Business Review USA July 2014

WWW.BUSINESSREVIEWUSA.COM

JULY 2014

INTRODUCING

AMAZON

FIRE

WHAT DOES THE NEW PHONE MEAN FOR BUSINESS? TOP 10

US FRANCHISES EXECUTIVE PERSPECTIVE: Why Business Leaders Need to Embrace Failure As A Form Of Success

EDITOR’S COMMENT

Will Amazon Set the Smartphone Market on Fire?

I N T H I S I S S U E O F Business Review USA we lead with a review of the

new Amazon smartphone, the Fire and ask what the new device will mean for businesses across the U.S. and beyond. With new capabilities, never seen before, the Fire has the potential to shake up e-commerce, retail and business communications in general. Find out how.

Also in this issue we profile the top 10 U.S. franchises operating at the moment; see who tops the list inside the magazine. We also take a look at the most influential mergers and acquisitions so far this year, from Facebook to U.S. Airlines we layout the deals on the table.

From a marketing perspective, we offer some tried and tested tricks for effective social media engagement and let you know how to implement them at your business, big or small.

Enjoy the issue!

Abigail Phillips Editor abigail.phillips@wdmgroup.com 3

JULY CONTENTS

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96 Leadership: EXECUTIVE PERSPECTIVE: Why Business Leaders Need to Embrace Failure As A Form Of Success Finance: MID-YEAR ROUND UP: The Biggest US Mergers and Acquisitions So Far in 2014

Top 10: [Top 10] US Franchises 2014 36 6

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Technology: Amazon’s First Foray into the Smartphone Market and What it Means for Business 20 Marketing: Insider Lessons for Building a Social Media Strategy

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Energy Iberdrola USA

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Beasley Forest Products

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Aaron Oil Company Inc.

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Copperhead Pipeline and Construction

72

Precision Pipeline

80

Magnetic Analysis Corporation

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| www.businessreviewusa.com

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28 20

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166 Manufacturing ArtiFlex Manufacturing

Construction 96

Walsh/Super Excavators Black River Tunnel Project 150

Delkor Systems

106

Olympus Controls

114 Mining 122 Mintails USA

Hartness International Orthman Conveying

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130 Education

Supply Chain BTX Global Logistics

Drexel University

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LEADERSHIP

EXECUTIVE PERSPECTIVE:

WHY BUSINESS LEADERS NEED TO EMBRACE FAILURE AS A FORM OF SUCCESS In light of Apple buying Beats Electronics for $3.2 billion, Business Review USA looks at the man behind the brand. How did Dr Dre transform from hip-hop artist to billionaire?

W R I T T E N B Y: V I C T O R I A T R E Y G E R

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July 2014

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LEADERSHIP EVERY FAILURE SHOULD be seen as its own form of success. Every mistake holds a lesson and failures are full of wrong turns. Being scared of failing is absolutely pointless because it is our failures that teach us the lessons we need to succeed. In this day and age failure is feared because it comes with a certain stigma, and no one wants to be categorized as useless. However businesses that are more accepting of mistakes tend to have higher success records in the long run. Success doesn’t come simply for most people, and those who have achieved the greatest successes have also been burdened with failures that could have wiped them out completely. Going through these failures, and working past them to reach success says a lot more about a persons work ethic than someone who has never had to deal with failure before. If you do happen to encounter a failure do not be ashamed, you should embrace it and use it to push yourself forward to your next idea.

Here are a few ways to failure can help you flourish: Do Not Let Your Failure Define You Let It Teach You A Valuable Lesson 8

July 2014

Businesses that have a more accepti Your emotions and thoughts have massive amounts of control over your behavior. If you let your failures get to you and bring you down, your behavior will follow suit. Take every failure as a lesson, look back and dissect what you did wrong and figure out how to fix it. A failure can show you that you are moving in the wrong direction, and potentially lead you to your next success. If you failed at writing, maybe writing isn’t for you, but you could be an extremely successful editor. The world is full of possibilities and failures simply help you to see what avenues in life just are not for you. Failing can teach you so much, it can teach you humility, it can teach you how to

ing approach to mistakes are more likely to succeed function when you are down and out, and most of all it can teach you to never give up.

TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS Failure can help you take responsibility for your actions and hold yourself accountable. When your business idea or plan fails, you have no one to blame except yourself, and as an aspiring business owner or entrepreneur that is a very important lesson to learn. If you do find success, it will be amongst many failures. In fact, most successful companies still fail; take Facebook’s failed attempt to create their own version of SnapChat for example. One

of the most important things to keep in mind about your failures is that they belong solely to you. If you put the blame on someone else, you will not ever learn from your mistakes, which is the most valuable part of making a mistake.

KNOW WHEN TO QUIT Sometimes a failure can be a good thing because it can communicate to us that we have gone to far and it is time to let go and move on to something else. Not every idea is a winner and it is important to recognize that. MySpace once received a 580 million dollar investment in 2006 from News Corp. For years News Corp 9

LEADERSHIP

Learn from your mistakes, don’t let them overwhelm you

poured massive amounts of money into the company that eventually sold for 34 million dollars, making this a failed investment for News Corp. With the advent of Facebook in 2004, and its surge in popularity in late 2006, early 2007, News Corp. should have recognized its investment as a loss.

Had they done so they could have saved themselves millions of dollars.

Remember it is important to recognize when your time, energy and money are being wasted.

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July 2014

CAPITALIZE ON THE GOOD Although failures can be a huge hit to your ego, they can also help you to see the bright side of every situation.

If you have a failed business venture, chances are you made some good decisions on the path, or networked with great investors or entrepreneurs.

You can use all of the connections you made on your failed venture to help your next idea become a success. If you had investors, don’t be scared to go back to them with your new plan of

E M B R A C E FA I L U R E A S A F O R M O F S U C C E S S

attack, chances are if they believed in you once, they will believe in you again.

LEARN TO LEAD Failure has the distinct ability to make you analyze your actions and move forward. Use this to learn how to become a better manager or leader.

As an aspiring business owner/ entrepreneur your key job it to lead your team to success. One of the biggest parts of being a leader is delegation. Do not micromanage – that could be how you got yourself into this situation in the first place. Be prepared to lie out a plan of attack and give your team tasks to be completed.

REMEMBER: FAILURE IS AN INTEGRAL PART OF INNOVATION Failure teaches you things you didn’t ever know before, so that you can come up with new ways to tackle the issue. Learning what you do not know, and knowing what you know can help you come up with new creative ideas. Each failure teaches a new lessons and new ways to handle every situation, which allows you to find your niche, and figure out what works best for you specifically.

Failure is all about the way you look at it. You could fail and think “well, that was that now I am done” or you could fall off that horse and get right back on. No person has ever succeeded at every single thing they have tried; success is a product of lessons learned. As a business owner you must be resilient and flexible, you must take your mistakes in stride and better yourself because of them. Failure, when paired with the right attributes can motivate a person to work harder and better. So stop letting failure frighten you off.

Businesses that have a more accepting approach to mistakes are more likely to succeed

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FINANCE

MID

THE BIGG ACQUISI

From American Ai

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Month 2014

D-YEAR ROUND UP:

GEST US MERGERS AND ITIONS SO FAR IN 2014

irlines to T-Mobile, we take a look at the biggest U.S mergers and acquisitions to date in 2014 W R ITTE N BY AB I G A I L PH I LLI PS 13

FINANCE

MID-YEAR ROUND UP: T

2014 HAS ALREADY delivered mergers and acquisitions of epic proportions, with more to come in the next few months. But where top competitors are concerned, regulation is the name of the game, and a few high-profile deals are still pending federal approval. Here are a few champions and contenders of note.

AMERICAN AIRLINES AND US AIRWAYS The merging of American Airlines and US Airways has successfully created the largest airline in the world. The newly formed American Airlines Group will provide nearly 6,700 daily flights to more than 330 destinations in more than 50 countries.

Last year, the Department of Justice filed a suit to stop the merger out of concern that it would lead to decreased competition and increased fares. The lawsuit was settled under the terms that American Airlines Group sell their landing slots or gates at seven major airports, some of which will be reserved for low-cost carriers.

Doug Parker, CEO of American Airlines who formerly served as the chairman and CEO of US Airways, commented on the merger by saying, 14

July 2014

Caption US Airways to the Airplane image “Our people, our customers and the communities we serve around the world have been anticipating the arrival of the new American.� The company expects the merger to be completed in January of 2016. In the interim, both airlines will continue to offer perks to their customers, and beginning in 2015, they will combine the mileage balances of frequent fliers who have accounts with each airline.

H E B I G G E S T U S M E R G E R S A N D A C Q U I S I T I O N S S O FA R I N 2 0 1 4

SPRINT AND T-MOBILE In a proposed $32 billion deal, the two telecommunications giants could merge by the year’s end. The preliminary terms state that Sprint would acquire T-Mobile for about $40 a share. Sprint is currently the third largest U.S. wireless network operator and T-Mobile is the fourth.

The merger would create a formidable competitor for Verizon and AT&T, both of which currently serve

over 100 million subscribers. The deal could also be subject to antitrust regulation via the Justice Department, already heavily considering the implications of potential high-profile mergers happening elsewhere.

AT&T attempted to acquire T-Mobile in a similar deal back in 2011, but regulators prevented it due to concerns over how the merger might limit consumer choices.

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FINANCE

Whatsapp and Facebook was one of the biggest mergers of 2014 so far 16

Month 2014

The two companies have yet to draft a definitive agreement or arrange financing. But should the deal not go through, early terms include a $1 billion “break up fee” that Sprint would pay T-Mobile. If the merger is a go, it is likely to be announced in July.

FACEBOOK AND WHATSAPP In February, Social media giant Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion. The acquisition marked the largest purchase of a company backed by venture capitalists in history. The company was founded in 2009 and has added roughly 100 million new users each year. Currently, WhatsApp has more than 500 million users and handles 50 billion messages each day. In regard to WhatsApp’s incredibly fast growth, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, “No one in the history of the world has done anything like that.”

WhatsApp is a messenger service that allows smartphone users to text via their cell phone numbers.

The messages are sent over mobile broadband, so they do not register as text messages, clearing the way for users to message freely— even internationally—without the

danger of exceeding their message limit and incurring overages. This makes the app invaluable to constant correspondents and those communicating overseas. The acquisition allows Facebook to extend itself beyond its primary site and break into developing markets.

COMCAST CORPORATION AND TIME WARNER CABLE In a move that could potentially impact the future of cable and broadband, Comcast Corporation has offered to buy Time Warner Cable for $45 billion.

Presently, the deal states that each of Time Warner Cable’s current 284.9 million shares will be exchanged for 2.875 million shares of Comcast’s CMSCA stock. Comcast will also sell 1.4 million Time Warner Cable subscribers to Charter Communications for about $7.3 billion.

2.5 million subscribers would then be divested to a new public company.

Comcast shareholders would own 66 percent of the company while 33 percent would be owned by Charter, with Charter in charge of managing the new network and customers.

Comcast and Charter would trade about 1.6 million subscribers 17

FINANCE

Facebook acquired Whatsapp in warly 2014

throughout the country.

The deal would make Charter Communications the secondlargest cable provider in the United States and ultimately increase their subscriber base from 4.4 to 8.2 million households. Of course, Charter’s involvement in the deal is contingent upon whether or not the initial Comcast-Time Warner merger succeeds. The acquisition is subject to regulation and is currently under review by the Federal 18

July 2014

Communications Commission and the United States Department of Justice.

AT&T AND DIRECTV Rivaling the Comcast and Time Warner deal is AT&T’s proposed merger with DirecTV, currently the biggest satellite television operator in the United States. The deal could potentially be worth $48.5 billion.

DirecTV shareholders will receive a total of $95 per share, with $28.50 to be paid in cash and $66.50 paid

T E S L A L O O K S T O C H I N A F O L L O W I N G D E C L I N I N G Q 1 R E S U LT S

in stock. The proposed deal is the largest in several years for AT&T. The company’s last substantial transaction attempt was their failed acquisition of T-Mobile.

AT&T AND DIRECTV claim that the merger would enable them to lower their prices for satellite television and high-speed Internet bundle packages, pressuring cable companies to lower their rates as well. They also insist that if Comcast and Time Warner

successfully merge, they will need suitable competition to keep from becoming a monopoly. AT&T and DirecTV presented both arguments in filings with both the FCC and the Department of Justice. As a condition to merger approval, AT&T pledged to extend fiber high-speed Internet services to 2 million more customers.

It also promised to bring wireless highspeed Internet to 13 million largely rural customers outside of areas that the company already serves.

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TECHNOLOGY

AMA THE SM WHAT

At the en Business Re and asks,

Ken 2 0 Wolter J u l y 2 0/1Shutterstock.com 4

AZON’S FIRST FORAY INTO MARTPHONE MARKET AND T IT MEANS FOR BUSINESS

nd of June, Amazon unveiled its first ever smartphone. eview USA takes a look at the highly anticipated device what does this mean for businesses across America?

W R I T T E N B Y: D E A N A C A U C U S 21

TECHNOLOGY THE RECENT RELEASE of Amazon’s highly anticipated Fire Phone marked the company’s debut in the smartphone market. The Fire boasts an impressive array of features, including 3-D screen effects, free unlimited photo storage and a free year of Amazon Prime membership.

If the phone is a hit with consumers, Amazon should reach their goal of becoming a formidable competitor in the original equipment manufacturers market (OEM). Currently, Apple and Samsung lead all OEMS, with Apple raking in 41 percent of the market share and Samsung claiming 28.

The next largest competitors— LG, Motorola and HTC—all have between five and seven percent of the market share.

Mobile Commerce Although the Fire is indeed Amazon’s first smartphone, the company has experience in the mobile hardware market, having introduced its Kindle Fire tablet back in 2011. Amazon is 22

July 2014

currently the market leader in mobile shopping and buying. The company clearly sees the opportunity to use the Fire to help accelerate growth in mobile commerce, which could be fruitful for businesses worldwide.

Bank of America has predicted that $67.1 billion in purchases will be made from mobile devices by shoppers in Europe and the United States in 2015.

Amazon has taken measures to ensure that some of those shoppers head their way. By giving Fire users a free year of Amazon Prime membership - which offers free two-day shipping and discounts on thousands of

products - the company hopes to hook members and turn them into more frequent Amazon shoppers. The Fire comes with several pre-installed apps that facilitate mobile commerce for physical products and digital content, including Kindle Books, Amazon Music, Audiobooks and Amazon Appstore.

The Fire also has a unique feature called Firefly, which enables the operator to use the phone’s camera to recognize real-world objects, television shows, movies, and music and subsequently purchase the item or content from Amazon’s online

store. This is bound to take business away from brick-and-mortar retailers, many of whom are already struggling due to the influx of online shopping platforms. Obviously, Firefly will only be lucrative if Amazon’s prices are truly competitive, and Firefly’s success may in turn cause retailers to lower theirs accordingly.

The Impacts of Mobile Technology For some businesses, mobile technology plays 23

TECHNOLOGY

an integral role. Sage North America recently conducted its second annual mobile device survey, in which the supplier of business management software and services polled 1,090 small and midsized businesses in the United States. The survey found that 54 percent supply their employees with 24

July 2014

mobile devices, down from 69 percent the previous year.

This could be due to the fact that as of January of 2014, 90 percent of American adults have a mobile phone and 58 percent of them own a smartphone. It is likely that the majority of people would want to use one phone for business and pleasure rather than two separate devices.

A M A Z O N ’ S F I R S T F O R AY I N T O T H E S M A R T P H O N E M A R K E T

When asked about the effect that mobile technology has had on their businesses, 70 percent of respondents said the most post positive effect has been on customer service. 32 percent of business owners found that mobile devices have been helpful in conducting business in the event of inclement weather. 21 percent responded that mobile devices have helped to bring work to the company, and 20 percent said that they enable the business to conduct meetings remotely.

Joe Langner, executive vice president and general manager of mid-market solutions for Sage North America, commented on the survey’s

finding by saying “The Sage Mobile Device Survey shows that mobile technology makes doing business easier, empowers superior customer service and increases productivity. With important business functions like customer contact being conducted primarily on mobile devices, business owners are finding ways to take advantage of technology and are seeing mobility make a true impact on their business.”

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TECHNOLOGY Business Applications Two notable features of the phone could potentially make conducting business more efficient. The Carousel is an exclusive app viewer on the Fire’s home screen that places alerts and recently used apps front and center, delivering real-time updates so you can work directly off of the home screen. For example, the Carousel allows you to read your

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July 2014

most recent email messages from the home screen without even opening the email app. You can also manage your appointments and access news without having to scroll elsewhere.

Additionally, the Fire automatically backs up the user’s notes, contacts, settings, apps and messages, eliminating the need to manually configure settings or link the phone to a computer. Data is automatically

A M A Z O N ’ S F I R S T F O R AY I N T O T H E S M A R T P H O N E M A R K E T

backed up to the cloud every time that the phone sits idle. This could be very helpful to business users who rely on their phones for data storage,

and the effortlessness of the backup system will leave them free to return to business as usual.

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MARKETING

INSIDER LESSONS FOR BUILDING A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY Tips and tricks for building a successful social media marketing strategy and sticking to it W R I T T E N B Y: D E A N A C A U C U S

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July 2014

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MARKETING ABOUT THREE-QUARTERS OF all Internet users are members of at least one social network, and social media ranks in as the number one daily activity among Americans. With so many consumers networking online, it is essential for today’s businesses to have a strong social media presence.

If your company has been slow to hop on the bandwagon, here are some tips on how to climb aboard and stay mobile.

1. Set Goals Outlining reasonable daily goals will help you stay on target. Determine what the minimum amount of posts per day should be in order to obtain maximum results. Don’t set the bar too high initially. The number can be adjusted accordingly, but setting a limit as a beginner will create a benchmark. Be sure to do your research to determine how often your competitors are posting, what their overall message is and how well it is being received.

Compiling your content in an editorial calendar is a good way to stay organized. Establish a weekly, shareable calendar separated by network that your coworkers can 30

July 2014

Be sure to do your research to determ posting, what their overall message i

view and comment on before posting.

Planning ahead will ensure that you spend enough time preparing and strategizing.

2. Tailor Your Posts Social networks aim to be unique, and

I N S I D E R L E S S O N S F O R B U I L D I N G A S O C I A L M E D I A S T R AT E G Y

mine how often your competitors are is and how well it is being received

each one should be regarded as such.

Certain content should be posted to all channels—especially good news and rave reviews—but you should generally tailor your posts to suit each individual forum.

For example, LinkedIn is strictly business, and their audience is looking for in-depth, informative content, while Instagram users expect meaningful visual imagery. Pay attention to your follower demographic in each network to ensure that you are publishing 31

MARKETING

content that will interest them. Also, consider the space limitations of each medium as you craft your post. At a 140-character per tweet maximum, Twitter thrives on brevity, as do many of the channels.

3. Engage With Users Visitors who tweet at you or post on your Facebook page should receive a prompt reply, as leads can be 32

July 2014

lost if their questions are ignored.

When you deliver a thoughtful reply, the visitor will feel as though their comments and concerns have been heard and addressed. Although often bemoaned for its lack of humanity, social media networks enable users to reach out to each other in a significant way.

To stay on top of customer or follower feedback, assign a member

Tailor your content to the audience of your team to monitor each social media channel. Have a system in place for responding patiently and professionally to negative comments.

Reward followers for promoting your business and engage them through contests and giveaways.

4. Track Data Tracking may be time-consuming, but the useful data that it provides

is worth the effort. Set aside time to review important metrics on a monthly basis. Statistics to focus on include number of posts, follower growth, feedback from followers including “likes� and retweets, page views and clicks to your website.

Analyze each channel separately and compare them to those of your largest competitors.

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MARKETING

To stay on top of customer or follower feedback, assign a member of your team to monitor each social media channel

For companies that are short on time, software can be enlisted to help track data, including free tools such as Hootsuite and Google Analytics. Determining which content received the most clicks or shares will help you to strategize for future posts. Share your results with the different marketing forces within your company for further evaluation 34

July 2014

and seek additional input from other departments. Customer service and sales departments may have good insight into your social media market, as they are the people who interact with prospects and customers the most consistently.

5. Stay Active Just because your business is

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generating exceptional buzz on one particular site does not mean that you should decrease your engagement with the others. Interest in social media networks fluctuates as channels compete and introduce new features. In that vein, be careful not to underestimate the viability of certain platforms. Google+ does not yet have the reputation that Facebook does, but it actually gets more hits: according to iMedia Connection,

Google+ actually averages more visits per month than Facebook, with Google+ receiving 1.2 billion visits per month compared to Facebook’s 809 million. Additionally, Google+ is tied to both Google search and YouTube. The more often your business posts on Google+ or YouTube, the more free ad space you will have when users search for you on Google, and your network will continue to grow as a result.

Tracking may be time-consuming, but the useful data that it provides is worth the effort

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TOP 10

TOP10

US FRANCHIS Business Review USA looks at the top franchises in the U.S. and their secrets to success

Written by: Abigail Phillips

SES 2014

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TOP 10

10

Dunkin’ Donuts

While traditional donut shops offered a mere four varieties of donuts, William Rosenberg— founder of Dunkin’ Donuts in 1950—had the brilliant idea to offer his customers 52. Today, Dunkin’ Donuts has over 15,000 locations in 37 countries and the company has increased their donut options to include 70 different kinds.

Dunkin’ Donuts also offers hot and cold coffee drinks, breakfast sandwiches, bagels and baked

goods. In addition to being served in stores, their coffee—so popular that the chain claims to sell over thirty cups a second—is available for purchase in packaged varieties at retailers nationwide.

9

Pizza Hut Inc.

Brothers Frank and Dan Carney were attending college in Wichita, Kansas when they borrowed $600 from their mother to launch the first Pizza Hut location. Since opening in 1958, Pizza Hut now has 14,357 locations in 94 countries and

Dunkin has 52 varieties of doughnut 38

July 2014

US FRANCHISES 2014

territories. The chain offers dine-in restaurants, delivery and carry-out locations, and hybrid restaurants offering all three options. Their “Pizza Hut Express” and “The Hut” stores operate as fast food restaurants. Pizza Hut customers are able to choose from different crust styles and toppings as well as from their signature pizza menu.

In addition to pizza, many locations also serve up pasta, breadsticks, salad, buffalo wings, garlic bread and desserts.

changed their name to avoid confusion with a competitor).

Denny’s began franchising in 1963, and since then, the chain has grown to include over 1650 locations in twelve countries.

Denny’s restaurants and diners serve breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert all day, with most locations open 24 hours. Often located in close proximity to freeway exits and service areas, Denny’s focus is on comfort and convenience.

7

Servpro

Originally started in Sacramento in 1967 as a painting business, Servpro now offers residential and commercial cleaning and restoration services to clients within the United States

8

Denny’s Inc.

Denny’s began as “Danny’s Donuts” in 1953 in Lakewood, California. By 1959, Founders Richard Jezak and Harold Butler had expanded their business to 20 restaurants (and 39

TOP 10

and Canada. Focusing primarily on disaster-related cleanup projects, Servpro’s clients include both commercial and residential customers whose property has suffered water or fire damage.

Founders Doris and Ted Isaacson sold their first franchise in 1969 before acquiring the Bristol-Myers Domesticare Division and its 175 franchises a decade later. The company has since expanded to 1649 franchises, many of which also offer mold remediation, carpet and upholstery cleaning, and air duct and HVAC cleaning services.

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7-Eleven Inc.

July 2014

The concept of 7-Eleven convenience stores originated in 1927 in Dallas, Texas, when Southland Ice Company employee John Jefferson Green began selling milk, bread and eggs

outside of an ice house. Since then, 7-Eleven has opened 53,000 stores in 16 countries. Originally named for its operating hours, 7-Eleven stores now offer 24-hour convenience with products ranging from milk to gasoline to privatelabel beverages such as the Big Gulp and Slurpee. Each location also offers 7-Eleven Speak Out Wireless, a prepaid phone service featuring a cell phone that can be purchased directly at the store and immediately activated.

5

Jimmy John’s

Upon barely graduating from college prep school in 1982, Jimmy John Liautaud’s father gave him the option of either joining the military or starting a business. He chose to open a deli in Charleston, Illinois the following January. The success of that location—a garage featuring only secondhand equipment—led to several others throughout Illinois

US FRANCHISES 2014

before Liautaud began to franchise a decade later. Currently, Jimmy John’s has over 1936 locations, 98 percent of which are franchiseowned. The chain boasts freshly baked bread at each location every day and a promise that their sandwiches will be made fresh to order within thirty seconds.

4 The first Supercuts location opened its doors in 1975 in Albany, California, when founders Frank Emmett and Geoffrey Rappaport endeavored to offer a more convenient alternative to leisurely barbershops and salons. The pair developed a hair-cutting technique that took only 20 minutes, enabling them to offer quick and inexpensive haircuts to walk-in customers. This business model proved to be very successful with its busy clientele and the two began franchising in 1979. Since then, Supercuts has empowered customers to choose from a variety of salon services a la carte at over 2,324 convenient

locations throughout the United States and Canada.

3

Subway

With 41,827 restaurants in 106 countries, Subway is the largest single-brand restaurant chain and the largest restaurant operator globally. Founded in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1965, the chain is owned and operated

by Doctor’s Associates, Inc., a name created by founder Fred DeLuca when he opened his first shop in order to afford tuition for medical school. Subway’s advertising slogan “Eat fresh” reflects its use of fresh bread and ingredients. The chain offers an array of healthy menu options including vegetarian specialties and gluten-free bread. A 2009 Zagat survey named Subway the best provider of “Healthy Options”

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TOP 10

Hampton Hotels and Hampton Inns is own

2

Hampton Hotels

Founded in 1984 by Promus Hotel Corporation, Hampton Hotels have over 1900 locations in 14 countries and territories. The brand includes Hampton Hotels, Hampton Inn, Hampton Inn & Suites and Hampton by Hilton, all trademarked by Hilton when it acquired Promus Hotel Corporation in 1999. Hampton Inn is currently the largest franchise in the United States. Hampton has launched several successful advertising campaigns luring potential guests through a call to return to relaxation, including “Embrace Your Weekend Self,” which was designed “To help travelers determine their weekend identities so they can better enjoy the weekend.”

1

Anytime Fitness

Open 24-hours and 365 days a year, this health and fitness club was founded in 2002 in Hastings, Minnesota.

Friends and self-professed “gym 42

July 2014

rats” Chuck Runyon, Dave Mortensen and Jeff Klinger purchased and managed Southview Athletic Club together from 1995 to 2001 and wanted to open their own gym. The three developed a business model and opened their first franchise in Cambridge, Minnesota, a site chosen for its large population and lack of gym facilities. Since then, Anytime Fitness has expanded to include more than 2400 franchises in all fifty states and 19 countries.

The name is indicative of the access granted to its members, who can utilize fitness facilities even during unstaffed hours with a key fob.

Their first location outside of

US FRANCHISES 2014

ned by Hilton

the United States opened in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2005.

The company has big plans for international expansion, including a goal of opening 250 fitness clubs in India within the next decade. Roark Capital Group

acquired a minority stake in the chain in March of this year and appointed two directors to its board. The substantial investment is expected to help the company expand globally. Ever enterprising, Anytime Fitness also owns a chain of Waxing the City hair removal salons, which they began franchising in May. Forbes recently ranked Anytime Fitness at number 14 among their list of America’s Most Promising Companies of 2014. With nearly two million members and counting, Anytime Fitness may soon become the fastest-growing fitness club franchise in the world.

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Iberdrola USA and CMP’s MPRP success

Iberdrola USA and CMP Inve in Reliability and Technology

Iberdrola USA transforms Maine with the state’s largest en infrastructure project in history, totaling $1.4 billion upon co Written by: Alyssa Clark

Produced by: Tom Venturo

’s

esting

nergy ompletion

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IBERDROLA

The Iberdrola USA companies are committed to safely and reliably delivering natural gas and electricity to its customers as well as providing the public with renewable energy solutions.

The company operates under three divisions: Iberdrola USA Networks, Inc., Iberdrola Energy Holdings, and Iberdrola Renewables. Through its operating companies in New York and Maine, Iberdrola USA Networks, Inc. delivers natural gas and electricity to nearly three million customers.

With 130 billion cubic feet of gas storage and energy services trading 46

July 2014

floors in Houston and Salt Lake City, Iberdrola Energy Holdings is one of the top independent gas storage operators and gas traders in the country. Iberdrola Renewables has more than 60 projects in 24 states and the largest renewable asset base of any company in the world.

Central Maine Power Iberdrola USA’s subsidiary iin Maine, Central Maine Power (CMP) is the State’s largest electric utility, serving over 600,000 customers.

CMP has a proven track record of providing reliable power to its customers. Nowhere is this dedication to customers and reliable

ENERGY

service more evident than in the company’s Maine Power Reliability Program.

John Carroll, Director of Corporate Communications for Iberdrola USA comments on the genesis of the project and the CMP’s history: “Central Maine Power was founded in Maine in the 1890’s, and as it grew over the years, it became the state’s largest vertically integrated electric utility. In 2000, the State of Maine restructured the industry, creating an unregulated generation industry and regulated

transmission and distribution utilities. Central Maine Power, from that point on, was just a T&D utility.

About ten years ago we began evaluating the reliability of our bulk power system, which, at that point, was already thirty-five years old.

We recognized that the system had not kept pace with growth, changes in population patterns, and increasing standards for reliability.

We determined that the bulk power grid was in significant need of an upgrad to make sure that CMP could continue to provide reliable power;

A frame construction in yard w w w. i b e r d r o l a r e n e w a b l e s . u s

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The demand for the Maine Power Reliability Program (MPRP) Iberdrola USA’s $1.4 billion Maine Power Reliability Program (MPRP) is the largest energy infrastructure project in the state’s history and the first upgrade of its electricity grid in 40 years; it is also now Iberdrola USA’s largest project to date.

Iberdrola USA and CMP launched the MPRP to have a major longterm impact on Maine’s electricity delivery system, as well as provide other benefits throughout New England.

Doug Herling, Vice President of

SUPPLIER PROFILE

Special Projects for Central Maine Power, commented on the goal of the program stating, “the MPRP is made up of many, many projects that, on their own, would stand alone as significant projects, but they are closely linked, so we felt that needed to be managed together if we were to succeed.”

The MPRP project includes the construction of five new 345-kilovolt substations and related facilities linked by approximately 450 miles of new or rebuilt transmission lines.

The southern end of the line ties into the rest of the New England grid near the New Hampshire border. It

CIANBRO

Founded in 1949 by the Cianchette Brothers, Cianbro is one of the East Coast’s largest, most diverse, open shop, 100% employee-owned construction companies. Operating in more than 40 states, 12 markets, with over 4,000 team members, Cianbro self-performs civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, fabrication, and coating.

Throughout 65 years, Cianbro has safely planned, managed, and constructed many complex projects for a variety of clients. Cianbro and Irby Construction are currently upgrading 230 miles of transmission line, known as the Central Loop, as part of the Maine Power Reliability Program (MPRP) for Central Maine Power Company’s bulk transmission system. Additionally, Cianbro is performing site development and construction for five new and 17 existing electrical substations.

For live project webcams and news feeds, Cianbro is on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Cianbro.com.

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IBERDROLA

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passes through 75 cities and towns and the northern end interconnects with transmission lines in the central Maine town of Orrington.

a large undertaking.

“By his estimation, using econometric models such as the REMI model, he predicted that given the level and type of spending that Supporting economic growth was associated with the project, the The project, which will be completed MPRP would create roughly 3,300 in 2015, will has employed as many jobs in Maine during the peak of the as 2,500 people the five-year construction.” construction phase and contribute Carroll notes just how timely significantly to indirect and induced the project’s launch was: “The employment as a result of the project began during 2010, at the spending in the Maine economy. time of a very deep recession, and When planning for the program, there was a tremendous amount CMP hired University of Southern of unemployment in Maine. Our Maine economist Charlie Colgan to economy was in freefall, so it was a study the economic impact of such real economic shot in the arm for the

SUPPLIER PROFILE

IRBY CONSTRUCTION COMPANY

Employees: 750 Established: IRBY was originally established in 1946 and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Quanta Services, Inc. in July 2000.

Industry: Transmission, distribution and substation construction and maintenance .

Services: IRBY provides the construction and maintenance of transmission, distribution and substation, as well as the installation of fiber optics.

Website: www.irbyconst.com

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C O M PA N Y N A M E

people that worked here.”

Relying on a network of safe, reliable industry partners, the MPRR project has cultivated its relationship with its contractors. The importance of great working relationships can be seen in the success of contractors like Asplundh Tree Expert Co., who has been a partner to the CMP in Maine for numerous years and played a pivotal role in the corridor clearing aspect of the project. In addition, CMP has built lasting relationships with contractors in the state and beyond including Program

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Manager Burns & McDonnell, major contractors MYR, Irby, Willbros, Cianbro and many more.

Protecting our environment As a company that prioritizes renewable energy and sustainable business practices, Iberdrola USA has a strong commitment to the environment.

Herling Is proud of the program’s track record when it comes to the environment. “We had a significant environmental application for this project: 8,000 pages of data

CONSTRUCTION

that we sent to the Department of Environmental Protection. It was the biggest application in the state’s history, and we’re following all of the requirements of that application. We work very closely with the contractors and hold them accountable and that has been very successful. Thus far, we have not had any violations.”

This lack of violations is due in part to the fact that CMP has had three inspectors working for the Department of Environmental Protection at their jobsite every day of the project. Their presence

ensures that all work done is in compliance with the applicable permits and laws.

According to Herling, “It’s something that I personally am very proud of because it’s not only good for our company, it’s good for the State of Maine as well.”

Iberdrola USA and CMP remain committed to providing only the best to all of the areas they serve. With nearly 1,000 structures set each year since construction started on the project in the fall of 2010, the project is already 90 percent complete and continues to be on budget and on

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schedule. By the time construction deployed in Maine. This $190 is completed in 2015, nearly 5,200 million project, covered in part by structures will have been set in total. a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), will enable CMP Investments in technology also customers to access pricing and benefit consumers and the usage information through a web environment portal so they can better manage Iberdrola USA’s commitment to energy use and cost. It will provide reliability and its customers does not the company with the best possible stop with large scale infrastructure information on outages to help projects. In the past few years, CMP speed the company’s response. has installed 620,000 advanced Additionally, it will mean operational electricity meters as part of a efficiencies and cost reductions new smart grid program being related to billing, account opening 54

July 2014

ENERGY

Company Information INDUSTRY

Energy HEADQUARTERS

New Gloucester, Maine FOUNDED

Construction project EMPLOYEES

3,000 REVENUE

$30 billion

and closings, and credit and collections as well as instantaneous meter reading.

The advanced meters will provide customers with continuous, real-time information on electrical usage and enable suppliers to offer consumers new options for variable pricing or time-of-use rates. Studies have shown that consumers will use electricity more efficiently when they have real-time information about usage and price. The new meters will be will also help the company reduce costs, enhance system planning, and pinpoint problems more quickly during outages.

PRODUCTS/ SERVICES

Construction project

https://www.facebook. com/IberdrolaRen https://twitter.com/ IberdrolaRen http://www.linkedin. com/company/iberdrolarenewables?trk=cp_ followed_name_ iberdrola-renewables

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Beasley Forest Products

Beasley Forest Products rea providing excellent service an

Grant Beasley, Vice President of Operations, explains how establishment and what techniques are employed to maint Written by: Lindsey Ryan

Produced by: Alex Hortaridis

s

aches success by nd quality products

w the company has grown since its tain the company’s continued success.

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Beasley forest Products started as a small logging company in the 1960s with only two employees, and since its establishment, the company has grown drastically.

Grant Beasley, Vice-President of Operations, explains that the company really began to grow in the 1990s when the company saw opportunity in the sawmill business and decided to switch gears from a logging company to the sawmill business. Now, Beasley Forest Products is known to be the largest sawmill in the United States. The company currently has four locations, the original mill 58

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being the largest sawmill in North America. Beasley graduated from Charlestown Southern University with a degree in finance and got an MBA from the University of Georgia and following in the family footsteps, he started working for Beasley Forest Products straight out of college, running the crane mat division.

Strategic Investments So how does Beasley Forest Products stay ahead of the competition? The company strives to stay modern and embraces new technology as it becomes available.

ENERGY

“We have state of the art equipment and every year we invest a couple million dollars into each facility, modernizing the equipment. We stay on the forefront of technology with the different equipment in the mills,� states Beasley. The company has achieved success by focusing on the products that are doing well and learning to jump from market to market as they see fit so that they are working toward the highest profit. Beasley expresses that the crane mats have been a big item for the past three or four years that has allowed the company to shift any volume

it needs into that market when the time calls. The company has such a high production level compared to the other manufacturers in the industry because they are able to consistently provide a quality product to every customer in a timely manner.

Quality Products and Service Beasley Forest Products produces crane mats, hardwood mats, timber mats, laminated mates, dragline mats, digging mats, logging mats and skids from hardwood that is harvested throughout the states of Georgia, South Carolina, Florida and

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With Cooper equipment, your ďŹ nancial future could’t be greener.

Whether you manufacture hardwoods or softwoods, crossties, mat timbers, lumber or pallet stock, Cooper Machine has the custom equipment solution to work for your sawmill.

www.coopermachine.com

BEASLEY FOREST PRODUCTS parts of Alabama. The company can produce over 500 high quality mats per day and on average has about 5,000 mats of various sizes in stock every day. Though mats are a primary production item, Beasley Forest products also produces many other products as well which helps lower the cost of the mat production, thus saving the client money when it comes time for ordering. Also, because they can handle very large orders and small orders alike, they have an advantage over the competition who can only deliver small quantities of mats per order.

In addition, because Beasley

SUPPLIER PROFILE

ENERGY

Forest Products is a manufacturer, they save time for their clients because they remove the middle man from the equation by efficiently building and delivering products themselves. “Our ability to deliver on orders is really what we’ve made our name on”, Beasley is proud to explain. He continues, “in most industries, we provide the product at a reasonable price and we handle any volume of product. In the case of crane mats, we can deliver on larger orders, which is a big deal in the oil and gas industries. It’s the ability to deliver large orders so they don’t have to break it up and deal

COOPER MACHINE COMPANY, INC.

Cooper Machine utilizes proven technology with the latest innovations to design and manufacture quality custom sawmill equipment to fit our customer’s needs. Our latest innovation, the Skewing Overhead combines the durability of the original Overhead Scragg with new computer and mechanical options to provide our customers with even more production and yield.

Cooper Machine has been working with Beasley Forest Products, the largest manufacturer of hardwoods, for over a quarter of a century. We are the North American representative for Incomac dry kilns as well as MIT S.A.’s band saws, stackers and carriages. And we offer a full line of sawmill equipment, and you can expect to get quality equipment for your mill, when you buy from Cooper Machine. www.coopermachine.com

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with multiple suppliers. That is one of our big selling points, and our quality of product is as high as any.

We definitely are the standard.”

The company offers reliable and timely delivery and promises to ship any order in the continental US with 48 hours of receiving the purchase order. This reliability allows customers to focus on their own operations while they let Beasley Forest Products manage the 62

July 2014

production of the needed materials.

The company guarantees the satisfaction of all its customers and values the customer relationships by providing “Quality Service from Quality People for Quality People.”

This makes them stand apart from the other companies in the industry.

Sustainability Despite the fact that many people may believe harvesting trees is

ENERGY

harmful to the environment, Beasley Forest Products takes sustainability very seriously and works hard to enforce proper forestry practices.

All of the loggers employed by the company are required to be certified in the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and the Master Timber Harvesting program. In efforts to make sure no wood product is wasted, the company is always looking for new ways to utilize green technology.

Beasley states, “We’re working to develop new mat technology that allows us to make mats out of smaller pieces of wood, make us more efficient users of our raw material.” The company uses the wood material all the way down to the bark and sawdust so that nothing ends up going to the landfill. Beasley Forest Products is committed to implementing and achieving green initiatives and strives for the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) Standard. It also maintains associate memberships with PLCA (Pipe Line Contractors Association), APCA (American Pipeline Contactors) and the Houston Pipelines Association to support their positive relationship with the pipeline industry.

In the coming years, Beasley states that the company goal is to continue its growth and success in the crane mat business and become the largest mat supplier available. He explains that there are potentials for new technology that may assist in the production of the crane mats and he hopes that they may discover something that will give them a technological advantage.

Company Information INDUSTRY

Energy HEADQUARTERS

Georgia FOUNDED

1960s EMPLOYEES

700 PRODUCTS/ SERVICES

Crane Mats

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Aaron Oil Leading by Example

Through a unique company culture, collaboration of partne technology, Aaron Oil is setting the stage to become a pred the used oil recycling and petroleum reclamation industry Written by: Robert Spence

Produced by: Alex Hortaridis

ers and dominate leader in

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Beakers

F

or over 33 years Aaron Oil has served thousands of customers across the United States. The company operates a used oil recycling facility providing services including used oil collection, used oil processing, pipeline and petroleum terminal reclamation, and recycled/ finished product distribution. Specializing in research and development, Aaron Oil works closely with the International used Oil Research Institute to develop new technologies and

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research pertaining to the oil industry.

Headquartered in Mobile, AL., Aaron Oil has locations spanning across the U.S., including Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.

The company has posted a 15-year annual growth rate, becoming one of the fastest growing privately owned corporations in the nation. In the last

six years alone the company has been named to Inc. 5000’s Fastest Growing Companies, signifying outstanding growth in their industry. But it’s only the beginning.

Through a unique company culture, collaboration of partners and technology, Aaron Oil is setting the stage to become a predominate leader in the used oil recycling and w w w. a a r o n o i l . c o m

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industrial - marine

Gulf City Body & Trailer Works, Inc. was built on quality service and equipment. Sixty-eight years later, it still remains our teams’ number one goal. We are a full line service, trailer and truck equipment dealer for only quality brands providing sales, service and repairs throughout the Southeast since 1945.

601 S. Conception Street • Mobile, AL 36603 • 251-438-5521 fax: 251-433-7910 • gulfcity.com

Sullivan Insulation is a full-service mechanical systems insulation contractor specializing in commercial, industrial, marine, and refrigeration projects.

Sullivan expertise covers a wide range of applications for the pulp and paper industry, power industry, marine industry and the plastics industry, and many others.

Burt E Sullivan i Office 251-679-0911 i Burtsullivansi@yahoo.com

AARON OIL petroleum reclamation industry.

Company culture One of the many reasons Aaron Oil has been so successful is the culture behind its business.

Through problem solving and entrepreneurship, the company continues to grow organically without any acquisitions. The company has accumulated over 125 employees since its inception, helping Aaron Oil carve out a niche for itself in the oil industry.

“We have one of the most experienced teams in the industry,” says Dan Cowart, CEO of Aaron Oil. “It allows us to operate by the highest standards in the world.”

According to Cowart, the company actively stands behind its employees, doing everything possible to attract and retain great employees. “Most of the people that work for us stay for a very long. I believe one of the biggest reasons why is because we value experience.”

The company’s rigid hiring process is a benefit to the company as well as helping employees finds their fit.

ENERGY

“Once we’ve hired new employees, we assist in helping them find where they fit in our operations. Cross-training has been very beneficial for us,” says Cowart.

Safety also plays a vital role in the success of Aaron Oil. The company maintains strict guidelines for its operations, complying with all safety and health standards of the International Organization of Standardization (ISO). Aaron Oil is one of the only oil recycler certified under ISO 14001 standards, which measure environmental management, and ISO 18001 standards, which measure health and safety practices.

“These standards are the highest operating standards in the world and they surpass what is need by the EPA,” says Cowart.

Implementing new ideas Aaron Oil is truly working to become a company of the future.

In addition to investing in over $2 million for in-house technology, the company has automated almost all of its operations, including its entire processing plant.

“We’ve recently implemented a lot w w w. a a r o n o i l . c o m

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Buffalo New Barge

of new technology into our trucks and environmentalizers such as GPD and video,” says Cowart. “This allows us to document and track our trucks as well as ensure all incidents are recognized.”

By developing its own software and technology programs in-house, Aaron Oil is able to streamline its operations, allowing automation to take the wheel and provide an immense increase in productivity.

“We have one of the only fully automated protected lines in the industry,” says Cowart. “We are 70

July 2014

investing a lot of money into automation, including in our trucks, facilities, dispatch and accounting.

A large portion of the company’s technology focuses on waste water processing and more effective oil processing methods. Aaron Oil is concentrating on becoming as ecofriendly as possible, providing a wealth of sustainable solutions for the oil industry.

Continuous improvements As one of the fastest growing

ENERGY

companies in the nation, Aaron Oil is constantly working on improving itself. The company doesn’t hold back when it comes to quality.

“We are known as the quality company for our industry,” says Cowart. “It’s who we are as a company and it’s become our signature.”

Aaron Oil has also hired an outside company, ERM Group, to conduct in-depth audits for its environment programs, ensuring the company is compliant on all of its operations.

“We believe bringing in ERM Group to look over our shoulder is extremely beneficial to ensure we’re on point environmentally,” says Cowart.

“The auditors give us a roadmap to improvement.”

Aaron Oil is also a founding member of the International Used Oil Research Institute.

The company works hard to collaborate with major universities to find new ways of improving operations.

In 2012 while working with BP to clean up their oil spill, the company opened a maritime facility to service vessels and offshore oil rigs.

“We built the plant in three weeks after the BP spill and got it in place to mitigate the incident effectively,” says Cowart.

As for the future, Aaron Oil is focusing on following green technology. In doing so, the company can prove upon its procedures, becoming more economical and sustainable.

“We’re not trying to be the biggest company out there, just the best in everything we do,” says Cowart.

Company Information Primarily, Aaron Oil is a Research and Development Company that works very closely with the International Used Oil Research Institute, The National Oil Recycler’s Association, EPA as well as state regulators, and technology manufacturers to identify and develop best available technologies, management practices, and management software. We are also developing an educational arm working in partnership https://www. with scientific facebook.com/ organizations and major AaronOilto train our universities next generation.

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Copperhead Pipeline an Construction Approaching their 10th anniv is more important than ever t Pipeline and Construction

Luke Rawlings, president of Copperhead Pipeline and Con importance of safety and how safety measures are employ project production.

Written by: Lindsey Ryan

Produced by: Alex Hortaridis

and

versary, safety to Copperhead

nstruction, discusses the yed in the operations throughout

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I

n 2004, Luke Rawlings and Mickey Clark formed Copperhead Pipeline and Construction and since its establishment, the company has accomplished projects such as pipeline construction, pipeline repairs, pipeline coatings, fabrication, pressure testing and casings. The company started in Oklahoma and due to it’s continual success, the company now has offices in Texas, Oklahoma and Mississippi.

Copperhead Pipeline and Construction is a company whose primary focus is on safety excellence, quality performance and timely service. The company produces a quality product and service by employing a management team of highly experienced project managers, superintendents and laborers. Because the team members have spent their lives in the Oil and Gas industries, Copperhead Pipeline is able to deliver their quality product within budget and on time.

The company understands that there is always room for improvement and is constantly striving to improve its daily capabilities to expand its customer base. The company employs its core

“The more production you get the more likely you are to have the risk of getting someone hurt or killed. When we bid these projects we take that into account” – Luke Rawlings, President

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ENERGY

values to meet the expectations of the customer and Luke Rawlings, president, expresses the importance of safety and explains what a key factor it is to the company success as Copperhead Pipeline and Construction approaches its tenth year anniversary.

The importance of safety The pipeline industry can be a very dangerous one and employers have to take care in ensuring that their work site, equipment and employees are all properly prepared for what the projects entail. What makes Copperhead Pipeline stand

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Dolan Directional Drilling, Inc. Dolan Directional Drilling, Inc. established in 2000, specializes in HDD Crossings for the oil and gas industries. We are capable of installing product sizes from 4" to 42" with drill lengths up to 6000'. We have experience in all types of ground conditions. We also have a variety of rig sizes and can accommodate projects of all sizes.

Feel free to contact us at 817-482-1680 to discuss your next project.

Visit our website: www.dolandirectional.com

ENERGY

apart from the competitors is one of its core values to “Never do a job if it cannot be done safely”. Rawlings believes that safety defines the company and he stresses the importance of a safe workplace environment and is committed to providing the employees, clients and the public to a safe place to live and work. Employees are required to obtain safety certifications as necessary and are encouraged to stop a job if it puts anyone in an unsafe position. Rawlings states, “the more production you try to push, the more likely you are to have the risk of getting someone hurt or killed. When we bid to projects we take that into account”. Rawlings stays involved throughout the production of each project to be sure the safety procedures and operational expectations are up to par from start to finish.

In addition to doing OSHA testing, First Aid and CPR certifications, the company has obtained two Master Trainers with NCCER and Veriforce, maintains programs with ISNetworld and has two clock spring installation trainers to keep up their impressive safety track record. As an additional effort to promote safety, the company spends around seven million dollars every year on equipment upgrades to ensure the employees are working with equipment that is top notch and will not put the work environment in any danger.

Operations and values Copperhead Pipeline works hard to keep every w w w. c o p p e r h e a d p i p e l i n e . c o m

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project within the budget and on time. This integrity and dedication to the customer has led Copperhead Pipeline to build strong relationships with their clients and subcontractors that the company works with. This leaves clients happy and returning to Copperhead Pipeline for future projects again and again. The company vision is to “build a solid 78

July 2014

company that is supported through quality employees, sound business ethics, and a focus on safety.� It prides itself on its uncompromised integrity and level of service.

Rawlings explains that Copperhead Pipeline has a subsidy sister company that works in the refinery and plant division.

To ensure that operations run

ENERGY

Company Information INDUSTRY

Pipeline HEADQUARTERS

Oklahoma FOUNDED

2004 EMPLOYEES

175-550

smoothly, the company carries the “U”, “S” and “R” code stamps. This permits the company to take action for any repair, modification and fabrication that may be required to do its job in keeping the production on schedule and within the approved budget. This integrity and use of safety operations contributes to attaining overall success in the business and assists the company to be the leader in the pipeline construction industry. w w w. c o p p e r h e a d p i p e l i n e . c o m

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Precision Pipeline Striving for Excellence

VP of Project Management Ryan McKone discusses Precis strategies in health and safety, strong work ethic, and conti Written by: Sasha Orman Produced by: Alex Hortaridis

sion Pipeline’s improvement inued trajectory of growth

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T

en years ago, Precision Pipeline opened its doors as a small regional pipeline contractor. But times have changed, with successful work in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale region propelling Precision Pipeline toward growth in step with the natural gas pipeline industry boom.

Today Precision Pipeline operates 82

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as a subsidiary of MasTec, a multinational leader in engineering and construction for the oil, gas, and electricity sectors. Through it all, Precision Pipeline has stayed true to its core values high standards of safety, environmental stewardship, quality, and efficiency.

SECTOR

Improvements in Health and Safety An important key to growth is not being afraid to reevaluate your operations, identifying your own weaknesses and therein the places where you can improve. At Precision Pipeline, this means taking another look at safety standards in an effort to do better by their employees and clients.

“Was our safety good because we were lucky, or was our safety good because of what we were doing?” asks McKone. “So we reevaluated our whole program.” Through this reevaluation strategy, Precision Pipeline has been able to take a keen look at its daily operations and make significant improvements, addressing issues like equipment

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Corrigan Oil Company dedicates itself to serving our customers by providing the greatest value in services for the industrial, residential and commercial marketplaces.

Corrigan Oil Company is headquartered in Brighton, MI and serves Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. Corrigan supplies and distributes fuels, propane, lubricants and provides heavy hauling services.

Mike Corrigan

mike@corriganoil.com

www.corriganoil.com

Congratulations!

Precision Pipeline on 10 years of excellence in the industry!

from your partners

www.plmcat.com

PRECISION PIPELINE

ENERGY

safety and team leadership while enacting precautionary measures like visiting job sites before project start dates in order to assess and plan for any potential hazards ahead of time.

This increased emphasis on safety and the adoption of a “no tolerance” position for hazardous situations is also encouraged among Precision Pipeline’s network of suppliers and partners. “We know what our values are, and we try to push those down to others,” says McKone. “Subcontractors have to make the same commitment to us that we make to all of our project leaders – a commitment to zero injuries and zero incidents.” Through this broad spanning commitment, Precision Pipeline has been able to drastically reduce incidents throughout its projects.

Better Training and Collaboration for Better Results Strong training has been vital to Precision Pipeline’s growth. As a proud hirer of union workers, Precision Pipeline is able to hire skilled welders and other craftsmen – but for those who are working a pipeline for the first time, there can be a learning curve. Because of this, good training is vital and at Precision it starts with on-the-job guidance on the field.

“We’re able to provide on the job training,” says McKone. “We really value those new workers, because they’re a fresh set of eyes. But pipeline work is new to them, so we have what we call a w w w. p r e c i s i o n p i p e l i n e l l c . c o m

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‘green hand,’ which means they’re new. They’ll actually wear a green hand on their hard hat, so other workers are aware that they’re new to this and will look out for them.”

An especially beneficial aspect of the training and learning process at Precision Pipeline is its position within the MasTec family, giving the company a unique opportunity to learn from and share knowledge with others in the industry. “Being that we are a part of a larger group, we’re able to bounce ideas and lessons learned off of other 86

July 2014

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companies that are owned by the same parent company,” says McKone.

Training is also a crucial part of leadership, with field workers being prepped for every project in regards to issues like health and safety so that everyone is on the same page in understanding each project’s goals and standard expectations.

“Some of these guys go through it every time a new job starts – but while the message is always similar, it’s always improving,” says McKone.

“We’re always adding things, always trying to make it better.”

Company Information INDUSTRY

Oil & Gas Pipeline Construction HEADQUARTERS

Eau Claire, WI FOUNDED

2004

Ten Years and Running This year marks Precision Pipeline’s tenth in operation, and the company is looking ahead toward further growth potential in regions like Marcellus Shale, Utica Shale in Ohio, in the Dakotas and even Texas. What it isn’t doing, on the other hand, is stopping to pat itself on the back.

“We don’t beat our chests – we put our heads down, work hard, and try to do the best we can with the resources we have and try to improve, so that we’re a leader without standing up and shouting that we’re a leader,” he says. “That’s how our company was built, and that’s how it continues. It’s a good company, and we’ll continue to grow and get better – it’s an exciting time to be here.”

EMPLOYEES

50 corporate, 20003000 field REVENUE

Traded publically under Mastec Inc (MTZ) PRODUCTS/ SERVICES

Pipeline Construction

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Magnetic Analysis Corporation:

Scaling Up for the Energy S

MAC VP of Sales Dudley Boden discusses entering the O market for oil and gas and how the company has met the challenges of this fast growing industry Written by: Sasha Orman

Produced by: Alex Hortaridis

Sector

OCTG e

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The Ultrasonic Test Head Mechanism was then adapted to be used for the inspection of spinning tubular and bar product. As demonstrated, there are 2 test heads at the bottom of the tube. Bellow the head is a water tank. System 2014

Ten years ago, Magnetic Analysis Corporation (MAC) was in the business of nondestructive testing for the metals industry, running eddy current and flux leakage testing and analysis on pipes and structures for a variety of sectors. The energy sector was not a major part the business – but when the need for oil and natural gas pipelines began to expand over the last decade, MAC saw an opportunity.

“Ten years ago, we started to get much more active in the oil country tubular goods (OCTG) market, and that was good timing for us because that was when that market was 90

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really starting to take off all over the world,” says Dudley Boden, VP of Operations at MAC. “It was really where the opportunities were at that point, and we had the right technology – in some cases all we had to do was make larger versions of the testers we were making, make more integrated systems with multiple types of testers in one line, in order to meet the requirements of that market. We just needed to adapt a little bit to go into that market. Now that’s become a big part of our business both here in the US and overseas.”

Today MAC stands as a major

ENERGY

A pre-acceptance test at the MAC plant of a Longitudinal Flux Leakage Rotary system for automotive tubular products of varying wall thicknesses. 2011 System

force in oil and gas, using an array of testing capabilities to ensure that the pipelines the industry relies on are strong and ready to perform.

Shifting Gears and a Unique Advantage for a New Market Years of experience in nondestructive metals testing has given Magnetic Analysis Corporation the unique advantage of having a range of testing equipment meant for various applications that can now be applied to the pipeline industry.

“Not many of our competitors, in the OCTG market or anywhere else, have all the different types of technology that we offer,” says Boden.

“Either they focus more on ultrasonic testing or eddy current or flux leakage testing – but almost none of them have all of it. We’re one

“Probably our biggest investments in last few years are in scaling up our products” – says Boden

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Synarsky T-4

of the only manufacturers who have all of that, so we can put a complete package together without subcontracting out to someone else or going through separate vendors. That’s a huge advantage for us in this market.”

Still, every new sector brings its own unique set of challenges and oil and gas has been no different. Since entering this market, MAC has invested significantly in retooling its equipment and testing capabilities to take on these challenges.

“Probably our biggest investments in last few years are in scaling up our products,” says Boden.

“Ten years ago, our largest ultrasonic rotary tester

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ENERGY

could test 5-inch (127mm) material as a maximum – now we’ve produced an ultrasonic rotary that can test up to 20-inch (500mm) material. That’s a much bigger product, which is required for OCTG. It’s the same with our flux leakage tester – our largest flux leakage tester was (15.75-inch) 400mm, and now we’re up to 500mm. A lot of our product development has been scaling up our mechanics, our drive systems, and our conveyors to handle these larger products.”

Beyond scaling up, MAC has also invested in the development of altogether new technologies to test more accurately for the industries it serves.

“The infrared testing system we’re just starting to introduce is a unique technology for doing surface defects, totally noncontact, and offer some unique advantages,” Boden adds. “We’re doing that with a partner, and we continue to develop and come out with new versions of our electronics that support each of these kinds of testers.”

Driving Customer Service One guarantee that Magnetic Analysis Corp makes to its customers is that, wherever its products are sold, it has the local capacity to provide comprehensive service and support.

As Boden explains, this service is crucial for manufacturers with their own tight schedules.

“Sometimes our products are in the production line itself, sometimes they’re in an offline test system – but in either case, they’re unable to ship product if it hasn’t been tested,” he says.

“Either they focus more on ultrasonic testing or eddy current or flux leakage testing – but almost none of them have all of it. We’re one of the only manufacturers who have all of that, so we can put a complete package together without subcontracting out to someone else or going through separate vendors.

That’s a huge advantage for us in this market.”

– Dudley Boden President & CEO

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In this instance, we have a system installed in India for inspecting OCTG. Longitudinal & Transverse Flux leakage Rotaries on MAC’s “V” Roll Pinch 2008 System “We shut down the factory if our equipment isn’t operating. So it’s very important to be able to respond quickly and get people with the proper skills on site in a hurry, to get equipment back up and running if there’s any kind of problem. We then also have somebody who can go there and spend time with the customer at initial delivery, learning about their operation and making sure we provide the right equipment in the first place.”

This responsiveness is part of MAC’s commitment to customer service. The company’s most important asset beyond its comprehensive testing capabilities, it has turned MAC’s relative 94

July 2014

ENERGY

Company Information INDUSTRY

Manufacturing, Heavy Machinery, NDT, Metals HEADQUARTERS

Elmsford NY USA FOUNDED

1928 EMPLOYEES

144

Ultrasonic Rotary, Demagnetizer, Stand Test Bench.

REVENUE

30+ Million

size in the industry into agility and an asset. “In this day and age every customer wants things PRODUCTS/ SERVICES a little bit different, whether it’s the paperwork side of things or actual equipment requirements,” www.mac-ndt.com says Boden. “They are looking for levels of customization, or to fit a product into a space that https://www.facebook.com/ may not be ideal. What we find is, while virtually MagneticAnalysis all of our competitors make standard offerings, we customize down to the level of wanting https://twitter.com/MacNDT something painted a different color. If it comes to reengineering your product to fit very specifichttp://www.linkedin.com/ parameters, we will. That’s a big advantage of uscompany/magnetic-analysisbeing small and responsive.” corporation w w w. m a c - n d t . c o m

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ArtiFlex Manufacturing,

ArtiFlex Manufacturing Chart in Low Volume Tooling and M

ArtiFlex CEO, Erin Hoffmann and Director of Business Dev the rising need for low volume manufacturing and equipme joined forces to fill the demand Written by: Sasha Orman

Produced by: Justin Burkinshaw

LLC

ts a New Course Manufacturing

velopment Steve Delmoro discuss ent, and the two businesses who

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In the late 2000s, International Tooling Solutions (ITS) and Worthington Industries subsidiary The Gerstenslager Company saw an opportunity to fill an industry demand that was critically underserved – low volume tooling and manufacturing for the automotive and nonautomotive OEM sectors at a competitive price.

Since combining their strengths and expertise under a joint venture in 2011, the newly formed ArtiFlex Manufacturing has led the way in providing a crucial service to the manufacturing industry.

volume tools and equipment is often inefficient, costly, and frustrating for manufacturers. In order to find a way to make low volume production cost effective and even profitable, ArtiFlex Manufacturing had to go back to basics of research and development and completely rethink the process.

“In high volume stamping, the tooling is largely a function of not only what it takes to make the part but also what the production system requires of it – so dies are built in accordance of standards, and those standards are developed in order to facilitate lower cost of the price A Different Approach of the stampings in a high volume Low volume production through high setting,” says ArtiFlex Manufacturing 98

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CEO Erin Hoffmann. “We took the opposite approach: if you only had to make one part, what would you do? What if you needed a hundred?

A thousand? Ten thousand? We found much of what was driving the cost of the tooling to be the

requirements of a typical production standard – and when we broke those constraints, we were able to cut out a significant amount of cost.”

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Serving the metal stamping and fabricating needs of OEMs since 1947.

Put our experience to work for you!

Buckley Manufacturing, a registered TS16949/ISO-14001 company, is centrally located in Cincinnati, Ohio. Buckley produces a wide variety of stamped and welded automotive parts for OEMs. Buckley stamps deep draw, progressive and line die stampings.

Mike Strotman Email mike@buckleymfg.com Phone 513-821-4444

A R T I F L E X M A N U FA C T U R I N G , L L C M A N U F A C T U R I N G is because, for the capital invested in the presses that run high volume parts, every minute of time is important,” says Steve Delmoro, Director of Business Development at ArtiFlex. “Typical tier one manufacturers want to maximize the run time at all costs, and that drives them to put more and more cost into the tooling itself. If you’re only making ten thousand units of something, it’s not as critical for the press to be able to run a thousand parts an hour. That was somewhat unique in thinking compared to the tier ones, where it’s been driven down that it has to be as fast as possible.”

“When you get into really low volume, the rate at which you produce is not as important as the amount of investment that you put into every part – there’s a crossover that takes place, and the

SUPPLIER PROFILE

BUCKLEY MANUFACTURING

Buckley Manufacturing founded in 1947 located in Cincinnati, Ohio is TS-16949 and ISO-14001 registered, producing numerous stamped and welded automotive parts for North American OEMs. Buckley manufactures a wide variety of stampings using progressive dies, line dies, blank dies, toggle dies, air pressure pad, hand transfer, and nitrogen deep draw pressure pad dies.

Please email or visit our web site for further information.

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A R T I F L E X M A N U FA C T U R I N G , L L C traditional approach is no longer the most efficient approach to making a part,” adds Hoffmann .

“We don’t concern ourselves with whether it takes 30 seconds or three to four minutes to make the part or assembly. We look at the lowest cost approach to tooling in order to make a low volume production part successful.”

Growing with Demand Prior to the launch of ArtiFlex Manufacturing as a full on joint venture, ITS and Gerstenslager tested the waters of the market through a trial period of comarketing, where they experienced considerable consumer interest – but even with a

Quality and Service Since 1928 Industrial Robot Supply Inc. is a robotic systems integrator in the Reynolds Industrial Park in Greenville PA. We supply new and refurbished industrial robots from ABB, Fanuc, and Motoman. We specialize in Robotic Welding, Robotic Materials Handling, and Robotic Servo Positioner Systems. We offer Pre-Engineered Robotic Welding Cells, and a complete line of robotic servo positioners from headstock/tailstock systems, Tilt/Rotate and Three-axis systems. We also offer custom engineered robotic welding and material handling systems designed around your process. We manufacture our components in-house with state-of-the-art CNC equipment and utilize the latest 3D modeling CAD/CAM software. We carry a large inventory of refurbished robots, spare parts, and other robotic equipment.

Representing the major manufacturers of the welding industry - Albright Welding Supply is a recognized leader in gas, welding and cutting solutions and gas applications.

Corporate Office & Main Store: Wooster, Ohio Branch Store & Warehouse: Orrville, Ohio Ph: (800) 686-2021 Fax: (330) 263-7484 Email: Albright@albrightwelding.com www.albrightwelding.com

www.industrialrobotix.com 724-646-0245 or 866-968-1208

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positive initial response, the launch of a new business entity always comes with some risk. In the case of ArtiFlex, that risk has paid off: since its launch in 2011, the business has seen what would equate to a 40 percent top line growth for the two original businesses combined.

“On the tooling side of the business, we anticipated that about 25 percent of our tooling would be for lower volume unique niche applications – it turned out that about 70 percent is for lower volume niche applications,” says Hoffmann . “In our production environment, we’ve achieved growth in both our core past-model service business as well as our factory assist and our new low volume niche production.

Going forward, we’re projecting that our growth will continue, and that we will be able to achieve an addition 25 percent over next three to four years.”

Much of that growth can be attributed to ArtiFlex’s ability to meet the demands of industries that are just beginning to hit their stride.

“We’re the number one supplier of stamped metal battery enclosures for the electric vehicle space,” says

Hoffmann . “Those projects are all inherently low volume and they benefit from our capability, and that was a market that didn’t exist five years ago. I think we benefitted from discovering a niche that was growing.”

“Forecasted volume is a big driver for how much you’re going to invest in capital and tooling,” adds Delmoro, explaining the gravitation of the electric vehicle industry toward the skill sets available through ArtiFlex. “If you know you’re going to make 50,000 units of something with high confidence, you can invest heavily in tooling around that – but if you don’t know if it’s going to be 3,000 a year or 10,000 a year, you’re much more sensitive to that upfront investment. That’s where we were able to bring in a solution that allowed them to step slowly into that capital investment instead of all at once.”

A Unique Offering From a Unique Culture ArtiFlex Manufacturing is not like any manufacturer on the market, and that’s an incomparable asset to both the business and its clients. w w w. a r t i f l e x m f g . c o m

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“We’re not a traditional stamper, nor do we ever see ourselves being that – we serve a unique aspect of the market, and that’s what we’re good at,” says Hoffmann . “We definitely are managers of complexity – because most of what we produce is low volume, we have to have huge number of current programs ongoing in our environment to support the overall capacity. Juggling that and making it work seamlessly to the customer

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is a huge challenge. But that is one of our greatest strengths and clearly one of the reasons why most people don’t have any intention of competing against us in that space.”

But it’s technology and logistics that would not be possible without the strength of ArtiFlex’s other greatest assets – its people and its culture. “I think one of the keys to our success is the creative innovative passionate spirit that our team members put into these

M A N U FA C T U R I N G

Company Information INDUSTRY

Manufacturing HEADQUARTERS

Grand Rapids, MI FOUNDED

2011 EMPLOYEES

884 PRODUCTS/ SERVICES

unique projects,” says Hoffmann . “In the higher volume and traditional space, the key to success is clearly having great equipment and systems in place. But in the low volume space, it’s heavily dependent on the quality of your people and team members. We have an outstanding group of people who are very innovative by their nature and they’re not afraid to try new things, and they’re passionate about their work, they really stand behind what they do. We’re very proud of having that type of a high performance culture, and it’s probably one of the greatest and most important key ingredients to our success.”

Tooling Design, Prototypes, Die Tryout and Repair, Metal Stamping, Assembly, Assembly Automation Design, Robotic Hemming, E-coat, AfterHem Sealing, Packaging

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Delkor Systems

How Delkor Systems has Fo Entrepreneurial Culture

Employee work-life balance sparks wellbeing and creativity at packaging equipment manufacturer Written by: Abigail Phillips

Produced by: Michael Magno

ostered an

y

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DELKOR SYSTEMS

Over the last four decades, Minnesota-based Delkor Systems, Inc. has built a thriving manufacturing business by helping consumer product companies automate the packaging of their products. Listening closely to customer needs and investing heavily in research and development Delkor has introduced a steady stream of inventive machinery – and novel packaging designs – that are making brand owners more productive and profitable.

In a time when many manufacturing companies were cutting back on R&D and marketing, Delkor President and CEO Dale Andersen expanded the engineering staff and committed the company to expanding its product line to satisfy the wider packaging market.

Delkor specializes in machinery that forms, loads and closes secondary packaging, which includes the cases, cartons, trays and shrinkbundled packages. These are used to transport products throughout the supply chain, from manufacturing to retail shelves.

Andersen acquired Delkor in 108

July 2014

the late 1990s. Prior to that, the company founder had divested some of its technology and business to other packaging companies.

Andersen took over the Delkor name and the core of the company’s business, which primarily served the packaging needs of the dairy industry. By expanding the number and types of machines available, Delkor is now serving more packaging segments among Fortune 500 companies. As a result, over the last decade the company has experienced average organic growth of 12 percent annually, with revenues growing from $20 million in 2004 to $65 million today.

Delkor recently consolidated its operations in a new 114,000 sq. ft. facility in St. Paul, MN. Andersen says Delkor takes pride in producing high-tech equipment here in the U.S. that can compete globally. He says the company’s location in Minnesota is a strength since the area is a strong packaging center and it provides a highly skilled talen pool.

At Delkor, the entire team of 170 employees is encouraged to find new ways to automate packaging.

M A N U FA C T U R I N G

All sales staff are Delkor employees and have a strong engineering background that helps them understand and visualize customer requirements. They are backed by a team of 23 engineers who translate these needs into efficient machines that meet or exceed customers’ requirements. Delkor’s manufacturing staff all have received technical training. Many also double as service technicians, using their extensive experience in building the machines to ensure the equipment is properly installed and is optimized for maximum productivity.

Continuous Improvement Packaging is a product used daily by virtually all consumers.

Changing consumer requirements are driving packaging changes, such as sustainable design, singleservings, flexible pouches, zippered enclosures, microwaveability and other convenience features. These modifications have prompted further developments in secondary packaging. Delkor has anticipated many of these changes and adapted the design of their equipment to take advantage of these transformations.

Mass merchandisers are playing an increasingly important role in w w w. d e l k o r s y s t e m s . c o m

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Keenline designs, engineers and manufactures conveyance systems to convey raw or packaged food products.

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DELKOR SYSTEMS the types of packaging used in different retail channels. These range from convenience stores to wholesale club stores, and each has its own shipping, display and size requirements.

For a brand owner or a copacker, this means their machinery must have the flexibility to handle a range of packaging. Until very recently, many packaging lines were dedicated to producing a single type of product. Now, machines must changeover between packaging formats more frequently, and packagers are seeking to minimize the downtime during each change.

An engineering executive at a leading U.S. food company recently said that the old mantra for packaging operations was “Bigger, faster , better.” Now that company’s expectations have changed. They are seeking packaging equipment that is “Adapatable, flexible and efficient.” Delkor has been ahead of the curve in adapting its business model to this new mantra. Examples of its success include designing machines that can changeover in less than three minutes, which prevents lost production time.

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In addition, Delkor has added “intelligence” to much of its packaging equipment that can significantly increase production efficiency. Inspection devices allow the machines to detect and selfcorrect many packaging faults without stopping and requiring aid in removing defects from the machine.

Another factor that separates Delkor from many equipment manufacturers is that it often either designs or helps design new packaging – not just the machines themselves. Packaging must protect and sell the product, but sometimes these goals clash. By working with its customers, Delkor has helped develop packaging that effectively achieves shelf impact while delivering efficient manufacturing.

An example is the patent-pending Delkor Cabrio Case™, which is a shipping case that easily converts to an attractive shelf-ready tray ready for store display.

An Entrepreneurial Culture While engineers are developing new machinery to better accommodate packaging goals, Delkor provides an inclusive, entrepreneurial w w w. d e l k o r s y s t e m s . c o m

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culture that allows each member of the team to contribute creatively and technologically. According to Andersen, “One of the things I am most proud of is that we’ve been able to develop an innovative culture, and it’s not easy to do that.

It means that we have to have a culture in which you hire the right type of person. Innovation presents a lot of challenges. As soon as you accomplish one challenge, you’re on 112

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to the next. You have to be creative, willing to accept failure and use that failure to move on to success.

It takes a special culture to really reach a higher level of innovation.

Management has to be attentive, and you have to have the right team. I think that we’ve been doing that over the last few years, and we need to make sure that we’re bringing the right people on board that fit that role.”

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Delkor also employs a product-strategy team, representing eight departments, that decides the development projects that the company will undertake. Among the departments represented are sales, marketing, engineering, operations, product-line developers, as well as the CEO, to ensure Delkor determines the best approach to fulfilling customer needs and requests.

Company Information INDUSTRY

Packaging Equipment HEADQUARTERS

St. Paul, MN

Employee Wellbeing Employee satisfaction and work-life balance also are primary goals for Delkor. The company aims to minimize staff turnover and create career opportunities for employees to pursue within the company to provide a higher quality of life. Delkor is one of the few companies that provide daily fitness classes, including yoga, in which around 70 employees participate. These classes, held in an on-site fitness center, provide employees the opportunity to meet new people from other departments as Delkor rapidly expands its workforce. The fitness classes also work as a way to promote a healthy, active lifestyle to improve heart health, among various health benefits.

A majority of Delkor’s business is concentrated in the food and beverage industries, where it serves numerous multinational companies.

In planning for the future, Delkor continues to expand its product lines to meet the needs of a growing customer base, primarily based in North America, but expanding into other areas outside the U.S.

FOUNDED

1973 EMPLOYEES

170 REVENUE

$65 million+ PRODUCTS/ SERVICES

Automated equipment for forming, loading, closing and inspection of packaging

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Olympus Controls

Offering three levels of solutions to clients

Scott Hendrickson, CEO of Olympus Controls, discusses h the company has evolved to become one of the most succ Automation Technology Center in the US and what strateg employed to keep them ahead of the competition.

Written by: Lindsey Ryan

Produced by: Justin Burkinshaw

how cessful gies are

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Olympus Controls was created in 1998 when founder and CEO, Scott Hendrickson, was sponsored

by Parker Hannifin to start a new Automation Technology Center in the Pacific North West.

Hendrickson has established the company to be a successful Automation Technology Center that has achieved its success by focusing on making sure the company delivers innovative designs to their clients. In 2001 when the recession hit, the company was small enough to 116

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weather the downturn and nimble enough to grow our business at strategic OEMs. When the economy bounced back, Olympus Controls’ was able to capitalize from their strategic initiatives and most competitors could not react as quickly because they did not make the same levels of investments in their businesses. “For us it was very simple; hire the right people, have them focus on the right accounts, have then engage in the right behavior, and for us that eventually yielded

M A N U FA C T U R I N G

the right results,� explains Hendrickson.

automation technology. When the engineers are fully educated on each technology, they can Understanding the customer effectively inform the clients of the Olympus Controls employs benefits of the technology. The a unique training program to second leg focuses on industry maintain great customer relations knowledge. Hendrickson wants and ensure that its clients are the engineers to be fully trained receiving the best service possible. on the idiosyncrasies of every Hendrickson explains that he market they work with so that when considers the company’s training they are having conversations program to be a three legged stool, with the clients, they can use the each leg consisting of a valuable same industry lexicon and are area of knowledge. The first is leg already familiar with anything of the stool focuses on machine the client may wish to discuss. w w w. o l y m p u s - c o n t r o l s . c o m

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CCS has been the lighting experts for more than (20) years.

CCS is the leading supplier of LED light solutions for the Machine Vision market. In addition, CCS strives for quality and continuity and offers all our customers a total lighting solution.

bgagnon@ccsamerica.com I www.ccsamerica.com

Hendrickson states, “We spend a lot of time on educating our engineers about the specific key points of each industry that we’re calling on. Really studying those industries to understand what today’s challenges are and what tomorrow’s solutions must look like. Thoroughly understanding these trends allows us to better support our clients.” The third leg of the training stool focuses on account knowledge. In order for Olympus Controls to configure a game plan to capture more market

share for each client, they must first have a full understanding of what that company does, who the key people are, what technology they use and what the client’s annual spend is. By instilling these three training techniques in each employee, Olympus Controls has established itself as a valuable resource for both their client and supplier partners.

Disruptive technology Olympus Controls takes on a different approach towards

O LY M P U S C O N T R O L S

M A N U FA C T U R I N G

technology, which makes the company stand apart from its competitors. While many companies focus on sustainable technologies (small incremental improvements to existing technology), Olympus Control focuses on disruptive technologies which are unexpected technological breakthroughs that require organizations to significantly re-evaluate their current way of doing business.

“We focus on new and creative ways of looking at our client’s business and making sure we have the technology portfolio that’s going to support them doing business very different from the way that everyone else is doing it,” states Hendrickson. The company must invest a significant amount of time and money to demonstrate how to employ these future technologies today rather than waiting five years when everyone to start using them.

Hendrickson explains that the challenges with disruptive technologies lie in using judgment and intuition to determine which technologies are going to be truly

successful and which ones only have immediate attention upon release because of the hype about them. However, in all of their decision making towards new technology, Olympus Controls ensures that they are introducing technology to their clients has been fully vetted so that what the client is not adopting anything before it has had all the kinks worked out.

Some of the recent technologies that Olympus Controls has been focusing on are intelligence conveyance systems, 3D vision, and collaborative robots. The collaborative robots demonstrate innovative technology that enables the robots to work side by side with employees without the safety risk that has existed in the past. Previously, robots were programmed to make moves as fast which resulted in very high forces and no way to detect if something interrupted the motion along the programmed path.

Because of this, they had to be separated from employees with the use of safety cages. These new collaborative robots, or “cobots”,

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have dual feedback systems that can detect when something gets in its path and consequently lowers the power of the robot, thus creating a workplace safe for cobots and people to work together.

Offering three levels of solutions Olympus Controls initially began as a company that offered only Component level solutions, drop shipping products from their supplier partners to their clients for them to assemble. Over the last several years many companies have downsized their own Technician and Engineering teams to the point they no longer 120

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have the ability to assemble these components themselves and have begun requesting that Olympus Controls provide that value-add service. The company shifted from just offering components to offering Sub-Systems where we assembled everything together for the clients that requested it. Even more recently, the clients began requesting that Olympus Controls provide all the design, build services to deliver complete Systems for their unique applications. “What separates us from other integrators is we will only provide these Systems services as an extension of our Components and Sub-Systems business. The

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one thing that makes us very unique is that we can offer three levels of solutions,” explains Hendrickson. Not only does the company offer three levels of solutions, but they let the client decide how involved they would like Olympus Controls to become in their design process.

This option is very unlike most other companies who only offer one level of solution, Olympus Controls offers all three. Hendrickson states, “It’s not one size fits all; we listen to our client then morph into what they want.”

Olympus Controls engages in an annual strategic planning process where they dissect their business into 6 different elements and takes a close look at each element to determine how they can improve upon them.

Additionally, they also utilizes both LEAN and Kaizen processes as part of their continuous improvement and quality initiatives. “Typically when you look at process flow you look at it from start to finish. We have found it helpful to flip the process upside-down and look at the process backwards. With this approach if forces you to break the paradigm and find many creative ways to eliminate waste out of the process.” Hendrickson continues, “When you go through a LEAN process backwards and it’s a unique way of solving old problems” It is this variety and quality of solutions Olympus Controls offers to its clients has had a huge impact on separating them from other companies in the industry.

Company Information It takes more than good products to effectively solve an application; it takes good engineers. Olympus Controls understands the importance of having qualified engineers assisting you in the design and implementation of machine automation products. That is why all of our Automation Engineers are seasoned professionals with engineering degrees and considerable experience in the automation industry.

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Hartness International

How Hartness International provides full system integration solutions to clients Scott Smith, vice-president of global marketing and business development, discusses the technology and processes Hartness International employs to reach its success and explains how being acquired by a fortune 200 company has contributed to the company’s growth.

Written by: Lindsey Ryan

Produced by: Jason Wright 123

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Hartness International started in 1940 as a small company in Greenville, South Carolina, when Tom Hartness purchased the Pepsi bottling rights to manufacture the case packing equipment for the area. Since then, the company has grown tremendously and has made a name for itself by now offering a full range of system integration solutions to its customers. Scott Smith, vice president of global marketing and business development at Hartness International, has worked with the company for 17 years, starting in sales for the western USA and Asia.

He then transitioned to director of 124

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sales in North America sales before he eventually earned his title as vice president of global marketing and business development. Smith has witnessed the company’s growth over the years and looks forward to Hartness International’s continued success in the manufacturing industry.

Innovative Technology One way that Hartness Intl. stands apart from the competition is in its use of innovative technology. In 1998, the company developed the DYNAC, which is a buffering and accumulation system that ensures

M A N U FA C T U R I N G

a production line will continue to run even if one of the functions stop. The DYNAC offers customers the ability to increase their operating efficiency and has become one of Hartness Intl.’s most famous products, with over 4000 installed in businesses around the world. Currently, the company is working to evolve the DYNAC even further so that it may benefit companies in industries that Hartness Intl. has not yet become involved with.

The company has been taking a new approach to technological innovation by reaching out to its customers directly to understand what their unmet needs are currently and looking forward three to five years to determine specifically what the unmet needs will be and then use that data to guide the innovation process. “We are actually

“At the end of the day, that’s our strategy. We want to be the company that our customers come to that can provide the entire back end of their supply chain, with the financial backing of the 15 billion dollar fortune 200 company” – Scott Smith

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H A R T N E S S I N T E R N AT I O N A L going in on the front end of projects and helping our clients develop those projects and I think were seen today as more relevant than we’ve ever been. If you had to lay out the core competencies of the business it would be customer satisfaction and innovation,� states Smith. Hartness Intl. strives to make sure their innovation dollars spent are meeting customer needs. It is how the company determines how to invest and what areas to develop next.

One of the company’s most recent investments in technology has been in laser technology. The use of lasers to cut the stainless steel to form the company machines in the warehouse allows the

Manufacturing of custom machinery , Welding of specialty metals, sandblasting and industrial paint stripping.

Monte Beasley

Steven Garver

Monte@mandrmetalfabrication.com

Steven@mandrmetalfabrication.com

Phone: 864-226-9529

M A N U FA C T U R I N G

warehouse to run “lights out”. This means that the lasers are operating even when there is no one in the building. The precision and accuracy of the lasers enables the company to utilize a higher percentage of stainless steels on the sheets, saving money while also providing a more sustainable operation. Hartness Intl. invests significantly in lasers and prides itself in being best in class in laser cutting.

Sustainable Operations In addition to the lasers that are used in the warehouses which increase sustainability, in 2008 Hartness Intl. developed a vertically

integrated process for painting glass bottles that is a substitute for the common process known as Applied Ceramic Labels (ACL). The ACL process applies ink on bottles in a way that provides superior adhesion. This method involves painting bottles which are then fired to 2000 degrees for several hours to bake the paint onto the bottle, thus emitting chemicals and metal solvents into the environment.

Hartness’s unique process, using Hartness Inks, involves UV curable binding technology which has superior adhesion but is much more environmentally safe than ACL. “We’ve developed a UV ink that w w w. h a r t n e s s . c o m

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H A R T N E S S I N T E R N AT I O N A L

adheres as well as the ACL process without having to go through the whole curing process that ACL does that consumes a lot of energy and puts things into the air. There are no hard metals in our ink. Also, as opposed to a 3-4 hour curing time in an oven, we apply UV light to the ink and it cures immediately; in less than a second,” Smith explains.

The sustainability movement has had an effect on the company in other ways as well because now customers are requesting for a more gentile way of handling the products.

Hartness Intl. has implemented robotics to assist in the process.

Smith states, “Our customers are trying to do more with less so when you do that from a packaging and manufacturing standpoint, you have 128

July 2014

to be able to handle the packages a little differently. Robotics offers us the ability to handle packages very gently so that it enables our customers to, what we call, ‘Light Weight’ their products. The sustainability movement has certainly impacted us from R&D and innovation standpoint without question.”

Strategic Acquisitions In 2009, Hartness International was acquired by Illinois Tool Works, ITW, which has proven to be a wise move for Hartness Itnl. ITW is an international company with about fifteen billion in annual revenue, fifty thousand employees and locations in over fifty countries.

Because of ITW’s global presence

M A N U FA C T U R I N G

and standing, Smith reflects that “The acquisition has enabled us to invest more significantly in things like innovation in the development in new products. It’s made it easier for us to expand the business internationally because of their global footprint.” With the quality service and great reputation that Hartness Intl. had already achieved through its many years of operation in the industry, this union with ITW provides Hartness Intl. with the financial support needed to continue growing. ITW enables the company to build multiple pieces of equipment, such as case packing, robotics and buffering systems, rather than building just one piece of equipment. The company’s division of ITW offers solutions for the full back end of its clients’ supply chain. Hartness Intl. does everything from designing packaging lines to providing innovative consumer products multipacks, all throughout the warehouse. “At the end of the day, that’s our strategy. We want to be the company that our customers come to that can provide the entire back end of their supply chain, with the financial backing of the 15 billion dollar fortune 200 company,” states Smith.

Though the company has been acquired by ITW, it still maintains the Hartness family culture that made the experience of doing business with the company enjoyable and memorable.

It still has the core family values but is now backed with the financial standing to be more than a manufacturer and provide the full system integration solutions to its clients.

Company Information INDUSTRY

Manufacturing HEADQUARTERS

Greenville, SC FOUNDED

1940 EMPLOYEES

around 450 PRODUCTS/ SERVICES

Packaging Equipment

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Orthman Conveying

Family-oriented business

With a strong company culture, continuous improvements Manufacturing is changing the way conveying equipment i Written by: Robert Spence

Produced by: Justin Burkinshaw

and new initiatives, Orthman is done

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Founded in 1970, Orthman Manufacturing is a family-owned business specializing in five divisions – Agricultural; Industrial; Energy; Logistics; and Conveying.

The company is headquartered in Lexington, NE. and oversees the delivery of its wide array of products through its own logistics division.

Over time, the company’s conveying sector has evolved into one of its most prized assets. The division is comprised of Screw Conveyors, Bucket Elevators and Belt Conveyors for a wide variety of markets. The division provides custom conveying equipment for 132

July 2014

both multi-million dollar construction projects as well as parts for the distribution industry.

Orthman Manufacturing is changing the way conveying equipment is manufactured by implementing a strong company culture, continuous improvement and brand new initiatives.

Services Orthman Conveying specializes in manufacturing customized equipment for specific projects.

Through a broad selection of screw conveyors and components, the company provides bulk

M A N U FA C T U R I N G

material handling and processing applications for foods, chemicals, power, light and heavy manufacturing, and agriculture.

The company’s vast experience allows them the capability to engineer bulk material and handling systems of any size and scope. Along with manufacturing components in compliance with CEMA standards, the company implements its own quality assurance program to ensure all products are made to their strict standards. Components are factory tested to the highest standards before shipment and the proof lies

in their field-proven testimonies.

Orthman’s number one goal is to produce conveyor equipment that stand the test of time.

Employees Orthman is a hands-on, familyoriented business. The company believes employees come first and are the life-blood to their success.

“We believe if you’re going to grow a company you start with the employees first,” says Doug Hampton, Business Unit Manager.

“Here at Orthman, we treat everyone fair and honest because that’s who we are. w w w. c o n v e y u s a . c o m

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ORTHMAN CONVEYING Being located in Nebraska, the company is avidly involved in its community. In addition to donating money to local events and projects, the company works with local schools to promote education and develop new skills.

“We work with a lot of local universities and community colleges,” says Hampton. “We have intern programs that attract a lot of students from around the United States. At the end of our program, we have interns give a presentation to the entire company to showcase what they learned.”

Orthman believes training is vital to their success. The company prides itself as being a “hands-on business” and they work to ensure

Advance Sales and Engineering

Engineering the gap between needs and solutions

Advance Sales and Engineering represents quality manufacturers of Mechanical and Electrical Power Transmission products in Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Iowa, and western Wisconsin providing professional product selection, recommendation, engineering assistance and product support.

We proudly represent Orthman Conveying Systems in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Bill Sloneker Advance Sales and Engineering P: 763.536.3977 I www.advancesales.net

M A N U FA C T U R I N G

employees are constantly striving to improve efficiencies as well stay updated on safety precautions.

“Whether it’s on safety or product knowledge, we’re constantly training our employees to be better informed and up-to-date,” says Hampton.

“We believe our training programs show our employees we care and that we want to make their life as smooth as possible.”

Continuous improvements Orthman Conveying works to continuously improve in everything it does. The company has recently implemented a new lean process

into its manufacturing line with hopes of becoming more efficient.

“We’re working to make sure employees stay within their work zones as much as possible and have the tools and products to be successful at the end of the day,” says Hampton. “We’re also looking at our products to see if we can make them more efficient with less time and parts.”

“It’s not just a temporary thing – it’s every day, 365 days a year.”

Cultivating and nurturing vendor relationships are a big part of what Orthman does best. With over 40 w w w. c o n v e y u s a . c o m

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years in the industry, the company has found the perfect formula for quality relationships.

According to Hampton, the company treats its supply chain relationships as personal as possible. “We don’t try and find the lowest price. We base our 136

July 2014

relationships on delivery and honesty as well as years of service.

We also do supplier audits and visit their facilities to make sure companies are following our guidelines. We’re not always adding suppliers but we’re making sure the ones we have are honest.”

M A N U FA C T U R I N G

Company Information Orthman Conveying Systems engineers and designs screw conveyors and other bulk material handling equipment for a wide variety of markets.

We currently provide custom conveying equipment for both multi-million dollar construction projects, as well as parts to the distributor industry. We maintain clients on five continents representing a wide spectrum of industries.

As for the future, the company is currently engaged in building a new facility to streamline its manufacturing.

“We’re building a new 150,000-square-foot facility that will include lean manufacturing,” says Hampton. “The new facility should be down by this time next year.”

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BTX Global Logistics Technology and innovation d success at BTX Global Logis

By focusing on its core values of technology, innovation an Global Logistics has achieved success for more than 30 ye Written by: Abigail Phillips Produced by: Jason Wright

drive continual stics

nd people development, BTX ears

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B

TX Global Logistics opened its doors in 1980 as a fullservice logistics provider specializing in heavyweight and time-sensitive shipping by air and land as well as shipping by sea.

Since its inception, the company has been successfully fulfilling its profile and today has a loyal and abundant customer base to show for it. BTX takes great pride in its technological know-how and strongly believes that its application of modern systems and processes has put it at the forefront of the logistics industry.

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at BTX. In fact, President Ross Bacarella insists on it every day.

“My management style is heavily influenced by my upbringing. I never look at the wonderful things that we do at BTX but instead the areas in which we can actively improve. ” Not one to rest on his laurels or rely on past success, Bacarella has fostered a culture of open communication and continuous improvement at the company. “We have performance standards in place and everybody is aware of what is expected of them,” he says.

“Communication is the cornerstone of our success, and

S U P P LY C H A I N

with that comes frequent analysis of our performance using the specific KPIs that define us. We continue to improve and enhance our service offerings by meeting with department heads regularly.

Each division of the company is in tune with one another, sharing best practice, news and ideas for improvement and growth.”

People Management BXT Global Logistics employs in excess of 200 employees and yet Bacarella approaches people management with the individual in mind. “I whole heartedly believe in

treating people with respect. My aim is to have employees who feel good about for whom they work and to feel the value of what they are doing.”

As part of this, Bacarella offers his employees continual training and opportunities for personal and professional growth. “Training is one of the areas that we have targeted for our employees in 2014.

We aim to keep everyone in tune with the bigger picture. We already provide annual training meetings for sales and operations, along with frequent web sessions. We are also in the process of creating w w w. b t x g l o b a l . c o m

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and building more training videos and a podcast library that will be available on demand.”

When it comes to management, as aforementioned, Bacarella draws on the experience of his own upbringing to lead his people. “I was raised in a very active sports environment,” he recalls. “Team to me means more than any one individual, so 142

July 2014

collectively, we’re stronger.”

“At BTX everyone from the individuals on the ground to the VPs and the executive team collaborate on projects. We want to make sure that we’re in tune with one another and that everyone has a voice. We make decisions together,” he says.

SECTOR

Looking to the Future At BTX, training and development isn’t limited to its own borders, but also extends to local schools and communities. In the last few years the company has taken part in “FUTURES”, a program based at Bacarella’s high school Alma Mater, St Joseph. A two-day agenda is set with a group of seniors being introduced to the various departments of the company. The second day comprises of on-site field trips to a seaport or an

“We have performance standards in place and everybody is aware of what is expected of them” – President Ross

Bacarella

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Real Solutions for everyday Logistics JRS Trucking Service, Inc operates a US Customs

Bonded Warehouse in JFK International Airport and

Philadelphia International Airport as well. JRS Trucking

Service, Inc is a full service handling agent at JFK. JRS

Trucking Service, Inc is one of the first third party

vendors that are a cargo screening facility at JFK. JRS

Trucking Service, Inc is an expert in the handling of

Pharmaceutical transportation air and ocean.

JRS Trucking Service, Inc. operates a pick-up and

delivery service in the New York metropolitan area

including the five boroughs of NYC Nassau & Suffolk

Counties in Long Island, New York as well as New

Jersey and Philadelphia areas. JRS Trucking Service,

Inc also runs daily shuttles to Boston and Philadelphia

everyday and offers full truck load service in the

Northeast Region.

New York, JFK

Philadelphia, PHL

NY 11413

Sharon Hill, PA 19079

Springfield Gardens,

Facility Code F542

Phone: (718) 553-2700

684 Elmwood Ave

Facility Code D288

Phone: (610) 579-3949

www.jrstruck.com

JRS

TRUCKING SERVICE INC.

SUPPLIER PROFILE

JRS TRUCKING SERVICE INC.

JRS Trucking Service, Inc operates a US Customs Bonded Warehouse in JFK International Airport and Philadelphia International Airport as well. JRS Trucking Service, Inc is a full service handling agent at JFK. JRS Trucking Service, Inc is one of the first third party vendors that are a cargo screening facility at JFK. JRS Trucking Service, Inc is an expert in the handling of Pharmaceutical transportation air and ocean.

JRS Trucking Service, Inc. operates a pick-up and delivery service in the New York metropolitan area including the five boroughs of NYC Nassau & Suffolk Counties in Long Island, New York as well as New Jersey and Philadelphia areas.

JRS Trucking Service, Inc also runs daily shuttles to Boston and Philadelphia everyday and offers full truck load service in the Northeast Region.

JRS features a Warehouse Management System to improve the movement and storage of materials within our warehouse and process the associated transactions, including shipping, receiving, putaway and picking. This WMS will eventually give our customers more accurate detail about their shipment and allow us to more accurately handle our Logistics.

Website: www.jrstruck.com

BTX GLOBAL LOGISTICS

S U P P LY C H A I N

airport cargo facility, in addition to a visit to one of the company’s local fulfillment operations.

“I believe that this program comes at a key point in the lives of our future leaders. It’s an opportunity for BTX to showcase what we do as a company in what can be perceived as a complex industry, but also to highlight how it all connects—and how important relationship building is,” says Bacarella.

extremely important. It is the same when someone is on our website or researches BTX online: We need to impress quickly,” says Bacarella.

The new website is fully optimized for use on a desktop, a tablet PC or even a smartphone and still provides BTX customers with a robust, onthe-go tracking system. As Bacarella explains, “The website offers our shipping clientele an informative and dynamic site, as well as a web based software suite where they can ship, Technology and Innovation track, get reports, get quotes online BTX and its commitment to both and on-demand. technology and communication has “It’s a portal where they can helped the company remain ahead handle all their supply chain needs of the competition. In mid-June, BTX in one area. They can manage their launched a brand new version of inventory and they can see their its website that emphasizes those inventory that we are managing in relationships between company, any of our warehouses. We also employees and clients alike. have an e-commerce section of “I cannot speak enough to the the website. Our first priority was to importance of our website. It really is completely meet the needs of our a first port of call in today’s culture. customers,” he says.

Prospective customers have shifted “We really do communicate with from reading through collateral you our key vendors through technology. left behind or some printed piece Customers require information and mailed to them, to researching a we give it to them exactly how they company by its website and the want it. Interactions and interfaces ‘chatter’ online. In a sales call the are optimized to make the process first 30 seconds of that call are that much easier,” says Bacarella. w w w. b t x g l o b a l . c o m

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S U P P LY C H A I N

Remaining True to its Roots BTX Global Logistics will celebrate 34 years in business next year and by-and-large has stayed fast by its founding principles. “Yes, we have added additional services as time has gone by, like warehousing and fulfillment and e-commerce environments and specialized services that we didn’t offer way back when. But on the whole we have focused on the core service lines of air and sea freight for 34 years,” says Bacarella. “With this in mind, we have become really good at what we do.”

“The transportation industry is always changing. We must continue to be a chameleon and change with the times. Those that do not will fade away. Companies need to remain mobile and flexible in how they do business. Five years ago, is not what we are doing now, nor is it what we may be doing five years from now. E-Commerce is a great example of this.

“Longevity and stability create success. We will get there if we stay true to ourselves and be the best of what we are. It’s not about becoming an institutional service provider. We are a top tiered carrier that delivers what it promises: a high level of service at a fair price,” concludes Bacarella.

Company Information INDUSTRY

Transportation and logistics HEADQUARTERS

Connecticut FOUNDED

1980 EMPLOYEES

200+ REVENUE

$75m+ PRODUCTS/ SERVICES

Domestic, Global, Ground, Sea, Home Delivery, Trade Show, Offshore

https://www.facebook. com/BTXGlobal

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Walsh/Super Excavators River Tunnel Project

Cleaning Up Lake Erie with th Tunnel Project

Walsh Construction Group Project Manager Mark Hedrick the future of Lake Erie through Lorain, OH’s Black River Tun Written by: Sasha Orman Produced by: Tom Venturo

s JV – Black

he Black River

discusses workplace safety and nnel Project

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WA L S H / S U P E R E X C A VAT O R S J V

Lake Erie is a precious resource for the cities that surround it – but with rising pollution and contamination from outdated sewer systems, the lake and its communities were in trouble. The Ohio-based city of Lorain is one of the lake-lining cities that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has tasked with cleaning up its sewer systems to help clean up the lake, and it employed Walsh Construction and Super Excavators to help make it happen. The joint venture’s Black River Tunnel project is currently underway, and its completion signals a brighter future 152

July 2014

for Lorain and for Lake Erie.

An Ambitious Project “The problem right now is that currently, when there are rain events, the city of Lorain has a lot of stormwater intrusion into its sanitary system, which in turn causes the sewers to flood along with basements and streets,” explains Walsh Construction project manager Mark Hedrick.

“That becomes a big cleanup, and a health hazard as well.”

The Black River Tunnel project is an estimated $65 million endeavor aiming to correct this problem by

CONSTRUCTION

diverting overflow through additional tunnels, so that stormwater stays separate and contained instead of running off into the lake. This is being achieved through the construction of a series of shafts, a tunnel, and a pump station. As a leader in municipal pump station design builds and construction management, Walsh Construction has been able to bring extensive capability and experience to the job, which is currently slated for completion in 2016.

Making Safety a Priority From its co-sponsor participation in the industry wide Safety Week 2014, to its own Matthew Myles Walsh, II Founders National Safety Award recognizing the accomplishments of other industry leaders, safety is a massive priority for Walsh Construction Group. “Safety is a top priority over everything – whether it be cost, scheduling, or anything else, the safety and security of our employees is definitely the top priority,” says Hedrick.

As it is with all Walsh Construction projects, this priority is also central

to the Black River Tunnel project. At times, this can present a challenge.

“We have a project labor agreement which requires 75 percent of local residents, and this is the only tunnel in Lorain so you have a limited workforce with knowledge of tunneling,” says Hedrick. But the safety of its crew is nonnegotiable, and the construction group understands that a lack of specific and standardized workplace knowledge can put everyone on the worksite in danger.

Therefore, in order to support this priority and overcome its challenges, the most important tool in Walsh Construction’s toolbox is workplace training and education. “We had additional training both for the work and for safety measures to keep everybody safe while meeting the local requirements,” says Hedrick.

A Range of Training The training regimen on the Black River Tunnel project goes beyond the basics, ensuring that workers are prepared for a variety of critical situations.

“We had to train tunnel rescue

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Ric-Man Construction, Inc. was founded in 1965. Ric-Man excels in heavy underground construction and delivers a safe environment with high quality standards established by its founder Richard Mancini.

Email: info@ric-man.com I www.ric-man.com

Flygt - A Xylem Brand is the originator of the heavy duty electrical submersible pump. We have been The Buckeye Pumps Municipal Department represents, distributes and services quality

manufacturing high quality heavy duty equipment since 1901, and continue to provide support, expertise

water and wastewater pumping and process equipment throughout Ohio and Kentucky. We

and the highest quality products available for pumping and mixing contaminated and abrasive liquids. At

provide the very best in clean water solutions by utilizing the lowest cost, most dependable solutions with engineered equipment, parts and service.

Flygt we understand that the total Life Cycle Cost of ownership means more than merely having an efficient motor. Providing products that unequivocally possess the highest sustained energy and hydraulic efficiencies within the wastewater marketplace is what makes lifelong customers.

Chris Kushner I Municipal Market Manager

Ryan Hoffman I Sr. Application Engineer

Nick Mathie I Service Manager

ckushner@buckeyepumps.com

rhoffman@buckeyepumps.com

nmathie@buckeyepumps.com

Toll Free: 866.900.PUMP Fax: 419.468.1460 www.buckeyepumps.com

Phone: 704-409-9700 Email: ygt@xylemleads.com

WA L S H / S U P E R E X C A VAT O R S J V crews – the local rescue forces of fire and police do not do that, so we went and trained our own employees,” says Hedrick noting that this includes not just training, but Walsh Construction purchasing a full array of tunnel rescue equipment to provide workers with all the tools they would need in the event of a potential accident.

But workplace safety is not just about workers knowing what to do in the case of a problem. It’s also about workers using the right protocols and procedures in order to ideally prevent accidents from happening in the first place. To this end, Walsh Construction employs a policy of worker training that is comprehensive and ongoing.

“We do weekly and daily safety

CONSTRUCTION

meetings, which is also another form of training,” says Hedrick. “If anything new comes up we pull the guys off the job site and do training as needed. If people have questions, we’re always willing to do retraining, or if they come up with something that we haven’t hit on yet, we always encourage our employees to bring items forward so that we can get them addressed and keep them safe.”

Envisioning the Benefits Upon completion, the benefits of the Black River Tunnel project will be crystal clear. “One would be that they would not be subject to fines from the EPA, which is always beneficial – just getting that out of the way will be huge,” says Hedrick.

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Proud to have been the lagging provider on the Black River Tunnel Project.

Lumber Resource Solutions specializes in industrial-packaging products, lagging, dunnage and timber mats.

We are currently producing hardwood pallets, crates, blocking and cut-to-size lumber. We also can produce pipeline skidding and timber/excavator mats.

Phone: 330-550-7763

Email: kieran@lumberrs.com

www.LumberRS.com

But the project also paves the way for the city’s future development and revitalization.

“This community thrives off the lake – you could say it would be an economic stimulator for the area to have a cleaner lake,” says Hedrick.

“People like to fish, they like boating, and another result of this project is to help open up development along the Black River and along Lake Erie here in Lorain. One of the city’s future plans is to develop the area, and this is a big part of it.”

CONSTRUCTION

Company Information INDUSTRY

General Contracting HEADQUARTERS

929 West Adams StreetChicago, IL 60607 FOUNDED

1898 EMPLOYEES

Developing a Trend The Black River Tunnel project is one of several similar projects happening within Ohio, with several cleanup efforts underway from Akron to Cleveland. According to Hedrick, these current projects could very well be precursors of many more projects to come along Lake Erie and throughout the region.

“This seems to be a growing trend with taking care of the Great Lakes,” he says, adding that Walsh Construction hopes to be part of this important effort beyond Black River Tunnel.

“Fresh water is important for life – they’re a major asset to the area so we have to keep our lakes clean.”

6,000+ REVENUE

$4.03 Billion

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Mintails is on a

mission to revive South Africa’s West Rand Tailings miner and gold producer will more than double its capacity by October and is looking to expand underground activities, including the regeneration of degraded land to help address the country’s chronic housing shortage Written by: Tom Wadlow Produced by: Bobby Meehan

157

M I N TA I L S

The extraction of minerals from ore requires that the ore be ground into fine particles

“This project is a demonstration of principle rather than sheer volume…it shows that underground mining here is possible and a viable thing to do” – Jan Jacobs, General Manager of Operations

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G

old tailings and hard rock miner Mintails is set to boost its production capacity by the end of the year following the regeneration of its flagship Mogale Gold plants on South Africa’s West Rand.

Not only does the Australian-listed firm aim to become the country’s second-largest tailings miner within five years, but also to greatly increase its underground and hard rock activities, signalled by the recent opening of its D-shaft asset.

In achieving this expansion the challenge of regenerating old underground basins comes to the fore, with the company carrying out vital dewatering work which will not only allow it to mine the freed-up gold but also pass on revived land

MINING

post-closure to help address a chronic housing shortfall.

Mogale Gold The extraction of minerals from ore requires that the ore be ground into fine particles, so tailings are typically small and range from the size of a grain of sand to a few micrometres and are usually produced from mills in slurry form.

On completion in September-October this year, the Mogale site will be able to treat six million tonnes of tailings slime, sand and hard rock.

General Manager of Operations Jan Jacobs added: “The re-opening of the second Mogale plant will take capacity up by 400,000 tonnes to over half a million tonnes a month. This is not our only development, but is by far the biggest ongoing project.”

The company, set up in 2005, acquired the Mogale site in 2006 which saw it taken out of government control. In total it controls around 106 million tonnes of tailings resources.

Going underground Alongside its continuing open-pit operations, Mintails is targeting significant growth underground and opened its D-shaft asset in February this year, producing around 5,000 tonnes a month.

“This project is a demonstration of principle rather than sheer volume,” Jacobs said. “It shows that underground mining here is possible and a

Inspection of the mine site by Operations Managers

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M I N TA I L S

Bringing the water quality up to a level where it can be used utilised more sensibly

Reason says: there are three ways to go.

Instinct says: only one leads to growth.

Solving Technical Problems Through Innovation Business decisions are rarely black and white. Dynamic organisations know they need to apply both reason and instinct to decision making.

Contek is a professional services consulting firm with a focus in engineering, environment, safety, related management systems, and regulatory compliance.

For more information visit us online.

Through our teams of global mining industry specialists, Grant Thornton has been assisting our mining clients to meet their business objectives wherever they are in the world. Our clients range from global producers to explorers and suppliers. Regardless of size, our approach does not differ – we focus on understanding the core drivers of our clients’ businesses, their business goals and objectives and with this knowledge, ensure they gain maximum advantage from our unique service offering.

We are Grant Thornton and it’s what we do for our clients every day.

Contact us to help unlock your potential for growth.

Proudly associated with Mintails

T: (469) 467-8296 • F: (469) 467-8631 contek@contekllc.com • www.contekllc.com

2014 Grant Thornton South Africa. All rights reserved. Grant Thornton South Africa is a member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd (GTIL).

MINING

viable thing to do, as we project all-in costs of around $800 per ounce which is extremely cheap.

We are targeting blocks left behind by previous miners in the 1950s.”

“This will be a big focus for us, moving from open-cast mining to significant tonnes of underground production, around 1.5 million over the next five years.”

But for the company to be successful underground it must decant the target basins and bring the water level down from its current level of around 60 metres to an eventual target of 500 metres. It is working closely with the government on the first step of getting the water down to the environmentally critical level of 160 metres.

Such a task requires enormous commitment.

Jacobs added: “It’s not just the pumping cost, it’s the fact it is dilute sulphuric acid and treatment of this is very expensive. Any discharge must be at an environmentally sensitive level and have patented our own process for this.”

Mintails has managed to reduce the cost of treatment from R8 per cubic metre, about the cost of drinking water, to a much more viable R3.

It is also working closely with South African universities to bring the water quality up to a level where it can be used in applications beyond discharge back into the environment.

Rescuing land Not only will clearing basins of acidic water enable further mining activity, it will also revive degraded

Key Personnel

Jan Jacobs, General Manager of Operations Joined Mintails in 2008 with several years of metallurgical experience in the mining industry, specifically in CIL/CIP, Acid and Flotation Plants. Jan has had strategic and operational exposure in project management delivering complex projects. He has brought energy and focus to the operational management of Mintails, with specific value to its CIL plant and furthering the ambitions of the company in delivering its hard rock mining opportunities.

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Tailings are small and range from the size of a grain of sand to a few micrometres

“Mintails aims to release 8,000 hectares of land for settlements having alleviated around 600 to date’

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land to a safe level for the construction of housing, something which is desperately needed in the Johannesburg hinterland.

It is already recovering land through open cast mining by removing the on-surface reef outcrops and stabilising the area, and post-closure operations will become a top priority for the company.

“Although mining has taken place here for the last 120 years no single gold mine has achieved closure of mines, it has always been signed back,” Jacobs said. “We want to be the first ones to close mines.

“Environmentally, the West Rand is among the worst. In the late 1990s all mining slowed down, all

MINING

Site inspection

pumping stopped, all maintenance stopped and land sat there to degrade for 10 years. We need to leave it in a state that is useful again.

“Unfortunately due to a chronic shortage there are a lot of informal settlements popping up and these people are living in areas of high environmental degradation.”

Mintails aims to release 8,000 hectares of land for settlements having alleviated around 600 to date. The programme is made up of a 20-year plan with the company board comprising of considerable expertise in the property market, a key area for the business post-closure.

“This won’t be a quick fix,” Jacobs added. “Dewatering is a short term solution and we have to

Onsite technology

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MINING

stop it filling up again. We need to bring benefits to the society we operate in while still giving shareholder value and we’re doing this at present.”

Hands on Ensuring Mintails continues to excel above and below ground on these important works is its 250 employees and further 550 contracted workers, all from local communities. This is set to rise to more than 3,500 as underground operations pick up.

Training is thus a huge priority, and the company runs its own hands-on training shaft, giving workers first-hand experience of the vital skills required as well as a practical approach to safety rather than the typically bureaucratic style seen in bigger mining houses. It has not suffered a fatality since it began in 2005.

It is also compliant with Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) regulations through a wholly meritocratic attitude to employment, making this legal must an irrelevancy when coming to hire the best available.

“These people are partners, not BEE partners,” Jacobs said. “A lot of companies have made mistakes in pushing the BEE numbers for the sake of complying with the rules.”

With the best on board Mintails can complete its short term goal of becoming the second-largest tailings miner in South Africa while looking ahead to effective longer-term strategies post-closure, ultimately becoming a key partner in the battle to address the national housing shortfall.

Company Information INDUSTRY

Mining HEADQUARTERS

Armadale, Australia FOUNDED

2005 EMPLOYEES

850 REVENUE

Not disclosed PRODUCTS/ SERVICES

Tailings and hard rock gold mining, acid mine drainage

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Drexel University:

Innovating Philadelphia for th

Through innovative approaches, Drexel University is chang and turning the city into a technological and educational hu Written by: Robert Spence

Produced by: Clark Burns

he better

ging the landscape of Philadelphia ub for local residents

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DREXEL UNIVERSITY

Drexel Chestnut Square

Located in the city of brotherly love, Drexel University is a comprehensive global research university ranked among the top 100 in the nation. With roughly 26,000 students, Drexel is one of America’s 15 largest private universities and a model to higher education.

Founded in 1891 under the vision of philanthropist Anthony J. Drexel, 168

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the university has become a melting pot for innovation. Committed to the core values it was founded on, Drexel University has become an institution of higher learning suited to the needs of a rapidly growing industrial society where students are in the driver seat.

Through extraordinary initiatives and comprehensive programs,

E D U C AT I O N

Drexel PISB Interior

Drexel University is helping to not only enhance student life and education, but the city and people who live in it.

The Co-operative Education program puts students to work, assigning them for six month periods to engage in full-time jobs around the Philadelphia area, the Building a better tomorrow region and also internationally.

Known for innovation, Drexel’s Unlike an internship, the program unique approach towards education provides students with paid fullhas allowed the university to break time work experience in the career away from the normalcy of university fields of their choice. The average teaching and create a new model for six-month co-op salary this year higher education. was $16,183.00.

“We started the Co-operative According to Fry, “The program Education program in 1919 and it’s helps students to build their resumes become our signature academic and work experience. It is designed program,” says John Fry, president to help students realize what they of Drexel University. want to do in life. By the time they w w w. d r e x e l . e d u

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DREXEL UNIVERSITY graduate they’ll have a resume with real work experience and an understanding of what they do, and don’t want to do, for a career.”

Drexel is also engaged in a variety of programs to enhance the greater Philadelphia region. For example, the university is developing an Innovation Neighborhood project on 12 acres of its campus adjacent to 30th Street Station to attract and launch high-tech businesses seeking a rich research and commercialization environment with easy access to public

AL WE DO IT ALL

www w.pom www.pomerantz.com @ap @apomerantzco @p p pomerantzco @pomerantzco

transportation. In addition, the Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships provides expertise and knowledge to members of the local community in areas such as legal advice, health and wellness programming, and more.

“Utilizing hard nose business logic, we can create a public environment around the campus that is as strong as the university itself,” says Fry. “Over time we believe we can improve the neighborhoods in West Philadelphia in a positive manner.”

Drexel is dedicated to continuing its work with citizens, businesses, entrepreneurs, and government leaders to become a centerpiece of innovation, technology, globalization, and economic development for Philadelphia for years to come.

Work. Productivity. Happiness. Enjoy your Space :)

www.steelcase.com

Amtrak’s 30th street station Drexel is partnering with Amtrak and Brandywine Realty Trust to develop a joint master plan for the area surrounding Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station, adjacent to Drexel’s campus and the future site of the

E D U C AT I O N

Innovation Neighborhood.

“If we’re going to do this Innovation Neighborhood in the right way and develop it, we need to understand all the possibilities for the rail yards,” says Fry. “That’s exactly why we’re doing the two-year feasibility study.”

A wide range of commercial opportunities, including a new vision for retail spaces within the train station and the potential development of air rights above 75 acres of rail yards adjacent to the station, will also be considered as part of the project.

“In the end, this could become of the most transformative projects of its kind in the country,” says Fry. Online learning For the last 12 years Drexel University has been a leader in providing online degrees, serving approximately 5,000 students every year. The university believes online classes are an important aspect for higher learning and the university is constantly assessing new ways to educate students and improve the process.

“We’ve recently hired Dr. Susan Aldridge, a senior fellow at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and former president of the University of Maryland University College, to be our senior vice president for Online Learning to help us further our online program,” says Fr y. “With all her experience in the field of online learning, we believe we’re going

Drexel Lancaster Rendering

This is the future of learning and students are embracing it” “

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to be able to contemplate a bigger future for our online program.”

The school’s renewed focus on program quality, student retention, and graduation is enabling Drexel to further its reach and give 172

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students the ability to learn on their own terms.

“We don’t consider online learning exotic at all,” says Fry. “We believe students want to learn in whatever mode is most convenient for them and we’ll

E D U C AT I O N

Company Information INDUSTRY

Higher Education HEADQUARTERS

Philadelphia FOUNDED

1891 by Anthony J. Drexel EMPLOYEES

4,000

https://www.facebook. com/drexeluniv

https://twitter.com/ DrexelNews continue to provide that option.”

So far Drexel has experienced enormous success for the online program, generating roughly $68 million a year in revenue.

“We believe the potential for growth is so much more,” says Fry. “This is the future of learning and students are embracing it.”

https://www.linkedin. com/edu/drexeluniversity-19245

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