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■ Is the project free from any asbestos, the region. By the following year, the
PCBs or lead-paint related work?
■ Have a project manager and labor
supervisor been identified who are capa-
ble of overseeing the project?
If a project does not meet these mini-
mum requirements, the project is not pur-
sued. Project qualification is the first step
utilized to ensure the project will have a
successful outcome.
In addition, being part of a larger cor-
poration has its benefits. These include,
“the ability to leverage resources outside
of the Southwest, share best practices and
develop our supervision management by
exposing them to different geographies,
industries and management styles,”
Gonzalez says.
Leaner Operations
Driven largely by semiconductor and
general industries, Kinetic’s has ex-
perienced significant highs and lows.
From 2000 to 2001, revenues shot from
$120 million to $210 million. The spike
in the business was driven by several
semiconductor, greenfield and retrofit
projects occurring simultaneously within
in budget is our competitive edge.”
industry became sluggish and Kinetics
experienced what Gonzalez describes as
a “hangover” as business dropped off.
As a result, it restructured the business
to survive rapidly changing market con-
ditions. “We’ve really pushed towards a
sustaining site model,” he says. “The labor
resource pool continues to shrink, which
drives us to be more efficient and inno-
vative in order to continue to deliver pro-
jects safely, on time and within budget.”
Reducing operating costs for the com-
pany as a whole required it to take a clos-
er look at the number and location of its
offices. “We’ve progressed from 14 loca-
tions in the United States and Latin Amer-
ica in 2000 to eight in 2004 and now four
in 2007,” Gonzalez says. “Consolidating
them has made us more cost-competitive.”
Stepping Away from the Pack
“When you look at the landscape as a
whole, construction is a very competitive
market, and you have to constantly look
at what sets you apart from the competi-
tion,” Gonzalez says.
“Building safely, on schedule and with-
Upon receiving a contract, Kinetics
ensures the project is kicked off by con-
ducting what Gonzalez refers to as an
estimate turnover meeting. “The purpose
of the estimate turnover meeting is to
communicate information gathered by
the sales and estimating teams during
the pre-award phase to the project man-
ager and lead supervisor, and to transfer
ownership of the project from sales and
estimating to the project team,” he says.
After additional meetings to kick off
the project, team members are briefed on
customer expectations, scope of work, cost
and schedule estimates and a clear defi-
nition of each person’s role.
For Phoenix-based Optima
Development, the division supplied and
installed the HVAC system for a 700-unit
condo and mixed-use development in
Scottsdale, Ariz. “It was an unusual,
architecturally challenging project with-
out a lot of repetition on the floor plans
that required a great deal of coordina-
tion, but they have been instrumental in
completing it,” says T.J. Lenick, senior
vice president with Optima.
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