Antonette's Lessons Learned Story #3:

Team Selection, it makes all the difference

My firm belief has always been that the hardest part of any job is the team selection. If you put the time and effort into assembling the right team, the rest will take care of itself. Given the right team, which embodies a "can - do" attitude, a passion to give the best for the client, and are fair and honorable, they are unstoppable.

I was first introduced to J. Moore's Michael Candido over 13 years ago by one of my favorite bosses, Tom Creaven at Schering- Plough. At the time, in his position as an Engineering Manager, Tom was one of the very few that really commanded my respect. He continues to be a tough, no nonsense, and incredible man that can both motivate and support his staff, while thinking completely outside the box. His style and his ability to embrace his staff's style allowed him to deliver ugly projects time after time. At the time, with the support of our purchasing department, I was on a mission purging the less than excellent contractors from our company's partnering agreements. My demanding reputation was well established, so when Tom introduced me to Michael as someone I would enjoy working with, my interest was definitely piqued. J. Moore & Company was competent and honest. All I had seen in the contractor performance was at best mediocre, incompetence and slick. If there was an alternative choice for quality, excellence and fairness, why didn't I see J. Moore & Co. all over the sites? Alas, the problem was the low bid selection process, combined with the project engineer's reluctance to thoroughly qualify the bids and write technical bid deviations to adjust for the expertise and quality. Not so in my case, my loyalty was to my company and as such, I had an obligation to bring the projects to completion with the full engineering design intent, budget and schedule. My problem was "what would it take to bring those quality services within the allocated budget to my project?" So I chose to battle with Finance and those neophyte college graduate auditors that barely asked a recognizable engineering question, much less one of merit. Assembling the right team resulted in better use of my time and the ability to run multiple projects; rather than wasting time managing high maintenance projects.

And so began my working relationship with J. Moore, a company with a sense of honor. If Michael or his people gave you their word, you could trust it, and over the years I put it to the test and have never been disappointed.

So this story, while a true success, embodies the importance of selecting the right team.

History:
J. Moore's servicemen Mark Loniewski and Joel Rivera had inspected our client's custom rooftop AAON units, after repeated belt tightening and replacement by another contractor failed to correct the continued episodes of low static. The poor alignment of the fan motors were determined to be the problem, but in all fairness, a difficult prospect to both properly inspect and address due to the unique construction of the units. In order to gain access to the sheaves, the fan motors (not small and difficult to access) had to be slid out. Obviously this presented a problem, tenant discomfort (unit operation) and cost. For those who know me, these units are now on the learning see and touch tour for engineers reviewing drawing submittals to learn the ramifications of zero clearance for practical maintenance of sheave adjustment. See Antonette's Lesson Learned under "What's New" on our website, as I continue my mentor Nelson Franco's teaching style. Nelson are you proud?

Reality:
Having identified the problem, we replaced the one problem fan motor sheave during a scheduled shutdown and thought we would make it until the fall when we could accommodate scheduled shutdowns for a thorough inspection during the next PM. The replacement took nearly 5 hrs from mobilization, initial shutdown, until power was returned to the unit. But, on Friday morning August 13, once again the daily observation of one of the units' performance (made possible by front end enhancement by Total Controls) indicated the less than desirable operating system pressure. J. Moore was immediately called, where they re-routed Joel to handle the emergency. By late morning we were marveling over the sheave we held in our hands, how it had expanded right over the key, left intact. I admit that we got a grip and suggested possibly we needed to get a life finding such enthrallment over a sheave (Reminds me of Michael Steffener who whole heartedly finds engineering sexy). Then, in what I can only describe as comforting and familiar, J. Moore started doing what they do best and dogged the location of the replacement sheaves for the remaining motor fans. By now it was late afternoon, and some serious decisions had to be made. I call this the executive decision time. Rain was imminent, clouds made it look like dusk rather than late afternoon and by the time Joel could secure the parts we ran the risk of unsafe working conditions. Since lifting and working on the roof in dry conditions would be difficult, the strong potential for thunder, lightning and rain with dimmed visibility were ludicrous. Saturday mobilization didn't look good for the weather forecast either and with hedging until later Saturday or Sunday meant a costly endeavor and family sacrifices. We opted for Monday 7am with all parts onsite for the remaining 3 fans, priority for the failed motor sheave. Did I fail to mention the remaining two fans were in the third floor unit handling the roof load? Yep, roof load, not a good bet as second in line, but I wanted to employ a contingency plan to make use of possible manpower and experience. The reality was Monday would be August 15 and we were limping on the second floor unit, and I wanted to investigate with the available labor the 3 rd floor unit and have parts on hand. I felt like Obiwan Kenobi as we left Friday evening sending the troops off with "may the force be with us".

Results:
Monday morning at 6:50am , I enter the building and J. Moore is hot on my heels, it is 66 degrees Fahrenheit outside. Joel has the key to the roof and I'm poised to shut the unit down and support him by monitoring the computer and keeping him posted on space temperature conditions. Mark is extremely positive, he says he did the last unit and with Joel's strength the team is awesome. So minutes later Joel is on the cell phone telling me to drop the unit, they are ready. Beyond any of my wildest expectations at 9am Joel is on the line asking permission to fire up unit 2 and to drop unit 3. Are they serious? I comply, and note the outside temperature is 69F "the force is still with us". The second floor is just coming to full occupancy and the space temperature is dead nuts on specification. By 11:40 am the third floor unit is back on line with both fans motor sheaves replaced, yes two, and the fan motors aligned. The space temperature reached a high of 75F before the compressors pulled it down to specification in less than 30 minutes. Joel is reporting in that he is going after the power exhaust bracket on unit 1 which was scheduled for the fall, but the weather is too good to pass up and we are maximizing the manpower. He says Mark had a better way of addressing the fan motor removal and they were able to shorten the time. Now this is the difference, no lunch, and incredible attitude, these guys just rock. Each of these guys have my utmost respect, because unlike so many, they recognize and credited the success to the other, how special is that? So CONGRATULATIONS to the Joel and Mark team. They made my day incredible because I got to inform the building management team that this team is the real deal.