Thursday, June 17, 2021

June 2021 State of the Industry Report (Vol. IX, Issue I)

Progressive Contactors 

 Aldridge

Aldridge is in constant pursuit of improvement throughout their organization. With Safety & Profitability through Agile Construction® they are leading the industry into a true industrialized construction contracting. Exemplary, leadership of Alex Aldridge the newly minted CEO of the company with the help of his executives such as Mark Carani are taking Aldridge to places that were not imaginable just few years ago.

Following a two-day leadership session where the company reiterated their commitment and focus on Agile Construction®, the company is planning a multi-faceted approach to improve the depth and breadth of Agile Construction® understanding and usage.  This will be spearheaded with an aggressive and intensive Agile Construction® Leadership Immersion program, to learn, and apply Agile Construction® company-wide consistently.  In addition, the company is building a dashboard of lead indicators for WBS, JPAC®, SIS®, Prefab, Procurement, and Safety so that managers and executives can measure and monitor performance well before it hits the lag indicators of financials and overall company performance.

Aldridge is committing to heavy utilization of Agile 101 and 201 training in 2021, to further support the expansion of Agile understanding.  These combined commitments and actions will take a national, multi-trade company to a new level of operation with improved predictability and reduced volatility in project outcomes.

Staff Electric 

A true visionary approach by Staff’s president Jamie Sullivan guided the Staff Electric through the rough and unpredictable year of 2020 and widespread of infectious COVID-19. Staff’s executive team used the data available to them through the Agile tools and within three days of country-wide shutdown were able to establish a true Covid impact on their projects. The number, which then became a national impact number was 12.5% labor impact. This unprecedent ability to predict and project the outcome of the labor impact came from the full application of Agile Construction® for the last five years. 

The year 2021 is Staff Electric’s 5th anniversary of Agile Construction® application throughout their company, with what is shaping up to be one of the most successful performing years with close adherence to the Agile Construction® processes and tools company-wide. Staff has collected a rich data set through their journey of using Agile Construction® tools which have enabled Staff in the past half year to put a specific focus on the identification and continuous improvement of their performance and profitability on projects and as a company, specifically regarding labor productivity and the impact and cost of change orders. 

The Agile Construction® processes that Staff has designed and put in place on project Handoff, Kickoff, Procurement, Prefab, and Strategy Meetings have helped to align all project stakeholders by consistently sharing and exchanging critical and relevant information among the project team. These processes have helped to recognize and address project risks up-front, most of the time even before crews mobilize on-site and ramp-up projects. Throughout the lifecycle of the project, Staff has implemented a process to hold project quarterly reviews to continue the process of risk management and to support each project team. 

Staff Electric will also be the inaugural user of the DCI™ module for Pipeline and Backlog, providing a visual for what is “out in front” in the work picture, allowing pinpointed decision-making on pursuing projects and setting up project teams for success early on.

Lemberg Electric

Leading the industry as one of the best performing ESOPs, Lemberg Electric is relentless in their pursuit of perfection. Their leadership has used their abilities to attract great talent and has been able to secure a very successful strategic advantage. David Washebek and Tim Scheid have led the company through the very tumultuous year of pandemic. Hiring a new president Mark Chappel with over 30 years of experience in the industry has positioned the company for many successful years to come. 

2021 started as an exciting year for Lemberg Electric. The momentum following their Strategic Planning Session with MCA near the end of 2020 helped drive the company into action, in strides toward their short, mid-, and long-term strategic initiative goals. As Lemberg prepares to take on larger jobs, they are making sure their prefab shop has the necessary capacity to meet future demands – and have asked MCA, Inc. to assess their shop and put an optimized layout together to ensure they meet demand and improved efficiency. 

Project teams are continuing to practice Agile Construction® across Construction and Data jobs, and have recently engaged their Service division in learning the principles as well and utilizing the tools in the office and field operations. For Service, SIS® has helped managers and a few of their drivers to plan and manage their work – and is also allowing stronger feedback to the company on common obstacles and hindrances.

Dixie Electric, Plumbing, and Air

Unlike many other contractors, Dixie Electric has been able to master multi-discipline operations and apply Agile Construction® to its fullest success. John and Noble Yelverton have successfully applied the correct business principles in all their operations and have grown the company to double its size since as many years ago.

Dixie Electric, Plumbing, and Air (Dixie) continues to focus on the development and growth of their people with a Spring Foreman Bootcamp/Construction Leadership training, conducted by MCA. In this five-part, ten-hour training, the team focused on What it Means to be a Foreman and Project Manager at Dixie, the Management of the Work and Labor, Material and Tool Management, and closing with the Construction Project Environment.  While continuing to implement Agile Construction® tools and processes, Dixie is ramping up their Procurement Team, which will focus on efficiency in the ‘back office’ through pilot Vendor partnership process as well as Inventory Management for the Field. 

Electric Company of Omaha 

Electric Company of Omaha (ECO), seeing great success with more predictable results and reduced variation in job performance, thanks to the team’s use of Agile Construction® tools, is continuing to scale their success with two high-energy initiatives. They will expand their use of WBS, JPAC®, and SIS® to jobs smaller in size, which allow a rollout of the knowledge across more of the company’s Foremen and Project Managers. They are also focusing on the growth of Prefabrication in their business by hosting Prefab workshops, increased training across the company of the Prefab catalog, forms, and planning with the Prefab shop. The team is piloting and expecting double-digit growth in the company's use of prefabrication, which we know always helps both Safety and the company's bottom line.

Graybar

Graybar is continuing their journey as a partner to Staff Electric and is in pursuit of other viable contractor partners. Graybar is working diligently to increase and expand the job site and material management services, and pioneer new pricing strategies aimed at a benefit to the contractor and the project owners, Graybar’s current efforts are focused on post-COVID-19 supply chain coordination and reliability as well as long term pricing strategies to support all current and future projects.

Graybar continues to assess their internal effectiveness as a partner and is seeking to improve operating processes at the branch level to meet the specific needs of the local project teams, cost-effectively and efficiently. Also, Graybar continues to support their own internal staff’s training on Agile as well as their current and potential future contractor partners’ training needs. We once again are looking forward to seeing Graybar participate in and sponsor our Symposium and Agile Construction® training events.


Work Environment Management LLC certified as Women's Business Enterprise

Work Environment Management (WEM) LLC has been officially certified by WBENC as a  Women's Business Enterprise (WBE). 

WEM, LLC is authorized to sell MCA, Inc’s software WEM, LLC customers can use the Buy-Track-Save™ model and see results quickly. Buy JPAC® and SIS®, Track your productivity and be on your way to Save. WEM, LLC has a proprietary onboarding that is unique for software sales. They are with you every step of the way on launching the software, and therefore savings, for your company. Then when you’re ready, WEM, LLC can also provide scheduling services to help with your business transition and support your communication with your GCs/customers. For more information, please contact info@wemsoftware.com.

WEM, LLC. is excited to provide an update on the progress of some of our clients with representation on the East Coast, West Coast, and the South!

In-West Electric out of Goodyear, Arizona is very successful in using the Agile Construction® tools over several years. In 2021 Mike Wallis, owner, started to lead his company into the next level of Agile Construction® by receiving the Agile Construction® 201 Certificate. 

Frischhertz Electric out of New Orleans is demonstrating greater usage of the Agile Construction® Tools to actively manage dozens of jobs. The company increasingly uses the tools on smaller jobs with fewer labor hours. No job is too small! One hour of planning can save up to 18 hours in the field – a huge saving for small jobs!


All-Brite Electric out of West Haven, Connecticut is also entering the second year of their Agile Construction® journey.  They have learned much in the past year and in addition to tracking their Job Productivity in JPAC®, they are utilizing Short Interval Scheduling (SIS®) to capture job site distractions and make improvements to the setup of their jobs by reviewing that critical feedback from the field.  

Dodd Electric, Nashville, Tennessee, kicked off their Agile Construction® usage in Spring 2021 and are expanding their Agile Construction® training throughout the company.


Research Corner

Wouldn’t you have loved to know what the future of the economy will look like a year ago at the onset of the pandemic? Well you did, because we used the available data from hundreds of jobs and interviewed tens of executives and predicted based on the historical behaviors of the economy at the onset and aftermath of tectonic changes like the one we had with the pandemic and give you the answers. The recent publication of the Congressional Budget Office just validated the accuracy of our projections and predictions. Read below how we did this.

With expanded vaccination against the spread of COVID-19, businesses across the country and the overall U.S. economy are on a path of fast and strong recovery. Many models forecasted and projected a much longer period for the economy, industries, and businesses to recover from the disruption and economic toll the pandemic took. With the beginning and the spread of COVID-19 and the initial lockdown in March 2020, MCA hosted COVID-19 webinars to discuss with leaders of the industry the potential impact and outlook for the economy and particularly for businesses. MCA’s projections indicated early on a soon and fast recovery of the industry and the economy to pre-pandemic levels. The figure below illustrates MCA and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) data and projection of the economic development. While both have undoubtfully a different focus and data perspective, the data that the CBO recently released regarding the development of the GDP shows a very similar pattern to MCA’s early projection on the development and recovery of the businesses in the construction industry.

Figure: Economic Outlook – CBO and MCA projection (own representation)

Source: MCA projection and Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Report


Research Projects

a. “What’s Next after Prefab?” – A focus group study for ELECTRI

In the first quarter of 2021, MCA and ELECTRI conducted a new format for industry research. An expert facilitator guided a focus group discussion on a specific topic of interest. The topic this year was “What’s Next after Prefab?”, an investigation into current trends and participants' anticipation of what the industry leaders are and will be looking for in the future. MCA Inc. was the expert facilitator that found Focus group participants recognized that through the customer channels, there is an increase in demand for Externalizing Work®, and specifically prefabrication. Approximately 34 registrants expressed interest in joining the discussion, representing a cross-section of large and small electrical contractors across the country, including distributors and manufacturers who also joined to represent the supply chain. 

In essence, the industry is demanding an increased amount of work to be done in prefabrication, increased quality in the prefabrication process, and a significant increase in the demand for planning and coordination across trades facilitated with enhanced use of BIM tools and standardized quality controls in an extended multi-trade prefab environment. This future environment will be based on the principles of Externalizing Work® but will look very different as complete systems and subsystem fabrication replaces simple assemblies of components.

The final report from the focus group is being wrapped up now. Watch for this publication through MCA’s, NECA’s, and ELECTRI’s channels in the coming weeks.

b. Industrialization of Construction®: Signal or Noise? Threat or Promise?

MCA’s 2020 research project “Industrialization of Construction®: Signal or Noise? Threat or Promise?” is now published and available for download through ELECTRI’s Website. This research investigated how Industrialization will continue to unfold in construction and provided ELECTRI and its members a means of getting and staying ahead.  During the research, MCA, Inc. developed a guidebook and two self-assessments for contractors to use to move the needle forward in their company and worked with three electrical contractors to test the applications, collect their results, learning and feedback. 

  • Research Video: Link
  • Get the Research Report: Click here.    
  • Contact us if you are interested or have questions about the research project.

c. Estimating with and Pricing of Prefabrication

Contractors need a practical way to track and quantify the benefits of prefab. Business owners, estimators, and project managers need both confidence and knowledge about the cost-saving potentials of prefab so they can account for prefabrication when bidding for potential work. ELECTRI International commissioned MCA Inc. to conduct a deep-dive study of pre-fab to help the EC industry focus on risk mitigation, higher predictability of cost, quality of work, and profits. In addition to specific recommendations, a Prefabrication Calculator was developed to help contractors translate the total savings from Externalizing Work® into an equivalent composite rate as a practical method for “pricing” estimates with prefab.

  • Research Video: Link
  • Get the Research Report: Click here.    
  • Contact us if you are interested in the research project or prefab assessment and implementation services.
 

TPAC™ - Tracking Profit Accounting with Control

TPAC™ is the latest expansion and addition to the MCA, Inc. Work Environment Management (WEM®)family of applications. TPAC™ focuses on improving owners' and project managers' control over their project financials. TPAC™’s strength comes from its unique capability to interconnect with JPAC® and use labor performance projection methodology to enhance project financial projections. Project reports created with TPAC™ will enable owners and project managers to get more accurate and reliable projections of the project status and the end-of-job financial performance, earlier than ever before. More than ever before WEM® Software is becoming the “Crystal Ball” of Project Management. Contact MCA today for a demo of this powerful product suite and pricing for a complete package, or an add-on to your existing WEM Software® tools. 


DCI™ - Digitalization, Commonization, and Interconnection


Ask any estimator and they will tell you that the number one item on their wish list is to be able to use their job data to create a  picture of what is in the pipeline, what is being bid, what has been won, and what is the total backlog and burn rate. 
Well, the DCI™ does just that. Looking ahead, DCI™ is the next-generation Agile Construction® software application for the construction industry. Spanning an even broader scope than the single job by job management, DCI™ begins to explore complete project lifecycle management at the overall corporate and enterprise level. From Pipeline and Backlog, Procurement, Project Planning, Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), Project Scheduling, Manpower and Resource Planning, Project Execution, Daily Scheduling (SIS®), Timesheets, Productivity Tracking (JPAC®), Progress Reporting, Financial Reporting, and Projection, Estimating Accuracy Enhancer (EAE®), and more – now are all accessible in one digital, common, and interconnected application to take the project and work environment management to the higher level. We are beginning to schedule demos of this groundbreaking application, and early subscribers will have access as early as Q3 2021. 


MCA Symposium 2021 – Path to Industrialization: Data-Driven Project Installation

2021 MCA Symposium
Agile Construction® - Path to Industrialization

Topic: Data-Based Project Installation

Friday, June 25th, 2021
9:00am – 3:00pm CT
Chicago, IL

Reserve your spot today and sign up online!
Our industry continues its journey toward industrialization. The most competitive companies will be applying Agile Construction® concepts that support project managers in planning and execution throughout the lifecycle of their projects. 

This Symposium will focus on…
  • Staying ahead of the Industrialization of the Construction® – facing these changes with an improved Project Management approach (PM 2.0)
  • Improving your effectiveness to communicate with GCs and get change orders paid promptly.
  • Job Cost Tracking – Getting all jobs cash-positive early and ensuring you know exactly how your job is performing
  • Data-Based Project Management – use existing and new tools to your advantage and achieving the outcome you want
  • Dealing with labor shortage & simultaneously Increasing job profitability
  • Procurement and overall Project scheduling
  • Externalizing Work® – what’s next after prefabrication?
The market is changing, the workforce shortage is real, and the industry is transforming.  Be part of the Revolution and hear how it can be done, from experts and practitioners of Agile Construction®, in both union and non-union environments.

If you are interested in our next 2021 Spring/Summer Symposium on Data-Driven Project Installation, make sure to reserve your spot and sign up here: MCA Symposium.


Publications

Fresh from the press! Take a look at our latest publications and articles below:

Visit our MCA publication section to view and read all of our latest articles and publications (and more)!


Other publications you might also be interested in:

  • New Book Preview: Agile Methods for Continuous Improvement


We are excited to announce that our MCA team is working on a new addition to the series of MCA’s Agile Construction® Books.


The new book titled “Agile Methods for Continuous Improvement” builds on the Agile Construction® Principles and provide insights into the required supporting structure for Agile Companies and guide through the fundamentals and How-Tos of process design and process improvements.


Outreach Corner 

Agile Classes Highlights and Upcoming Events


MCA has been able to provide 40 individual workshops and classes in the first half of 2021. We started the year mostly virtual and are now happy to include both virtual and in-person, at your request. Check out our Course Catalogue and all the courses that MCA offers - ranging from Agile Construction® to Project Management! 

Visit our website to see our future Workshops and Seminars

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