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December,
2008 e-Newsletter
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas &
Happy New Year!!!!!
We are now again on the brink of another new year which means Metfab Metals has another year of successful jobs and growing experience to help you with all your projects. We hope 2008 was good for your business and that it has grown as Metfab Metals has.
Of course, we realize that our nation’s economy has been hurt in a number of sectors this year that may take years to recover. If you have hit a rough patch, maybe we can work with you this year to again move forward. We are every day working on new concepts, GREEN technologies and the path to the coming “Green Economy” that many forecast. Our work on the LEED certs of 2008 are now morphing into the LEED-CS’s of 2009. We’ve fabricated and assembled for many sectors of the building construction industry, but now are reaching out to the wind-power and alternate energy fields to add our expertise to help with all their evolving needs. As we see it, if we can fabricate anchors, beams, embeds, AESS steel, curtainwall support steel, aluminum parts and all manner of miscellaneous metals, why can’t we make windmill parts and the constituent parts of their support structures or solar power structures?
Next year at this time, we’re confident we will be reporting what we are then doing in the new “Green Economy” fields, as well as in all the areas we have now worked for decades.
As you may know, January is named after the two-headed Roman god, Janus, because in this month we look both back to the year past and forward to the coming one (as Janus could do). In that way, we look at the renderings below of the project we were just hoping to start at this time last year and which just last month we reported completing and published the finished pictures of it. (Take a look----or, better, go see it at 51 Louisiana Avenue in Washington, DC!)
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Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! Happy New Year!
And have a great 2009, working alongside us, here at Metfab Metals!
“We work on YOUR time.”
November,
2008 e-Newsletter
PROJECT OF THE YEAR!
Metfab’s Work Here Is Done as 51 Louisiana Avenue Nears Completion!
Our regular readers and customers know how proud we were to be involved in this Washington, DC custom “rehab job”. Look back at earlier newsletters on this site for even more info. This is now another signature project coming into its final “punch-list” phase.
This has been a challenging fabrication for Metfab Metals from beginning to end. We are happy to report that it all was delivered, accepted and installed almost flawlessly, despite precisely designed and engineered plans to produce an interior effect for an exterior space---- state-of-the art. We’d like our customers, present and future, to know that we not only fabricated these skylight frames, but coordinated their progress, timed their on-site need and delivered them on our own in-house trucks.
This has truly been a watershed job for us. We took a challenging set of plans; worked daily with the design professionals and job foremen; added our hands-on know-how to solve unanticipated “fits”; handled the flow of re-draws on the plans; made the small parts as well as the large ones; worked many weekends as needed; timed each delivery to site work progress; delivered every piece on time (on our trucks); and made a customer and an owner happy with the finished product. Take a long look at what was done here. Think how we can help you with your small----and large---projects.
Call us; let us help you with all your fabrication needs!
Project
Updates:
United Nations Retro-fit , NYC, NY------Another job getting done! Unique Metfab anchors with custom covers are being installed as we post this. More news on this job in coming months.
255 W55th Street, NYC, NY------- We continue fabricating the window “vertical fins” per the full-scale mock-up standing in our yard. Come take a look at what Metfab Metals can do when unique designs present unique challenges.
Call me. Let me help with all your fabrication needs----and problems!
Jim
973-75-7676 or [email protected]
PS: Many of you have seen the billionaire Oklahoma oilman, T. Boone Pickens, recently in his TV ads touting alternative fuels & windmills, along with “Drill, drill, drill”, of course. Now he adds the idea of his fellow billionaire, Ted Turner (founder of CNN), that “the GREEN economy will be the best economy the US has ever had!” Call us and let us help make your jobs greener and get you LEED credits and other positive steps. Look at some of the things below that we can help with---and how!
Take another look at our established products :
- Concrete Embeds (Halfen alternatives)
- AESS Steel
- Curtainwall Support Steel
- Stone Anchors
- Complex Metal Operations
- Steel Parts for Glazed Curtainwall
- ……and more
|
Also now:
*******************************************************************************************************************************************
• Sustainable (GREEN)
Building Materials;
•
Low VOC Paints/Painting;
•
LEED Certification Assistance;
•
Aluminum Fabrication/Finishing/Painting;
•
Environmentally Safe Plating/Finishing;
•
Re-Usable Scrap Materials;
•
Miscellaneous Building Envelope Parts;
•
Miscellaneous Building Envelope Services;
•
Energy Efficient Fabrication;
•
Union Trucking Available---Up To 53’:
•
Oversize Load Specialists
•
And Lots More----Call & You Shall Find! |
September/October,
2008 e-Newsletter
Effective Hands-On “Value-Engineering” before fabrication! Solving Problems!!
In coming months, we’ll report on the working progress on the steel members pictured above and going into our work at Ground Zero. Tune in then too. This is literally the FIRST such steel member to be installed at Ground Zero and the new towers now being erected. We were happy to provide a staging area----as we are only a few miles west of the site itself----where all interested parties (owner’s rep, GC, architect, etc….) could have a final look at this finished product before it was ceremoniously delivered to Ground Zero itself. We are providing many of the embeds, anchors and miscellaneous steel parts for this monumental project.
But now, friends: You’ve heard of “Value-Engineering”----here’s our take on it with metal fabrication! Maybe we can help the “value” on your job too! This is a another signature project we are working on right now.
United Nations Building, NYC ---- This has been a chance for Metfab Metals to do some really unique thinking to fulfill part of the retro-fit work in the upgrade here. We received precisely designed and engineered plans to once again make this aging building completely state-of-the art. But “the devil is in the details.” A new façade requires us to make anchors to be in place before the concrete pour. But the “devilish detail” is the concrete pour itself during which the anchors could be damaged or even partially covered by the pours. Our customer turned to us for ideas. We came up with fabricated covers, fastened in place & removable after the concrete cures. One problem solved; another created! ----cost. All those metal covers (temporary ones) are costly. With Metfab’s help: problem solved; substantial cost savings for our customer! We fashioned a job-unique wood cover which we’ll “taper, groove & grease” for ease of removal while fully protecting the threads of the anchor for the next smooth steps in the job! We’ll deliver the wood covers with our anchors. That’s our version of “Value-Engineering”!
[Update: Even this didn’t solve all the issues so we re-configured our original steel “covers”, reduced them to more basic, lighter gauge steel that would work in this retro-fit of an active building-------------- and again met our customers needs. This may not be the most time-effective way to get to the final product but it is problem-solving of the first order.]
Call us; let us help you with your fabrication “devils”!!!
Project
Updates:
Constitution Center, Washington, DC ------ Another job done! See the Fall 2008 edition of McGraw-Hill’s “Mid-Atlantic Construction” magazine (p 43); you’ll see 6800 Metfab anchors that went into this LEED building pictured above.
255 West 55th Street, NYC, NY ------- This commercial building requires a “vertical fin” that we are fabricating for the esthetics of the fenestration----and for which we have a full-scale mock-up standing in our yard. Come take a look at what we can do when unique designs present unique challenges. And Metfab Metals meets them!
Call me. Let me help with all your fabrication needs----and problems!
Jim
973-75-7676 or [email protected]
Take another look at our established products on our products page:
- Concrete Embeds (Halfen alternatives)
- AESS Steel
- Curtainwall Support Steel
- Stone Anchors
- Complex Metal Operations
- Steel Parts for Glazed Curtainwall
- ……and more
|
Also now:
*******************************************************************************************************************************************
• Sustainable (GREEN)
Building Materials;
•
Low VOC Paints/Painting;
•
LEED Certification Assistance;
•
Aluminum Fabrication/Finishing/Painting;
•
Environmentally Safe Plating/Finishing;
•
Re-Usable Scrap Materials;
•
Miscellaneous Building Envelope Parts;
•
Miscellaneous Building Envelope Services;
•
Energy Efficient Fabrication;
•
Union Trucking Available---Up To 53’:
•
Oversize Load Specialists
•
And Lots More----Call & You Shall Find! |
July/August 2008 e-Newsletter
You probably also have noticed that
everywhere you look or read today some ’expert’
is claiming to be the ‘last word’ or
most expert on such things as GREEN
technology, the carbon ‘footprint’,
LEED certifications,
low VOC paint, energy-efficiency, and such. [Many
of us just 3-4-5 years ago would recognize none
of these terms as important----or perhaps even comprehensible.]
But these are real-life facts today, and will be
essentials of all our construction tomorrow. Right
now, many colleagues in Europe are steps ahead of
us in real-time GREEN
implementation.
We have contacts there and are integrating those
sources into our product lines. Recently one outspoken
eco-guru noted the following:
I see the opportunities
for renewables. They can provide 100% of our
energy, and they can be introduced fast.
It’s this latter note of the
fast-coming ‘speed of implementation’
that struck us here at Metfab Metals-----
And Now Metfab OS.
We are going to be part of the solution,
not part of the problem! Not only will the changes
come fast, but they will not at all be as expensive
or impractical as many fear----and foist upon us!
So we at Metfab
have made it our focus to learn as much as we can
about these coming GREEN
requirements. We have
even hired some real-life experts to help us and
have intensively done our own homework or ‘due
diligence’. So even right now we can help
our customers here in the metals business and all
the allied building crafts with these newer ideas.
CLICK
HERE for a look at our most recent ad
attached here for our
new OS
division.
Never forget the essential
truth of the following:
If we don’t
improve our product, someone else will.
John
Deere
*******************************************************************************************************************************************
This modest listing of our evolving
service and product lines (below and in the appended
ad) is only the beginning. With the help of true
enviro-science experts, we here at Metfab
Metals----- And Now Metfab
OS will
be ahead of the wave of change, not flailing about
trying to survive that same wave of faster and faster
changes in the building sciences. You
know what’s happening to the cost of car and
truck fuel. But did you know the USA uses vastly
more fuel to heat/cool buildings than to power all
our cars and trucks? So where
can we really conserve this ever-more-precious and
expensive commodity? The simple answer is----when
we build or re-build our structures! All of us at
Metfab Metals----- And
Now Metfab OS
want to help----and now we can do so more than ever.
What can we get to you FAST?
*******************************************************************************************************************************************
• Sustainable (GREEN)
Building Materials;
•
Low VOC Paints/Painting;
•
LEED Certification Assistance;
•
Aluminum Fabrication/Finishing/Painting;
•
Environmentally Safe Plating/Finishing;
•
Re-Usable Scrap Materials;
•
Miscellaneous Building Envelope Parts;
•
Miscellaneous Building Envelope Services;
•
Energy Efficient Fabrication;
•
Union Trucking Available---Up To 53’:
•
Oversize Load Specialists
•
And Lots More----Call & You Shall Find! |
**************************************************************************************
All Recoverable; Reusable; Recyclable!
*******************************************************************************************************************************************
When
one door closes another door opens; but we so often
look so long and so
regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not
see the ones which open for us.
Alexander
Graham Bell
Project
Updates:
World
Trade Center, NYC, NY------Exciting
news next month so click on us then!
Our
Newest Shop Equipment-----
More news on this front next month too!
Call
on us; we’re waiting to help!
*******************************************************************************************************************************************
Don’t be
a 20th Century Follower!
BE A 21st CENTURY
LEADER!
*******************************************************************************************************************************************
Work
with us throughout 2008!
Metfab Metals
"We
work on YOUR time.”
And Now Metfab
OS
June,
2008 e-Newsletter
In one of his many letters to his
family, the crusty Pres. Harry S Truman showed not
only his paternal side, but the real-world wisdom
that history is now recognizing in him. In a letter
dated November 24, 1937, then-Senator Truman wrote
to his daughter, Margaret:
"It
takes work to do anything well. Most people expect
everything and do nothing to get it….. It
just
takes work and more work to accomplish anything----and
your dad knows it better than anyone."
Even earlier, President Theodore Roosevelt
observed:
"In
any moment of decision the best you can do is the
right thing, the next best thing
is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can
do is nothing."
We would simply update these to today’s
world----and to this industry---simply by adding
that hard, everyday work, mixed with good people
to do it, make business success possible and good,
currently-needed products a reality. This is our
constant goal at Metfab Metals
and one we believe our customers credit today---and
reward us by coming back on contract after contract!
“Green”
could be the largest economic opportunity of the
21st century. We'll get a clean environment because
entrepreneurs will make it happen. John
Doerr, Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist
As we suggested in this same space
last month, watch these Newsletters in coming months
as we implement a new GREEN
division to provide truly sustainable
solutions to your evolving construction needs. America
has truly reached what Malcolm Gladwell called the
‘tipping point’ in ecological needs----and
regulation! (Take a look at his book---“The
Tipping Point” for truly insightful ideas
on how real progress can be made from initially
small steps completely out of proportion to the
far-larger results later yielded!) We at Metfab
Metals have prepared our people to
truly be ‘part of the solution’. Our
team is formed; next is informing you what we will
do for you---ultimately to your great gain, and
profit. Solve LEED needs; fabricate in sustainable
ways; add innovations; comply with re-engineered
specs; end up with an admired project; all the time,
getting the same established Metfab
Metals reliability and dependability.
We have recognized the ‘future’ that
obviously is already upon us; we’d like to
work with you to begin to SOLVE
the issues at hand-----and get your new needs fulfilled!
And in a GREENER
way, as 2009, 2010, 2011 and all the
coming years will require!!
In 1961, Pres. John F. Kennedy made
a simple, but dead-on observation, when he said:
"The
only true test of leadership is to lead---and to
lead vigorously.”
We at Metfab Metals
intend to lead our industry---and to lead it vigorously
into the 21st century job mandates to make and supply
sustainable and GREEN
products to complete lasting, admired buildings
and projects.
Project
Updates:
51
Louisiana Avenue, Washington, DC------
The work goes on and on; and on…..! We have
delivered many of the unique panels reported (and
pictured) in earlier newsletters. This is going
to be a ‘signature’ project for us----and
for the other fine contractors working with us to
make it a reality---and on time!
Our
Newest Shop----- Our shipping
has moved; our receiving has moved; some of our
personnel have also! Where? To 44 Tompkins Street
in adjoining West Orange, NJ. We’ll now be
able to serve you even more efficiently----and with
a broader base of products and services. Come take
a look!!!------AND
More New Equipment------We
are updating more of our shop ‘stuff’
and our transportation alternatives to better serve
our present---and future---customers. Look at this
page in the future newsletters for reports on 21st
century changes and the more mundane details of
how we can faster deliver our finished products
to you.
Come! Work with us now in
2008!
Metfab Metals
"We
work on YOUR time.”
May,
2008 e-Newsletter
According to the famous---though controversial---Irish
writer and all-around wit of the early 20th century,
Oscar Wilde:
“Some
cause happiness wherever they go; others cause happiness
only when they go.”
(emphasis added)
This is certainly a sentiment we never want our
customers to conclude about our own business---or
even just the way we do business. We here at Metfab
Metals couldn’t agree more with
this short way of expressing how projects, then
whole businesses, can falter---even go under-----if
company leaders don’t pay attention to the
true needs of their customers. We try with every
contract, every order, every P.O., even every phone
call to fulfill the stated---and sometimes unstated---needs
of our customers. Our experience has taught us that
the answer is truly simple----responsibility.
We owe it to our customers and we demand it of our
employees. This, we believe, is THE formula that
works out well for everyone----and gets our jobs
done right, on time, and resulting in business-“happiness”
(profit all around----the necessary goal of all
of us in business).
“Do what matters” says Jim Kilts,
CEO of Gillette (who incidentally was picked by
Warren Buffett for his CEO position largely for
this idea). This terse aphorism seems true enough----almost
an axiom. And, of course, it is! But like many obvious
rules, it is far simpler to say or even formulate
than to execute----and then execute every day. So
what is really needed? Again, put briefly, it’s
FOCUS! Our business
here at Metfab Metals----with
all its built-in need for precision and narrow tolerances----is
even more demanding in this respect. Thomas Edison
(who’s original laboratory is STILL only a
short walk from our shop) once remarked that, “If
we did everything we were capable of, we would literally
astound ourselves.”
Well, we are on the cusp of astounding ourselves,
hopefully noticed by our customers (now and future
ones) and ‘doing what matters’! Now,
my business friends, what indeed does matter here
in the coming summer of 2008? Depending upon your
personal point of view, or job, even investments,
you might answer this inquiry different ways. But
one thing is certain-----we all of us need this
planet, its resources and the very air we breathe----to
do anything at all. [Another axiom!]
So we here at Metfab Metals
decided to look into what part (little or otherwise)
we could do----as we always want to “do what
matters”.
In October, 1963, President Kennedy, at his last
college commencement address (at Amherst College)
said he looked forward to an America fully in synch
with the rest of the world where we all have pride
in our resources, pride in our clean air, rebuild
our cities in a responsible way and care for the
only environment we or our children will ever have.
“For
in the final analysis, our most basic common link
is that we all inhabit this small planet.
We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our
children's futures. And we are all mortal.”
This was a vision that was far too submerged for
the past four decades. We in the construction business
now can see how
forward-looking this speech was, as we try to get
the entire world to comply----now more than 40 years
later----with LEED, GREEN, EPA, DEP
and other environmental certifications,
government minimums or GREEN
contract terms. We have been a ‘part of the
problem’, so now we are putting our time,
money and effort into becoming ‘part of the
solution’.
Watch these Newsletters in coming months for how
we can help you and your jobs become ‘part
of the solution’ also. We are empowering our
people, adding helpful assets, upgrading our equipment-----all
to form a new division to provide truly sustainable
solutions to everyday construction needs. Keep an
eye here for ways Metfab Metals
can help you and your projects even
more-----and in creative new ways!
Jack Welch of GE liked to repeat that strategy matters,
but forming the team comes first. Our team is now
formed. Coming next is what we will do for you.
Maybe we have reached what Malcolm Gladwell called
the ‘tipping point’. That may---or may
not---be true, but as with all problems in business,
first we have to recognize it. We are recognizing
it and would like to work with you to begin to SOLVE
it-----and get smart FAST!
And GREENER!!
|
Project
Updates:
250 West
55th Street, NYC, NY------Our
yard again is the home of another entirely
new mock-up----this time our friends at Enclos
have erected a ground-level glass, steel and
aluminum paradigm of this new building’s
façade. We have already fabricated
the superstructure designed for this model,
as well as our ‘assemblies’ and
locking/adjusting devices specially styled
for this, and many other, window-wall edifices.
Our
Newest Shop Equipment-----
Over the past couple of years, we have been
implementing a business plan to upgrade all
our tried and true machines; modernize the
dated ones; and add others that grow our production
capacity and speed. Last month, we did more
of these things. We sent out the “guts”
of one of our ironworkers and had it completely
rebuilt. Then we added a brand-new 125 ton
Piranha which is humming 6 days a week as
you read this. Shortly, we’ll take delivery
of a new----and much longer----shear to service
the increasing aluminum and lighter-gauge
metals we are being asked to produce daily.
Look for further updates on this. The dividends
for us are real, but what we can do for our
customers is even more substantial. |
|
51 Louisiana
Avenue, Washington, DC------
The work goes on! The innovative roof frames are
being turned out each week and sent on their way
to the jobsite. We’re getting done with 20-30
footers; now the challenges are 40+ feet----up to
fifty-seven (that’s right---57
feet in length!) frames of
intricate 18” C-channel fashioned with gussets,
anchors, hooks, fasteners, precise drillings and
other finely-designed intricacies to make this roof
the showpiece of this unique project. (Look back
at our earlier December, 2007 Newsletter for both
renderings; below is a bird's-eye view of this entire
project from above)
Work with us throughout 2008
Metfab Metals
"We
work on YOUR time.”
April,
2008 e-Newsletter
As “a picture is worth a thousand
words”, look at these two shots of our most
recent ‘acquisition’. The pictured 1937
GMC stake-body truck was actually delivering steel
here in the Orange, NJ area starting in the late 1930’s------and
is today still in running condition! [Since we obtained
this classic, our mechanics have busily reviewed all
of its working parts and fixed some surprisingly-minor
needs, so we’ll soon be driving
it to the exterior restoration craftsmen to bring
the body back to mint condition----all of which we
expect before this summer.]
We are well into bringing this classic back to its
original delivery condition. Look for pictures here
in coming months of its restored beauty and where
you can see it. We intend to use it for small local
deliveries here in NJ and in NYC, underlining our
company’s commitment to service the “old-fashioned”
way-----literally! Maybe
we can schedule a drop-off of some miscellaneous parts
to your job this summer? We’d love to fill that
order----and maybe give you a ride!
Shifting gears-------- to our
last month’s Newsletter, we quoted from the
recent book, Microtrends,
The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s
Big Changes. In closing one chapter
of it, author Penn warns against another perceived
‘microtrend’ which he identifies as the
“new Luddites”------those
guys we find in every generation who oppose any
innovation, anything that is new and strange to industry
veterans. [The original Luddites
were those 19th Century textile workers who tried
to smash the machines of the first industrial revolution
that threatened their then labor-intensive jobs.]
We at Metfab Metals are
anything but Luddites (despite wanting to put our
1937 truck back into service!); on the contrary, we
embrace new challenges, new machinery, new technology,
new engineering------and integrate them into our operations
as quickly as feasible. Look at our entire website
and you’ll see ample evidence of this commitment------in
production, operations and technological advances.
Even here below, you can see some advances we are
presently implementing.
Here at Metfab Metals
we also try every month to let our customers-----present
and even future ones (we like to call you “customers”
that just haven’t needed us yet or haven’t
realized they need us yet)-----know what we are currently
doing and often how we are working to make a continuing
reality of timely production and always on-time deliveries.
We are well in to the 51 Louisiana
Avenue job in Washington, D.C. and
must tip our collective hat to our own shop foreman
Pablo Chang, pictured below with one of the monster
roof frames we have already completed. Our friends
from Enclos came in recently
to inspect the first unit before shipping it and found
all Pablo’s hard work almost miraculously near-perfect
and well within the half-inch tolerance we must comply
with for these glass “housings” on this
retrofit job. Look back at our December,
2007 newsletter for the renderings that
show where this yet-to-be-painted & finely-finished
frame will be positioned. “Pablo,
Well-done.”
-web.jpg) |
********************************************************************************************************************************************
[Now---back to work, Pab!!!!! We have lots more work
to finish and NO TIME to waste.]
Project
Updates:
St.
Agnes, Baltimore, MD------American
Stone Virginia, LLC of Ladysmith,
VA called on us, on a very emergent
basis, to fabricate over 600 pieces of stone anchors
and related erection hardware in order to fit into
their crane appointment and erection schedule. We
put aside our standard lead times to “service”
the pleas of their Operations Manager (Ray) who called
our owner and pleaded for all the expedition we could
muster. Let’s just say we ‘fully cooperated’.
The final order specs were received on a Thursday;
fabrication was done on Friday; our galvanizer finished
the parts over the weekend and our driver, Willie
Stackhouse, pulled up with this load to the jobsite
before 7AM on Monday. Ray tells us that, as the crane
arrived to hoist the exterior stone panels, his guys
were installing our essential hardware to hold the
panels moved into place by that ever-so-expensive
rented crane. We like to think this is just another
example of business-as-usual Metfab Metals
service. Call Ray
down there in Ladysmith if you need a reference before
you hire us too.
250
West 55th Street, NYC, NY------Our
yard mock-up of the coming façade of this glass,
steel and aluminum paradigm has drawn many comments
since we posted it here last month. Even casual passers-by
and business customers at our headquarters remark
about its ability to ‘communicate’ many
of the things we can do for our customers. Look at
our ‘assemblies’ page on this website
for examples of the type of locking/adjusting devices
we specially crafted for this, and many other, window-wall
installs.
Our
Newest Shop Expansion-----A couple
of months back, we told you some of the details of
our coming expansion; now it’s a truly functioning
reality. The dividend is not only more space, but
better shipping facilities, storage and expanded light-gauge
steel/aluminum production. In coming months, we plan
to even better integrate this space into our overall
operations.
Work with us throughout 2008
Metfab Metals
"We
work on YOUR time.”
March, 2008 e-Newsletter
Most Americans know the brand, FORD,
as the signature of decades of cars and trucks. Similarly
many know Henry Ford gave his name to this company,
but not only as the founder of its lineage of vehicles.
He prospered because he founded the very concept of
the modern ‘assembly line’ ------today
an integral part of this and many other shops whose
employees may not even know of Henry Ford or heard
of his ‘line’. Though he has been criticized
for other ideas, his business acumen was beyond doubt.
He once said of business success that the formula
was quite simple:
Coming
together is the beginning; keeping together is progress;
working together is success.
As 2008 started we here at Metfab
Metals realized that, while 2007 was
a year of progress, we hadn’t emphasized enough
the essential reason WHY! It’s
our people “working together”.
So last month we recognized some of our shop guys
that make our timely, precise production and all our
on-time deliveries into ‘success’.
But all of this made us look more closely
at what Metfab Metals has
become----and is. Obviously, we are not a FORD
–type mega-company, but rather a metals fabricator
of both standard and custom parts for many far-larger
companies. As a company of less than fifty total employees,
we are a tight business and also a classic “niche”
business. At least, that’s the way the world-class
pollster, Mark J. Penn, from his recent best-selling
book, Microtrends, “The
Small forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes”,
might well describe where we fit into the emerging
complex building components market. In short, as a
limited number of entities need the fabricated metals
we produce daily, we fit into a narrow slice (or ‘niche’)
of the business world. But these entities----often,
but not exclusively, developers, contractors, sub-contractors
and specialty glass makers (we much prefer to call
these folks “our customers”)----and
Metfab Metals form a small,
but essential, part of a ‘microtrend’
of making increasingly complex building components
for increasingly complex buildings. So what is the
necessary common denominator of the success of this
‘trend’? A critical eye might see it as
more than implementation of innovation and it may
very well simply be SERVICE!
We have worked hard over the years,
not just to make great parts, but to tell our ‘niche’
customers----present and future-----what we can make
for them and how we can help with their projects------and
then supply the type of SERVICE
to this clientele that is FAR
above average. Our website (and our brochure, if you’ve
seen it-----if not, call & we’ll send
you one) sets out some of the custom parts we
daily make and most of our capacities to make others,
but perhaps more importantly it stresses our service
and true commitment to filling every unique order
exactly and on time!
As part of this exacting fulfillment
effort, we are happy to report yet another advancement:
Metfab Metals’ exciting news-----a
new addition to our main shop here in Orange, NJ.
We have added 3,000+ square feet under roof for our
miscellaneous parts production, as well as even more
square footage in outside space. The latter space
will be used for staging, shipping and demo purposes.
This new space is already amped up to fully operational
status as we post this. We are acquiring additional
machinery to even better facilitate production and
allow us to better service lighter gauge steel work,
as well as our growing aluminum fabrication operation
(needed for much of our ‘assemblies’ work,
as we outlined in our Newsletter here in November,
2007) Come by and see for yourself. Or just drop into
our website, until you can visit in person.
Project
Updates:
250
West 55th Street, NYC, NY----As
noted here last month, our friends at Enclos are using
the east side of our yard for a 20’ X 10’
X 20’ steel frame so that its project ‘design
team’ can see what various trim combinations
and finishes look like in the ‘light of day’.
We erected that frame, supplied the steel/aluminum
combination assemblies to affix the glass panels and
assisted other contractors as they installed the pre-fab
glass panels for a built-to-scale glass façade
mock-up of the planned building. Then a crane hoisted
it sixty (60) feet for what one observer called a
‘flawless’ real-time view against the
blue sky. Take a look above. Maybe we can do this
for you some day?
Wyndham
Hotels Worldwide Headquarters, Parsippany, NJ----Per
the design work of project architects, HLW
International, LLP, we are fabricating
the steel and aluminum frames and miscellaneous metals
essential to this innovative building. Thin
Stone System, Inc. is the stone contractor
supplying a new type thin stone for the façade,
replacing the heavier gauge stone formerly needed
to re-produce the stone’s massive natural appearance.
[Look for future reports of this ‘microtrend’
in coming Newsletters.]
New
Painting Equipment/Finishes---This
is yet another advance we now offer our customers.
We have added to our painting facility a complete
Turbinaire HVLP spraying system. Now we can
right here on-site give aluminum and miscellaneous
parts that baked-on look and can produce the finer
enameling and finishing of items before shipment.
This will save crucial time for another happy customer------expediting
by weeks the finish of its parts without the added
step of forwarding his parts to “the painter”.
Work along with us here at Metfab
Metals
throughout 2008 and in years to come!
"We
work on YOUR time.”
February, 2008 e-Newsletter
Our
shop CREDO:
Do
more than look-----observe;
Do more than read-----absorb;
Do more than hear-----listen;
Do more than listen-----understand.
Last month we commented here about the
opportunity that January gives each of us to look
both back at what the last year meant for us and to
look forward to what we can do better in the new year.
Well, we each did just that here at Metfab
Metals. One thing we all realized
was that, while 2007 was a year of progress for us,
we didn’t emphasize the basic reason WHY!
Let’s correct that now. The basic reason was
our people.
America’s WWII hero, Gen. George
S. Patton, once was quoted as saying:
“Never
tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do
and they will surprise you
with their ingenuity.”
Well, we realize---and want to acknowledge
here---that we have some pretty amazing people in
our shop that every day almost surprise us with ingenious
ways to improve. Ed Huneke,
our production supervisor, has lived up----AGAIN---to
his title by re-organizing our entire holding/storage
facility to allow better record keeping and better
quality review before shipment. Our general shop foreman,
Pablo Chang, has just supervised
the install of an ‘in-shop’ set of computer
screens and keyboards to expedite the reporting of
work done----and ready for shipping department to
handle. The newest supervisor in our Steel Truss Department,
Hugo Chiluiza, has already
implemented time-saving steps to allow us to ship
finished units 2-3 days sooner than before. AND finally
our COO Jim Murray merits
particular note for his patient meetings with our
IT consultant, leading to a much-improved computerized
work-flow chart that has already empowered our shop
to daily complete all ‘RUSH” orders and
set them for delivery----again on time!
These guys are only some of our “stars”
and some of their accomplishments, but we are very
proud of all of our team and even more proud of what
they individually and together accomplish every day.
While our teamwork is an important part
of what we are, the building block of our accomplishments
is each contributing individual. Igor
Sikorsky, widely regarded as the inventor
of the helicopter (that is, after
Leonardo DaVinci, conceptualized
it and drew it about 400 years earlier!!!!)
liked to say,
"The
work of the individual still remains the spark that
moves mankind ahead
even more than teamwork."
Read on and you’ll see what our
guys have advanced in the first few weeks of 2008.
We now ship out most of our routine completed jobs
within 10 working days of the receipt of plans. That’s
not only “hard work”, it’s the brand
of service that led to our
“success” in 2007 and continues for 2008!
Hopefully you’ll join with us in that service.
In the early years of the 20th century,
Booker T. Washington of
Tuskegee Institute noted, “Excellence
is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.”
Many of our products are ’common’ to many
types or phases of construction. Despite this commonness,
they are usually custom-made to specific job specs,
often not simple and always not simple to produce
and deliver on time. We now do this every working
day. The above guys in the shop oversee this reality.
We recognize them for this and tell you, our customers,
that this is indeed something you can rely on.
Project
Updates:
New
World Trade Center in NYC----“Built-to-Scale
Mock-ups”----In the early months
of 2008, we will supply the steel, fabricate sections
of the current WTC plans, see them “erected”
right here by borrowed NYC steel-workers and then
lend our yard for the ‘design team’ to
come, look, inspect, comment, re-plan, innovate, etc----all
with no guarantee that Metfab
Metals will get the ultimate
parts orders. That’s the type of service
we are proud of. [Just one year ago (see February,
2007 Newsletter---posted below), we posted here a
similar 3-level mock-up we did for the Verizon Building
in NYC which now looks exactly like that glass edifice
still standing in our yard.]
51
Louisiana Avenue, Washington, D.C.----Work
advances on at these existing buildings in our nation’s
capital now being “capped” by another
crystal-clear engineering wonder----and Metfab
Metals parts. [Take
a look back at the rendering for this ‘modernization’
job also in last December’s Newsletter.]
Constitution
Center, Washington, D.C-----
Look at the renderings below for what our customer’s
new glass work can do. We will supply over 300,000
pounds of miscellaneous connection hardware for the
new curtainwall façade.
River
Place 2, at 42nd Street in NYC----This
is yet another new building rising in the “Big
Apple”. Shortly we will begin to fabricate the
tube steel and miscellaneous curtainwall parts for
floor after floor as this new condo residence goes
skyward.
And continue to have a really successful 2008,
working alongside us, here at
Metfab Metals!
"We
work on YOUR time.”
January, 2008 e-Newsletter
The Romans of Julius Caesar’s
era first named this month after one of their gods,
Janus, as they believed it
to be a two-headed god that could look both forward
and back at the same time. It’s now easy to
see why they did so, as we all regularly use this
month to both look back at the just-passed year and
to try to look ahead with our business, and sometimes
even our personal, lives.
In past months we have chosen here to
quote regularly from the legendary businessman of
over a hundred years ago----Andrew Carnegie. His driven
principles, though old, just seem to express the same
timely ideas we at Metfab Metals
work hard to bring to our own business relations---and
our customers---every day. Before we update you on
our newest work, we think a present-day business genius,
Warren Buffett (of Berkshire Hathaway billion-dollar
investment fame) often expresses similar ideas of
commitment to excellence. Even he admits his ideas
(which have earned him a personal net worth of over
40 BILLION dollars) are simple.
For example, when explaining investment strategy,
he cites Hockey Hall of Famer, Wayne Gretzky:
“Like
Wayne Gretzky says, go where the puck is going, not
where it is.”
*******************************************************
Do you recognize this?
Looking back, this is one of the jobs
we did early last year, 2007. We fabricated the radius
tube steel members and clad them in stainless steel
polished sheet metal for the overhang protecting ‘investors’
coming into Atlantic City’s Borgata Casino.
[It’s doubtful Warren Buffett spends much time
there, even though he can clearly afford it!]
Metfab Metals
has been organized since our very beginning on a simple
concept which Mr. Buffett regularly cites-----and
follows. It’s drawn from famous early-20th
Century economist John Maynard Keynes who counseled,
“Don’t try to figure out what the market
is doing. Figure out a business you understand, and
concentrate.” Two
of our current projects underline this operative idea
that sets apart the quality and value of what we produce
for our customers day after day. And which we again
promise to produce for you in 2008 on a 24/7/365 basis-----as
always!
Look at these two jobs! They basically
tell our entire story of commitment.
One is a huge job for a building now
long anticipated in NYC----The Freedom
Tower at Ground Zero; the other is a
small project requiring us to make sign parts for
a local contractor here in New Jersey. These jobs
say it all about Metfab Metals:
two jobs handled with the same care, precision and
speed even though one is tiny compared to the other.
We service all our customers
and always provide the same product-----a job well-done,
exactly as spec’d and delivered on time as ordered!
Mr. Buffett likes to say:
“Price
is what you pay; value is what you get.”
For our products, you have to pay a
fair price, but you will always get VALUE!
Project
Updates:
World
Trade Center I in NYC----THE
Freedom Tower is coming! As 2008
arrives, the production schedule for all facets of
this national symbol is going into high gear. More
in coming months!
American
Traffic Sign Co.------A good
example of a local customer calling us not for a huge
NYC project, but for its everyday needs. This time
we fulfilled its needs for the fabrication of antique-shaped
roadway signs themselves. It’s
done & shipped---and maybe even directing drivers
already!
1269
Lexington Avenue Building, NYC-------One
of the largest New York glazing contractors has ordered
concrete embeds and lintels for this unique construction.
Their glass and our metals have been melded now to
create the aesthetics drawn.
Connell
Drive Building, ---Our colleagues
at Atlantic Exterior Wall Systems
are again asking us to fill special orders here. 1000’s
of truss components are being made, along with aluminum
anchors, stone anchor clips and ‘stressless’
washers (the last being needed to transfer building
loads to the individual anchor itself rather than
the more fragile decorative exterior stone).
Ipswich
Bay Glass, Massachusetts -----We
are processing as this is posted ‘red steel’
curtainwall parts for a New England college’s
new residence hall. This expedited job requires fabrication
of many “outriggers” and “corner
outriggers”, all to be furnished with clips,
angles & assemblies (see our new dedicated web-page
on “Assemblies” coming soon).
Happy
New Year!
And have a great 2008, working alongside us,
here at Metfab
Metals!
“We work
on YOUR time.”
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