NPL Construction Co.
NPL Construction Co. Ensures Safety and Quality in Energy Distribution
NPL Construction Co.
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NPL Construction Co. NPL Construction Co. Ensures Safety and Quality in Energy Distribution Through attention to safety, quality and valued strategic relationships, NPL Construction Co. has become a successful energy distribution contractor Written by: Kristin Craik Produced by: Alex Hortaridis >>>
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PL is an industry leader in the energy construction business. As a full service energy distribution contractor, the company offers turnkey services and specializes in the installation of natural gas distribution pipelines whether in new construction or in the replacement of aging infrastructure. NPL got its start in 1967 in Gonvick, Minnesota through its sole proprietor Noel Coon. Under the directive that pipeline construction could be completed in a more efficient way, NPL saw growth and relocated its 3
NPL Construction Co. NPL Construction Co. Ensures Safety and Quality in Energy Distribution
headquarters to Bemidji, MN and then to the Twin Cities. In 1989, NPL moved to Phoenix, AZ, and was subsequently acquired by Southwest Gas Corporation, NPL’s parent company, in 1996. Today, NPL is licensed in 37 states and has 18 major area operations across the US, serving customers from coast to coast. Historically, a majority of the company’s work came from new construction but due to the downturn in the housing market and several significant incidents, including the San Bruno explosion in 2010, the natural gas pipeline industry is now centered around the replacement of aging pipelines—which has significantly changed NPL’s mix of work and is one of the main contributing factors to NPL’s recent revenue growth.. This means NPL regularly works with major utilities in the implementation of their replacement programs. Strategic Advantage NPL is differentiated from other contractors through its dedication to safety and quality. Although 4
some in the industry believe safety and quality are the same thing, NPL defines safety as the environment that the company works within and quality as the product that is left behind. The company’s emphasis on safety is demonstrated through each construction crew’s daily activities which start with the daily H.U.D.D.L.E, a 10 to 15 minute meeting where safety and potential risks and hazards of the day are identified and discussed; essentially an expanded job site risk analysis. NPL also holds an annual Safety Kick Off meeting at each of its operating areas. Shutting down for the day, the company discusses the previous year’s safety statistics, recognizes individual safety performance and discusses safety topics which will be emphasized in the upcoming year. Additionally, NPL employs a Safety Manager in each of its 18 major operating areas who reports directly to NPL’s Central Office. The Safety Manager is strictly focused on managing his/her area’s safety, implementing programs and training while reporting on NPL’s job site
safety. Many of NPL’s Safety and Quality programs exceed Federal and State Regulatory requirements and also exceed many of their customers’ construction standards. “At the corporate level, every meeting is started with a safety moment. Any meeting we have, safety is always the first agenda item. We’ve created a culture of personal responsibility. Because we believe safety is a culture, safety starts and ends with the individual. We support a culture where even a
laborer can stop a job if they see or feel that something is not right from a safety perspective. We give them the ability and encourage them to do that,” says Rock McHenry, SVP and CCO, NPL Construction Co. Industry Relationships NPL understands that business is benefited by good relationships with both customers and suppliers. This understanding is at the core of the NPL business and why the company continues to see success.
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NPL Construction Co. Supplier Profile
Blaine Equipment Company Blaine Equipment Company is a family-owned business operating stores in both Las Vegas and Elko, Nevada. For 30 years, we have been providing quality Construction equipment to customers in Southern Nevada, Northeastern Nevada and the Sierras of California. Website: www.blaineequipment.com
Visit us online:
“We’re in a very relationship oriented business. One of the things we believe contributes to our competitive advantage is the relationships we have not only with our customers but also with our suppliers,” says McHenry. NPL takes strategic relationship even further by defining it as the collaboration of “two parties working together to achieve a desired result that would be difficult - or impossible to achieve individually.” The long-term relationships NPL creates benefits their customers by lowering costs and benefits NPL by improving performance and creating efficiencies in the construction process; a “win-win” scenario. “Over the years, we’ve had many relationships that we would call strategic partnerships at varying levels and we’ve enjoyed varying degrees of success. We like to say we’ve never met a strategic relationship we haven’t liked. No matter what level that relationship is at, as long as it’s an enhanced relationship there always seems to be value derived out of those relationships on both sides,” says McHenry. NPL also sets up formal 7
NPL Construction Co. NPL Construction Co. Ensures Safety and Quality in Energy Distribution
alliances with customers and suppliers. This alliance creates a virtual organization where there is a charter, mission, vision, rules of engagement and an issue resolution process. The organizational structure consist of an executive team, a steering team, and operation teams that establish goals and objectives, have a formal reporting process and meet on a regular basis to work together on initiatives that enhance the relationship. An example of one of NPL’s formal supplier alliances is the relationship the company shares 8
with John Deere. “We meet with John Deere on a regular basis. We have annual business review meetings with their corporate representatives from marketing, manufacturing and leadership group. We sit down and talk about what’s going on in their company and what’s going on in our company and how we can work together to better position ourselves to be able to meet each other’s goals and objectives. We identify specific initiative that we work on collectively throughout the year,” says McHenry.
STATISTICS
Industry: Energy Founded: 1967 Headquarters: Phoenix, Arizona
As a result of this partnership, John Deere selected NPL to be the recipient of the 175-yearold company’s 250,000th loader backhoe, which rolled off the production line on February 28th. John Deere and NPL executive teams were in attendance for the history-making event at Deere’s Dubuque Works factory in Iowa. The backhoe will be making the rounds to NPL’s Safety Kick Off meetings throughout the US before it is commissioned into service at one of NPL’s job sites.
Key People/Titles: James P. Kane, President & CEO Rock McHenry, SVP & Chief Customer Officer Kevin Neill, SVP, Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer Dennis Redmond, SVP Operations – West Mark Wambach, SVP Operations – East Products: Full service energy distribution contractor offering turnkey services specializing in the installation of natural gas distribution pipelines. Revenue: $600 Million Employees: 4100 Website:
www.GoNPL.com Visit us online:
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NPL Construction Co. 2355 W. Utopia Road, Phoenix, Arizona 85027 Tel: 623.582.1235 www.gonpl.com
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