The greatest value of any project team member is generated by empowering that person to deliver the best results. A project manager needs corporate and staff support to be fully empowered to make the right day-to-day decisions on projects. A proficient engineer needs technology tools to maximize his or her problem solving skills. So too it is with labor.

At PayneCrest, we view labor as our equal partner on all our projects. We insist on using only the highest skilled and safe workforce – the men and women of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. But it’s not enough to employ the best, you have to empower them to deliver the best results. You do that by optimizing their productivity. At PayneCrest, we perform small complex projects and ones that employ 300 to 500 electricians. No matter what the size, the orchestration that delivers the full value of IBEW skill and safety is the same:

Precision field drawings

The value of highly skilled labor is often wasted by lack of direction. Nothing irks an owner more than seeing highly paid electricians standing around doing nothing. The momentum of any project depends on getting accurate drawings in the hands of the workforce when they need it. PayneCrest often deploys CAD trailers on it projects so our engineers can more quickly modify drawings to improve functionality and develop precise drawings for field installations.

Sequencing installations

This almost “Indy pit crew” skill has been honed by PayneCrest through decades of managing retooling projects during car plant shut downs. In one our projects, we had less than five weeks to tear down more than 20 conveyors and 500 assembly robots and install new tooling cell equipment that included 675 robots. On that project, we had no control over the delivery of 700 truckloads of retooling equipment. That entailed intense planning to properly sequence installations to have the right equipment, the right tools and precision drawings in the hands of the workforce on the day it had to be installed.

The right tools

Our feeling is that you can never go wrong if you over tool a job.

Leadership

Seasoned field supervision can be a great asset on a project. On one of our most complex solar plant projects, our field supervisors took on a greater role in daily coordination including managing a material handling crew to choreograph material & manpower movement through an extremely congested site. Having that skilled field supervision is also an invaluable when original drawings don’t match field conditions. Their experience often produces a better idea for field installations that deliver better results for the owner.

Since labor accounts for the highest cost on projects, we believe it makes sense to not only hire the best skilled and safest workforce, but to bring the great benefit of their skills and safety to bear on the project in a powerful way that delivers the best value.