In recent years, Safway Group has made a significant transformation from the largest access provider in North America to a total access and industrial service powerhouse. Today, Safway offers the widest range and the largest inventory of the best access equipment, the greatest depth of expertise, improved safety metrics and an ever-growing repertoire of state-of-the-art industrial services. And the journey continues.
"We're in a better position to provide the most complete array of optimum solutions for our customers," said Safway U.S. Division President Jeff Sprau. "Along with the widest range of products and services and our focus on safely increasing productivity and lowering total job costs, we have the greatest depth of expertise to think differently â outside the box â to understand our customersâ needs and exceed their expectations. But we can always improve and are committed to continuous improvement.â
Safway has expanded its industrial services capabilities with key acquisitions, including:
- Mobley Industrial Services â now MobleySafway Solutions â which offers expertise in access, scaffolding, inspection, insulation, surface preparation, and coatings
- Dalco, a Canadian firm providing access, scaffolding, inspection, insulation and coatings services.
- SafeWorks LLC, a global leader in suspended aerial access with highly recognized brands, including Spider®, Power Climber® and Power Climber Wind®.
Spider adds suspended access depth
SafeWorks is a leading provider of suspended power access solutions with premium brands that have a 70-year history of leadership. "With a great management team, highly specialized expertise, and outstanding technical, engineering and manufacturing capabilities, SafeWorks significantly expands our suspended access capabilities and product offerings, allowing us to deliver unique custom solutions," said Sprau.
For example, Spider was recently called on to provide access to cramped vertical channels inside a hydro dam. In this instance, Spider engineers developed a custom solution to support a Spider personnel basket for two workers â a solution no one else could deliver.
In another case, Spider designed a moving triangular platform that gave workers complete access up and down a 400-foot jack-up leg on an offshore oil platform for repair, blasting and painting, while the rig was still drilling.
Luis Vergara, general manager and partner of Duero Latina, had this to say about Spider solutions on the Panama Canal expansion project: "We put Spider's equipment to the test, especially during the last six months of the work, when it was used practically 24 hours a day, seven days a week. On a scale of one to 10, I would rate the safety of Spider's equipment a 10. We have had no accidents, the equipment was light and easy to handle, and the sizes of their standard equipment were perfect for our application, helping us control our costs."
Headquartered in Seattle, SafeWorks provides motorized suspended access equipment sales, rental, services, and support through 25 company branch locations in the Americas and a global dealer network. The company has manufacturing facilities in the U.S., South America and Europe.
"Joining Safway is a great opportunity to bring our specialized expertise to the leading access company in North America and ultimately serve the customers of both companies better," explained President and CEO of SafeWorks Scott Farrell.
SafeWorks is the latest in a series of strategic acquisitions designed to create one company in which all moving parts mesh seamlessly to solve virtually any challenge through industry-leading knowledge, products, and innovation.
MobleySafway rebrands, expands
In a move to expand its industrial services capabilities, Safway acquired Mobley Industrial Services in 2015. "By joining forces, we are able to offer our customers the deepest bench in multiservice solutions â comprehensive scaffolding, insulation, and coatings products and services â delivered at the lowest total cost throughout the Gulf Coast and beyond," said Sprau.
Over the past year, as part of the plan to integrate Mobley's expertise with Safway resources, all Mobley and Safway Group locations in the Gulf area have been rebranded MobleySafway Solutions. "This conversion provided an opportunity for us to share best practices in safety, services, operations, systems and processes, and bring MobleySafway's industry-leading expertise in inspection, insulation, surface preparation, coatings and asset management to an expanded footprint along the Gulf Coast,â added Chuck Mobley, president of MobleySafway.
Currently, there are 15 MobleySafway locations and four premium off-site blasting and coatings facilities. (See location map.)
MobleySafway is an example of Safwayâs customer-first business philosophy. "Although the bulk of our work comes from preparing or repairing surfaces, our goal is to minimize and manage the need for such projects,â explained Mobley. âWe can do much more than provide access, insulation and coatings solutions. We can manage a corrosion under insulation (CUI) program or set up an asset management program, which can lead to millions of dollars in savings over time at your facility."
CUI occurs in carbon and low-alloy steel piping or equipment that has been insulated. Corrosion occurs when water penetrates or is absorbed by the insulation. The piping or equipment begins to corrode as it is exposed to moisture.
"This is why it is critical to manage the factors in preventing CUI," explained Mobley. "Some insulation systems are less sensitive to defects in weatherproofing or paint films, because they're nonabsorbent and chemically nonreactive. There are also protective coatings systems and processes that prevent CUI, and our team has the expertise to advise you in making the best selection."
A proactive approach to asset management is much easier on budgets. "You can make better, more informed maintenance decisions, and there are fewer surprises," added Mobley.
A key to helping customers anticipate and manage their asset maintenance costs is MobleySafwayâs Asset Integrity Management System (AIMS). "Our system is the only one that I know of that uses predictive modeling to maximize maintenance dollars," said Mobley. "Using inspection, assessment, modeling and scenario planning, AIMS allows us to look at a facility as a whole and plan maintenance work strategically to get the maximum life out of components and minimize downtime."
"By being proactive rather than reactive, instead of blasting and painting every 10-15 years, for example, your protective coating systems could last for 30 or 40 years by doing routine spot repair and overcoating."
Kaneka North America (KNA), which makes chemicals and polymers for a wide range of industrial and consumer products, uses MobleySafway's AIMS to manage maintenance costs and schedules. "Kaneka North America chose the MobleySafway AIMS primarily because of the software's functionality. AIMS provides the end user with the ability to interface with plant assets in a comprehensive way in real time," said a representative of the KNA Maintenance and Reliability Department.
"Moreover, the system can be used to create reports, cost analyses, priority ranking, images and more," the Kaneka representative continued. "Complementing the system are trained MobleySafway professionals, who drive the plant assessments needed to input [existing plant conditions] into the system. This part of the process is very important, and the surveyor has to have a trained eye."
Dalco delivers access, industrial services
In keeping with the goal of simplifying customers' lives by combining specialized skills and state-of-the art technology to provide the best solutions, Safway acquired Dalco, a coatings company in western Canada known for its innovative and detailed approach to clientsâ requirements as it relates to corrosion in their industries. The acquisition was completed in August 2016.
"Dalco is a significant player in the region and a great fit for Safway Group Canada," said Steve Wilson, president of Safway Group Canada. "We have similar operating philosophies, with a passion for understanding customer needs and exceeding expectations. By leveraging the knowledge, capabilities, and reputation of Dalco, we will be able to provide expanded coatings services to Safway Group Canada customers. At the same time, with our support, Dalco will now be able to offer their customers a broader inventory of access equipment and additional services."
With extensive experience in the oil and gas, mining and infrastructure industries and a team of NACE-certified coating inspectors, Dalco is prepared to inspect assets and provide comprehensive solutions, performing lining and coating projects in-field or in-house. An innovative leader in the industry, Dalco developed a computerized, automated system to internally line pipes from 3-60 inches in diameter with 100-percent solid epoxy materials. Dalco also provides the lowdust, high-tech Sponge-Jet blasting system and the zero-dust induction coating removal technologies.
"Lots of companies do blasting and coatings work on new industrial systems, but Dalco is a leader in surface prep and coatings in rehab situations. That's a whole different game because it requires a higher level of expertise and capability," said Derrin Dalton, president of Dalco.
"The Dalco motto is 'The Replacement Alternative, Rebuild and Protect,' and the solutions we have offered our clients over the years have lived up to this idea."
Improving safety
Of course, none of the moving parts of the expanded Safway Group is more important than keeping customers and employees safe . With a leadership team focused on safety, a continued emphasis on leading as well as lagging indicators, the I OWN Safety initiative, a behavioral- based observation program and ongoing training, Safwayâs safety performance has continued to improve year over year.
"We have improved our safety metric by 70 percent since 2012," said Paul Amedee, vice president of Environmental Health and Safety (EHS). "But we continue our obsession to 'zero' injuries by integrating EHS cultures thoroughly with each acquisition, educating our frontline leaders and employees on self-risk awareness and behaviors, and having regular and ongoing safety conversations at every level."
A Message from Safway President and CEO Bill Hayes:
The various Safway-related articles in this issue of BIC vividly reflect our strategy coming to life.
Five years ago, we said that while we've always been known as a safe provider of scaffolding/access and industrial services, we can and must get better at protecting our people and helping our customers accelerate their site safety cultures. We've achieved a nearly 70-percent reduction in our TRIR (total recordable incident rate) since that time and are rapidly becoming the industry's thought leader in safety, but we won't rest. We're focused on leading indicators of safety as we work to reach our goal of zero injuries!
Five years ago, we declared that we will maintain our No. 1 position in scaffolding and access, but we will become the industryâs fastest-growing provider of additional industrial services like insulation, coating/painting and fireproofing. We invested in smart acquisitions like the ones described in this issue of BIC: Mobley in the U.S. Gulf, Dalco in Canada, and SafeWorks (Spider and Power Climber) in North America and globally â and more. We invested in people and skills like project management, estimating and sales across our 115-plus locations that serve 15,000-plus customers. We will continue bundling our access and industrial services. And, by conducting Voice of the Customer, weâll work hard and smart to provide safety, efficiency and productivity on every project.
Five years ago, we also said we wanted Safway to be the place to be in the scaffolding/ access and industrial services industry! We've added thousands of employees over that time, implemented a new performance management system, reinvigorated our training program, and are working hard to retain, challenge, recognize and reward our employees top to bottom. Our entire organization is focused on making each and every one of our 115-plus branches successful in the eyes of our customers. Branches are where our action is, and our management team (which has been sound and consistent for years) supports our front-line people vigorously.
So, all this is good stuff but we're not done. No one at Safway is satisfied with current results. We know we can, must and will constantly improve for our customers. We need to keep innovating, keep investing and constantly seek ways to provide the best and lowest total cost of delivery of the important work we do for our (rightfully) demanding customers. Enjoy the articles, and I look forward to seeing everyone out in our exciting, vibrant and growing marketplace!
Planting global seeds
With its expanding capabilities and broad array of solutions, Safway has been transcending borders and spanning oceans. And with the recent acquisition of Seattle-based SafeWorks in November 2016, Safway has more global appeal than ever.
"Given its worldwide network of sites and attractive position in the growing domestic and international wind turbine and renewable energy industry, SafeWorks offers us a great framework for global seed planting and additional market diversification," said Safway President and CEO Bill Hayes.
QuikDeck travels world
But even prior to the acquisition of SafeWorks, Safway's patented QuikDeck® Suspended Access System was already being used on large, critical projects around the world. For example, QuikDeck has been key to the multiyear, multibillion-dollar upgrade of Japanâs high-speed rail system. QuikDeck was also installed on a commercial project in the Netherlands and has gone to work on oil rigs off the coast of Brazil and the Arabian Peninsula.
Perhaps most telling, however, is how Safway ended up working with a New Zealand oil company on an offshore gas rig refurbishment project. WorleyParsons, the engineering firm charged with solving the challenging offshore access problem, used the internet to explore something they had heard about a modular suspended access product, which they hoped might provide a viable solution. WorleyParsons found Safway and made a cold call to the company, and it turned out Safwayâs proprietary QuikDeck was indeed the perfect solution for the challenging job near New Zealand's North Island.
Worldwide platform
And now, with SafeWorks in the portfolio of Safway companies, Safway has an even stronger framework to plant the seeds for growth around the world.
SafeWorks has two manufacturing facilities in Europe and one in Brazil; a distribution center in China; sales offices in Dubai, Singapore and Panama; and a worldwide network of dealers. So SafeWorks provides a huge platform from which Safway Group companies can deliver their products and services to a world hungry for innovative access and industrial services solutions. In addition, SafeWorks provides Safway with an attractive position in the growing domestic and international wind turbine and renewable energy market.
SafeWorks is a leading provider of suspended access solutions with premium brands such as Spider®, Power Climber® and Power Climber Wind®, and world-class engineering prowess.
