Commercial Commentary

Since March, our industry has been grappling with the changes brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the most significant changes has been the necessary implementation of unprecedented safety measures in working environments to minimize viral spread, helping to keep employees safe while we maintain our commitments to customers.

As autumn approaches, I’ve been seeing a trend among customers I’ve spoken with recently. While safety measures remain in place, the industry is as busy as ever. Orders are up—manufacturers are navigating new operational challenges associated with social distancing and other strict protocols, while commercial construction jobsites face some of their own constraints.

The fenestration industry always rises to a challenge. How can glass and glazing professionals keep pace while working differently than they ever have? Here are a few things I’ve been thinking about recently:

New shop floor safety concerns. Shop floor safety now comes with a new wrinkle, with social distancing measures requiring workers to remain 6 feet apart from one another while assembling finished units.

This can be somewhat of a challenge. Perhaps it’s solvable with automation. For example, a high-speed IG line does away with several touchpoints needed to assemble a finished unit and keeps line workers the appropriate distance from each other. Any manual processes that can be automated have the same benefit, with fewer touchpoints and different steps required for final assembly. This not only helps from an efficiency standpoint, but reduces situations where workers need to come into direct contact with each other.

To be sure, this is likely to be our new “reality” for a while. And while the need to keep your shop floor socially distanced might not be reason enough to make this kind of capital expenditure in and of itself, an investment in automation might pay off sooner than you think. Consider a scenario where one worker in one of your critical areas of production gets sick; proper protocols will require any workers who interacted or worked closely with that person to stay home and quarantine for at least a few days. This could be a major hit to your productivity and could keep you from fulfilling an important order.

Keeping your workers safe and socially distanced can help prevent this scenario from playing out in the first place—but if it does happen, it’s important to be able to adapt if you suddenly find yourself down a few employees. Automating key parts of your production can be helpful from both perspectives.

Simplifying the jobsite. Installers and construction professionals have a slightly different set of challenges.

Social distancing and other COVID-19 prevention measures still apply here, often limiting the number of people who can be working on a jobsite at once. So, what happens today when a job runs behind? In the past, it was possible to catch up by adding more workers to complete construction—but today, exceeding a maximum allowed number of people on a given jobsite could increase the likelihood of sickness and, depending on the municipality, can lead to a fine or other consequences. Contractors are already feeling some ripple effects. Construction Dive recently reported that “implementing COVID-19 safety preparations and protocols at jobsites has led to a decline in productivity, which is eating into [contractor] profits.”

One solution to some of these new hurdles might be eliminating some of the work that necessarily has to happen on-site. For example, prefabricated or unitized glass and curtainwalls, which can be assembled off-site in a more controlled manufacturing environment, might begin to gain more popularity. Once on the jobsite, installation can be performed more quickly and with fewer required people.

I’ll be keeping my eye on these trends in the coming months. Our industry has the opportunity to explore new solutions like these in the face of unprecedented challenges, and it could bring significant change to how we achieve high-quality glass and glazing.

Joe Erb is commercial sales specialist for Quanex Building Products.

I’ve always been a proponent of the value that high-performance glass can bring to any space where people work and live. We’ve seen the evidence that access to natural light has significant benefits within interior environments, and we’ve seen the architectural trends that have sought to increasingly blend indoor and outdoor spaces.

Today, in a world that’s been reshaped by the COVID-19 pandemic, these kinds of glass solutions are perhaps more important than ever before. People around the world are spending more time in their own homes (be it within single family or multifamily dwellings), and work is being done to make public interiors less likely to promote viral spread. I believe the glass and glazing industry has an important role to play in creating safer, healthier indoor environments—not just as a response to this moment, but for the long term.

Here’s one example: according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, ensuring proper natural ventilation in homes and other building interiors can help reduce the airborne spread of contaminants, including viruses.

“When used along with other best practices (such as social distancing, frequent hand washing and surface disinfection) recommended by the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)], increasing ventilation can be part of a plan to protect yourself and your family,” the EPA notes.

For this reason, I think we could see natural ventilation become increasingly desirable in all sorts of structures. But while glass used in commercial applications is often of the high-performance variety, panes are commonly inoperable. Will greater awareness about viral mitigation spur an increased demand for natural ventilation in spaces where it traditionally hasn’t existed? It’s possible. When we consider the long-term impacts this pandemic will have on how people broadly think about transmitting bacteria and viruses, I think there will be some deep considerations made on how we can make all of our interior spaces safer and healthier.

The good news is that the technology that can help make this possible already exists. High-performance commercial window systems with varying modes of operability (tilt/turn, casement, awning, hopper, etc.) are available, and they’re worth consideration by forward-thinking commercial fenestration professionals.

Elsewhere, fluctuating temperatures and humidity levels are common factors that can negatively impact interior environments. When it comes to protecting homes, families, businesses and employees, finding the right indoor humidity levels can be a challenge—but it can be better controlled with the right kinds of glass and glazing technology. It’s been shown that viruses can more easily spread through cold, dry air. Meanwhile, when interior humidity rises, moisture and differences in temperatures between indoor and outdoor environments can cause condensation to build up on the glass—potentially leading to mold growth. For these reasons, the CDC recommends keeping relative humidity in homes and buildings between 30% and 50% year-round. High-performance glass and framing materials that offer less heat transfer and condensation build-up can help reduce mold-causing moisture around the window edge, contributing to better air quality overall.

These are, of course, just a few of the benefits high-performance glass can deliver for buildings everywhere, and I firmly believe that this pandemic will have some long-term impacts on how we conceive our interior spaces. The commercial glass industry has the responsibility to respond and adapt to these changes—and I’m confident we’ll be able to do so successfully.

Joe Erb is commercial sales specialist for Quanex Building Products.

It’s hard to pay attention to much else but the COVID-19 outbreak these past couple of weeks. It’s an unprecedented situation and, as such, there’s plenty of uncertainty in the industry at the moment.

My advice: Control what you can control. Stay informed through credible sources. Do what’s within your power to follow the guidance that’s been provided by our institutions to stay safe and healthy.

With that said, much of our industry’s work isn’t possible to perform remotely. Whether it’s building high-quality products on shop floors or installing high-performance glazing on new buildings, this all involves people in physical locations doing physical tasks. OSHA recently provided guidance on how to stay safe and healthy in these situations.

What else can we do at a time like this? How can we best prepare our businesses for an uncertain future? And what opportunities might there be for us to take advantage of? Here are some things to think about:

Be adaptable. I wrote recently about the importance of being resilient and adaptable as an organization, to best succeed in evolving market conditions. Code changes, shifting design trends and the availability of new technology can all impact the way we do business, and there’s no doubt that our current situation is pretty fluid. Adaptability will be key—if your company culture has prioritized this trait, it’ll come in handy now. Processes will need adjusting, job priorities may shift and we’ll need to roll with the punches as best we can.

Make the most of your time. As of this writing, much of the building and construction industry is operating under a “business as usual” philosophy. Many jobsites haven’t slowed, according to Construction Dive—major pauses have so far been the exception. But that could change, and the commercial glass industry could be facing some downtime.

We can make the most of it. Maybe it’s time to catch up on some critical maintenance tasks on the shop floor. You could work on training for employees. Take a closer look at your strategic plan. Whatever it is, you can likely find some means of strengthening your business in some way.

Keep in communication. Maintaining clear lines of communication with your customers, vendors and suppliers is always important, but especially during periods of uncertainty. Make sure you’re checking in with all stakeholders regularly to talk through how you can continue to support each other. And though we might be limited in our abilities to connect face to face for a little while, there are plenty of other ways we can connect with technology. Consider a video chat instead of a phone call, for example.

No matter what the next few months bring with them, I know that the commercial glass industry has always been resilient. We’ll come through this on the other side together.

Joe Erb is commercial sales specialist with Quanex Building Products.