BrandSafway likes to push boundaries. Recent projects include:
- Engineering a lifting rig to move 35,000- pound components in a crude oil extraction facility in Alaska
- Cutting weeks off the production schedule at a Texas power plant with a custom-designed Spider® solution
- Shortening the timetable for a boiler shutdown in Michigan by 12 days with the patented QuikDeck® Suspended Access System
- Saving six days in the schedule of a tank maintenance project in Florida
- Reducing the budgeted amount of a refinery project in south Texas by 35 percent with the proprietary BrandNet® access optimization program
- Using QuikDeck® to safely increase productivity and protect the environment off the North Island of New Zealand during refurbishment of a natural gas platform
These are only a few examples of BrandSafway's approach -- meeting any access, forming and shoring, and industrial service challenge with a focus on continuous improvement in safety, schedules and costs. In many cases, this means pushing the limits and moving beyond "how things have been done in the past."
"I thrive on engineering challenges," said Anthony (Tony) Van Treeck, manager of applications engineering for BrandSafway. "I can't look at anything without asking myself how we can design it better, build it faster and make it safer. It's in my nature. It's part of what makes my job interesting. I like to solve problems."
And there are a lot of engineers at BrandSafway who feel the same way. BrandSafway has the largest and the most advanced engineering team in the industry, supported by BrandNet, the industry-leading access optimization service. "We have the engineering muscle along with the products and tools to push boundaries," added Van Treeck.
Proprietary tool drives efficiencies
BrandSafway's proprietary software program, BrandNet, takes advantage of the company's 100-plus years of access and scaffold experience to help clients safely increase productivity through better planning, design and estimating. "BrandNet is one of our key differentiators," explained Rick Dunlap, vice president of Technical Services for BrandSafway. "By using BrandNet, we can offer customers 2-D and 3-D integrated design, virtual planning, laser surveying, critical path scoping, comprehensive work packages and advanced workface planning.
For example, by using BrandNet on a refinery project in the Eagle Ford Shale, overall savings were 35-percent less than historical budgeted amounts, with zero recordables. "Our approach included preplanning to optimize the budget, enhanced and integrated work packages, and better workface planning," said Dunlap. "We were able to improve productivity, reduce modifications and decrease standby waste."
With BrandNet, BrandSafway can deliver improved project baselines, better safety, re-usability and reduced modifications, and enhanced materials management, inventory control, inspection tracking and work packages for high-performance field execution. "There isn't another planning and access engineering tool in the industry that comes close to the power and range that BrandNet provides," added Dunlap. "We've been able to save as much as 25 percent in equipment and labor on refinery maintenance and capital projects when we use BrandNet."
Better safety enhances productivity
Ultimately, access can have a significant impact on both safety and productivity. "Good safety and increased productivity go hand in hand," explained Steve Wilson, regional vice president for BrandSafway's Texas Energy and Industrial region. "Our safest sites are also the most productive. When we keep safety at the center, our productivity improves, too."
When Brand Energy and Infrastructure Services and Safway® Group combined in June 2017, it was an opportunity to bring together two world-class safety programs and develop processes and tools based on best practices. "We designed our safety program to engage everyone on our workforce, from our CEO to our site supervisors and craft-specific personnel," said Paul Amedee, vice president of Global Environmental Health and Safety for BrandSafway. "All of our employees are held accountable for following our procedures and 'Life-Saving Rules.' They have the obligation to stop work in any situation when they notice anything that looks unsafe. We also have extensive craft-specific safety training and behavior-based observations."
Tracking leading indicators has been another critical piece of BrandSafway's comprehensive safety program. "Focusing exclusively on lagging indicators can send the wrong message about safety," explained Amedee. "We need to emphasize the prevention of incidents, rather than just counting accidents and injuries. We look at the jobsites with the best safety performance and see how we can duplicate these practices companywide. Tracking leading indicators helps us identify actions we can take to improve safety performance on every jobsite."
Focused on total installed cost
A commitment to safely increasing productivity to deliver a lower total installed cost is the bottom line in BrandSafway's approach to access, forming and shoring, and industrial services. "We've been able to save customers significant time and money," said Jeff Schneider, vice president of National and Global Accounts for BrandSafway. "For example, by using an innovative hoist solution, we saved an Illinois refinery customer $250,000 on their maintenance contract annually. With our experience, our products and our services, we can safely deliver more than any other access and industrial service company."
QuikDeck is another BrandSafway proprietary product that can significantly impact schedules and costs. "We shortened the schedule by nine days and saved a Houston-area refinery nearly $300,000 by using QuikDeck instead of conventional supported scaffold," explained Marty McGee, senior vice president of Multiservices for BrandSafway. "We were able to hang the QuikDeck from the top of the vessel, thereby eliminating the need to build scaffold from the ground up -- over 200 feet."
QuikDeck provides factory-floor-like working conditions for multiple trades and significantly improves productivity. For example, when QuikDeck was used inside of a separation vessel during a turnaround, it resulted in a 65-percent reduction in the timetable, saving $178 million in potential lost production.
The use of QuikDeck during a boiler shutdown has also resulted in significant savings. "When we've used QuikDeck instead of a full ground-based scaffold buildup to access the bullnose during
a boiler shutdown, we've been able to save 25 percent in labor on average and shorten the overall schedule," added Schneider.
"This is what sets us apart in the eyes of our customers," added Dunlap. "We look beyond just the hourly rate. We look at the total project and how we can provide a blend of safety, access, products and services to help customers shave days and weeks off a scheduled shutdown, saving significant costs overall. And we put it in writing with incentive- based contracts."
The first critical step in lowering the total installed cost and shortening the timetable for a project is pre-planning and engineering the optimum access solution. "Many times, with the depth our engineers can provide and our wide range of access products -- from supported to suspended and motorized -- we can shorten schedules," explained Dunlap. "This positively impacts costs and also means fewer exposure hours and increased safety, too."
Spider powered suspended access solutions -- traction and drum hoists, work baskets and modular platforms -- have also been instrumental in saving costs and time. "At a steel processing plant in Alabama, we used Spider equipment to engineer a solution that took 10 days off the schedule," said Schneider.
"We're being asked to do more in a shorter time to minimize revenue loss during shutdowns and turnarounds," explained Dunlap. "But, fortunately, we're able to work well in these scenarios, because we have the broadest portfolio of product and service solutions in the industry and the largest inventory of equipment in North America. We have more tools in our toolbox -- more options in supported scaffold, suspended and powered suspended solutions, from Spider to QuikDeck -- and more motorized options, hoists, lifts and climbers. BrandSafway offers proprietary, patented brands that no one else has."
More services and solutions for customers
The ability to provide fully integrated services -- from work access, formwork and shoring to insulation, fireproofing, coatings, cathodic protection, refractory and specialty mechanical -- is another component to improved performance.
"I'm not aware of another company that offers the depth and range of services that we do," said Wilson. "By providing coordinated services and solutions, we eliminate the need for multiple contractors and crews from different companies trying to figure out how to work together and prioritize their activities on-site. Instead, you have everyone on-site on the same team, using the same playbook."
Another significant differentiator BrandSafway provides is the advantage of local leadership, skilled labor and inventory through the largest branch network in the business. "With more locations in North America than anyone else in the industry, there's always a BrandSafway nearby," explained Dave Witsken, president of Energy and Industrial for BrandSafway. "Our business is local-relationship-based, backed by regional and global support. Our local teams are committed to taking the time to get to know your teams and your business. We're part of your community and are willing to work hard to earn the privilege to serve as part of your team."
Through BrandSafway's network of locations, equipment and materials can be sourced and moved faster with greater efficiency. "With our focus on local and regional inventory, we can expedite service response time," added Witsken. "This means less time wasted on a jobsite waiting for equipment to arrive and increased tool time."
Data-driven continuous improvement
BrandSafway has the greatest depth of expertise in the industry. "Our history in access goes back 100 years and includes the invention of the steel scaffold in 1936," said Jeff Sprau, president of Commercial and Industrial for BrandSafway. "And we have more than 50 years of experience in both coatings and insulation."
"We understand what it takes," Sprau continued. "BrandSafway has more than 8,000 active jobsites. We track KPIs (key performance indicators) on many of these sites and use the data to continuously improve in safety, execution and performance and reduce bottom-line costs. And the benefits that result from our improved performance extend throughout the contracting chain -- and ultimately to the owner of the facility."
"When you bring it all together -- our level of expertise; the never-ending focus on safety; the local, personalized service; our emphasis on increasing productivity; our willingness to share in the risks and truly partner with our customers to get the job done; and the array of products and solutions we have in our inventory -- we can deliver for our customers like never before," concluded Bill Hayes, president and CEO of BrandSafway. "And we're fierce in our commitment to continuous improvement. Whatever we did today, it's not good enough for tomorrow. We're dedicated to creating history in our industry -- not by being the biggest, but by being the best in the eyes of our customers."
For more information, visit www. brandsafway.com or call (800) 558-4772.
An Update on Our Combination: Straight Talk from BrandSafway CEO Bill Hayes
Yes, we're now big...
At nearly $5 billion in revenue, with approximately 32,000 employees across more than 350 locations in 30 countries, the newly combined BrandSafway is clearly the largest scaffolding, insulation, painting/coating and other specialty industrial services player in the industry. That's a factual statement.
But we are local and focused on being the best...
In no way are we allowing our mere size to define us. In fact, it's just the opposite. BrandSafway is a collection of more than 350 local businesses, all focused on providing differentiated services to our thousands of customer jobsites and projects. Our newly created size, which is the result of our June 2017 combination, brings us terrific project and site leadership talent, numerous best practices, unique capabilities and outstanding processes that existed in both Brand and Safway pre-merger. During our first six months together, our teams worked to shape and deliver our new, combined service offerings, always with an eye toward the question, "How will what we do impact our customers?" All business leaders, functional leaders, and product or service leaders at BrandSafway are focused on ensuring our branches and the customer jobsites they serve are successful, and success is defined as safe, productive, efficient and profitably growing. In fact, our organizational chart depicts our branches and customers at the top and our business leaders, acting each day in servant leadership roles, at the bottom.
Our opportunity and responsibility...
I am directly addressing the readership of BIC to assure you that no one at BrandSafway expects to keep and win business due strictly to the fact that we're the largest in our industry. We are working very hard not to act large. We believe we have the opportunity and the responsibility to be our industry's thought leader in safety, focusing our efforts on leading as well as lagging indicators of safety. We believe we must lead with innovation (in access solutions, services delivery, engineering, planning tools and technology) in an industry that needs more innovation. We believe we have a unique opportunity -- with global career paths and with the most diverse end-market reach we can offer candidates -- to recruit the best people to our industry. I want you to know we are taking our responsibility very seriously, and we are working hard every day to fulfill it. The accompanying feature article highlights just a few of the things we're working on.
We're being smart about our combination...
To be sure, the industrial services industry has had its share of tough integrations -- integrations that have caused lots of disruption at the customer and site level, let alone challenged the combined companies' financial results. When we launched BrandSafway last year, on day one we eliminated the word "integration" and substituted it with "combination." Neither Brand nor Safway is being integrated into one or the other. We are being "combined," again with an eye toward taking the best of the best and ensuring it makes sense for our customers. The Golden Rule in our combination is "Don't do anything stupid." If it looks or smells stupid, don't do it! Our newly combined leadership team is very balanced with both Brand- and Safway-legacy leaders. We spend lots of time not only on the strategic, operational and financial aspects of our combination, but also, most importantly, on the cultural, change management and people aspects, which will "make or break" our combination (and we intend to make it great!).
Never satisfied...
We're encouraged by the progress we've made in our combination thus far, but we're a "never satisfied" bunch, and we know we've got a lot more we need to do. Along with you, we provide vital services and capabilities in very critical end markets, including upstream, midstream, downstream oil and gas, petrochemical, power, infrastructure, and other industrial and commercial construction markets. Our team views what we do every day not just as "doing our job" professionally but also as creating history in a great and very important industry. That's our edge, and that's our commitment to the market.
We're not great yet...
You'll see mention of the word "GREAT" in the BrandSafway advertisements in this and past issues of BIC. Our marketing department knew I was very reluctant to use that word so early in our BrandSafway combination, so you'll see we included the phrase, "The START of something GREAT." We're just starting, and we're incredibly excited about what we're creating to serve this great industry. Evidence of our effectiveness combining two formerly fierce competitors will only be proven in our level of execution and will be determined by our customers.
Stay tuned...
So, we're large, yes, but very local and committed to remaining fast and flexible for our customers. We're working hard to be the "smallest large company" in our industry. Stay tuned as we continue building the newly combined BrandSafway. We appreciate the industry's support and look forward to seeing you at your site soon!
