ISSUE 4
QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER • FEATURED JOB • TECHNICAL EDUCATIONAL PAPER • PREFERRED INITIATIVES: THANK YOU • AND MORE
4 TH Q U A R T E R 2 0 2 4
PREFERRED FUELS THE FUTURE: A NYC DATA CENTER PROJECT JOURNEY Contributed by John Haber
In New York City, ACS has provided Preferred’s fuel oil equipment to a data center who is a repeat customer. Known for quality, durability (in the harshest conditions and even surviving natural disasters), and redundancy, Preferred’s fuel oil equipment will power emergency generators, which are the required power source for all data center applications. We’re proud to showcase our Americanmade technology on this important venture.
PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS: Duplex Pump Skid and Filtration Unit: Our cutting-edge duplex pump skid and filtration unit, ensuring optimal fuel flow and quality, plays a crucial role in the project’s success. Underground 6K Gallon Oil Tanks: Two substantial 6,000-gallon oil tanks are being installed underground, providing a reliable and ample fuel source for the data center’s operations.
PREFERRED FUELS THE FUTURE: A NYC DATA CENTER PROJECT JOURNEY
Advanced Pump House: The project includes a state-of-the-art pump house equipped with baseboard heating, a drop ceiling, and a 20-amp service. Delivered as a knockdown unit, it demonstrates our commitment to innovation and efficiency. Continued Legacy: This project marks a significant milestone in the continued legacy of our fueling equipment, initially provided in 2007. The durability and reliability of our solutions have stood the test of time, reinforcing our position as leaders in the industry.
As we embark on a new era of technology at this data center project, Preferred is proud to contribute to the technological evolution of New York City. Our Americanmade fuel oil equipment will play a pivotal role in ensuring a reliable and efficient energy supply for this facility and many other mission critical facilities like it.
UNDERSTANDING SCADA SYSTEMS A Technical Educational Article by Estera Cioroch
SCADAs are used anywhere there is a need to regulate automated functions, including manufacturing, power generation, water treatment and distribution, food production and refrigeration, oil and gas refining, mass transit and traffic regulation, and so much more. Given their broad use and application, understanding what they are and what they do is key to grasping the importance and value of these automated systems. But what exactly is a SCADA? SCADA stands for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition and can be thought of as the “brain and nervous system” of an industrial plant. It is a type of control system architecture composed of five main parts: Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), Remote Terminal Units (RTUs), communication infrastructures, a supervisory system, and a Human Machine Interface (HMI). The PLCs and RTUs connect to sensors in the field, gathering and sending data via the communication infrastructure to the supervisory system. The supervisory system, which is typically what is referred to as the SCADA in discussions, then transfers data to the HMI (essentially the program displayed on the monitor of the
SCADA computer.) An operator can then use the HMI to read and monitor data from tags, respond to alarms, and run commands that streamline and control plant operations. Typically, a SCADA system will also include alarming, as well as a historian that supports trending or reporting—both useful analytical tools. There are many reasons that SCADAs are so commonly used in a variety of industries. For one, SCADAs provide a clear visual of what is happening inside a plant in real time, allowing operators to respond quickly to critical situations and prevent potential accidents. Additionally, SCADA systems record and store data, which can then be analyzed to reveal operational vulnerabilities and help drive informed decisions to increase plant
UNDERSTANDING SCADA SYSTEMS
efficiency, profit margins, plant safety, or even the life of equipment within a plant. Finally, SCADA systems also provide remote control of devices and operations on the field, automating many system functions that would otherwise have to be performed manually. In short, SCADA systems provide incredible value to a wide range of industries, driving plant efficiency and helping to streamline automated processes.
PREFERRED INITIATIVES: THANK YOU CREW We extend our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who generously contributed to support the Christian Churches in Ukraine. This collective effort was made possible through the collaboration of both Calvary Baptist Church members and Preferred Crew. Your kindness and generosity have made a meaningful impact, demonstrating the power of unity and compassion in making a positive difference in the lives of others. Thank you for being a part of this important initiative.
PREFERRED UTILITIES BUSINESS SYSTEMS By Scott Thompson
UPDATE: Preferred Utilities places a premium on leveraging advanced business systems to enhance its operational capabilities. Preferred's business systems contribute to superior customer service, cost reduction, and support scalability, collectively reinforcing our commitment to efficient operation and delivering top-notch service to our clients. These systems play a pivotal role in optimizing our shop and engineering operations, ensuring precision and efficiency in every aspect of our work. BENEFITS:
1.
Increased efficiency and productivity: Preferred’s business systems automate routine and repetitive tasks, freeing our valuable employees to focus on more strategic and value-added work. This leads to significant increases in both efficiency and productivity.
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Improved accuracy and consistency: Preferred’s business systems help to ensure that tasks are performed correctly and consistently every time. This reduces Engineering errors and improves the overall quality of work.
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Enhanced visibility and control: Preferred’s business systems provide real-time visibility into key business processes and metrics. This gives our team members the information they need to make better decisions and identify and address potential problems early on. In addition to these three benefits, Preferred’s business systems: • Improve customer service • Reduce costs • Support business growth and scalability Overall, business systems help Preferred Utilities to operate efficiently and effectively. Increasing the efficiency and productivity of our shop and Engineering while improving accuracy and consistency for our customers’ jobs.
EMPOWERING EFFICIENCY: SALES TOOL By Jeremiah Embrador
Empowering Efficiency: Preferred's New Sales Tool In the last half of 2023, the Business Systems Team worked on the Sales Tool, an application for creating estimates that would remove the need for Excel-based sales forms, provide a system to track the changes between versions of estimates, and coordinate communication among departments. One of the major problems with using spreadsheets for logging data is that information regularly desynchronizes, an example for which would be pricing information for items in the Preferred Catalog. However, with the Sales Tool, all relevant information is stored in and drawn from a single database that contains all necessary data to provide information to the Sales Tool, maintaining synchronicity for everyone using the system. Additionally, because changes made to quotes were made through forms and spreadsheets, it was difficult to see how they changed over time. However, with the new version tracking system that the Sales Tool utilizes, users can easily see the change history as the estimate evolves.
The creation of an estimate that will eventually become a sales order requires coordinated communication among various departments. Because of features that allow users to write notes and leave comments tied to each estimate, the Sales Tool frees its users from having to dig through email inboxes and messages to find what has been said about an estimate. The Sales Tool, completed in November of 2023, has greatly aided the creation and maintenance of sales estimates for users spanning multiple departments by removing the need for unsynchronized spreadsheets, allowing users to track version change history, and facilitating contact among users.
UPCOMING
PERSONAL LIFE INSURANCE SEMINAR Get ready! Our 2024 March Personal Life Insurance Seminar is just around the corner. Stay tuned for the exact date, which will be announced soon.
TRADESHOWS
CAMPUS ENERGY 2024 At Campus Energy this year, we’re showcasing our impactful carbon reduction initiatives, focusing on burner technology and our expertise in biofuels. Representing us is David Eoff, ready to share insights into our commitment to sustainability. In lieu of a live presentation, we secured a display where we will feature a science project-style presentation highlighting our work with BRO 500 at our facility. Additionally, we’ll showcase our successful endeavors in converting NYC schools from traditional oil to B20 biodiesel, underlining our dedication and experience implementing environmentally conscious solutions.
BOILER 2024 We will also be attending the bi-yearly Boiler 2024 in Denver, an event proudly organized by ABMA, of which we’ve been dedicated members for over 80 years. Our extensive experience and commitment to innovation will be on display at our large 20x20 booth. We hope to showcase our burner on a competitor-styled boiler – can you guess the giant competitor with boilers in a distinctive split-pea-soup-green? This event is not only a fantastic networking opportunity for our Representatives and Distributors but also a platform for live demos and discussions on new projects.
TRADESHOWS
EXPO PACK MEXICO 2024 We’re excited to announce our participation in Expo Pack Mexico on June 6-7, alongside our local representative, Termo y Calderas. This event caters to the industrial processing and packaging market and beyond! Joining forces, we’ll be sharing a booth and showcasing a small API burner installed on one of their boilers right at the booth. This presents a fantastic opportunity to target the Central and Latin American markets while strengthening our relationships with both local and well-established companies in the region. Stay tuned for updates as we embark on this exciting journey to expand our reach and forge new connections!
CREW MEMBERS OF THE MONTH: THANK YOU FOR GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND! NOVEMBER
JANUARY
DECEMBER
in Texas for two weeks of Factory Acceptance Testing while keeping up with programming
Evan Cudzilo and Bobby Roda
Chris Camp
Dom Bumi (going above and beyond) Richard Bohn (Led ACS Sales for January) Paul Peterkin (went to data center start up and back log)
This award is given in recognition of superior achievement, demonstrated during the month of the award. The attributes that must be exhibited to earn this reward are as follows: 1. One who has displayed the qualities of Integrity and Honesty. 2. One who has exhibited loyalty to Preferred Utilities and its Principles. 3. One who has demonstrated a sacrificial effort toward the Company. 4. One who treats our customers, as he would want to be treated. 5. One who is willing to help with any need that arises for the Company. 6. One who is self-motivated, and willing to learn and acquire new responsibilities without the expectation of additional compensation. 7. One who is cheerful, kind, considerate and helpful toward fellow crew members. 8. One who is focused and intense about their work and is not a distraction to others. 9. One who takes pride in what they do and produces work that is excellent. 10. One whose errors are the result of action taken, instead of a lack of action or caring. 11. One who is concerned with maintaining and enhancing the honor and good name of Preferred Utilities. 12. One who looks at the time spent at Preferred as a relationship and not a job.
NEW PERSONNEL PLEASE EXTEND A WARM WELCOME TO OUR LATEST NEW HIRES:
Kevin Napier, Field Service Engineer reporting to Don Hay. knapier@preferred-mfg.com cell: 410-474-1853
Nicholas Albano, Project Engineer/ Manager in Danbury reporting to Gustavo Sanclamente. nalbano@preferred-mfg.com 203-743-6741 x1520
Kenneth Damo, Painter reporting to Oskar Sevilla in the factory in Danbury.
Chase Boeger, Project Engineer/Project Manager for Special Combustion in Tulsa, OK reporting to Gary Rice. cboeger@preferred-mfg.com office: 203-743-6741 x 7184 Cell: 475-296-5375
Olivia Camp, Marketing Coordinator & Office Administrative Assistant at the ACS office in Bethel, CT reporting to Roger Chapman. ocamp@acs-ny.com office: 860-210-7932
NEW PERSONNEL
Tyler Haber, Project Manager at the ACS office in Bethel, CT reporting to Roger Chapman. thaber@acs-ny.com office: 860-210-7932
Melby Miraval, Systems Engineer in the Danbury office reporting to Gustavo Sanclamente. mmiraval@preferred-mfg.com office: 203-743-6741 x1558
Brian Henderson, Inside Sales Manager in Danbury reporting to Gustavo Sanclamente. bhenderson@preferred-mfg.com office: 203-743-6741
Shaun Ormiston, Mechanical Engineer reporting to Gustavo Sanclamente in Danbury. sormiston@preferred-mfg.com office: 203-743-6741 x 1559
David Crumb, working as a wireman in the factory under Oskar Sevilla. dcrumb99@gmail.com cell: 203-947-2855
FINANCIAL UPDATE Dwayne Boulden
Crew, “A lot of new faces” was the comment from a long time customer who was recently walking the shop with me. Indeed, there are many new folks joining the ranks especially in engineering and production. Our increased sales and shipments allow for that growth and so we thank each of you for your part in filling orders. December’s shipments bolstered our third quarter and set us up for a strong fiscal year end. Preferred and ACS combined are still heading for another record year. Financially, we are in a strong position. The shop has been able to react to supply issues more quickly and get product out the door. We are still managing a larger than desired inventory, but overall the financial metrics are all pointing in the right direction. Thank you for your continued efforts to provide outstanding service, quality products, and joy-filled results for our customers.
CREW GOALS FOR FY 2024 UPDATES! Marketing- Ruth O’Donnell
Special Combustion online: Updated burners page, Getting approvals on experience text and pages. Online Tools: Calculations Finished for Energy Saver tool, yet to be launched. Two articles in new publications: Mission Critical done, Working on another placement. Tradeshow support: Campus Energy Boiler 2024
Business Development - Steve Pelt
Add (at least) four more Distributors in the remaining open areas. Two new added. Still ongoing. FlexFit contractor training in Omaha with Setpoint Controls. Training completed and was very successful. Training of NWIM in Danbury on burners and controls. This training was completed during the week of June 18th. Work with engineering to get the new Flame Safeguard family project underway. Working with Engineering to complete spec. Design is underway and meetings completed with two different outside engineering resources. Get new PCC-IV demos purchased by new distributors that haven’t bought Flex Fit demos AND get training completed with each. Still waiting on finalized PCCIV demos and pricing. Participate in other targeted ASPE meetings in other states. Recently attended the Dallas ASPE vendors show in Hurst Tx. Participate in ISA meetings in Houston area. We will be participating in the next ISA “vendor” meeting. UPCOMING. Increase sales with existing REPs. Ongoing effort.
Engineering - Rob Frohock
Develop Spec Requirements for Production Planning Tool: We have been working with the Business Systems group on the next version of the Job Tracker and how its enhancements could also be used in the Production Planning Tool. Elevate issues relating to Quality, Process, Purchasing. and Inventory: This is a continuing effort. We are reinforcing the new abilities of the purchasing tool with the project managers to alert purchasing earlier of part requirements. Our lofty goal for large projects is to have the majority of parts on order before the project is released to manufacturing. Track Scheduled Ship Date of Sales Orders and Methods to Improve: We continue to use the Production Reporting Tool for forecasting shipments and take advantage of its increased ability to track and forecast partial shipments. This is very useful on large projects. Identify Inventory to be Reduced: Custom motors have been targeted category of non-useful items to be removed from inventory. We are offering to several surplus dealers with the goal of having this motors off the premises before the end of our fiscal year. Over the past 9 months, we have reduced our “older than 2020” inventory from $346k to $217k.
PI & R&D - Dan Faciane
Complete production release of FSC-2 • All prototype boards have been received and are being tested. • Most board peripheral devices have been brought online. Nodenet still needs to be refined. Next steps: testing blockware logic and Nodenet communications. Complete the JC-based full control Feedwater Center • On-hold until third-party staffing issues are resolved. Automate testing of our highest volume boards: all JC boards, all FSC boards, Remote I/O Board, PCC-IV motherboard, HD-A2 boards. • Remote I/O board firmware in progress, then we will write the automated testing program. Close out lingering smaller projects: PLS redesign, TG-CL Continuous Level Sensor, Sales Demo I/O Controller • New PLS design is complete. • Sales Demo I/O Controller is complete. • TG-CL Level sensor is in final testing.
Combustion R&D Gustavo Sanclemente
1. Low Melting Point Materials Products: Update product offering to comply with NFPA-30 standards. This includes Anti-syphon valves, firesafe valves, vent caps, pressure relief valves, and all other assemblies that are part of fuel oil piping process which fall under NFPA30.-Completed 8 subassemblies costed and ready for list pricing. 2. UL296 file update for Fuel Oil fired Burners: A) Revise and update UL296 file with latest designs and products used on our AF burners. B) include B100 Fuel as part of the approved fuels for our UL listing on AF and RF burners. WIP UL test scheduled for first week of April. 3. 2” strainer product to market. WIP – 2” (& new 1”) machining getting programmed by Vener. 4. Tank selector valves design fixes and release for manufacturing. Project cancelled. 5. Galaxy Sub 9 NOx: scalability chart generated. Completed. 6. Galaxy Sub 5: WIP – have worked with a few potential sites. Nothing solid yet. • Beta site identified • Sub 5 and Sub 3 NOx concept tested on field with a firetube boiler. 4-pass ideally.
7. PUMC Fuel Oil Valve. Released to market Project has been on hold. 8. Product Priority list and ‘Road Map Scorecard’ template: This will establish guidelines for new products and to prioritize R&D resources. Completed.
Operations - Ernesto Hoddgson
Server room / Technology upgrades: Replace server host with new hardware. DONE. Upgrade ERP02 and TestERP02 OS version. 50% DONE. Find new ISP to replace Comcast. NO LONGER NEEDED • 25 machines need to be replaced due to age. (these are bought, planning install). Start using Asset Management tool to track technology. (using Kaseya). New Hires needed: Order Entry: PENDING. Front Desk: (hired Janet McGovern). Implement Companywide Safety Program: Attend 3 Safety based conferences (attended 2 so far, slated for another in Oct).
Sales - David Eoff
SALES goals for FY2024 Sell $26M of new orders (not including PE) Bookings are $22M after about 10 months. That’s 85% of the way to our sales goal with just over 83% of the fiscal year gone. We’ll get there. Transition the Northeast to ACS sales territory starting April 1, 2024. This was completed in September. Put 260 new consulting engineers into apps. Apps shows 120 new engineers entered this year. 35 new engineers attended the webinar this week. Meagan will add them to apps next week to get us to 155. SERVICE goals for FY2024 Hire two new service technicians. We hired Kevin Napier for fuel system service in the VA, MD area. He started this week. Schedule 24 service “down days” for training, car maintenance, doctor’s appointments, report catch up, etc. With the slow summer, the technicians were able to take a lot of down days. Now that we are into heating season, everybody is booked up for the foreseeable future.
Conduct 12 monthly product training classes. We’ve conducted training classes every month except September, which was cancelled due to lack of interest. January was PWC training.
Finance - Dwayne Boulden
Salesman writeup form tool – Completed. Job Tracking Replacement requirements gathering.
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In
New timesheet – New goal for later this year. Smart Scheduling – New goal for later this year.
Combustion - Chuck White
Combustion Training Program: Per Mr. Bohn’s request, a Combustion Training Program has been developed. A Manual has been assembled and is available for distribution. Preferred Combustion System Programs, which are in effect mathematical tools for application of the theory, are being edited for simplicity reasons, as these were developed during the X+ and API Burner development efforts, so there is a lot of “what if this or what if that” mathematics that would be “congestive” in the training effort.
Nuclear - Steve Mitchell
Comments On Last quarter Goals: We had a very successful NUPIC audit, the team stated they were impressed with our operation. They did identify three ‘deficiencies’ and one ‘finding’ for follow-up, which our QA manager is addressing. The Quad Cities main steam line plugs have shipped and are due to be installed at the plant this spring.
Marketing • Work with Marketing to get brochures and websites developed for PSCE products. • Develop aftermarket support page for PSCE parts business. • Identify and qualify third party service companies that can assist with startups and provide inquires for new equipment opportunities.
Next Quarter Goals: The Hope Creek N1 plug is welded and ready for assembly and testing, to be delivered for Hope Creeks’ April outage. We have an active outage season coming this quarter, including two loops of jet pump plugs and N1 plugs at Nine Mile Point. PE is working with Ruth and Web Savvy Marketers to develop and target our marketing strategy for fiscal year 2025.
Project Execution • Identify additional shop resources to help push more product out in a shorter amount of time. • Ship the bulk of the current backlog by end of calendar year. • Continue to build repetitive designs that will improve our efficiency and shorten our cycle times. • Improve lead times for the sales team. • Current is 12-16 weeks on drawings, reduce this to 6-8 weeks. • Current is 18-24 weeks to fabricate, reduce this to 10-12 weeks.
Special Combustion - Gary Rice Staffing • Continue to build the PSCE staff with on going training for two new hires. • Add one Senior Mechanical Engineer. Looking for 20+ years’ experience in Industrial boiler burner design and engineering to assist with order execution and training. • Add one administrative support staff to help with inventory control, purchasing, and project documentation.
Sales • Plan visits with our key customers between now and the end of the calendar year. • Revise our current pricing structures to provide better visibility to the company. • Utilize the current quote system and adapt our current process to use this tool.