As we embrace our vision for Western Allied going forward, management will highlight employees that exemplify our company core values in this section of the newsletter.
Driven By Innovation
Thank you to Randy Freitas, Jim Jeffrey, Harvey Laflamme and your team for installing the laser cutter and water jet cutter in our shop and getting it operational so quickly. It is the first step of modernizing our shop to decrease fabrication time and move us towards more prefabrication. Next on the list is installing our new sheet metal coil line in a few months. Following that, we are installing two new positioners and an automatic welder in our shop.
These new innovations are all going to be tied together in our detailing software that will streamline our fabrication and will give us a competitive edge. These are the first steps in modernizing our shop for the future. A big thanks to all of you who are looking to the future!
Grounded in Care
When the shelter-in-place occurred, we had some real concerns about keeping our employees working. We had several people who donated PTO (Personal Time Off) to the pool to ensure that as many of our people as possible could get full weeks. When the federal government passed the SBA loan act, within days Jeff Pierce and Angie Simon were working to secure a loan to keep all of our staff paid for an 8 week period and had some long days preparing the paperwork and securing the loan. It is a wonderful thing to see everyone banding together and being selfless, empathetic and compassionate as we were working to keep people employed and paid amid a very trying time. It is that spirit that makes me proud to be an employee here. Thank you all!
Dedicated To Teamwork
When the Bay Area issued the shelter-in-place order in mid-March, it forced our entire office staff to figure out ways to work remotely. In a matter of days, Matthew Schmuck and Eric Bartolome in our IT Department pivoted to get us the equipment we needed, set us up with Microsoft Teams, worked on our VPN, and undoubtedly many, many other items to keep us going. I am sure that they had countless late nights making sure that WAM maintained seamless operation. It was like changing four tires on a moving truck at the same time. Thank you both for your dedication to both office and field IT needs!
Jim Jeffrey and LeeRoy Young worked early in the pandemic securing proper masks, cleaner, gloves and other PPE to keep our field and office exposure safe. They even went to the extent of ordering dwindling supplies and making trips to suppliers to secure these needed supplies for our group. We thank you both for your diligent and consistent efforts to keep us all safe, healthy, and well-equipped!
Lastly, we want to thank those field personnel who kept working on our essential projects with the risk of COVID looming. It was, and is, a very unsettling time and it makes us proud to see the dedication of our field workers!