Miller Electric: Foreman Newsletter Issue #13 (June, 2011)

Miller Quality Shows At New High School

Miller Electric Company recently completed work on the new Oak Leaf High School in Clay County Florida. This brand new 13 building, 300,000 sq ft school was built on 90 acres and creates a state of the art learning environment with computer labs and high tech audio visual systems.

Our Project team included Vice President Ed Witt Jr, Senior Project Manager Eddie O'Halloran, VDV Project Manager Leland Anderson, Assistant Project Manager Terry Long and Foreman John Bagwell.

Our scope of work included installing all of the electrical systems, fire alarm, controls, Voice/Data systems, Cameras, Inner-com/paging and Area Rescue.

One of the reasons Miller Electric was selected for this 2 year high profile fast paced project was because of our in-house capability to self perform the work and our ability to coordinate all facets of the project with other trades, sub-contractors, engineers and the owner.

Miller Electric has become the go to contractor for area educational facilities where we have done many new school projects and renovations.

COMPANY LEADERSHIP:
Henry K. Brown, Corporate Vice President

Henry K. Brown is the Corporate Vice President of Miller Electric Company. He is a third-generation officer of the company, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, H.E. Autrey, his mother Susan Walden, and his uncle Ron Autrey.

A Jacksonville native, he attended Stetson University where he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration with a major in Accounting and a minor in Business Law. He continued on to earn his Masters degree from Stetson's Business School and is a Certified Public Accountant licensed by the State of Florida. During the summers while home from school, Henry gained valuable work experience at Miller Electric Company in various roles such as warehouseman, inventory control, estimating assistant, and accounting assistant. After graduating from Stetson, he started his career as an Auditor for Deloitte where he worked with clients in wide range of industries including Logistics, Manufacturing, Government, and Non-Profit. Following Deloitte, he worked as a Financial Analyst for Atlantic Marine where he was exposed to leading manufacturing and construction practices, as well as JD Edwards ERP software.

Henry returned to the company in 2001 as project manager for the implementation of JD Edwards. Management of this project allowed him to quickly become familiar with all areas of corporate operations. Upon completion of the project, he was named Controller, with responsibility over Accounting and Information Systems. He became a corporate officer in 2003 with his promotion to Assistant Secretary-Treasurer and has since progressively taken on additional management and leadership roles within the company.

In his current role as Corporate Vice President, Henry is a member of the Management Operating Committee (MOC), with responsibility for Corporate Operations. In this role, he works closely with Division VPs and Project Managers on all major bids, proposals, and active projects, as well as providing leadership in the areas of Finance, Information Technology, Human Resources, and Risk Management. He is also responsible for coordinating outside professionals for Legal, Accounting, Insurance, and Surety.

In addition to his work at the company, Henry has been involved in a variety of community and industry organizations. He is currently a member of the Executive Committee of Stetson University's Family Enterprise Center; involved with NECA's Future Leaders and Electri International; a member of the Construction Financial Managers Association; a member of United Way of Northeast Florida's Board of Directors; and a member of the Board of Directors for Affinity Insurance, Ltd. When not at work, he enjoys spending time with his wife Jennifer and their three daughters Gracie (5), Emma (3), and Abby (3).

"I am very proud to be part of business that has meant so much to my family and to so many others. There are not many family businesses that make it to the third generation, let alone have three generations of leadership active together. Working in a family business has unique challenges, but also unique opportunities. I am fortunate to have the opportunity to see first hand the traits that have made this company successful, such as my grandfather's exemplary leadership, my uncle's strategic vision, and my mother's work ethic and stewardship. I take every opportunity to learn from them and to continue to improve my skills as a leader within the company." -- Henry K. Brown

Modular Prefabrication -- Next Generation Building

Miller Electric Company has teamed up with Stellar Energy Systems to build a revolutionary construction delivery method -- Modular Prefabricated Chiller Plants. Stellar has used this method for 10 years and the entire process continues to evolve using the latest building methods and industry best practices.

Chillers are industrial and commercial-grade refrigerating systems used in various cooling applications such as comfort cooling, data center cooling, pharmaceutical manufacturing process cooling, and district cooling. The system includes a compressor, evaporator, condenser, reservoir, thermal expansion valve and stabilization assembly. HVAC chillers use water, oils and other liquid compounds as refrigerants.

This method involves building a complete enclosed chiller plant in a large warehouse in Jacksonville Florida and then shipping it anywhere in the world. Manufacturing these units in a controlled environment has various benefits including quality control, the work is not affected by weather and repetitive construction processes are used which increases productivity.

Additional benefits to modular prefabrication include:

(1) Faster delivery
(2) Potential cost savings
(3) Smaller building footprint
(4) Each plant is sized and built per customer requirements

Construction started off with building the base frame and floor and then the mechanical work is installed including pumps, valves, piping, chiller and refrigeration equipment. And then, all of the associated electrical components are installed including switchgear, panels, Motor Control Centers, conduit, lights, fittings, equipment hook ups, terminations, etc... After the mechanical and electrical systems are installed, the walls, doors and other finishes are installed to complete the plant building.

After construction is completed and system checks are performed, the building is split up into 12' x 50' modules and shipped all over the world and then reassembled on-site. So far Miller Electric has completed four such plants and they have been shipped to Brazil, California and Colorado.

Our Management team for this project is led by Project Manager Malcolm Hart, Assistant Project Manager Mike Updegraff and Project Foreman James (JT) Taylor.

Miller Electric Company is leading the charge into prefabrication and other new methods to work more efficiently and to be an industry leader in new technology. We are currently working with Stellar in developing other new modular concepts including Data Centers that will lead to further advances in prefabrication and flexible building solutions.

For more information contact:

PROFILES OF SUCCESS: Robert Tesney

What makes Miller Electric a dynamic company is its people. This company is made up of people with a wide range of backgrounds and this gives us a broad base of experience, education, diversity and ability.

Robert Tesney grew up in Hamilton, Alabama and graduated from the University of Alabama in 1988 with a BS in Electrical Engineering. He started his career as a Project Engineer in the Paper Mill industry and then worked for the Department of Veteran Affairs for several years as a Resident Engineer in Long Beach, California, Waco, Texas and Hampton, Virginia.

Robert joined Miller Electric Company in 2004 and has worked out of our Jacksonville office managing several high profile projects including:

  • University of Florida -- Cancer & Genetics, Nanoscale Research Facility
  • Several new and remodeled Ringpower Facilities throughout Florida
  • McCoy Federal Office building in Jackson, Mississippi
  • Alltell Stadium Facility Upgrades

Having been involved on both the customer and contractor sides of the table has provided great insight and understanding in his role as a Senior Project Manager. Robert's management philosophy includes a strong belief in communication with all of the stakeholders of a project including the customer, contractor, engineers and Miller Electric staff.

"I believe in being heavily involved and working closely with our field team and supervisors in order for them to understand the cost side of the project. This allows the Miller team to control the cost on the project and satisfy the customer thus allowing repeat business with that customer. I want the customer to have a sense of peace with Miller handling our scope knowing they can turn their efforts to managing other subs without being concerned with our portion of the project".

He currently serves as a Senior Project Manager under Vice President Ed Witt, Jr. Robert oversees Project Managers Larry Nourse and Daniel Brown along with Assistant Project Managers Mike Chapman and Kyle Pascal. Robert's group has mainly been concentrating their efforts towards bidding Government projects such as GSA facilities, Military base projects, etc...

Married to wife Stephanie for 16 years, Robert spends his free time playing golf and running. He has completed several half marathons and full marathons including all of the 26.2 with Donna and will run his second full marathon in Chicago later this year. Robert is an avid sports fan and one of his favorite activities is to watch the Crimson Tide play football in the fall.

Robert Tesney has been a very successful Project Manager and leader for years and has been recognized for his success and professionalism by his promotion to Senior Project Manager.

GATE Precast

Miller Electric Company recently completed the electrical installation for a 144,000 sq ft production facility for Gate Precast Company in Jacksonville Florida. This massive enclosed building allows Gate to produce pre-stressed concrete components like beams, pilings and columns used in bridges, parking garages, stadiums and other concrete structures.

This 78 acre facility has built concrete components for many projects including:

  • Dames Point Bridge
  • Buckman bridge
  • Florida Times Union Center for Performing Arts
  • City of Jacksonville Equestrian Center
  • Orlando Events Center
  • Blue Cross/Blue Shield Parking Deck
  • Jacksonville I-95 & I-10 Interchange

The plant in Jacksonville is one of eight Gate facilities located throughout the US which supplies architectural and structural concrete products to projects all over the country.

Miller Electric Company has had a long relationship with Gate over the years by providing electrical construction, trouble-shooting, repair and preventive maintenance services to the plant.

The Miller Electric team on this project is led by Project Manager Malcolm Hart, Assistant Project Manager Curtis Hires and on-site Foreman Sean Altman. Sean stays on-site at Gate performing routine maintenance and is available to respond to outages which keeps the plant operational and minimizes downtime.

TRAINING NEWS: "Dare to Improve"

The Miller Training Department has been busy over the last few months delivering several important classes for our employees:

NFPA 70E - This training consists of a review of NFPA 70E requirements by Director of Safety -- Mike Oliver and includes selecting the proper PPE, Arc Flash, Safe work practices and Miller Electric Company Policy.

The goal of this class is for the employee to understand and to be up-to-date on current OSHA & NFPA 70E requirements and to ensure that they are performing the work properly.

Fall Protection -- This series of classes identified proper safe work methods and OSHA requirements for fall protection. We also did safety harness fit checks to ensure the equipment we are using is in good condition and meets minimum safety requirements.

Critical Power Systems -- This class was a refresher for our employees who work on critical power and maintenance projects for our customers. Topics discussed included:

  • The importance of completing critical power work activities successfully
  • Following the written work plan and what to do if an issue comes up during a scheduled work activity
  • The impact of an incident to the individual field tech and the domino affect it creates company wide
  • Lessons learned and why we do things the way we do as a result of previous experience
  • Our quality of service and how our reputation gets us more work
  • Industry best practices

Surge Protection -- This class focused on new regulations for transient voltage protection and the theory for surge protection equipment and we also studied various application challenges and methods to overcome them.

Customer Development -- This class reviewed strategies to stay "Customer Focused" and gave us techniques to ensure better communication, response and performance skills. We also explored what our Project Manager's role is in building relationships with the people we do business with.

Rigging -- This class gave our employees the knowledge to properly rig loads and how to apply OSHA rules to safely moving equipment, material and tools. We also discussed using and care of rigging equipment along with industry best practices.

Crane Signals -- This course certified our employees on how to communicate with cranes when moving equipment, material or tools on a jobsite. Proper crane signals were practiced and the latest safety requirements were reviewed.

OSHA 10 & OSHA 30 -- We have been giving new classes for all of our employees to ensure they are equipped to work safely on our jobsites.

CPR & First Aid -- We continue to offer CPR training to all employees so that they know the latest emergency care methods and procedures.

Excavating & Trenching -- This class reviewed OSHA standards concerning trenching including shoring, soil composition, sloping, equipment placement, best practices and other requirements.

Miller Electric: Improving the Environment
JU Marine Science Research Institute Achieves LEED Gold

Miller Electric Company recently completed the electrical installation on the JU Marine Science Research Institute in Jacksonville Florida. This facility will be used to provide teaching and research opportunities on issues related to the St Johns River and the surrounding environments. This program will also support the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, Duval County Public Schools, the Miller Wilson Laboratory for Chemical Research and the St Johns River Keeper.

This 30,000 sq ft building achieved a unique distinction in that it has been given a LEED Gold certification by the US Green Building Council making Jacksonville University a community leader in environmental conservation and stewardship.

To achieve LEED Gold, this state of the art building has incorporated the following design features:

  • East-west oriented building to reduce solar heat load
  • Solar Hot Water
  • Harvesting Rainwater to use on toilets, boat wash down and irrigation
  • Waterless urinals
  • Natural light through most of the occupied space in the building
  • Low volatile organic compound (VOC) paints
  • Limited paved parking near building to avoid runoff into river
  • Native drought tolerant plants for landscaping
  • High-efficiency HVAC system
  • Low-energy lighting
  • Showers available to encourage biking to work or class
  • Recycled more than 80% of construction waste

Miller Electric Company is a member of the US Green Building Council and is proud to have been a part of the construction team for this project and to have contributed to preserving our environment and helping to conserve our natural resources.

Our own President, Ron Autrey is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Jacksonville University and has been a long time supporter and fundraiser for the school.

COMPANY NEWS BRIEF: Dale Carnegie Graduates

Miller Electric has long seen the value of providing professional training for our employees and we have found the Dale Carnegie training programs a very good compliment to our in-house training programs.

Five of Miller Electric Company's finest just completed the Dale Carnegie -- "Effective Communications & Human Relations Skills For Success" Course. Congratulations to Project Manager Miki Kovacs, Assistant Project Managers David Obi Jr and Tom Waddell along with Field Supervisors Fred Sweat and Darryl Cushman.

Giving their full effort to this class, Fred Sweat won an "Outstanding Performance" award, Darryl Cushman won the "Breakthrough Performance" award and Miki Kovacs won the "Overall Achievement" award. Congratulations guys!

During this challenging six week course, these men learned to strengthen interpersonal relationships, manage stress and handle fast-changing workplace conditions. They will be better equipped to perform as a persuasive communicator, problem-solver and focused leader.

It is a Miller custom that all Project Manager level employees attend the Dale Carnegie course to refine and build on their skills to allow them to be more effective and professional.

President Ron Autrey Receives 2011 Community Award

President Ron Autrey received the "2011 Citizen of the Year" award from Jacksonville Sheriff John Rutherford in January. Mr. Autrey has been a key supporter of (PAL) the Police Athletic League, which has helped many young men and women recognize their full potential in scholastics, athletics and citizenship.

The plaque Mr. Autrey received had the following inscription:

"Through your support of the Police Athletic League, you have helped to change the future of many children in Jacksonville, which contributes to public safety and the welfare of all".

Congratulations to President Ron Autrey for your award and thank you for your commitment and years of dedicated service to the community!

Miller Prefab Shop Is In Full Operation

Five years ago, Miller Electric Company decided to implement a formal Prefabrication process into all of our projects as a way to be more efficient. We created a Prefab shop at our Jacksonville campus and immediately started building assemblies for a 36 story condominium project in Orlando. As this project moved forward our Prefab shop manager and staff worked closely with the Condo project Managers and on-site field supervision and we quickly found out what worked and what didn't work on this fast paced, complicated project. This close coordination between the jobsite and the prefab shop allowed for tightly controlled delivery schedules, specific assembly packaging, quality control and safe storage until delivery.

As this project was winding down, other projects lined up to use the prefab shop's services and this developed into doing prefab for several more projects including:

  • UF Nano-scale
  • Blue Cross
  • Orange Park Medical Center
  • Grand Park Elementary
  • Ring Power
  • JU Dormitory
  • Ever Bank
  • Merrill Lynch
  • North Shore Elementary
  • Matte V Elementary
  • Baker County Jail
  • Brooks Rehab
  • Bartram Springs Elementary
  • Oakleaf High School
  • Southern Cold Storage
  • McCoy Federal Building in Jackson, Mississippi
  • Deerfield Assisted Living in Asheville, N.C

Several of these jobs did side by side comparisons doing the same work conventionally using field employees and then by using a combination of prefab and field installation and prefab has proven to be more efficient.

Due to the success of our prefab operations, the entire shop has moved in to a new 12,000 sq ft facility at our Jacksonville main office campus. This will allow for expanded capability and allows for indoor assembly and secure storage until it is needed on-site.

As we gain experience from project to project, we are finding new ways to do prefab and this has fostered ideas from the field on what we could do in the prefab shop that will be faster, easier and safer.

There are many benefits to prefab including:

  • Prefab allows us to meet accelerated schedules because it can be built and stored until needed
  • Can be manufactured at higher levels of quantity by a smaller more productive team in a controlled environment.
  • Can be built using standardized manufacturing processes which improves efficiency and reduces waste
  • Prefab can be built and assembled safer than on-site due to better lighting, work benches, tools and specialized equipment
  • Is not affected by weather because all work is done indoors
  • Allows for better quality control
  • Offers a great training ground for entry level workers by doing repetitive work activities
  • Tightly controlled secure inventory and computer tracking is used.
  • Goes hand in hand with our BIM (Building Information Modeling) department as design conflicts are resolved at the start of the job allowing for early prefab opportunities.
  • Prefabrication also lowers construction trash and allows for easier scrap recycling which is a common goal of green building efforts.

Miller Electric Company is pushing the envelope on developing new prefabrication ideas and refining our methods to be more productive. Our employees have bought into the notion that prefab makes us more efficient and better positioned to be a market leader.

Please contact Karl McLendon at kmclendon@mecojax.com or (904) 981-0526 for a tour of the prefab shop or to coordinate prefab opportunities on your project.

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