The construction industry has seen countless changes over the years, especially in the last decade or two. The electrical industry is no different. We’ve seen technology transform the way we work, at almost every level of the company. The tools we use today have streamlined everything from the bidding process to the planning process, to coordinating with other subcontractors, to wrapping up the project when the building is complete. Advanced software and hardware have enabled companies like Interstate to move to a lean construction model that incorporates prefabrication and extensive 3D modeling.

While we see countless examples of these advances every day, I’ll outline a recent one that saved our team man-hours and significantly helped reduce our client’s budget. One of our client’s newly constructed buildings features a gorgeous curved hallway that serves as the main focal point for visitors. The room is complete with high-end finishes and recessed lighting that has to follow the gradual curve of the hallway while maintaining even spacing between fixtures.

Years ago, this would have taken two electricians a full week to determine the exact placement of each light and ensure that it wouldn’t interfere with other infrastructure devices in the ceiling. That includes measuring multiple times per fixture, marking the location on the (unfinished) floor, checking that there’s no other infrastructure in the way, and using a string to line up the correct placement on the ceiling with the marking on the floor. In the past, coordination between trades on projects like this one may have required building a scale model with pipe cleaners and straws!

For this project it took one technician a matter of hours to plot the exact location of each fixture using the building’s 3D drawings and a Trimble unit to project laser markings. Clash detection was previously performed using the coordinated 3D model, which saved time not only for the electricians, but also for the subcontractors. And best of all, the lights were installed the same day because they were prefabricated at our offsite facility.

This is just one example, but we see the benefits of these technological advances in every one of our projects. Prefabrication, 3D modeling, and other tools at our disposal help reduce the amount of work that happens physically onsite, which translates to cleaner job sites, reduced timelines, and more flexibility. Today, these are all important tools as construction timelines are condensed and budgets are stricter. Traditionally, the manpower required on a large scale job increased throughout the project until it was near completion, with additional employees needed at the jobsite for assembly, installation, etc.

These advances, and especially Interstate’s use of prefabrication, helps spread the workload across the project timeline. This reduces the number of people required on the jobsite, an important benefit during the COVID pandemic, and helps Interstate shift to any changing timelines or adjusted deadlines.

By Bob Manning, general project superintendent at Interstate Electrical Services Corporation

The post Ask the Electrician: How the Electrical Industry has Transformed Over the Past Few Decades appeared first on Interstate Electrical Services.

You might not be aware of this, but the power your business receives from the power company is probably not as “clean” as you think. By clean power, I am not referring to wind, solar or other forms of renewable energy. I am talking about surges, lags and spikes in power coming in from the street.

Street power is only guaranteed at plus or minus 10%. When you’re dealing with 480 volts, that’s a variation of 48 volts, and that’s drastic. That can potentially damage motors on rooftop units, the air conditioning, and all of the equipment that is not designed to run with such wide swings in power. The life expectancy of the equipment may drop from ten years to two years.

Power companies generate power based on demand. If demand suddenly shifts – if the factory down the street goes to lunch and pauses production, for example – that can create surges in other places before the power company is able to readjust the supply. In the summer, when the air conditioning loads get high, power companies slowly reduce voltage a couple of percentage points at a time to maintain power to large areas. Instead of getting power at 480 volts, you may end up getting 450 or 460 volts. Likewise, if your electricity is 120 volts, it may drop to 110. As a consequence, your equipment ends up working harder and its life expectancy is reduced. A typical motor is designed to handle a maximum of 5% swings in power. Any more than that, and they can’t handle it. It is designed to be powered at 120 volts, and you want your electricity at 120 volts.

Recently, Interstate Electrical Services worked on a turnkey project for a customer that enabled them to prevent outages and surges. We did the concrete pad, the gas piping to the generator, the generator, the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and the power distribution. As a worldwide company, one single 4-8 hour outage could cost them the same amount of money. By the time an outage was over and they reestablished power, not only would the IT department be running around like crazy trying to recover data from the servers and other equipment, they would be frantically trying to get everybody back up online all around the world, with employees across the globe wondering, “What just happened?” You also have to take into account the fact that the lifespan of the business’s electronic equipment has been shortened by the power spikes caused by the outage.

It’s important to take precautions to ensure you’re getting the cleanest power possible.

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A Range of Industries Rely on Manufacturing Assembly Skills, But Workers Are Scarce

Interstate Electrical Services Corp. today introduced the first apprenticeship program in Massachusetts specifically designed for manufacturing assemblers. Interstate’s Team Assembler Electrical Apprentice Program expands opportunities for workers in the state to learn in-demand skills while being paid.

Participants who complete the Team Assembler Electrical Apprentice Program will earn an Assembler Certificate, which will be registered with the state. The one-year apprentice program requires 2,000 on the job hours and 150 classroom hours. Up to 30 apprentices are expected to enroll in the first year of the program.

Luiza Mills, vice president of Human Resources at Interstate, said, “This is a win-win-win for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, for our employees and for our company. Interstate is proud to lead the way with this Team Assembler Electrical Apprentice Program,” Mills continued. “This initiative enables us to combat the talent gap for general labor in the trades and manufacturing while providing a new path to a promising career for people from diverse backgrounds.”

Interstate increasingly relies on manufacturing processes and prefabrication to complete many of the tasks that electricians use to perform in the field. The work is performed at Interstate’s 100,000 square foot, UL-approved Operations Center. The Lean Construction manufacturing methods adopted by Interstate result in higher productivity and efficiency, better quality control, and safer, more comfortable work conditions for employees.

Once an apprentice completes the program and becomes a Registered Assembler, opportunities for career advancement include becoming a production area supervisor. Skills obtained through the program are transferable to the benefit of any employer in the state that relies on manufacturing.

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No one ever said it would be easy being an MEP contractor. And if they did, they were wrong. Today’s tricky combination of tight schedules, increasingly complex building initiatives, and shortage of skilled labor aren’t making things any simpler. Challenges like these can drain an organization of energy, people, and resources if left unaddressed. But if confronted head-on, they can become opportunities for inspiration, new vigor, and new growth.

Years ago, even before the labor crisis hit its peak, Interstate Electrical Services Corporation embarked on a journey of reinvention. Interstate, an electrical subcontractor headquartered in North Billerica, Mass. with offices throughout New England, decided to take a close, hard look at itself. Cross-functional teams gathered to examine and analyze all aspects of the way the company handled projects, from award through warranty. The conclusions were sobering.

Interstate, a well-respected and successful subcontractor, was doing well, but it could do better — much better. The company was delivering quality workmanship and hitting schedule milestones to the complete satisfaction of project owners, but the burden of doing so was overtaxing project management and field teams alike. The chronic pressures of project demands threatened to overshadow the joy and excitement of accomplishment. Workers were beginning to feel burned out.

The conventional wisdom was (and still often is) that a general sense of “organized chaos” is part and parcel of the “feast or famine” construction game. Interstate’s cross-functional teams were convinced otherwise. Fully supported by management, they set about to overhaul the way Interstate would approach and manage projects using Lean manufacturing principles, a system and management philosophy of “continuous improvement” pioneered by Toyota in the late 1940s. The results of those initiatives transformed Interstate and provided a clear vision for the company’s path forward.

Central prefabrication and material management take center stage

The most pressing challenges identified through this analysis were twofold: reducing the physical and mental burden on field teams, and insuring that critical information flowed unimpeded throughout the course of the project.

In Interstate’s climate-controlled, 100,000sf UL-certified Operations Center, fully assembled, UL-stamped parts, along with tools and incidental parts, are packaged with installation instructions and delivered to the point of installation. No longer are field crews required to receive, unpack, manage, and assemble light fixtures, transformers, receptacles and switches, or temp lighting, or lug material, pipe, and huge wire spools, around a jobsite. Everything is delivered in bite size, installable units, ready to install. Field electricians can focus completely on the job at hand, safer, more efficiently, and more effectively.

Technology drives communication and data sharing

Intelligent 3D design and visualization software enable field teams and office-based engineering, design, and detailing staff to validate and coordinate MEP spaces and identify components for custom fabrication in the shop. A notable benefit of 3D coordination is that precise positioning data for all electrical components can be dynamically extracted from the model in real time and projected on the jobsite using robotic laser technology: no more tape measure, stakes, and string. For those instances where the model data doesn’t exist — renovation of an old building, for example — Interstate’s coordinators employ a 3D room scanner that creates a point cloud that can be the basis of a fully coordinated model.

The value for our partners and ourselves

Innovation was one of the founding principles of Interstate, which has been in business since 1966. Lean methods represent an extension of that idea — an innovative way of being innovative. For Interstate’s partners and its 600 employees, the value of this approach is that it builds and sustains the organization’s overall resiliency. Interstate is always improving, always getting better, and always getting ready for the next challenge, whatever it may be.

By Brian Lewis, regional vice president for Interstate Electrical Services Corporation.

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