Driven by Innovation
Once you land at the Seattle-Tacoma Airport it is only a 15 minute drive out to Kent, Washington. The air is clean, the landscape is green, and in the middle of this small town is the large HVAC operation we came to tour. Hermanson Company is a regional leader in Mechanical Systems Construction – HVAC Sheet Metal, Pipe-Fitting & Plumbing – design, fabrication & installation. Sounds similar to WAM, right?
Together we are in a Peer Group with other companies in our same field. Our purpose is to learn from one another how to improve our individual businesses by looking at common issues and ways to innovate. To that end, Cyrus Patel, Matt Pheil, Mike Aurelio, and Nicholas Platt toured their facility this past November. Currently Hermanson uses a software collaboration system called, “Stratus” for integrating the fabrication process all the way through detailing. Our guys got a chance to see up close what it can really do and hear some testimonials from their team.
This will allow the construction team (PM’s, foreman, VDC, fabrication) to collaboratively create work packages for their project and manage the scheduling of those work packages. In 2023 we are improving our internal shop fabrication processes and starting the evaluation of systems like Stratus for implementation in the near future. Stratus has many features like, creates and transmits cutlists directly to the CNC machine and the Tigerstop through a built-in integration, pipe fitting shop can spool the job directly in the application, tracks the status of all the parts as they proceed through the fabrication process in real time, labels all parts and pipes with QR codes.
We also have a new PEER Group Member, McCusker-Gill out of Boston who has made advancements with Stratus system for sheet metal implementation. We are looking forward to learning from Hermanson and McCusker-Gill in the coming years to bring more technology to our processes to make them more efficient and time-saving for both our piping, plumbing, and sheet metal trades.
Matt Pheil summarized his experience by saying, “The WAM trip to Hermanson was a glimpse into the future. Hermanson is a year or two ahead in their Fabrication processes while implementing the Stratus software. After talking with the Hermanson team, walking the fab shops and seeing firsthand the entire Stratus process, I was able to see just how powerful this software can be when the pieces are in place to make it happen. Thank you to WAM for the opportunity. It was definitely a trip that I will remember.”
