2011 has been a good year at Induron. Yes, it’s been a good year in sales, but it’s also been good in a way less easily quantified – culture.

Throughout our organization I can point to specific business changes that have affected our culture in a positive way. I feel the good year in sales is directly correlated to the great culture throughout our organization. 

Here are just three stories from the last year that highlight significant improvements we made within a department that have spilled over through the company: 

Accounting: Last December we purchased a new computer software program. For the last 12 months we have been installing it and training the whole company in it’s use. Anybody who’s ever gone through a software change understands that it’s a much bigger undertaking than is advertised.

Our controller, Brenda Robbins, quarterbacked this effort and did a super job. The result of her efforts? Every department has become more streamlined and efficient.

Production: In September 2010  we brought in Mike Nelms to run our production department. Production is Induron’s biggest department in terms of number of employees. I like to describe Mike as a proverbial player’s coach. He’s clear with his expectations while being stern and fair. And what is best about his firm and friendly management style is that it has undoubtedly improved the morale of not only Production, but of our whole plant.

Customer Service: On to the customer service department. Last winter we had the opportunity to bring on board an old Indurall paint employee, Barry Peters, who had previously worked for us for over a decade. (Indurall was our company name prior to 1995.)

Barry has helped instill in our customer service department what I like to call the paint store mentality. He’s a very good multitasker and when a customer walks in the back door, or gets him on the phone, they immediately feel like they’re talking to an old friend. And let’s face it, we are only as good as our customers perceive us.

These are just three examples from the past year. But truth be told, everybody, from office support staff to customer service to production, is pulling his (or her) weight and working toward the greater good of the company.

The culture of our organization is good because the individuals who make up this company are good. And that’s a fact that I’m proud of.

What we’ve learned in 60 plus years of trying at Induron is that the influencers in our business, the water business, are civil engineers. The one’s that trust us and with whom we have a genuine friendship with are the one’s that we do the most business with. That’s how we’ll continue to do business in the future as well; business based on long term relationships.

I don’t like playing sales games, such as mirroring, and I sure don’t want to ask our sales team to do anything like that. Mirroring is when you go in to meet someone and you cross your arms because theirs are crossed, you make eye contact only because they do or you lean up on the table as they do. I consider that more in the field of manipulation than relationship building. Another game people play is looking for signs that tell them about the person they are meeting with when they first go into their office. I have a piece of artwork in my office of hand-tied flies. Now, I am not a fly fisherman, I just like the piece, so when people come in and automatically start talking about it, I’m not very impressed or interested. You have to take the time to really find out what people are truly interested in.

It’s not usually too difficult to find out these kinds of things about people when you are genuinely engaged with them, because everyone likes to talk about themselves, their hobbies and their interests. As you each exchange this personal information and connect to each other on various levels, a real relationship will be formed. What I personally need to work on is talking less and listening more!

At Induron, We try to make friends first and then make the sale. I want my guys to be genuine and have integrity. Of course we want to make the sale and get the commission today, but we also want to make the sale in five years and in 15 years.

Some projects move right along and stay on course from the beginning, with little or no challenges or complexities. But what’s the fun in that? One of our recent projects proved to be an opportunity for forward thinking and innovation in the midst of complexities.

When I.K. Stoltzfus was hired to repaint a wash water tank and a 2 million-gallon clearwell for Aqua Pennsylvania at their Pickering treatment facility, they contacted Induron for the tools for the job. The Pickering Water Treatment Plant services approximately 1 million customers in Southeast Pennsylvania and produces more than 55 million gallons of treated water daily.  It is a critical component to the area served by Aqua, PA.  For this reason, the project was scheduled to be done between October 1, 2010, and June 15, 2011, when demand for water would be at its lowest.

The First Challenge: Structural Damage

We painted the 300,000-gallon elevated wash water tank first without any problems. However, when we moved on to the 2-million-gallon clearwell, a steel ground water storage tank that is ¾ below grade, we discovered extensive structural damage. What to do? Paint the whole thing! This required that we excavate around the exterior shell and repaint the entire exterior, which in turn changed the products we planned to use. We turned to Induron’s Permaclean 100 – the only product of its kind – as the exterior primer on the shell, both above and below grade, because:

• It could be applied in cold weather (35°F)
• It could be applied at very high dry film thicknesses (25 mils minimum)
• It could be applied at that film thickness in a single coat
• Because of its innovative ceramic bead content, Permaclean 100 also has outstanding abrasion resistance and  would successfully withstand the backfilling operation
• It has zero VOCs and HAPs content and has NSF approval up to 50 mils DFT
• It was already being used as the finish coat on the interior of the tank
• It would also accept the epoxy and urethane finish coats on the above grade portion of the shell

The Second Challenge: Old Man Winter

We excavated the area around the exterior in 80-foot increments, which was critical, because pipes had to be supported during the excavation process.  The winter months had now arrived and these exterior areas also needed to be sheltered and heated.  The solution? I.K. Stoltzfus constructed an insulated moveable containment structure, and, despite the inclement weather, excavation around the tank was completed. We successfully applied the Permaclean 100, even in the cold weather and even while repairs were being done.

The cold temperatures and four ice and snow storms in Philadelphia were making it difficult to complete structural repairs inside the tank so that it could be painted. The solution there? We repainted the roof of the tank to a dark brown, allowing it to capture as much of the sun’s heat as possible to create a workable interior temperature.

Despite the challenges of this project, with a little ingenuity, we were able to complete it on time to get the tank back into service. At Induron, we love working with other organizations, and we love a challenge!

See the project photos firsthand on Facebook!

Do you have a challenging project that could use our expertise? Find your local rep here and give us a call!

If you happen to own a painting by one of the Modern Masters Cezanne, Van Gogh or Monet, and are looking for some interior flat latex house paint for your own personal art gallery, here’s your lead – check out Durability + Design’s article about a new paint collaboration between the Guggenheim museum and Fine Paints of Europe. These colors will also work if you happen to live inside a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It’s fun to dream isn’t it?

I’ve said it here before and have discussed it at length with co-workers, clients and friends in the business – the Specification is the single-most important component of a quality coating or lining project. I know that might sound strange coming from a paint manufacturer, but the truth is when the jobs’ parameters – including workmanship, quality of materials and time standards – are clearly laid out at the beginning of a project, the chance for success is immeasurably better. 

With this in mind, I wanted to share an editorial by Bill Shoup, Executive Director of the Steel Structures Painting Council (SSPC) in the September 2011 edition of the Journal of Protective Coatings and Linings. The real nugget of quality in this article is where Mr. Shoup describes the potential for conflict when some contractors read a loosely written spec “with a fine tooth comb,” looking for errors or ambiguities that they can manipulate or take advantage of. Oftentimes, these loopholes are known to the contractor but not the owner, and are brought up at the most inconvenient times. This leaves the owner and/or engineer with little or no option other than to pay for a costly “change order.” Another bad scenario in this situation is the result of an incorrectly coated surface, which leads to a premature failure. No one knows that the job is a failure until everyone has been paid, the job is complete and the low-bid contractor has left the jobsite.

My favorite part of Mr. Shoup’s editorial is that it not only points out a real problem in the coatings industry (and other specification-driven fields), but provides a solution to the problem of loose or poorly written specifications. The SSPC has recently provided a new publication entitled “Preparing and Using Protective Coatings Specifications.” In addition to discussing all coatings and linings projects with your local Induron representative, I strongly recommend reading this helpful SSPC publication.

“Zero Defects!” So proclaimed a huge sign over the entrance to Lockheed- Martin’s production facility in Marietta, Ga. It was 1966, and I was a newly minted junior engineer doing structural analysis on the forward bulkhead of the C-5A Galaxy. It seemed pretty obvious that defects in manufacturing an aircraft capable of lifting 800,000 pounds into the air were not well tolerated. 

In addition to being a structural analyst (with plenty of supervision), I was a student in the MBA program at Georgia State College (now GeorgiaStateUniversity), studying, among other things, the concepts of managing people doing things that require training, skill and dedication. The buzzword then was Zero Defects.

I have since come to realize that the goal of “zero” will always be a catchphrase. Nobody and no organization is perfect. I’ll admit, defects in aircraft might be a bit more important than in paint, but we certainly don’t let that inhibit our efforts to reduce them.

Here at Induron, as at other responsible manufacturing facilities everywhere, we try hard to do things consistently and measure that consistency so that our customers can rely on our products. That includes running quality control checks for numerous properties, such as viscosity, solids, flow, etc., on every batch of paint we make. Every batch meets these required properties before it is released to canning. All that data is recorded, graphed and analyzed to keep us “in control,” so our customers don’t have to wonder about the quality of the paint they’re getting.

One measure we report internally is “Cycle Count.” It summarizes all the “defects and corrections” in one number. Cycle count is a direct measure of how well we perform at “doing it right the first time, every time.”

To calculate Cycle Count, you must divide the number of batches requiring corrections by the number of batches made, and subtract one from that number. If every batch requires an adjustment, the cycle count would be 1.0. If every batch required 2 adjustments, the cycle count would be 2, and so on. If we and our suppliers were perfect (Zero Defects), cycle count would be 0 (which never happens, because no one is perfect).

Induron’s cycle count is:

• 0.22 for June 2011
• 0.19 for 2011 to date
• 0.18 for all of 2010
• 0.25 for all of 2009
• 0.18 for all of 2008
• 0.23 for all of 2007

I think we are pretty good based on these numbers. Our goal is to constantly strive to get that number lower – a much more realistic goal than the Zero Defects. I often wonder how that compares with other paint makers?

That was the battle cry Bill Clinton used two decades ago to get the keys to the White House. It’s also a lot of what we’re hearing today, not only when we discuss politics, but, as we are all learning, also when we discuss just about everything else, from our careers to everyday household decisions.  I know there are a lot more store brands on my cupboard shelves than there were 4 or 5 years ago. My vacation plans tend to be a little closer to home as well.

What does this have to do with Industrial Coatings or the industries we serve? In short, just about everything. As described by Maripat Murphy in the American Water Works Association’s October Journal entitled “State of the Industry Report 2011: Economic Stagnation Dampens Industry Outlook,” we learn that those of us in the water business have a collective view of the future as gloomy. As an eternal optimist, I was encouraged that we don’t expect the future to be stormy in the form of a dreaded “double-dip” recession. However, I know our company has made some hard decisions over the course of the last three years, and it appears like more “riding-it-out” is in store. In a similar fashion to Ms. Murphy, I choose to end this editorial on a high note, “If AWWA and its members work together to turn the industry’s challenges into opportunities, the industry should be able to weather the vagaries of these uncertain times and emerge stronger when the skies clear.”

The ancient city of Herculaneum

Were the ancient Romans the spiritual inspiration behind the modern-day environmental engineer?

I can’t say for certain, but you do read some interesting facts about all of those ancient aqueducts and their vital role in the development of civilization. A potentially equally important Roman development that dealt with water transportation was the sewer system. 

A recent article from Municipal Sewer & Water entitled “Learning from the Ancients” describes a sewer system for the ancient Italian cityHerculaneum, which was buried underneath 60 feet of debris in 76 AD by the eruption ofMt.Vesuvius. This Blog’s title plays on the city name, but is also intended as a compliment to the huge effort of the archeologists responsible for preserving and studyingHerculaneum’s sewer system.

Technological advances, including “closed” systems to reduce odor, rounded corners to improve flow rate and use of septic tanks for collection of material that was subsequently used as fertilizer were all Roman innovations. While reading this article about a 2,000-year-old sewer system that was still mostly intact, I thought, “What if they lined it with Induron’s industry-leading Protecto 401?” Not only might the system be in better physical shape, it might still be in working order!

On a more serious note, it could be argued that necessity breeds innovation, sinceHerculaneumwas home to approximately 4,000 residents living in close proximity. However, I believe that the Romans were just plain good at working with water and were the inspiration behind modern environmental engineering!

Read more about how one of the most prominent buildings shaping the New York City skyline achieved LEED Gold for Existing Building Certification in Durability + Design.

It’s September, and the baseball pennant races are in full swing. The action for the playoffs is hot. Guess what else is hot – Induron’s Perma-Gloss Fluorourethane!

Perma-Gloss knocks it out of the park when compared to the minimum requirements of AWWA D-102-06 for a finish coat on Outside Coating System No. 4. OCS-4 minimum requirements (not sure if you can really call it minimum as it is one of the toughest requirements out there) is 95% gloss retention after a minimum of 1252 MJ/m sq exposed per the EMMAQUA test procedure.

What is EMMAQUA? Think exposure in the hotArizonadesert with specialized mirrors directing the light on the test panels for a long time. Intense. Kind of reminds me of a childhood backyard science project that involved a magnifying glass and bugs… but that’s a different story.

Induron’s Perma-Gloss almost accomplished the near-impossible with an average score of 98.67% gloss retention with no panels below 98% gloss retention. Don’t you wish your favorite MLB team could maintain a winning percentage of .9867 for an entire year? If they could, you would have an exciting October. Don’t wait until the World Series to pick a winner – specify Induron’s Perma-Gloss for your projects that need long-term exterior durability and you’ll have a winner for years to come.