Metal Construction News, February 2021

For Halme the accreditation gave his company the imprimatur that it was doing quality work In fact because Halme Builders does so many public works projects and the governments have strict requirements going through the accreditation was not too burdensome Everything was already in place It just needed to be worked into the application and then proved through a site inspection The process looked monstrous and difficult Halme says but at one point I just said whats it going to take The staff told him he needed to get hands on with the submission Once he did the application moved quickly I think we had the submission in place with less than 8 hours of my time he says And with some tweaks we got it approved shortly thereafter There was probably another 8 hours invested prior to the inspection We then sat through a meeting and made some adjustments to our systems right there and we were approved It was reticence about tackling the project that was the main hindrance for Halme Builders The company already substantially had the processes in place Washington is a highly regulated state and Halme Builders because it does public works projects had a quality control program and a robust safety program among other things That is what gives it the ability to take on complex projects and meet the requirements of public works projects In short the companys processes are what differentiate it from its competition and now with AC478 accreditation they have proof of that differentiation You have to have your ducks in row says Halme I mean we have the processes to being with You cant do this if its all in the owners head The accreditation has already paid off in one project where the architect specified that the work must be done by an AC478 accredited company Another company that was the low bidder was initially granted the contract but the architect filed a protest because of the specification and Halme Builders got the project Critical Mass For Halme thats the biggest promise of AC478 accreditation but just having one architect and one contractor using the system wont ever allow it to succeed We need to achieve critical mass Halme says Thats when well know that we have it As soon as you can look over a map and see that we have the country covered If you had one in every state youd pretty much have critical mass Obviously some markets are to going have four or five in a state Are there enough companies like Halme Builders to achieve that critical mass Looking around at his competitors Halme estimates that about 10 companies could get AC478 accredited with about the same amount of effort it took his company Theres really no reason 10 erectors couldnt have this in eastern Washington he says Achieving critical mass also means that companies need to be dedicated to metal building assembly In my view of the industry it would be a lot better if people just put their foot in You cant just do one or two projects a year If you have two or three weeks worth of erection and then go off and do all this carpentry stuff and have basically full turnover in your crew you cant do one project the next year and expect good results It takes an investment Halme describes a city public works project that was a small job It should have been a slam dunk he says But it went to the low bidder and the job didnt have an architect the builder totally destroyed the building He installed the roof panels using a single forklift without any rigging He pulled the panels over the top of the forks Instead of buying new panels he tried to jerry rig a system where he cut the panels and installed two panels on the roof instead of one The panels didnt break on the purlin and he added an angle to the panels to make it work but the bottom of the panels ran too far off the roof so they overlapped the gutter It got worse from there The Importance of People Processes are processes but quality and accreditation cant be achieved without the right people and the right culture Halme Builders averages about 29 employees with 22 of them in the field The company relies heavily on foremen and expects them to be help create qualified foremen We do quite a bit of hands on training through our foremen and superintendents who are knowledgeable But mainly it comes down to qualified foremen that make the big difference and so a lot of the focus of our company is to develop qualified foremen To keep them moving up treat them right Washington has a state sanctioned apprenticeship program and companies involved in public works have to utilize it but it focuses mainly on carpentry so Halme Builders also relies on the Metal Buildings Institutes MBI Quality and Craftsmanship Training series Competitive wages attract quality workers and help retain them They appreciate it says Halme That doesnt mean that theyre going to do good work but it does attract qualified people In the end its about maintaining qualified foremen and when you have qualified foremen and their interest is to create more foremen and thats a hard interest to create I believe thats a cultural point we have in our company We put some emphasis on keeping ourselves humble and keeping an open mind toward curiosity and taking action on things I think a lot of its just the values that keep people pushing forward to do the right things for the company Establishing a culture like that takes communications which Halme acknowledges The most critical thing is that you hire and communicate values around that And fire for that matter when somebody just isnt cutting it People can see whats important to the company Thats one side but the ownership also needs to express a vision of the company When people connect to that says Halme when they are aligned with the interest of the company and that dovetails from company ownership company leadership and right into the everyday employee that were in this together that this is what were building together they can feel it theyre interested in it as it becomes theirs Derek Bergman and Frank Kiraly Halme Builders install primary steel at the Spokane County waste water treatment plant Dan Halme owner Halme Builders February 2021 METAL CONSTRUCTION NEWS 23 www metalconstruct ionnews com