new building, we faced the decision of whether or not we would tear down the current business building – the George S. Eccles Business Building built in 1970 – and build a completely new building, or to build a new building that would connect to the Eccles Building. For a variety of reasons, we decided to put the Eccles Building to good use. As we researched some of the implications of this decision, we realized that due to fire code requirements, there would need to be a space between the buildings. In this case, the structures will be about 24 feet apart.

We realized that this space between the buildings would be a perfect opportunity to take advantage of a low-cost way to add considerable value to that area by creating a courtyard. We charged our architects with meeting the challenge of designing low-cost space that would provide high value to the students in the business school. We think they have come up with some outstanding ideas.

The courtyard won’t be fancy but will offer two things that the brand-new building cannot offer: trees and the great outdoors. I’ve included two artist renderings of the courtyard to give you an idea for what that area might look like.

The Courtyard at Huntsman Hall

This courtyard will not only offer a place for individuals, but groups could use it as a refreshing meeting place. There will be some large group gathering areas. As a matter of fact, when it is nice outdoors, students might successfully lobby their professors to move the class to the courtyard. There are also tables that can be used for student team meetings.

Other potential uses include graduation receptions, catered dining events, big events, other festive activities like we usually plan during Business Week and Entrepreneurship Week. There is even an area that could serve as a stage for such celebrations.

And who knows, if we have someone who is very bold and innovative, they might choose just to go outside to sit quietly and enjoy the courtyard. There will be space for that too.

Ken Snyder

Branding: The Keep It Simple, Stupid (KISS) Method

Eric Schulz

The biggest branding problem most companies have is that they fail to refine their message to its most simple form. I recently worked on a consulting project for a group that had identified 17 target audiences and had crafted a discreet message for each of them! Their communication platform was a nightmare. As I sat with their senior managers, they spent three hours just trying to explain to me all the messages they felt they needed to deliver to their constituencies. Wow.

After the client finished briefing me, we started really looking at their business and I challenged them to simplify what they wanted to say to what I call "Kitchen Logic," which is a way of saying "How would two mom's explain this to each other over coffee at their kitchen table?" I also challenged them to communicate at a seventh grade writing level. When these really smart folks were forced to simplify the message, all of the sudden it was like the Red Sea parting. They developed a way of saying what they do in just FIVE WORDS! And even better, those FIVE WORDS were effective in communicating what they do to all 17 target audiences! No more complicated communication matrices. Five words. Clarity. Focus.

When you get focus, you have the opportunity to break through the clutter. See if you can sum up your brand message in just five words. It's a fun exercise!