For today’s larger projects and accelerated timelines, having the right tools within easy reach makes better use of skilled manpower, said Eric Walker, installation and planning manager for Alterman Inc., San Antonio.

Alterman discovers tool efficiencies

Alterman participated in a 2023 study conducted by Milwaukee Tool, Brookfield, Wis., which determined that for each tool an electrician must hunt and find, it takes, on average, 30% more time to complete the task.

“The study reinforced the trends we were already seeing,” Walker said. “We used this study as confirmation to enlighten our foremen and project managers.”

Beyond electrical construction and preconstruction management services, Alterman designs and installs voice and data communications systems, video cabling, access controls, security and surveillance systems for customers in the San Antonio and Austin metropolitan areas. The company also provides preventive maintenance and 24-hour emergency service.

Walker oversees Alterman’s Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) Group, which uses building information modeling (BIM) and computer-aided design (CAD) to simulate construction processes, track progress and identify areas for improvement. He works with project designers and BIM operators to plan and schedule projects in distinct phases.

A tool kit with changeable racks used by Alterman for inside work	A tool pack and generator used by Alterman for underground work

Alterman’s three-man tool department employs tool-kitting strategies for dispatching appropriate ones to each project, construction phase and work crew.

“We’re not the first to do kitting, but we’ve learned it’s important to have a team that can figure out all of the tools needed for every job and figure out the workflow,” Walker said. “We operate like an IKEA, where the tool comes with the materials. But our tools are a lot more expensive. We can’t just throw away conduit benders, vices and cable crimpers.”

As with anything, getting the right tool to the right place at the right time involves planning. “That starts at the very beginning with the project designer, who knows the phases of each project and when certain tools are needed at the job site,” Walker said. “It really shouldn’t be for a foreman alone to decide.”

For years, however, foremen were the ones to decide. “The process was all field-driven,” Walker said.

Now, the movement of tools and equipment is predetermined. The project designer and the Alterman project management team decide what tools are needed for each phase of construction.

For developing this new system of tool deployment, foremen were consulted. The group included Walker, who served from 2012–2020 as a general foreman for Alterman, overseeing large projects such as office buildings, hotels and data centers. Walker assumed his current role as installation manager in 2020.

Now, prepacked tool kits are provided to foremen, who can tweak contents by requesting additional items and sending back ones not needed. A huge benefit is that foremen no longer have to start from scratch, Walker said.

After tools arrive, materials soon follow. Foremen and their charges follow logistical plans for each phase of construction, and their work follows standard operating procedures.

   

Project workflows

“The mindset of planning and management has shifted,” Walker said, “Electricians can focus on the installation and foremen can focus on managing people and solving problems. It really changes from working on a construction project to implementing a production system.”

Walker described the flow of work as “more like a production line,” with designers configuring the assembly process and installer electricians performing assembly work.

“Foremen are overseeing quality checks as projects proceed,” Walker said. “Before, we had it backward, with the foreman coming up with the assembly process at the job site.”

The “before” times for Alterman were not so long ago.

In 2018, Alterman secured the services of construction productivity consultants D. Brown Management, Lodi, Calif., and Maxim Consulting Group, Englewood, Colo., to help the company evaluate existing procedures, identify company personnel to tackle logistics challenges and develop new processes.

“It was up to us to come up with a plan and to make the changes,” Walker said. “We started working with designers and BIM techs to set up a system of information flow, and at the other end began working with logistics for an on-time delivery system for tools.”

More than anything, Walker said, the consultants helped Alterman leverage talent into areas of the business that bring best value. With project designers informing project flow, Alterman developed a more standardized system that determines materials needed per phase, then dispatches the tools, equipment and materials necessary.

A good portion of what Alterman installs includes components already preassembled at its facility in Live Oak, Texas. This cuts time, curbs waste generation at job sites and reduces quantities of tools needed.

   

“If you look at the way job schedules are accelerated these days, you can’t build data centers old-school, stick-built,” Walker said. “You have to think of ways to offset the timelines. You have to have workforce multipliers that enable people to be more effective.”

And you certainly don’t want to waste time looking for tools.

Kitting tools for each construction phase and work crew yields impressive time gains, especially for larger projects employing 200–300 workers, Walker said. Even so, Alterman does not send more than a week’s worth of material kits for each crew of 6–10 men, whether for outside or inside work.

For underground work, Alterman has created small trailers outfitted with generators and chest-style gang boxes filled with tools and lined with hollow tubes for carrying rakes and shovels. These work best for new construction sites in open fields.

Soon after the trailers arrive on the job site, stub-ups and duct banks arrive on flatbeds. They’re already set in prewelded metal frames ready to be placed in the ground and covered in concrete.

“We used to use nuts and washers to assemble the frames,” Walker said. “Welding these ahead of time takes longer up front, but saves a lot in expensive materials, saves a lot of time on site and brings down overall cost.”

For handling inside wire work tools, Alterman modified large metal clamshell-style gang boxes that open in half and roll on wheels. These are stocked with cordless drills, impact drills, battery­-powered lights, cordless reciprocating saws, band saws, socket sets, fish tape, hole punches and conduit benders.

“Certain tools we pull in and out of the kits depending on the job, but otherwise, the contents are pretty standard,” Walker said.

Improvements in battery technology also help save time. “Batteries last longer, and the weight has gone down,” Walker said. “We try to do cordless on just about everything.” That goes for bandsaws, drills and even rotary hammer drills.

The tool department occupies 9,000 square feet of the company’s 80,000-square-foot manufacturing facility. Tool staff closely monitor inventory, using Milwaukee Tool’s One-Key system.

“It doesn’t eliminate theft, but if something gets set aside, we know where it is,” Walker said. “For us, tool loss is usually not big heists. It’s more onesies and twosies of tools that walk off.”

One-Key eliminates the need to manually import information for tracking tools. The communication platform also enables tool managers to easily access receipts and warranties online to speed repair or replacement.

Tool inventory lists go out with every cart or kit. And much like library materials, Alterman’s tools are marked with barcodes and scanned when items are checked in and out. Tool staff inspect them for damage after use.

Alterman has welders on staff to construct custom metal tool carts. The company soon discovered that Milwaukee Tool’s Packout racking storage system offers more versatility than permanent cubby holes. The racks are now standard in Alterman’s metal clamshell gang boxes and can be easily modified for different tool groupings.

“It’s incremental changes like these that add up to the whole sum,” Walker said. “If you do these things you are more likely to be successful. Having consistency from project to project, so foremen and crews know what to expect, is also important.”

Inventing tools

Like Alterman, Aldridge Electric Inc., Libertyville, Ill., relies on tool kitting for each project phase and has developed solid logistics for dispatching and retrieving tools, as well as for monitoring inventories. The company, which handles utility, transportation, electrical infrastructure and complex industry projects throughout North America, also has invented several innovative tools for speeding installations.

Staff outfitted a rolling toolbox to suspend a camera and measuring device beneath train platforms for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, Washington, D.C.’s trijurisdictional public transit agency.

The gadget enabled journeymen to survey 4-foot increments between power sources for the installation of replacement safety lights over a 600-foot expanse.

Aldridge also constructed rail carts outfitted with jibs and hand cranks, designed to lift and temporarily suspend lighting assemblies during the installation process.

“This kept the journeymen away from the dangerous electrified rail and minimized the interruption for commuters,” said Jeff Buckley, prefab/virtual design and construction program manager for Aldridge. “We had a 44-hour shutdown period to demo, install, test and terminate. Then we handed the project over to the owner to operate.”

Aldridge ended up using the inventions for another commuter light-rail project in the Washington, D.C., region.

In California, for installing a new lighting system in the McClure Tunnel that connects Pacific Coast Highway 1 to the Santa Monica Freeway, Aldridge designed a special installation arm for a mini excavator. The arm suspended preassembled 300-lb. sections of conduit, junction boxes and light fixtures, dramatically reducing time otherwise needed to install components separately by hand.

Only a couple of the preassembled sections required minor adjustments, thanks to precise LIDAR scans performed earlier. The process proved safer and reduced expressway closure time from weeks to a single weekend.

More recently, Aldridge employees invented a low-tech sled for weaving conduit through large expanses of rebar prior to concrete pours.

“It takes a special mind to consider these logistics and come up with these solutions,” Buckley said. 

Alterman Inc. // stock.adobe.com / Igor // Susan DeGrane