Taking partnership to a new level

BY MARY JO MARTIN
Editorial director

The world of industrial PVF is certainly a long way from that of fashion design. But when I recently met with key executives from Smith-Cooper International, Bell Pipe & Supply, Comfort Systems and Dunn-Edwards Paints to talk about the intricacies of a major project they partnered on, I couldn’t help but think of the mantra that has come from the reality TV show Project Runway — Tim Gunn’s “Make it Work.”

Gunn, who serves as a mentor for up-and-coming designers on the show, famously gives them those words of stern encouragement when they experience obstacles along the way. And, more often than not, they somehow find a way to conquer those challenges.

Ultimately, no matter what our businesses, we are judged by how we meet the challenges thrown down in front of us. And because none of us can truly succeed on our own, our success should be partially attributed to those partners we choose to be in the trenches with us.

Smith-Cooper and Bell Pipe really solidified a partnership when they got the nod to supply the new state-of-the-art Dunn-Edwards paint manufacturing facility in Phoenix.

Dunn-Edwards, in business since 1925, is known for producing very high-quality paints that are specifically formulated for the Southwestern climate. They operate 109 stores in California, Arizona, Nevada, Mew Mexico and Texas. Their new ultra-modern, 336,000-square-foot facility encompasses manufacturing, product development, quality control labs, a distribution center, retail outlets and office space.

I visited the Dunn-Edwards facility in Phoenix recently, and sat down with Bob Cooper, president, and John Boyce, regional sales manager, of Smith-Cooper International; Franklin Bell, president, and Fred O’Connell, senior account executive, of Bell Pipe & Supply; Robert Hord, project manager of Comfort Systems; and Clay Fenstermaker, director of manufacturing engineering with Dunn-Edwards.

 

MJM: What was Dunn-Edwards’ purpose/need for this new facility?

Fenstermaker: We recognized that to be a leader in the paint industry we had to have the manufacturing capability to back it up and provide the quality promised by our brand name. We looked at the possibility of refrofitting our existing facilities, but in the end, it only made sense to start from the ground up and build it right.

This is a massive plant that consolidates our former Los Angeles and Tempe manufacturing facilities into one. Most of our Tempe workforce have transitioned to this new facility, but almost all of the equipment is new. We looked both in Los Angeles and the Inland Empire before exploring Phoenix. We found that the City Council here was very receptive and ultimately, Phoenix was the best choice for us. We broke ground in March 2010 and canned the first batch of paint in January 2011.

MJM: And would you please give us an overview of this new highly automated plant?

Fenstermaker: Dunn-Edwards has always been a leader in environmentally friendly products. It’s been a crowning achievement to be the first paint manufacturing facility in the world to achieve the coveted LEED Gold certification. We worked closely with an architect who helped shepherd us through the process. Our application included quantifying the savings we realized from automation, dust and water reclamation, automatic lighting and reflective panels on the roof, among other things.

This new 336,000-square-foot facility has 77 dock doors and we also built a rail spur that connects the new plant to the railroad. We get railcar deliveries of raw materials several times a week. The bulk storage tanks hold 400,000 gallons of raw materials. Orders are picked here in the warehouse and shipped to each of our 109 stores as well as domestic and international dealers.

MJM: What are some of the highlights of the equipment and capacity that you can share with us?

Fenstermaker: There are 1,700 automated valves in this facility that manage the delivery of 92 unique materials through our automated system.

The valves are controlled through a new SCADA system that was specifically designed for this facility and is tied in with our ERP system. It includes a touch screen interface to all aspects of production including valve operation. All inventory management and forecasting of schedules is generated through our ERP and passed down to the SCADA.

O’Connell: Bell Pipe supplied about $75,000 in strainers and miscellaneous groove fittings — ranging from 1 to 4 inches, and $1.3 million in the new various ball valves. Roughly three-quarters of the product Bell Pipe supplied came from Smith-Cooper/Sharpe.

MJM: I understand that other valves were originally spec’d for ehis project. Would you share the story of how Bell Pipe and Smith Cooper came together to make this all work and ensure that the construction stay on schedule — and ensure the quality Dunn Edwards insisted upon?

Bell: With our operations also being in California, Bell Pipe has for years had an incredible relationship with Dunn Edwards. When we learned that they were moving their plant to Phoenix, we weren’t sure if they were going to let the job go local or if we would have an opportunity to get involved. There was a lot of money involved in this project and we pulled together a group of people who really came together on the ground floor of the project to make it happen.

O’Connell: We had to do the engineering on the whole project and spec the valves. We brought in a few manufacturers to quote, but they couldn’t meet deadline. I actually took the concept of this new wafer ball valve to Smith-Cooper to see if they could engineer and produce it. They were the only company that would guarantee they could get us this product in the timeframe Dunn-Edwards required.

Bell: Through our membership in Affiliated Distributors, Gary Jackson [VP of the A-D PVF Division] intitially brought us together with Sharpe Valves/Smith-Cooper, and Bob personally guaranteed meeting the deadline. A-D strongly encourages its members and vendors to work together, and it was our affiliation with A-D that helped us win over this contractor.

MJM: Was there anything unique about the type of product required for this project?

O’Connell: CPVC piping was chosen because of the lighter weight and cost; it would have cost much more to reinforce the building and use the appropriate hangars for stainless steel. There is actually 7.5 miles of CPVC piping in this facility. No one had used CPVC before in this type of application. Being enclosed in the building, the CPVC is not exposed to ultraviolet rays from the sun, so it should last forever.

Cooper: Because they were reducing the weight of the piping, we also had to reduce the weight of the valves by about 20%, so we needed to come up with some options. With Fred’s — and the team’s — help, we actually introduced a new valve for this type of application called a wafer ball valve, which is a part butterfly and part ball valve. Its purpose is to consolidate the big thick valves into a smaller dimensional valve to cut down on the weight.

Bell: One of the advantages for us was that Fred had such great knowledge of Dunn-Edwards and what they required. This project was done at almost an “I need it now” delivery schedule, and Dunn-Edwards’ comfort with Fred’s word really helped us secure the job. This was a team effort, with John and Fred on the front lines and [Bell Pipe’s proposal manager] Robert Fagan sending out all the proposals to contractors. We leaned on him to make sure the work got done.

MJM: It sounds as though the communication between your organizations was taken to a whole new level. Talk about how important that was in making sure this project went off without a hitch?

Cooper: Dunn-Edwards had access to us around the clock — even on Sundays — and that’s a comfort for customers. We’ve never had such intense communication from the customer to the contractor to the engineer.

The independent wholesaler has the opportunity to really work outside the box — and Bell Pipe certainly did that on this project. It makes it so much easier to perform if there is good open communication and you know what is expected. Thanks to the great communication among all parties on this project, we could make it happen.

O’Connell: If something came up we turned to each other. There was an open door policy with everyone involved in the project. Issues were addressed right away and everyone made sure to disseminate information among all the parties. If it wasn’t for the unity and teamwork of everyone involved, it would have taken much longer and cost much more. None of us could have done this alone; the only way something like this comes together is that we all functioned as one unit. With the teamwork and group we had, we could take on anybody.

Boyce: This whole project was at the least, very fluid. Fred and I would regularly meet with the engineer and then talk to our respective management to determine what their time frames and requirements were. The clock was ticking. There was no wiggle room. From that March through June there were still modifications going on weekly. It was a matter of communicating effectively, once, getting it done and moving forward.

Bell: We didn’t breathe easy until the last delivery was made. A true camaraderie really came out of this. We’ve developed a trust and friendship. That will really help future business. It certainly paves the way for more projects together ahead.

MJM: You’re making it sound pretty smooth, but in reality you encountered some serious challenges along the way.

O’Connell: David took on Goliath and won. To develop a new product and get it here in 90 days is impressive. Bell Pipe has other suppliers that we’ve worked with in the past but Smith-Cooper was the only one who was willing to take on this project and make the commitment.

Cooper: The commitment was a big step, but making it happen was something else. There was a lot riding on the success of this project. The 3-inch wafer ball valves were really the critical piece of the scheduling, as they were in Phase I of construction.

There was actually a typhoon in Taiwan during the process that could have thrown the entire project off. The typhoon kept ships from being able to leave harbor on time, which caused more delays. But fortunately, we were able to make up the time through the great work of the folks in our Chicago facility.

The valve bodies were manufactured and assembled in Taiwan, and then shipped to Chicago where we performed the actuation. Each piece was hydrostatically tested twice — before the actuators were placed on the units and then again afterwards.

We ended up shipping small batches of the tested product to the jobsite — at one point shipping just 75 at a time to ensure that we were getting product to Dunn-Edwards as quickly as possible. We had crews working nights and weekends on assembly and testing. Alex Winkler, co-founder and current president of Sharpe, was instrumental in making this happen at the factory level. Alex combined the efforts of his engineering team in Chicago directly with the factory, to assure proper overseas sourcing, scheduling and on-time delivery. Under Alex’s guidance, the actuated valves were assembled in Chicago, along with product testing performed using Smith-Cooper’s state-of-the-art testing equipment.
We even air freighted in one shipment of the valves — and you can imagine how much that cost as each one weighs a couple hundred pounds. But we did what we had to do.

Were we perfect? No. But I don’t believe anyone could have done it better. We actually beat the delivery schedule for the valves by about two weeks. When you consider all the challenges, we pulled off the impossible.

Bell: If you look at the overall project, there probably wasn’t anyone else who could have done it at this price and with this level of service. It was a very stressful project, and certainly the largest that Bell Pipe has ever been involved with in our 55 years in business.

MJM: Clay, this all involved a lot of trust on the part of Dunn-Edwards. That’s impressive considering the scope of this project!

Fenstermaker: Everything had to come together just right to pull this off. Smith-Cooper and Bell Pipe really went over and above when it came to communication and service. They kept us in the loop on everything — even if it was something we didn’t want to hear. But they were open and honest, and they did what had to be done to make it happen.

There were crews here just waiting on product to install. We probably had 80 guys on the mezzanine putting pipe in at one time.

A lot of the piping went up with spacers in it. A pallet of valves would show up and the guys would pull out the spacers and put in the valves to make complete runs.

MJM: In your mind, Bob, how was Smith-Cooper able to pull this off — and what made you so confident to commit to such an aggressive timeframe?

Cooper: It’s just our style. We’re a big company with a very independent way of thinking. Because we are fully integrated from engineering on down, it gives us the ability to direct our resources appropriately to meet challenges.

Through their engineering changes we knew there was going to be a real problem with time. We had actually started engineering the design of the wafer ball valve before we even had the formal contract. That didn’t take place until about six weeks into our engineering. But because of the tight turnaround, we had to take the risk and get the engineering started. That really shows our commitment to our customers.

Smith-Cooper was a new supplier for Dunn-Edwards. When they initially met with John and Fred, they wanted to know if we were going to be able to make this commitment. There were a lot of other aspects to the construction that revolved around the installation of the valves — bulk tanks, catwalks, all the electricity — which was why the timing was so critical.

We’ve done business with Bell Pipe for a long time, but not on a project even close to this level. This was our chance to really shine at the engineering level and leverage the acquisitions of Sharpe and Fine Stainless.

One key player I have not mentioned is Gary Skeber, vice president of Sharpe Valves, who played a pivotal role throughout this entire project. Gary was the “orchestrator” for Bell Pipe, Sharpe Valves and Smith-Cooper’s sales and management staff, along with outside contractors, and through Gary’s involvement, Smith-Cooper was able to provide a full range of products to Bell Pipe, including stainless steel pipe and fittings, along with SCI brass ball valves. This represents what I refer to as “Selling the Package.”

MJM: Robert, as the mechanical contractor on this job, reliability both on delivery and product quality were huge factors. Talk about your experience working with Bell Pipe and Smith-Cooper?

Hord: Keeping the project on schedule was really the biggest hurdle. These guys made that happen.
Our company does a lot of fast-track projects’ we’re usually chosen because we have a lot of resources. We targeted and wanted to be a part of the Dunn-Edwards project, and put together a good team. The capability they offered from pre-fab through on-time delivery was key.

Bell Pipe was very professional and delivered on their word. They go to bat for you and get you the products when you need them. The complexity of our orders and changes on an almost-daily basis was challenging, but Bell Pipe’s Rob Fagan’s performance in handling them was incredible.

Smith-Cooper and Sharpe are above-average when it comes to high-quality products. They are well made and operate well. The design came together very well and we were extremely pleased with end result of the product.

And whenever we encountered difficulty and needed hands-on help here on the site, we were relieved to get a call back almost immediately that they were on their way.

I would most certainly welcome the opportunity to work with both Bell Pipe and Smith Cooper/Sharpe again. One of our mottos is “Whatever it takes” — and you guys really exemplify that.

MJM: Now that the project is complete, what are your closing thoughts on this experience?

Bell: We hadn’t stocked Sharpe before Smith-Cooper’s acquisition of them; we had other manufacturers that we represented through relationships that had been in place a long time. When this opportunity came along, they did everything that was necessary for us to have confidence in their ability. Bell Pipe had everything on the line with this job. I knew this was a big risk, but I trusted the commitment Smith-Cooper made to us.

Cooper: There was a lot of principle behind why we did what we did and made the commitment we did, and how important it was that we succeeded. We needed to show everyone that we could do it. This shows everyone that Bell Pipe and Smith-Cooper are major players in our industry.

This is just the beginning. You haven’t seen anything yet!