New Orleans, Louisiana (2/12/2003) --- The Johns Manville Roofing Systems Group (RSG) announced today the formation of the JM Roofing Institute™, an expanded educational initiative to provide additional training to roofing contractors, distributors, architects and engineers, as well as to enhance the knowledge of its sales and technical representatives. In addition to providing new training initiatives, the JM Roofing Institute will oversee and update the well-established Better Understanding of Roofing Systems Institute (BURSI) program. Both programs ultimately are designed to provide value-added roofing solutions to RSG customers.
While BURSI provides a valuable resource to the industry, the new JM Roofing Institute programs are designed specifically for Peak Performance Program members and the sales and technical representatives and distributors who support them. The company will provide enhanced on site application training for its new products for select roofing contractors to improve their installation productivity and quality. This effort consists of system-specific technical videos and on-the-job technical training. To expand the training program, RSG will provide additional product and system training through its roofing distribution partners. These system-specific seminars will demonstrate the feature/function/benefit of roofing products in the classroom and through hands-on demonstrations. The new program will be rolled out throughout 2003.
“Our ultimate objective is to provide building owners with the best performing roofing systems available,” said David Scheirer, manager of the JM Roofing Institute. “We can accomplish this by ensuring those involved with the sale and installation of our roofing systems have in-depth knowledge of the characteristics of our products and of our state-of-the-art installation techniques.”
For the RSG sales and technical representatives, the company will provide basic, intermediate and advanced curriculum training workshops, which includes both classroom and hands-on installation demonstrations for specific RSG roofing applications. In the fourth quarter 2003, another program will support the introduction of a new proprietary specification-generating software program that currently is in development.
“Our 2003 internal educational initiative is designed to provide enhanced support for RSG roofing contractors, distributors, architects, building owners and roof consultant customers,” Scheirer said. “We need to do everything possible to make the use of our products customer-friendly.”
Scheirer also announced that BURSI will continue to be an integral part of RSG’s educational platform and will be updated this year. Three seminars for architects, engineers and owners are scheduled in Denver in 2003. RSG also will support Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) with local BURSI programs and is planning a seminar geared specifically toward roofing consultants. RSG also will increase the number of regional product and system educational programs for roofing contractors, architects, distributors and engineers to increase the JM brand name and awareness in local markets and territories.
Johns Manville, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is a leading manufacturer and marketer of premium-quality building and specialty products. In business since 1858, the Denver-based company has sales in excess of $2 billion and holds leadership positions in all of the key markets that it serves. Johns Manville employs approximately 9,000 people and operates 46 manufacturing facilities in North America, Europe and China. Additional information can be found at www.jm.com.
