Acro's Thermal Door Journey - Episode 2
see episode 1 HERE
I love reading, and one of the recent books I read was “Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman,” which was brilliant, and I highly recommend it.
However, the one that has directly inspired me is called “That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix” by Marc Randolph, the founder and first CEO of Netflix. It all started when he was carpooling with Michael Reid, who had started some successful businesses. Each day they brainstormed wild business ideas and innovations.
With CNC machines becoming popular in the 1990s, Marc had the idea of personalizing baseball bats, but Michael thought it was a dumb idea. They kept brainstorming and came up with the idea of using an internet company to mail out DVDs to people. He went home and talked to his wife, asking her about the idea. Her first comment was, “that will never work,” which he used as the title of his book after Netflix became a success. Marc was very successful in bringing a product to the market through a different channel.
Lessons from Netflix
This got me thinking about the frustration I’m having with doors in the glazing industry. Many door designs struggle to meet design specifications, the quoting process takes a long time, customizing hardware is a headache, and the lead times are long. Is this an opportunity to take a high-value product like a great performing commercial door, build an online sales process, and ship it to customers outside our regional market? I have heard that glaziers in California and New York are experiencing similar issues in meeting specification requirements for commercial entrances.
Perhaps there is an opportunity to develop a product that contractors and glaziers want, along with a user-friendly process. Computers are adept at tasks like calculating quotes once the cost per linear foot or per piece of hardware is known. I believe we can solve the process problem.
Trailer configurators work, why not doors?
Last year, during an ERP demo, they demonstrated how they could build a configurator for flatbed trailers. The web app guided the customer through a flowchart of the various options. For example, after selecting the length of the deck, you chose the number of axles, decking material, and other options. Once you completed the selections, it would automatically generate a quote and drawing of the trailer.
Could we develop a door configurator to eliminate the manual calculations and delays from the door ordering process? It seems this would be a fantastic solution to the problems we are currently facing with our door ordering process.
Which screw spline to use?
The reason businesses don’t create their own products or innovate something new is because it's difficult. It takes a lot of investment, money and time to think through the details.
This morning, I spent time reviewing aluminum dye drawings to ensure the screw spline had the correct diameter for a # 12 screw. This led me to question why we were using # 10 screws in one area and # 12 screws in another. Delving into the details is essential for crafting a quality product. When we purchase a system from our local supplier, we are not going to interact with the details of a product. By understanding how products are assembled, we cultivate deeper relationships within our supply chain. However, this requires significant investment, which many are unwilling to undertake.
There is also risk that a product may not work as designed. We are very careful to test the product so that we know when we install a window system it will perform well. Last week I attended a tour of Intertek where we saw their equipment for testing building products and discussed the testing process. It’s been satisfying to create a great product and develop a sales process that a customer wants to interact with.
The next step in creating the Acro Aluminum thermal door is finding suppliers for the new parts we don’t have and making sure it all of it fits together.
We are dreaming big but also staying grounded with the tasks of creating a great, easy-to-use product that could impact the glazing industry.
Stay tuned for an exciting thermal door update!
More details on the thermal door