It's easy to see how Specialty Welding and Turnarounds (SWAT) has grown from a 10-person team six years ago to the multimillion-dollar-revenue elite turnaround business it is today. Turnarounds require a different skillset and work experience than your everyday maintenance. Turnarounds are fast-moving, stressful, critical-path projects that require more knowledge, skill and experience. That's why SWAT has focused on assembling a unique crew specifically built for turnarounds.
"When it's turnaround time, there's no room for doubt," said Johnny Holifield, president of SWAT. "We hire by referral only, acquiring the best in the industry. We make sure projects are done on time, every time. When we do a job, the job gets done."
According to Holifield, SWAT's elite turnaround teams are committed to working hard and going above and beyond on every project.
"We push what's possible every day. We're never satisfied with simply meeting expectations," Holifield said. "And because of our vast experience and focus on turnaround projects, we can work more intelligently, too. By implementing unique crew utilization strategies, we can ensure our teams are always working -- limiting downtime and keeping everything on track."
According to Holifield, SWAT understands what needs to happen to complete a project on time, as well as what pitfalls to avoid.
"We are honest and trustworthy people our customers can depend on," Holifield said. "When we look our customers in the eye and make commitments to them, it means something to us at SWAT. We stand behind what we tell them we can achieve, and we go above and beyond for that commitment. We also do everything we can to be good stewards for our customers when it comes to costs and money on a job. We treat a customer's jobsite as if it were our own facility. At the end of the day, it's all about being the best at what you do."
Still going strong
In 2020, SWAT celebrated its sixth year in business. Over the course of these past six years, SWAT has moved into a new headquarters more than four times the size of its original location, opened two new offices in Texas and California, and added hundreds of new personnel -- all while still focusing on its core values of safety, quality, leadership and integrity. SWAT continues to work coast-to-coast in many of the U.S.'s largest oil and gas facilities.
"We provide excellent service with elite supervision and manpower; we run high productivity rates; and we do all this while being safe," Holifield said. "We have the best craftsmen in the business because of our leadership and their commitment to development. Only the industry's most skilled and hardest working are able to join SWAT's ranks.
"I'm most proud of the leadership team and the culture we have developed inside our organization. We love our employees. SWAT is a total team effort, and it's actually fun to come to work when you have such great people. It's our people who make SWAT the company it is today."
With SWAT's offices located in Signal Hill, California; Lumberton, Texas; and Gonzales, Louisiana, the company has been providing its services throughout the U.S. in states such as North Dakota, Utah, Alaska, New Mexico, Ohio, Kentucky, Minnesota, Illinois, Alabama and Oklahoma.
SWAT has completed several major turnkey projects, with some projects involving up to 550,000 man-hours. Every project SWAT has completed has been of the highest quality, and the company stands by its work. In 2019, SWAT made over 32,700 welds with a less than 2-percent weld rejection rate.
"We take pride in performing at an elite level," Holifield said. "It all starts with the expectation that when you are employed by SWAT, you have been hand-picked and selected to work for the most elite, best-of-the-best contractor in the country. Our standards are very high, and I like to think they are higher than most companies' out there."
In 2019, SWAT's mechanical division worked on approximately 161 different jobs.
SWAT now offers HF and sulfuric alkylation and decontamination services for specialty hazardous environments. Operators put their trust in SWAT to ensure the protection of both their teams and assets.
"SWAT has a state-of-the-art decontamination fleet, experienced specialists, and proven processes and protocols," Holifield said. "When a project requires services focused on keeping people safe, call us in."
Let the work speak for itself
Ken Brown is a turnaround manager for Calumet Specialty Products Partners and oversees turnarounds on several of the company's sites throughout the U.S. Calumet has used SWAT regularly for the past three years on most of its turnaround work. According to Brown, when he is considering using a contractor on-site, he looks at four key factors. SWAT is a pro at all of them, Brown said.
"A contractor's safety record is the most important item because safety is paramount at Calumet," Brown stated. "SWAT has done an excellent job with its safety program, with no recordable accidents while working with Calumet. Next, I look at the contractor's quality and craftsmanship, and SWAT's are top-notch.
"No. 3 is productivity. SWAT's productivity is amazing and impressive, and they work hard to get the job done.
"The last thing I look at when considering a contractor is how they handle planning and scheduling. Most of the time, SWAT even completes their work ahead of schedule. I'm also very happy with SWAT's cost estimating.
"The bottom line is SWAT is one of the best contractors I've ever worked with. They come in and do what they say they'll do. No matter which crew SWAT sends, their work is consistently excellent."
For the past three years, SWAT has also worked on turnarounds and nonscheduled outages at REG's renewable diesel production facility in Geismar, Louisiana.
"SWAT has completed a ton of work around the facility, mostly involving welding on exchangers, piping, etc.," said Brandon Rogers, senior reliability engineer and turnaround coordinator for REG. "SWAT is special because of their efficiency and quality of work. I've never had to address any rework issues with them, and I love that. SWAT puts out a quality of work that can be hard to find these days.
"SWAT also has all the capabilities and expertise so you don't have to micromanage any of their employees. REG monitors safety and takes it very seriously, and we've never had any safety issues with SWAT. I really like the fact that I can pick up the phone and talk to anyone at SWAT, including the company's executives. That's something you don't always have with today's industrial service providers."
In September 2019, SWAT completed a major turnaround for a Gulf Coast refinery that involved approximately 700 people working on-site per day. While completing this turnaround, SWAT was also performing pre-turnaround work for a turnaround that would start February 2020 at the same site. Because SWAT was so successful with the fall 2019 turnaround, the refining company awarded SWAT all the turnaround work for the 2020 turnaround.
"Other contractors had trouble completing their work, so SWAT's scope expanded quite a bit," said Preston Radley, project manager for SWAT. "We planned our work and we worked our plan. The refinery was very pleased and impressed we worked the whole turnaround. It all went exceptionally well, with zero injuries."
Peaking at 759 employees working on-site in a single day, SWAT worked in 20-plus units. SWAT made over 10,000 welds with a less than 1-percent repair ratio. The turnaround also involved SWAT changing out a preheater, but the biggest project involved a coker unit.
"The refinery wanted to go with bigger coke drums," Radley said. "The whole derrick structure had to be taken off to remove the drums. We cut all the piping at the splice where the derrick structure unbolted so it could be removed. Once the derricks were set on the ground on pedestals, we worked on all the piping. After the drums were put back in place and the derricks were reset, we tied all the piping back in."
With the coker, SWAT installed approximately 50,000 feet of pipe and took out 30,000 feet of old pipe. As far as direct man-hours go, SWAT's specialty services division completed approximately 200,000 man-hours, and its mechanical division completed 50,000 man-hours. SWAT completed the turnaround in April and is gearing up for another one later this fall.
"Plants regularly ask for SWAT's advice on how to help other contractors," Radley said. "When SWAT works on-site, we know a facility's expectations and operations. Our customers are always happy when SWAT arrives."
According to Radley, SWAT is successful because the company's workers take great pride in everything they do.
"Whether it's U.S. or international work, all of SWAT's customers want the most efficient and safest contractor to perform their work. I believe SWAT is No. 1 in all those categories," Radley said. "SWAT has a policy to always be upfront with the customer and not overpromise. This is what I like best about the company. We keep our promises when we shake a customer's hand and assure them we are the best there is."
A leader in safety
SWAT goes beyond everyday compliance protocols to adopt a mindset of continual safety improvement on each and every project. The company dedicates extensive training, rigorous key performance benchmarking and the best safety equipment money can buy to help keep everyone on its team safe. SWAT makes safety the most important part of every task it performs.
Using a top-down safety approach, SWAT's leaders ensure their teams are doing absolutely everything to stay safe. This approach worked in 2019, when SWAT worked more than 3 million man-hours with a TRIR of 0.
"Our safety record is much better than the industry standard," Holifield said. "But each year, we strive for 'Goal Zero' -- zero recordables and lost-time incidents. To do this, we communicate near-misses and any first-aid cases on a daily basis. This communication provides awareness of potential incidents or injuries that can occur and allows us to put controlled preventive measurements in place to eliminate these events. We recognize any hazards in the planning stages before work begins, using SWAT's behavior-based safety system and our clients' auditing processes. We are committed not just to staying safe on the job, but also to helping enhance safety performance for an entire facility."
Year after year, SWAT has been awarded for safety excellence by the Greater Baton Rouge Industry Alliance, Golden Triangle Business Roundtable, Industrial Safety Training Council, the Houston Area Safety Council and the Safety Council of Southwest Louisiana. For the past three years, SWAT has an industry TRIR average of 0.046, while the industry as a whole averages 0.7.
COVID-19 has put SWAT on the map even more because of the company's ability to adapt to unforeseen changes on the job. Before each project, SWAT completes a hazard and risk assessment with a safety plan that identifies all hazards associated with the job scope and puts preventive measures in place before employees begin work.
For your next turnaround, don't bring in just anyone. Bring in the SWAT team.
For more information, visit www.swatservice.com or call (225) 644-1200.
