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BCH MECHANICAL THE CAPACITY TO DO IT ALL
THE MAGAZINE FOR CONSTRUCTION EXECUTIVES
BCH MECHANICAL National Association of Tower Erectors
The Capacity to Do it All Produced by Jacob Skeeters & Written by Shelley Seyler BCH Mechanical Incorporated is a diversified mechanical contractor that specializes in healthcare facilities, laboratories, and industrial facilities, embracing the complex mechanical projects that most challenge their industry. Founded in 1976, BCH boasts an impressive 500 employees, 70 of whom are office and staff personnel, 320 are field construction associates, and 110 are service technicians. Their annual revenue has stretched to $80 million since their inception, a figure that includes ConServ Building Services. This service division of BCH Mechanical deals directly with the owners of their projects and comprises about 20 percent of their revenue.
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Headquartered in Largo, Florida, BCH Mechanical performs work from Orlando to Tampa and is more regional in their construction projects, while the service division works throughout the entire state. “BCH has the capacity to do it all,” said President Daryl Blume who has been with the company since 1980. As a subcontractor, BCH Mechanical works for contractors who rely on them for the mechanical construction aspects of projects, while the ConServ division provides service work for owners. Their building services include air conditioning, plumbing, electrical and general services work. “If anything breaks, we will maintain it,” said Blume. “Our goal is to provide the installation and then full building maintenance after we complete the project.”
How They Operate
Thanks to the company’s reputation and experience in the industry, BCH is able to maintain excellent relationships with their vendors and subcontractors, using only those they know are reliable for each major category. They manage these connections by ensuring they are treated fairly by making them part of the team and paying them timely. BCH takes a face-to-face approach to marketing and, thanks to their tenure and success in the industry, they know who the big players are in their area and are able to build relationships with them, ensuring With an employee base the size of BCH’s, efficiency and management are made even more intrinsic to the company’s success. They have internal programs in place that allow the company to self perform and prefabricate as much as possible. They feature an automated sheet metal shop, a prefabrication piping facility, and computer-aided design in-house that allows them to reduce waste, and save time and man power. “We work our conflicts out on the computer and build it one time versus measuring in the field, speeding up the process without costly rework” said Blume. In order to recruit the best in the business, BCH searches for people who are eager to learn, and places them in apprenticeship roles where they can learn from a mentor. Being an employee for BCH has impressive benefits: “We pay our team members to go to school, continually train on the job, mentor them, move them up to supervisory positions and into project management,” said Blume. Where do they find their gems? Half of their employees climb their way up the ranks from the field, some are identified in the marketplace, while others are found through construction graduate programs. “We identify young talent and put them in positions where they can succeed,” Blume said.
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their prolonged success. BCH has also been a member of Associated Builders and Contractors, Florida Gulf Coast Chapter (ABC FGC) for about 20 years, taking advantage of the association’s services in training and apprenticeship programs. BCH is also involved in the local business development, apprenticeship training and political programs with the association. Blume sat on the board for several years and served as association President in 1997.
Unique Toys BCH is taking advantage of technological advances in the industry to better their services and their processes. On large jobs, they utilize a hand scanner that tracks each hour worked by every employee and downloads directly to accounting and payroll. They have GPS systems in their service vehicles to aid in efficiently dispatching their men. Service employees also have computer tablets that allow them to manage the clients’ needs from their laptop and instantly download photos and records right at the jobsite. All of these methods have helped BCH become more efficient both in the field and in general office management, streamlining their approaches in every way possible.
Projects With Innovation BCH is heavily involved with LEED projects, Blume himself being a LEED Accredited Professional. They are planning to increase this aspect of the business, helping their customers and general contractors achieve LEED status on their buildings and bringing more LEED accredited employees in house. “We encourage our owner relationships to think green and guide them through the many options available and the associated cost/benefit of each one. Having the knowledge in house and on the team really helps,” said Blume. One of their recent LEED certified projects is the California-based Burnham Institute for Medical Research in Orlando. BCH served the ‘design assist’ role on the construction team to ensure that the best systems were
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used for the project. This ‘intense mechanical project’ was comprised of three stories and 178,000 square feet that included lab hoods, Phoenix air valves, custom air handlers, specialized exhaust and energy recovery systems, stainless steel ductwork, and full direct digital controls. As if the uniqueness of this laboratory was not enough, the project was also fast tracked, because the Institute was trying to get online as quickly as possible. BCH ordered all the long lead equipment even before the design was complete. “It was just another welcome challenge we are accustomed to facing,” says Blume. Another recent LEED certified project was St. Joseph’s Hospital in north Tampa, an area that did not have a hospital until BCH moved in to do their work. The $30 million
mechanical project required over 700,000 pounds of ductwork, and complete chilled water, condenser water, steam and heating water systems. The three-story, 350,000 square-foot structure features 108 private rooms, a full service 30-bed emergency department, and an all-digital paperless environment. BCH was responsible for the HVAC, plumbing, sheet metal and medical gas systems in partnership with Bovis Construction. Another fast tracked project, BCH had to ensure that the space requirements were all taken into consideration. The company took the plans already completed and implemented 3D CAD drawing and planning. The 3D coordination allows them to do ‘collision prevention’ on all the ductwork and piping systems where they intersect throughout the ceiling space. Not Participating “We have decided not to participate in the recession,” said Blume when asked about the current economic crisis plaguing this globalized marketplace. “A service business
is always needed when things break, and our construction division is still building. “With that said, competition is greater than ever and we must be flexible. We have to face it and make hard decisions along the way,” he said, realistically. BCH is on the search for new niches where they can excel, for now relying on labs, hospitals, and healthcare facilities as they are still being built. “We have to approach the economy differently and go after more projects, expand our geographical reach, and accentuate what we do well… coordinating and planning projects even
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better will also help us save money,” strategized Blume. Regardless of whether they can immunize themselves from the recession, BCH is braced for the possibility that they may slip back to 2007 revenue numbers in 2009. Though the landscape is unclear past 2009, BCH should be poised to continue their growth curve with the best talent and reputation in their industry. “We are trying to grow and expand our construction service, especially the commercial arena in the Orlando and Fort Meyers areas. We have also recently expanded our service operations to Georgia.” BCH is fiercely dedicated to their priority of growing strategically, and is certain to achieve their goals regardless of what land mines may lay ahead.says a concerned Lindauer. Current regulations allow members to contribute to pension benefits for workers health and welfare; “everyone expects pensions and it’s a major
hit financially,” he explains. With e-newsletters and other forms of communications, TAUC keeps its members informed on developments in the federal government that have implications for union contractors. TAUC is also getting ready to launch its newest technological advancement: a work opportunity reference key. It is a detailed database that will help industrial business owners locate our contractors for upcoming work. It will be yellow pages of sorts. With more than 900 profiles already complete, TAUC plans to launch the W.O.R.K. tool this summer. As the association continues to build bridges with like-minded organizations, the construction industry is certain to be better for it.
COMPANY AT A GLANCE Established: 1976 Employees: 500 President: Daryl Blume
www.bchmechanical.com
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BCH MECHANICAL 6354 118th Avenue North Largo, FL 33773 United States