Airco Power Services and Southern States Millwrights Team to

JO B S ITE
PROFI LE
Airco Power Services and Southern States Millwrights
Team to Deliver Superior Work in Three High-Profile Projects
Airco Power Services, Inc. (Airco) makes a formidable promise right
off the bat on its web site and marketing material: This is a company
that will deliver projects on time, on budget, and safely. In the power
generation world, actions speak louder than words, making sure Airco’s
assertion is put to the test every day.
At three recent projects, Airco’s
performance objective was not only
met, it was surpassed, thanks in part to
the productivity and professionalism of
its workforce from the Southern States
Millwright Regional Council (SSMRC).
First, Airco supported an outage and
retrofit at Alabama Power Company’s
James H. Miller, Jr. Electric Generating
Plant. Located near Birmingham, AL,
the plant’s total nameplate generating
capacity is 2.64 million kW. This
coal-fired generation is used by the
PowerSouth Energy Cooperative.
PowerSouth is a generation and
transmission cooperative that provides
power needs to 20 distribution
members in Alabama and northwest
Florida. At full capacity, Miller creates
nearly 3 billion W of electricity annually
for almost 1 million homes.
Airco’s work on Miller Unit 1 came
in nearly a day ahead of schedule, and
with over 18,000 man-hours there
were zero safety or quality issues,
project six days and 22 hours ahead of
schedule, logging just over 14,500 manhours with zero safety or quality issues.
“We capitalized on lessons learned
during Unit 1 to improve on the overall
performance, maximizing the reduced
despite four full days of work lost due
schedule duration,” Burrows explained.
to inclement weather. And, because
Next up: Tampa Electric. Southern
this was the first LP retroStates Millwrights had
“The work ethic
fit within the Southern
been absent from Tampa
Company fleet by Alstom,
Electric’s steam turbine
and commitment
a lot of eyes from the
generator work for nearly
to getting the job
owner’s various sister
15 years, but Airco
done by SSMRC
plants were on the project.
leadership capitalized
millwrights and Airco on its relationship with
“The work ethic and
supervision was the the United Brotherhood
commitment to getting
key to keeping this
the job done by SSMRC
of Carpenters (UBC)
Millwrights and Airco
project on schedule.” and its gas and steam
supervision was the key
turbine millwright training
–Troy Burrows
to keeping this project
programs to convince
Executive Vice President
on schedule,” said Troy
project owners that Airco
& Chief Operating Officer,
Burrows, Executive Vice
and the SSMRC—an
Airco, Inc.
President and Chief
affiliate of the UBC—could
Operating Officer of Airco, Inc. “The
handle the work with better quality at
quality of work was exceptional, and
equal or less cost.
it showed, especially when there were
“The breadth and depth of these
no issues at start-up to bring Unit 1
training programs was a shock to the
online.”
owner. It provided an assurance of the
Fueled by Unit 1’s success, Miller
quality of the craftsmen being provided
Unit 2 was launched a couple of weeks
from the union versus a non-union
later. This time, Airco finished the
provider,” Burrows said.
A second, equally important
contributor to winning the Tampa
Electric project was the business-like
attitude and approach of SSMRC
leadership regarding every job and
contractor they team with. Both Airco
and the SSMRC stepped up, backing
the commitments on the performance
metrics established for the work.
“If the SSMRC can help the
contractor in being successful, it
equates to a satisfied owner and future
work, not only for the union contractor
but for union members,” Burrows
added.
The Tampa Electric project was a full
major outage on a General Electric G2
machine. The scope of work included
the following inspections: HP/IP,
2xLP, BFPT, BFP element, all valves,
generator, rotor and diaphragm, and
valve repairs off site. More than 28,000
man-hours were completed with zero
safety incidents. The unit was ready for
Dennis Donahou is Executive
Secretary-Treasurer of the SSMRC. “Our
training programs, as a whole, equate
to quality craftsmen, which equates
to less time and hours to complete
the work, which provides a productive
workforce for our contractors and a
tangible savings for the project owner,”
Donahou said.
Burrows added: “There is a level
of trust, one which Airco respects
and takes very seriously, that has
been developed and is continuously
improving from job to job between Airco
and the SSMRC. That trust expands
from one area to another across the
SSMRC’s 11-state region. Airco and
the SSMRC leadership share common
goals: work safe, work smart, and
continue to get more opportunities to
put skilled members to work.”
Kyle McCormick, Airco’s resource
manager for the Miller outages, said
that a ‘get-it-done’ attitude among the
service ahead of schedule and came
online with some required start-up
support, but when under full load, it
was generating more electricity than
when it went offline for inspections
and repairs.
crews is the key to continued success in
the industry.
“Every job has its own unique
challenges to meet safety, productivity,
quality, teamwork, etc. Some require
more work and effort than others,”
McCormick said. “Having portability
with mobilizing our leadership and key
journeymen are major contributors to
our success and ultimately the success
of the millwrights.”
Another asset in partnering with the
SSMRC is the mindset of its leadership.
“The teamwork, partnering attitude
of the millwright leadership permeates
to all levels of the membership and is
un-matched by any other trades union,
in my opinion,” McCormick added.
“Training programs, especially the
third-year apprentice and journeyman
upgrade trainings; and understanding
what ‘we’ can collectively accomplish is
A Mutually Beneficial Partnership
The teamwork approach between Airco
superintendents, general foremen, and
foremen from the SSMRC was the key
to handling these three recent jobs as
expertly as they did.
“On these jobs, the entire team
worked efficiently and smart, versus
just hard,” Burrows said. “Working
smart eliminates injuries, incidents,
and rework, which are all singularly
large contributors to losing ground on a
schedule. Airco preaches this on every
job: If you work safely with quality, the
schedule and budget will follow.”
directly related to a business evaluation
that is invaluable.”
“Our goal is to perform a job on
time, on budget, safely, and get the
equipment back online or working again
to minimized cost and get the plant
back to generating revenue,” Donahou
added.
“It all equates to business,”
McCormick adds. “When union
contractors are successful, union
millwrights are successful. There is work
for everyone, and owners are making
money. If the craft and the company
lose sight of the business side of the
equation from the owner’s perspective,
then they have no option but to find
alternative support or risk being put out
of business by their competition. We
don’t worry about that happening when
we work with the SSMRC.”
“Working with the SSMRC has turned
into a partnership model that continues
to spread across the 11 southern states
within the SSMRC,” said Burrows. “The
partnership truly represents a win-winwin for all parties: the owner, Airco,
and the Southern States Millwrights.
Airco networks across the region to
support projects within the region and
across the country, knowing that the
quality of support from all levels of the
SSMRC will be consistent with our past
successes.”
“We have an opportunity to meet
and work with expert millwrights on
every job we do. Working in multiple
jurisdictions across the region also
allows us to work throughout the
regional council to utilize top performers
on other jobs in other counties or
states,” McCormick said.
“It comes down to market share,”
Burrows said. “Airco and the SSMRC
understand that hard, smart, safe work
will help us get the next job. We do not
rest on what we did yesterday, we are
focused on what are we going to do
better tomorrow.”
Learn more about
Airco Power Services, Inc.
www.airco-inc.com
Learn more about
the Southern States
Millwright Regional
Council