Technology

The Future of Hardware

Automated hardware is part of a larger trend toward whole-home automation.

AI Takes Center Stage at GPAD and BEC Conference

Talks on Artificial Intelligence, or AI, took center stage at both BEC Conference and GPAD in Nashville, TN, on March 5. 

Reassessing 2023

As we move into 2024, I'm reflecting on 2023 and the conversations I had with customers. Roadblocks remain in the adoption of software and technology in the industry, but I try to counter this by understanding the customer's resistance. 

Industry Leaders Talk Mega Trends

What's ahead for the glass industry? "Industry Trends to Watch," a panel kicking off GlassBuild 2023, welcomed four leaders from all parts of the industry to discuss labor, the advent of AI, and other major trends to be aware of.

3 Free Graphics Websites for Beginners

It's harder than ever to capture attention spans, but using graphics is one way to elevate your written message. Check out three free online resources.

Advanced Window Technologies: The Latest on Thin Glass

Interest in thin glass and “skinny triples” is picking up and drawing the attention of commercial builders eager to install energy-efficient products.

The Potential Impact of AI on Flat Glass, Window, and Door Fabricators

Artificial intelligence is on everyone's minds. How will it impact the flat glass industries? Here's a few ways it can improve and streamline your business.

Preparing for growth

Is your company ready to make bigger business happen? When you ask yourself if your company is ready for bigger business to happen, it tends to invite several other questions for consideration.

Fishing for the Phishers

Scam emails seek to infiltrate business systems and take information. Considering the average office worker receives over 100 emails daily, it's easy to get fooled by phishing emails. Here's 10 signs that an email might not be legitimate.

4 Ways ERP Technology Can Address Labor Shortages

Fishing for the Phishers

Scam emails seek to infiltrate business systems and take information. Considering the average office worker receives over 100 emails daily, it's easy to get fooled by phishing emails. Here's 10 signs that an email might not be legitimate.

3 Trends in Manufacturing HR

How COVID affected recruiting and retention, and how one company is staying on top of the trends.

Secrets of AI-Driven Marketing: How to Work Smarter, Not Harder

AI tools promise to revolutionize your business. And while there are many tools with applications for marketing strategy, it's best to understand how to collaborate with them to find success.

Getting the Most from Automated Equipment

Getting the most from automation requires different thinking from real people and an evolved skill set different from what is traditionally associated with a typical shop floor worker.

Finding the Right Solution

When it comes to automation, fenestration manufacturers aren’t just choosing software, they’re finding a partner in their operations.

Benefiting from E-commerce Software

E-commerce solutions are available for companies of all sizes, and allow dealers and employees to configure quotes, place orders, generate documentation and communicate the status of orders.

The Validity of Electronic Transactions and Contracts

While the basic legal concepts of what constitutes “mutual assent” to form an agreement and the “writing” necessary to memorialize one still exist, those concepts have also broadened to keep pace with the new technology.

Is a User Conference Worth Your Time?

Software user conferences have several advantages for companies. Users can learn tools and strategies from other users, who use the software every day. They also help to create a sense of community, allowing users to collaborate to create effective user strategies.

Q+A with Tremco: Deep Dive on Spacers

When Window + Door sat down with Tremco, we wanted to learn more about warm edge technology. That ended up as just the warmup to some great perspective on everything from the current challenges of the industry to the future of performance in windows and IG automation.

Is it Better to Forget a Face?

A review of biometric privacy trends, laws that regulate the collection, use, storage, protection and destruction of BI, and best practices to avoid risk.

Disruption Alert: Transparent Solar

A conversation with Ubiquitous Energy about the opportunity for renewable energy and how solar windows can enable smarter homes.

Next-Gen Tech to Meet Energy Goals

Transparent solar and VIGs are among the window technologies poised to take the fenestration industry to the next level of energy efficiency.

High-speed machinery

High-speed machinery can allow product to move through a facility in an expedited manner, but companies need to consider more than speed before investing in this equipment.

About Innovation

As we discussed labor and supply challenges, product trends, manufacturing capabilities and more, I kept noticing the overriding theme of innovation. Innovation in how to mitigate labor and supply chain struggles, innovation in product development and innovation in manufacturing processes.

Software Selections

A 6-step approach to guide companies as they research, evaluate and select the appropriate software system.

How to Choose the Right Software System for Your Company: Part 3

Today we’ll cover the final two steps in the software buying process: evaluating your choices and making the decision and negotiating.

How to Choose the Right Software System for Your Company : Part 2

Welcome back to the second part in a three-part blog series designed to help managers and glass/window/door company owners find the best software solution for their company. Today we’re going to cover creating a software vendor short list, and validating that list.

Masonite Unveils Residential Exterior Smart Doors

Masonite International Corp. revealed Masonite M-Pwr Smart Doors, residential exterior doors that integrate power, lights, a video doorbell and a smart lock into the door system.

How to Choose the Right Software System for Your Company

Choosing software for your business can be a daunting task, if not scary. There are many legitimate concerns. In an effort to help ease them, I will attempt to provide guidance in navigating software questions.

Soft Tech and FeneTech Join Forces After Parent Company Merger

Soft Tech and FeneTech will be included in a Window & Door Vertical group, following Compusoft Group's merger with 2020 Technologies.

Roto North America Introduces New Laser Machine

This laser brings an expansion of capacity, new technology and faster production time to Roto North America’s manufacturing line, according to the company. 

Compusoft and 2020 Complete Merger

Together, the group will provide end-to-end solutions that power sales across the value chain in the kitchen, bathroom, furniture and window & door industries.

Photovoltaic Glass: Benefits and Technologies to Bring it to Market

If buildings have windows or curtain walls made of PV glass, they could become vertical power plants and make a huge contribution to the decarbonization required to meet the climate challenge.

Software Standards and the Supply Chain

Creating software standards for the supply chain can reduce barriers to entry and allow all manufacturers to participate.

Compusoft Group Acquires Access Information Technologies

Compusoft Group, a global visual CPQ provider, acquired Access Information Technologies, publishers of contractERP, an ERP solution tailored to the window and door and adjacent industries.

Use Digital Tools to Get the Most out of Tradeshows

From lead retrieval devices, to Facebook, there’s a wide range of ways that technology can change your tradeshow experience. Here are some industry insights on how to use digital tools to have a successful show. 

7 Areas Where Software Can Advance Your Business

The word “software” can be scary for any business, large or small. Every business is unique, but can still utilize off-the-shelf solutions that are slightly tailored to your company’s needs.

Security Steps

What employers and employees can do to reduce the risk of cyber security breaches for remote workforces.

The 2021 Industry Pulse

Despite challenges around COVID-19, the industry looks forward to a robust 2021 and beyond as demand is booming and residential construction posts historically strong numbers.

Learning to Change is Worth the Effort

The year 2020 was packed with change. By some accounts, three to five years of technological advancement happened in one year. This change happened faster and sooner than previously anticipated, partly due to technology and partly due to human innovation/resourcefulness. Change, for better or worse…

How Video Can Help Launch New Products

How to successfully launch a new building product in the midst of COVID-19.

Booting Up

Do more with less: How to adopt new software and digital technologies.

Software, Data Curation and Advanced Manufacturing

Among the pandemic’s many consequences is the adoption of digital tools, including software that enhances work in the office, factory and selling. Today’s software often is designed to integrate with hardware and machinery with the intent to streamline automation and interconnectivity.

How to Identify and Phase out Legacy Systems

With the pace of change in the technology industry today, systems that were once the latest, greatest thing for boosting productivity and performance can very quickly become a legacy system of the past. In an increasingly digital world, it’s often your software and systems that can make or break…

Be Ready for What’s Next

Adaptable automation allows manufacturers more flexibility in times of uncertainty.   

Tech Provides Smart Solutions for the COVID-19 Workplace

Tech companies are developing several potential solutions for the enforcement of social distancing, as well as contact tracing for sick employees. 

Digital Manufacturing

Digital transformation strategies may differ from one manufacturer to the next, but many have a common endgame.

iGlass Selects FeneTech as its Long-term Software Partner

iGLASS SA, based in Thessaloniki, Greece, selected FeneTech as its long-term software partner and will implement the fully integrated FeneVision ERP software solution.

Ringing in the New

Happy New Year, Window + Door readers. We’re ringing in the new decade with an all-new WindowandDoor.com, a project we’ve been working on throughout 2019.

Google Puts Mobile First

For some time now, Window & Door has covered how the mobile experience of a website is just as critical as that on a desktop computer. As mobile devices have increasingly become the main way potential customers search for products and services, it is imperative that a site's design and…

Industry 4.0 is Here

Last week, I attended Glass Processing Automation Days in San Antonio. Organized by FeneTech and supported by the National Glass Association, the event is focused on the glass side of our world. But there was still a ton of great information about integrating automation that applies directly to our…

The Innovation Imperative

I really enjoyed the recent blog written by American Architectural Manufacturers Association’s Rich Rinka. In it, he retraces some of the most important evolutions of the window industry over the past few decades, from when significant heat loss in American homes was just “accepted as the nature of…

Futuristic Fenestration

Worldwide spending on augmented and virtual reality could reach $160 billion by 2023—more than nine times the $16.8 billion figure forecast for 2019, according to a study by the International Data Corporation. Fenestration is exploring these alternate realities and using them to boost efficiency,…

Making Smart Investments in the Future of Glass

Thin or "skinny" triples use a very thin, nonstructural center lite, allow the use of a single spacer, and create no significant weight changes compared with standard dual-pane IGs. Window suppliers can drop skinny triple units into existing framing designs with little or no change in the frame and…

Industry 4.0

Click for larger view of infographic. As technology infiltrates more areas of life, data breaches rise. Nearly 9,000 reported data breaches occurred between January 2005 and April 18, 2018, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. IoT attacks rose by 600 percent in 2017, according to…

Labor and Automation: Not a simple switch

Technology may be enticing and a solution to some labor woes. However, industry companies are faced with many challenges when considering technology investment. Often at the top of the list is cost. “There are levels of automation and workforce reduction in our equipment, but it has a large price…

Google My Business

How to Create a Post for a Google My Business Page Go to google.com/business to access your GMB page. Click on Posts in the left side menu. Choose a new type of post to create. Google has templates for post types such as What’s New, Events, Offers and Products.  Choose an image to accompany the…

Fenestration Advancements on the Horizon

It appears that the future of windows and doors will involve the confluence of technologies that previously have had little to do with fenestration products. Some examples of improved fenestration functionality being conceptually introduced around the industry involve automatic operation of…

Biometric Information

It is safe to say that recent events and media coverage of digital security issues, including the unauthorized use of personal information through social media and large data breaches, have been a focus of concern. Consider the publicity surrounding Mark Zuckerberg’s Capitol Hill testimony…

Ingrained Innovation

Sometimes innovation occurs not when something new is created, but when an improvement to an existing process advances new ideas and practices. In the ever-evolving world of fenestration, innovation is ingrained in the industry. While innovation brings about improvements and breakthroughs,…