Tectonix Steel: Expanding our Horizons

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Expanding our Horizons

I just got back from a 'whirlwind tour' of southern Utah and Las Vegas about a week and a half ago. It was a great trip. The weather was fabulous and I was able to take off my jacket and role up my sleeves. When I got to St. George Wednesday afternoon the temperature was in the 50's and Las Vegas was in the 70's on Thursday. I had some great visits with some really good hardworking people. In our struggling economy, I noticed that there are fabricators that are finding ways to survive and even thrive. One thing that stuck out to me while I was down in southern Utah was the fact that there are a couple of Fabricators that are leaning on each other for business. Where one is better with plating the other is better with structural. They are sending business back and forth. There seems to be a great relationship between the two competitors. As I was visiting the Las Vegas Fabricators I noticed that buildings are still going up. Las Vegas is a thriving city and things are moving at a rapid pace. Private building there has slowed, but government buildings are filling in the construction gap.

Joke of the Month

Why I'm Tired
For a couple years I've been blaming it on lack of sleep, not enough sunshine, too much pressure from my job, earwax build-up, poor blood, or anything else I could think of. But now I found out the real reason: I'm tired because I'm overworked. Here's why: The population of this country is 273 million.
140 million are retired.
That leaves 133 million to do the work.
There are 85 million in school, which leaves 48 million to do the work.
Of this there are 29 million employed by the federal government, leaving 19 million to do the work.
2.8 million are in the armed forces preoccupied with killing Saddam Hussein. Which leaves 16.2 million to do the work.
Take from that total the 14,800,000 people who work for state and city governments, and that leaves 1.4 million to do the work.
At any given time there are 188,000 people in hospitals, leaving 1,212,000 to do the work.
Now, there are 1,211,998 people in prisons.
That leaves just two people to do the work. You and me. And there you are sitting, at your computer, reading jokes.
Nice, real nice.

Inspirational Story of the Month

The Gardener’s Badge Story

A landscape gardener ran a business that had been in the family for two or three generations. The staff were happy, and customers loved to visit the store, or to have the staff work on their gardens or make deliveries - anything from bedding plants to ride-on mowers.

For as long as anyone could remember, the current owner and previous generations of owners were extremely positive happy people.

Most folk assumed it was because they ran a successful business.

In fact it was the other way around...

A tradition in the business was that the owner always wore a big lapel badge, saying Business Is Great!

The business was indeed generally great, although it went through tough times like any other. What never changed however was the owner's attitude, and the badge saying Business Is Great!

Everyone who saw the badge for the first time invariably asked, "What's so great about business?" Sometimes people would also comment that their own business was miserable, or even that they personally were miserable or stressed.

Anyhow, the Business Is Great! badge always tended to start a conversation, which typically involved the owner talking about lots of positive aspects of business and work, for example:

·the pleasure of meeting and talking with different people every day

·the reward that comes from helping staff take on new challenges and experiences

·the fun and laughter in a relaxed and healthy work environment

·the fascination in the work itself, and in the other people's work and businesses

·the great feeling when you finish a job and do it to the best of your capabilities

·the new things you learn every day - even without looking to do so

·and the thought that everyone in business is blessed - because there are many millions of people who would swap their own situation to have the same opportunities of doing a productive meaningful job, in a civilized well-fed country, where we have no real worries.

And so the list went on. And no matter how miserable a person was, they'd usually end up feeling a lot happier after just a couple of minutes listening to all this infectious enthusiasm and positivity.

It is impossible to quantify or measure attitude like this, but to one extent or another it's probably a self-fulfilling prophecy, on which point, if asked about the badge in a quiet moment, the business owner would confide:

"The badge came first. The great business followed."

Proper Project Management Is A Great Solution For Increasing Profits During A Tough Economy

During the month of January, all of the Project Managers with Tectonix Steel had the opportunity to attend an intense, weeklong course on Project Management. The training was based on a real life scenario in which there were people calling in sick, revisions to the project, subs refusing to work overtime, and numerous other realistic events that happen while managing a project.

Tectonix Steel owner, Jason Chamberlain, is minimizing the ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ mentality that is somewhat commonplace in companies that deal with small to medium size projects. By implementing the science of Project Management, Tectonix Steel expects to increase revenue, complete jobs quicker, resolve problems quicker, and decrease the stress level of employees. This will allow Tectonix Steel to remain in a growth phase.

With the current state of the economy, it is more important than ever for businesses to find ways to improve. There’s an old saying, “Nothing is neutral, your business is either growing or it’s dying”. Lou Holtz, college football coach from the 1960’s into the 2000’s says in his book, Wins, Losses, and Lessons, “The minute we try to maintain we start dying”. This being the case, a company needs to constantly look for ways to improve itself.

Most Companies find that a substantial amount of money is lost in poor project management. It is difficult to place an exact dollar amount on the amount of money that is lost due to poor project management. However, through proper management, it is fairly easy to track inefficiencies within the different phases of the project and make the necessary corrections.
Along with having their PM’s attend this training, Tectonix Steel is also utilizing project-management software. This software allows PM’s to easily track what’s happening with respect to time, money, and resources on each project.

Tectonix Steel

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Expanding our Horizons

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