The way in which plant managers and business owners work with contractors should also have evolved. Here are two ways you can be sure you’re not working in the Stone Age of industrial contracting.

Demand choices. A contract should be built around your project and your company’s needs. During the proposal process, you should be able to make choices. You and your contractor should discuss the entire scope of the project and develop the contract based on this discussion. Time, efficiency and budget issues will be three of the biggest determining factors in this collaboration. If a contractor comes to you with little discussion, an engineered plan and a contract ready for you to sign, he’s probably working in the Stone Age. He should be able to make recommendations that will improve how your project is handled.

Be selfish on budget. Most often, contractors look at a plan and tell you how much it will cost. They build the budget and perform the work according to that budget. That’s how it’s been for years and years, but that’s working in the Stone Age. At Maddox, we try to forecast a budget for customers for the duration of their project. It’s your project and your business, so be sure the budget is yours, too.

Don’t get complacent. It’s easy to call on the same guy that you and your company have been using for years.  You trust him. But don’t let him rest on his laurels. He needs to keep your trust and business by performing like a modern industrial contractor, not like a dinosaur. Never assume that the guy you’re using is doing the best job. Make him prove it to you.

Here at Maddox, the word “trust” comes up often. While other contractors’ biggest challenges might be figuring out if they can handle a job or actually delivering what’s promised, our biggest obstacle is assuring clients that they can trust us to handle a job and deliver what they need. Trust is that guiding factor that feeds every other aspect of the contractor-client relationship.

Lately, new clients are asking a lot of questions. Does Maddox have the experience needed for a big project? Can Maddox deliver quality work without delivering more headaches? Can Maddox match the high standards that our company upholds? How much time will I have to spend with Maddox to straighten out the learning curve related to this project and is it worth it? If Maddox needs help, will they ask for it instead of fumbling along, wasting time and money?

Answering these questions isn’t tough. We have an experienced team encompassing a range of skills. We are direct when it comes to our process and keep the lines of communication with clients open at all times. We work closely with clients to solve their problems. When we have questions, we ask them to ensure things run smoothly — but we don’t require hand-holding.

These client issues might seem more related mostly to skills, quality workmanship and accountability, but it really all boils down to trust. We don’t expect clients to believe we’re trustworthy just because we insist that we are. We practice being trustworthy every day.

At the beginning of this year, we went through an exercise that required us to take a close look at our best customers and provide reasons for why they were doing business with us. After a while, we started to notice that three distinct groups naturally formed: experience enjoyers, overwhelmed overachievers and trust seekers. If you are an overwhelmed overachiever, you’re probably reading this on your day off.

At work, overwhelmed overachievers are the people who constantly get work piled on their plates because they always get the job done. They are responsible and hardworking, but sometimes they get so buried that they can’t do it all alone. In other cases, projects arise that these customers don’t have the technical know-how to handle or the projects are just too big for even the best overachievers to manage.

Earning recognition for doing a good job is a big driving force for these guys, which is why they ultimately come to us. They don’t want to fail, so when they are overwhelmed, they know we can help. They know that we are focused on solving problems, not creating them. They know that they won’t have to hold our hand on the site. We will show up ready and able to work. We’ll tackle the job and do it well for the overwhelmed overachiever. And we’re happy to help him earn the recognition.

Are you an overwhelmed overachiever? If you need a contractor who can get the job done so your load is lightened, contact us to learn more about Maddox. We’ll show you that working with a contractor doesn’t have to be yet another set of fires to put out. It can be smooth running, professional and fun all at the same time.

(Take the quiz to find out what kind of customer you are. Check out experience enjoyers and stay tuned to our blog for more on trust seekers.)

Consumers tend to measure some service providers not by what they are providing but rather by what they’re not providing. In that vein, there are characteristics that an industrial contractor should not possess. Here’s a short list.

1. On-the-fly approach. If an industrial contractor doesn’t have a detailed plan in place for your project, he’s not doing a good job. Everything related to your project should be planned out as thoroughly as possible so that your time and money aren’t wasted.

2. Habit of being late. You made it to work on time. Why should you allow the people working on your project to show up late? It’s simply unacceptable.

3. Tendency to underestimate jobs. When something unexpected happens, an overcharge can be necessary. Overcharges should not, however, be part of a contractor’s process.

4. A poor attitude. Some contractors show up on the job acting like they own the place. This sort of posturing doesn’t serve anyone’s needs except for his own ego. A contractor should always keep his client first. That’s the real bottom line in shopping around for a contractor. Try to be sure that the company you’re dealing with is doing everything it can to serve you, and then all the pieces will fall into place.

Zimmer Custom-Made Packaging – Zimmer recently asked us to come up with a piece of equipment to lift its media rolls onto one of its machines.  The long-time leader in the flexible packaging market had been doing it the same way for years, but the outdated technique was becoming unsafe and unreliable.  Working with an outside manufacturer, Maddox was able to come up with a lift table machine to better handle the rolls. Sounds great, right? As in everything else in a plant, surprise challenges have surfaced as we have made our way through the installation planning phase.  Maddox is currently working through all of the kinks to make sure that Zimmer gets the solution that it asked for.

JFS America – Continuing work in Scottsburg, Ind., to help JFS reconfigure an old steel cord plant into a specialty wire manufacturing facility, Maddox has upped the ante over the last few weeks to help the company meet some tight deadlines.  By shifting manpower and talent to that facility, Maddox has gotten JFS closer its target time line.  But it’s all easier said than done. The reality is that only through strong communication, on-site decision-making capabilities and excellent vendor support that we have been able to help JFS.  Sometimes, adding resources just adds waste.  We have shown through this project how to make the resources pay off for our customer.

Before getting too far into any project, plant engineers and owners should have a clear understanding of how contracting is being done these days.

Years ago when a contractor was hired, he carried out most of the work. The contractor was at the job site, using his know-how to the benefit of the customer and personally overseeing workers. These days, most contractors aren’t so involved in the actual implementation of the work being done. And there is very little communication between the engineer who designed the plan the contractor hiring the sub-contractors and workers who are carrying out the plan. It simply doesn’t make sense.

Thinking twice about how you award a job and getting your engineer and contractor together before a project has been designed will positively yield a more efficient, economical design. This isn’t the norm, but it is the best way to accomplish any project.

Download 2 Critical Ways to Save Time, Money and Headaches by Maddox Technical Lead/Project Manager Cory Dalton. Cory more thoroughly explores the best ways to carry out projects that require engineering and construction when time and money are critical factors.

Surprise Challenge. As soon as the old mill was removed, a new challenge arose. The old mill was not just simply sitting on top of the old pad with anchor bolts holding it down. In several places, the mill was attached to structural steel embedded in the top of the pad. This left us a pad with so many obstructions sticking out of the top that they could not be removed well enough to provide a level bearing surface for the new mill.

Solution. Maddox took immediate action and designed a system of support plates spanning across the top of the uneven bearing surfaces to create an elevated, level and load-bearing surface above the obstructions. Maddox completed the design and implementation of the fix so quickly that no additional downtime was required. And the daily grind continued.

As with anything, jobs can go well and jobs can go poorly, but if someone gets hurt, it’s horrific. An injury affects individuals. It affects families. It is a serious issue that we take personally.

If a plant’s safety policies aren’t as strict as ours, we stick to ours. Most contractors only work to the required standards of their customers, but we have found that sometimes that is not enough. The potential for injury is never something we want to sidestep. We want to handle any potential risks upfront and deal with them as well as we can from the get-go.

Our high standards mean there are no shortcuts when it comes to safety. Unlike a lot of contractors, Maddox prepares pre-job checklists solely related to safety for every job. Weekly toolbox talks are also part of our process. The reality is, customers pay for safety. Chances are, a very low bidder on a job might be cutting corners when it comes to safety.

An industrial project is just like any other transaction. Getting hurt shouldn’t be a part of the buying or selling process. We work to be safe. Period.

Likewise, when our guys are on a job, we aren’t trying to impress a chief executive. We focus on the individuals we are directly working with and the people who have hired us. Those are the guys we want to make happy.

This level of customer service is all about “personal impact.” It’s about satisfying individual people. That impact is made through every step in a project, from the initial meeting to project completion.

If that kind of one-on-one treatment sounds like how you like to business, contact us. We would love to make you happy.