East Coast Metal Fabrication Builds Its Future

Joe Hines (left), chief operating officer, and Tony Katryk, fabrication foreman, at East Coast Metal Fabrication Inc. in Edwardsville, Nova Scotia, are pictured at the entrance to the 21,000-sq.-ft. structural fabrication shop.

East Coast Metal Fabrication Inc. in Edwardsville, Nova Scotia, is heavy into fabricating and investing. In the past three years the small company has made large investments in its facility, equipment, and people. Those investments are paying off … big.

Four local businessmen purchased a struggling fabrication company in 2012; christened it with its current name; added oceanfront property that includes 4,250 ft. of wharf with 20 to 36 ft. of water depth; and hired Joe Hines as COO, an industry veteran with an engineering degree and experience in the mining industry, heavy construction, and plant operation.

“When I came onboard we refocused the company as a custom structural steel shop for large industrial construction and maintenance projects,” said Hines. “We reset the company with three- and five-year growth models.” The plan is working. Hines was employee No. 11. Today a field crew of 20 and shop crews working two shifts have hiked the employee count to 58.

Projects for the mining, oil and gas, and shipbuilding and repair industries are mixed with the heavy construction work that flows through the company’s buildings located on 18 acres of industrial land in the Sydport Industrial Marine Park. The main fabrication plant sprawls over 21,000 sq. ft. The maintenance shop that also houses the painting facility covers 16,000 sq. ft.

Being located on the coast gives ECMF an advantage beyond the ability to repair product tankers, ferries, Coast Guard vessels, and ocean barges. The wharf allows the assembly and delivery of components in much larger sections than those needing to be transported by land. “We’re in a prime shipping point so we can build large modules or packages and deliver them by barge to remote locations,” Hines said. “That gives us a bit of an advantage over fabrication shops located inland and is helping us expand our regional reach. Our business is growing in Newfoundland and New Brunswick as well as here in Nova Scotia.”

A 950-ton structural job is making its way through the shop and to the construction site of the Membertou Sports and Wellness Centre in Cape Breton, just 20 minutes down river from Sydney. The $18 million centre, expected to open in early 2016, will house two ice pads, an indoor walking track, a 3,000-ft. community fitness centre, and a geothermal icemaking system.

“Right now we are fabricating the biggest pieces that have gone through our company—16 roof trusses for the sports centre. The trusses are fabricated from wide-flange beam. They are 12 ft. high, 168 ft. long, and weigh 28 tons. Each one is built in two halves, sent to the site, and bolted together,” Hines said.

Purchasing, fabrication, sandblasting, painting, delivery, and erection work are being handled by ECMF. Connection design and shop drawings, 10,000 for this project, were also done in-house.

Close-to-Home or Cross-country Projects

Component size doesn’t limit projects completed for inland customers. Large structures are built in smaller modules, kept to about the size of a standard shipping container, moved by road, and assembled on-site. “We frequently complete jobs subcontracted through a larger fabrication facility in Alberta when it has issues supplying manpower to accomplish the job in its own facility. Working with us is more cost-efficient than hiring more people,” Hines said.

ECMF is also known across the country for its expertise in working with aluminum. That skill is used to fabricate structural pieces and boats. Seven 44-ft. search and rescue response vessels for the Canadian Coast Guard had their beginning in the shop. “Structural aluminum work is a little tricky to handle, but we have some very skilled aluminum welders,” Hines said. “When we worked on the boats there was a lot of heavy detail and structural work. We built them in modules. We did all the detail, cabins, steel and aluminum work and then sent them to a company in Halifax for outfitting.”

Steel hollow structural beams are fitted with end plates and diagonal brace plates prior to welding. The carbon steel plates are CNC profiled and cut before fitting.

Not all the work is big. The company completes 500 to 600 small jobs a year. Stainless steel countertops, gates, fence posts, stairs, and even car bumpers are sandwiched in between the long-term jobs like the Membertou arena. “We work with our clients to tailor schedules that suit everyone’s needs. Independent of the size of a project, we treat a $5 project the same way we treat a $5 million project.”

Each project is assigned a number in the open-project management system, then it flows sequentially through the shop. The exception is ship repair.

“Ship maintenance is never planned ahead,” Hines said. “We have a short list of temporary employees we can draw from as needed, and we may have to juggle schedules in the shop. If we’re ahead on a project, we will rob people from it to take care of the ship maintenance or we will work with clients to see who has some flexibility in the schedules. In some scenarios we end up working overtime, and our guys don’t mind that either.”

New Equipment, Plant Layout

Efficiency spiked in 2013 following a $1.5 million investment in new CNC equipment and a rearrangement of the shop floor to provide a smooth production flow from raw material delivery to finished-product shipping.

“Right at the beginning this company made a big financial commitment to buying the right equipment and laying it out in the right order. That commitment extended to training our workforce on how to use the equipment and why it is important to have a solid production flow to keep us cost-effective and competitive.”

Material handling conveyor systems; a Peddinghaus 1100 beam line; an Ermak 350 press brake; several workstation cranes; and new, energy-efficient Miller welding machines joined the Messer CNC plasma table and plate rolls. All plate equipment is set up to work with ½-in.-thick, 12-ft.-wide plate.

“Each piece of the project goes through six steps in our shop, and each step has quality control,” said Hines. “A project will have its own fabrication steps, but everything moves forward in a highly streamlined flow. That allows us to push things through at a cost-effective rate and a very fast pace. Before the new equipment and shop layout, we couldn’t do that.”

The painting facility is next in line for an upgrade. Plans are to add a large tempered paint booth for more baked-on coatings and fine-detail coatings for offshore marine applications. “In our finishing we do a lot of custom coatings, we sandblast just about any profile, and handle any type of paint coats. Some of our projects require a 10-year warranty finish.”

One employee is dedicated to coordinating the steps involved in achieving and maintaining the documentation to trace projects from material selection through testing to meet the criteria for myriad certifications. ECMF certifications include ISO 9001, DNV, ATI, COR™ Safety in Nova Scotia, and three from CWB, showing that projects like shipping containers and structural supports are built to standards with approved, safe shop floor practices.

Unique Program for Training Tradesmen

Employee growth, although rapid, wasn’t an easy task. Like many areas, the northeast lost a lot of skilled tradesmen to oil sands jobs. The company’s fix to fill their own positions was to assist in developing a program to teach metal fabricating to young people from the local community.

Senior Welder Chris Kennedy checks dimensions on components for large steel roof trusses before welding. All structural steel sections go through six fabrication stages, each with its own quality control and sign-off to ensure accuracy.

In a collaborative effort, ECMF worked with two local First Nations communities, Nova Scotia’s Department of Labour and Advanced Education, and Nova Scotia Community College in Sydney to create a unique apprenticeship program. The curriculum was developed by the government. The college is the setting for classroom segments. Hands-on training is done in ECMF’s shop. First Nations bands, the Membertou and Eskasoni, fill the student roster.

Unlike many apprenticeship programs, it is designed to quickly move participants from classroom to shop. Instead of beginning with a full two years in a classroom, students spend 20 weeks in the classroom then move to the shop for a year of hands-on experience. That pattern is repeated until the four-year program is completed.

“For us it is beneficial because we don’t have to wait two or three years to hire a student with field experience. The students get to use what they’ve learned in the classroom much faster and go back to school with hands-on knowledge. It’s costly and labor-intensive for us, but we’re investing now in our workforce for tomorrow.”

The first class of 10 apprentices are working in the shop now. Plans are moving forward for a second metal fabrication class and a similarly structured program for welding apprentices.

Educational investment extends to the entire workforce. All employees are involved in the second phase of lean training and are beginning to implement projects to keep the company on the continuous improvement path.

A core group of experienced employees have received supervisory training to learn how to instruct a new person on a job, conflict resolution skills, and how to proactively manage and encourage co-workers.

“A lot of our lead hands and other experienced employees who want to be lead hands in the future received training on the soft skills. We find that in many companies people have a lot of technical skills but not the soft skills that they need to manage a younger workforce,” Hines said. “The training helped our experienced people understand how to give direction to the younger employees that need help and direction. Soft skills training taught them the skills required and gave them the confidence to give instructions and promote working together rather than creating conflict.

“The result is that we are seeing a very eager young workforce. Mixing the experienced guys with the apprentices is working very well.”

Ready for Future Growth

Three years of investments in the facility, equipment, and people have been well-justified. Further growth, partnerships, and investments are planned to keep the company in the expansion mode.

“As we continue to grow and the projects get bigger, we feel that our employees have the skills and equipment they need to tackle any job I throw their way,” said Hines. “From here it’s about proper planning so everything is executed smoothly.”

Chris MacKenzie, senior fabricator, fits a bottom plate to a 12-in. column.

Hines added that employees have been added in the shop, but it’s nearing time to consider adding to the staff management. “From the staff management standpoint, we’ve only gone from five to six people, even though we have moved from 11 to 58 total employees. We became more efficient in the office instead of adding more people. But it’s getting to a point where we need to start expanding on the staff level and increase our marketing and sales.”

With the strategic location on the water, the company is targeting the marine industry as a growth area. “We’re looking to leverage our Sydney Harbor location by finding an experienced marine facility partner. Providing the construction work and maintenance for a fleet will complement our present business.”

www.ecmf.ca

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