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Dylan Yore - Executive Interview.

A few weeks ago I spent the day shadowing Jon Hautau. I had a great time attending a couple of meetings and then finishing up with a one on one interview with him. It was very insightful being able to sit in on meetings that involve Jon. I got to witness some very interesting behind the scenes work. 

I really enjoyed the interview I conducted with Mr. Hautau. We talked about a lot of topics that I feel opened up my eyes towards bettering myself as a student and a worker.

Jon and I spoke about a variety of topics that were very informational. I felt that our conversation would be good for anybody going through internships or looking for full time employment to hear. 

We started off talking about him and his past. As we progressed I focused on Jon's position in management. We discussed leadership pretty heavily. 

Jon commented, "As a leader you have to make yourself approachable. Go out of your way to make sure you are engaging with people so they feel comfortable."

The PDPM programs have a weekly meeting with Jon on Wednesdays to keep up with safety incidents, talk about awards, new employees and so on. This is an example of how Jon makes himself available and gives others the chance to have a voice. It has been a pleasure soaking in knowledge from Jon because he has always been available for my questions and is always willing to give his insight on a topic. 

I asked Jon if he had any advice for someone going into a leadership position and he responded, "Check your management skills to see if you need some classes. Some people are born leaders or managers while some may need a tune up. But advice for someone coming into that position for the first time would be to get to know your people. You have to know they have your back."

Having passion for your work is very important. Having a passion for the work that you do comes first hand when you enjoy and truly love what you do. Having passion for you work is much easier when you enjoy who you work with. It is refreshing to know that Ideal Contracting's upper management cares as much as it does about its people.

Hautau brought up a great point when he expressed, "People are the biggest thing, we have to make sure there is good culture and that the people working here are happy."

When happiness is in the air, passion makes its way through as well. Jon and I discussed key traits a manager would look for when interviewing a possible employee. Passion was up there heading the list. Jon Pointed out that people with passion care about what they do and are usually very easy to work with.

It has been an Amazing experience working at the Warren Tech Center with Ideal Contracting this summer. This internship has shaped me into a more well rounded student, worker, and most importantly a better person. I worked with the most amazing group of people. I came into work everyday knowing that I was surrounded by hard working people who cared about me. Ideal
Contracting has given me an awesome experience and I cannot thank everyone enough!

THANK YOU FOR SUCH AN AMAZING SUMMER! 

Dylan Yore - WTC final week. 

 Last week was very eventful for everybody. I spent majority of my week making sure I was ready for my presentation. I spent a lot of time rehearsing in front of people and buttoning up my power point. At the same time, the nerves set in as I sit back and realize we're all back to school in a matter of no time. I hope everybody had an awesome experience and enjoyed it as much as I did. We had an great intern group and I enjoyed spending time with all of the interns and mentors. I appreciate everything Jon, Alex, and Yesi did for us this summer; You guys really knocked it out of the park! I'd also like to show some gratitude to my Mentor Gus. Gus did everything he could to make sure I had the best experience I could and was exposed to as much as possible. He opened up my eyes and expanded my mindset on this great industry. It only made me fall more in love with the work we do here at Ideal Contracting. Gus "is good people." I quote him and some of the people here at WTC when I say that because I've adopted that saying over the past few months. Thank you everyone for this summer, it was an awesome experience that I will cherish forever!

Steven Sinn: Week 11, Meet Bill Kingsinger

This is Bill Kingsinger, Bill is one of the four general foreman

that ideal has on site; Bill is in charge of the steel erection on building AB and C. When I first met Bill, building AB was in the beginning stages of erection. Bill has been my right hand man in my time at the event center. If I ever needed anything or needed help with something he found a way to make time and help out. Bill is one of the more experienced Iron Workers on site and I am grateful to be able to learn and work with him. Now Bill is working on building AB detailing and building C. Bill finds a way to be productive and makes the Iron Worker’s work hard on a daily basis. I’d like to thank Bill and the rest of the Iron Worker’s for making my first internship an awesome experience that I will never forget. Here is a picture of Eric Faust and Bill Kingsinger. Eric is one of raising gang iron workers; he has also been a pleasure to work with and has always helped me out.

Chris Kuenzer: DEEC Site Visit

We were fortunate enough to get a tour of the DEEC on Friday, and it has changed quite a bit since I was there in May. The parking garages were just a giant hole in the ground last time I was there, and now there is a beautiful pre-cast structure that looks like it’s practically ready for hockey season. They have also made a lot of progress on buildings AB and C, and it was wonderful to see the actual arena again, with more of the steel put up. After the tour, we went back to building C and had lunch, and then learned a little bit about finishing cement. Gus showed us how to use the finishing tools, and we decorated our pavers with marbles and bolts. As always, I had a great time, and I am looking forward to seeing everyone again at the Tiger’s game and the Supplier of the Year celebration!

Week 13 Tony Saucedo

Two major events took place this past week. For one, I was able to finish my intern presentation on the various generational gaps within the workforce today. Second, I had the privilege of visiting the new future home of my favorite hockey team, the Detroit Red Wings.

I thank the entire Ideal Contracting DEEC team for their hospitality. The arena must be completed for the 2017-2018 hockey season, so every man hour counts. Many workers had to return to work during the weekend, just so we could be able to visit on Friday; so far that, I am grateful.

The summer is now coming to a close, but I sincerely look forward to presentations this Thursday in the training room. I invite everybody to attend (if you have time).

Dylan Yore WTC. This is for the last two weeks,,

Last week I spent a day with Paulina shadowing her in the morning and experiencing what a hard dollar project is like. It was very cool to see that side of the construction spectrum. Then that afternoon I took her all around the places of our campus that she had not experienced and showed her all of the jobs I have been on this summer.

I also spent a day with Steve Sinn2 out at the Red Wing's new stadium. That was an amazing experience and truly eye opening. It was crazy to see all of these trades working together all at once. We enjoyed lunch downtown and then came back to watch the 426 ton crane make a couple of picks. I look forward to tracking the building of the stadium because one day when I go to see a Wings game, reminiscing on the construction will be a great feeling.

I also took care of my executive shadow and interview with Mr. Hautau. I had an awesome day standing in Jon's shoes. we sat in a couple meeting which sounds boring, but again was so eye opening and very inspirational. To go from being in the field day to day to experiencing all of the behind the scenes leg work Jon and the upper management do to support our day to day functions was inspirational. I am currently in the process of doing my write up on the interview between Jon and I. We had a great conversation and discussed a lot of informational topics. I have a fantastic day Jon!.

This week I have been practicing my presentation and helping Erin Wolf out with daily field reports that have to be entered into a computer program manually. The presentation is going great and I am feeling more and more comfortable presenting it in from of people. We have been working on this very important monument for a plane crash that occurred several years ago. Yesterday we poured the base of this monument with a rebar cage and sonotube which brought me back to last summer working for the electrical contractor I worked for. We did this a lot.

Presentation practice and Milford Visit

This week was full of learning experiences for me. Monday was the intern's practice for their presentations for next week. It was great to see everyone's project coming along and to learn about the different topics. This was a great experience for us because we were able to get constructive criticism on our project without feeling attacked. It was good to hear some compliments on my topic, presentation and speaking abilities. Like everyone, I do get nervous before a speech like that, but I am usually able to keep on track, stay focused and complete the speech with little "ums" or "uhs". With some suggestions from the fellow interns and others present, I made some changes that will make the presentation better. I still have some practice to do so the speech comes more natural and I know when and what to say for each slide.
On Wednesday I visited Riley and Chris out in Milford. It is very interesting to see the level of security that GM has in order to keep their future cars secret. Upon entry to the special Contractors Gate, I had to cover up the cameras on my phone and laptop. This was also the only gate that I was allowed to enter/exit because I did not have a badge. I had to park outside the gate and Riley had to pick me up. Another thing that GM does to keep their cars secret is they have black and white swirls painted on the cars for camouflage to make it harder to identify the style lines and curves of the cars that are still a few years out. I have seen these out driving around before, but I did not know what they purpose was until Riley pointed it out to me.
After getting the safety orientation for the Milford Proving Grounds, Riley took me around to a few different jobs Ideal had around campus. We went out to lunch with Chris at a Bar-B-Q joint in downtown Milford, and after that Riley and I accompanied Chris to is weekly safety/progress meeting on a large renovation project that he was working on. It was cool to see a larger project that you don't typically get to see while working PDPM. Before the meeting Chris took the two of us around the project and showed us some difficulties that they had faced.

This is a sample of the paint covering concept cars.

Don't worry though! this is a close up from a picture I found in the internet.

http://gizmodo.com/how-automakers-use-a-wwi-era-camo-technique-to-disguise-1647618861

Meet Jon Anglin: Paulina Torres

 Jon Anglin: Safety Director

            Jon Anglin is the Safety Director at Ideal Contracting. He has been with Ideal for 10 years now, since 2006. Jon started off working with environmental, followed by demolition, and worked his way through the construction industry. Jon joined the construction industry because he witnessed many accidents while working in environmental and demolition that it became a passion for him to look after the safety of people. The safety department gives Jon the opportunity to help people, learn from accidents, and advocate safety.

Some of the responsibilities that Jon has as Safety Director are site inspections, site auditing, train people for safety positions, oversee the safety of all field personnel, communicate incidents and among others. The most challenging part of Jon’s position is people. He explains that there are different learners, and he sometimes encounters stubborn people. There are different types of injuries that can be reported. Those injuries include near misses, property damage, First Aid, or recordable. The most common injury that occurs out on a job site is bruising or pulling a muscle: soft tissue injuries. People who do not warm up properly are more likely to pull a muscle or a tendon. Jon strongly emphasizes that for this reason, Ideal Contracting has the Stretch & Flex Program that is performed on every job site first thing in the morning.

Aside from working with Contracting, Jon also works with Shield and Setech. Jon explains that he sees a couple of differences working within the different companies at Ideal. Contracting has a full safety program. Contracting is mainly in their costumer’s site and not the other way around. For this reason, safety requires much higher communication and he explains Contracting as having the most eyes watching over them. On the other side, Shield is Ideal’s own facility. Ideal Shield makes parking blocks, bollard covers, and steel fabrication. They still have a good safety program, but the work environment is much different than Contracting’s. Jon explains that their safety program is more internal. If someone were to get injured, it is not likely for them to let everyone of their customers know about the injury. Whereas with Ideal Contracting, if someone were to get injured at the Warren Tech Center, Contracting would have to notify the customer and everyone else affiliated.

Jon is involved with the winter and summer Incentive Program. This program is a great way for families to demonstrate their safe practices at home, and teach people about them. Family involvement is what Jon likes the most about the Incentive Program. On his free time, Jon enjoys to spend time in the water: swimming, jet-skiing, tubing, work on his home, cook and he likes to drive.

Steven Sinn: Week 10 DEC Building C Progress

Week 10 was a very busy and exciting week. This week was a big week with the beginning of steel being set on building C. We also had a pretty big lift for us, we had hoisted a  23,000lb  steel beam that connects building C to the main arena. This had drawn a pretty big crowd since it was considered a critical lift for our crane on site. Building AB is beginning the detailing process with connecting the rest of the stairs. All things beside, on Thursday was the biggest of the week with the top out party for the main arena roof. This is a pretty big milestone not just for Midwest steel but for all of the contractors on site. Plus the shirt and food trucks were pretty cool. But as an intern we are closing in on our final weeks of our internship, it is crazy how fast it has gone by. Here are some of the pictures I had taken through the week.

This is a picture of us setting some steel on building C.

 Here is a picture of a couple of connectors walking at the highest point of Building C

 Here is a picture from our 23,000lb lift.

 Here is Just a overall progress picture of building C.

Chris Kuenzer: More Progress at Building 70

Last week was quite busy for me, as Alex was on vacation for a few days, so I had to take care of doing our meeting minutes, SOP cards, the daily report, and all of our normal duties by myself. I was also tasked with picking out appliances that meet GM’s specifications and getting product data on them for a submittal. We sent in the submittal on Wednesday, and everything was approved. Now we have to coordinate with our subs to get all of the proper plumbing and electrical in place so that all of the appliances can be installed.

The schedule at building 70 is moving along as planned, and we are finished with framing walls, and are almost finished with drywall. Our carpenters have started to frame the ceilings, and Ensroth is making more and more progress with the ductwork and fire dampers. We have painters on site, and they have a coat of primer on most of the walls on the East end of the building, and they have started to repaint one of the stairwells. We also had some guys from Gardiner Voss on site for a few days to install the support steel for the operable partition in one of the conference rooms. In addition to all of this, VAV boxes are getting piped and wired, and we have three drywall finishers working hard to get our walls ready for paint. It is very interesting to watch them work, as they have a few specialized tools that enable them to work extremely fast.

Week 12 in Pontiac

This was a pretty busy week in Pontiac for me. The team and I got several quotes in and took a look at a few different jobs that needed to be walked to get the scope of work. One project was walked today which includes the replacement of about 2 dozen VFD (Variable Frequency Drive) motor controllers on Air handling Units in the Penthouses of Building C. VFD's supply motors with a range of electricity voltage to change the frequency of the motor, to make it run slower or faster, depending on the need. This is going to take a lot of coordination with the subs and the owner to complete the work at specific times when the different units can be shut down. We had to go to each different AHU (14 in all)  in 4 different Penthouses, to take a look at the specific work that needed to be done at each one. All but one was to have the supply and return motors upgraded as they are all outdated.

One ongoing job we had this week was a paving job between building A to the right and building B to the left. A few weeks ago, there was a fire main brake that cracked and sunk some asphalt past those yellow bollards in the background. The rest of the area needed to be done, so that area, plus extra paving and some concrete stairs got done. This picture was taken after the first layer on the right have was done with T&M workeers rolling it. The left have will be done next, as well as the second layer on top of that. This all needed to be done on a tight schedule as there is a company picnic planed on campus soon and this parking lot needed to get done.

Another project that Ideal had was to install these heavy duty shelving units in Building E. There are several sets of shelves being put up and each one is about 40 feet long. This took a lot of coordination with the owner including placement and timing. One problem that we ran into before starting was the bolts needed to erect them were not to be found. The owner had to scramble and locate the hardware which just happened to be misplaced, but the project was delayed a little bit none the less.

Tony's 12th Week

The first week of August was a colossal success. The month of July has come to a close, which means Virg and I had to collect all Home Depot purchase receipts made by employees with assigned Home Depot company credit cards. All receipts were turned in on time, except for 35 of them. This is understandable, however, because the men and women out on the job site are extraordinarily busy.  Virg and I made some phone calls to hunt down these people. By this morning, all receipts for July purchases will be submitted.

"More Saving. More Doing."

In addition to the Home Depot receipts, Dave delegated the small tool and equipment report to me, and this time the large consumables report to Roberto. Last month, I did consumables, and it was fantastically tedious. The small tool and equipment did not take as long to complete, and it is categorized which makes it easier to enter into the SAP system. This week was definitely one of the more bustling weeks at Ideal, and I look forward to next week.

Last Week's Staff Meeting w/ Crew

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Riley Norman MPG

The last couple weeks have been pretty eventful.   Steven Sinn and Dylan Yore both came and took a visit to the Proving Grounds.  Dylan along with Chris, Mike, and I got to help carry drywall onto a job.  Steven came out and helped me open up some jobs.  Everyone was able to walk a couple sites and receive a tour of campus.  All in all it was a good experience.  I’ll be heading over to Warren Tech tomorrow to meet up with Dylan and Gus for my internship site visit.  Looking forward to seeing everyone next week to go over the presentations!

Interning with Ideal!

This past week at ideal has been another enjoyable week. Last Friday was the Ideal garden volunteer day with Magna International, I thought this was a fun way to give back to the local community and a good bonding experience with fellow interns as well as employees from Magna International. Last Tuesday I was given the opportunity to ride to the top of an 86' manlift to look around and take a few pictures which was an cool point of view of the entire project here.

Week 11 for Saucedo, Tony

Two events really highlighted my week this time around.  For one, I am just about finished with my intern presentation topic. It is going to be a hit: fun, interactive, and educational. My hope is that it sparks a conversation among all employees, especially even some of the execs. I really look forward to the presentation of others as well.

The second highlight was being able to see everybody at the quarterly staff meeting yesterday. I saw some new but mostly familiar faces. It is crazy how much the company has grown, both in revenues and employment, since the time I started back in June of 2014. Since my first day, more people have been hired, some people have left but have gotten replaced, the office has expanded, and so has our company outreached. It is an exciting time to be at Ideal.

I also had to do a couple of deliveries to and from Barton Malow. It is nice to get out of the office every now and then. As always, I look forward to next week's challenges. If you are interested in reading some of my other blogs, feel free to click on my blog link.

Throwback to 2014 SOY

Have a safe weekend everybody!

Steven Sinn: Week 9 Nick Luxon, and Riley Norman

This week was an exciting week! I was able to see what a day in the life of a VP is like and another Intern. I first started off at Milford Proving Grounds on Wednesday with Riley There is quite a bit going on  out at Milford all the way from PDPM and Hard Dollar, and some pretty cool bridge renovations. After some work in the office with Riley was cut short due to server issues, Steve Webster,and Riley took me out on a tour of the site. We went to check out the bridge renovation where they are replacing the deck, then the tour continued where we had seen GM testing some cars with spin outs and dead stops of a wet surface. After the tour Riley, Drew Rodriguez, Nicole, and I went to lunch in the cafeteria. The cafeteria is a pretty cool place almost like a college cafeteria. Then to conclude my day I was able to sit in on the weekly PDPM meeting with the Milford group and see the progress of the other projects. Again I would like to thank Steve Webster and Riley Norman for letting me come and visit for a day.

Then the week continues on Thursday with another exciting shadow day with Nick Luxon our VP of Construction Operations. Nick has quite the schedule, with it being more than full on a daily basis. The day starts of with Nick letting me sit in on a couple forecast meetings. It was a great experience being able to sit down with Julie Pilarski, Nick, Mark McCrindle, and Travis and see the progress that Flint has made. Then we attended another forecast meeting but was cut short. Then Nick and I sat down and went over his slides for the presentation that he gave at the staff meeting. I would like to thank Nick for squeezing my shadow into a tight scheduled day.

Dylan Cook- Week 11.

For the most part this week has been pretty easy up in Pontiac. Like usual, I took care of the weekly updates and three week look aheads that I send out to GM about who should be on site and the various job sites and when. On Monday mornings I also try and update the meeting minutes from the week before to get them out of the way. I usually take a look at them again and update more information as the statuses of some jobs change. On Wednesday there was a walkthrough for a job that requires the disassembly and removal of an old parts carousel and the installation of a new one in the same spot. These carousels are big square machines that house several long, skinny shelves that rotate to hold different tools, electronic parts and a number of other things. We had a guy from Barton Malow there who does rigging work, who we use often to remove or install large items like this. One problem we will face is simply moving the items, as the size  of both the new one and the old one being removed are quite large. Since there is no need to reuse the old one, they are just going to cut it into pieces and take care of it that way. We believe that the new one will also be in at least two pieces, which will be good because that way we wont have to worry as much about getting it in there including removing and reinstalling the doorway.

Last Friday, the interns spent the day in Detroit volunteering at the Cadilac Gardens and Scarcyny Park near the Ideal offices. In the morning, Steven and I built a frame for a sign going up at another park, and we also built a new sandbox, both out of existing scrap material. There was an old sandbox that was deteriorating, and we were asked to build a new one. The box had a painted backdrop of a city skyline with Detroit painted across it showing the parks roots. We were able to save that and put it on the new one. After lunch, a few of us worked outside at the park and helped set some pavers that were being placed. This helped to Ideal laborer working alone before and he was able to set a lot more after we were helping.

One of the things I love about Ideal contracting is their involvement in the community, including sponsoring the park and garden as well as all that they do for Cristo Ray HS. This shows that this company is looking past just the money they make and really care about the community and bettering the city it so proudly resides in.

A Day with Steve Sinn: Paulina Torres

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to shadow Steve Sinn. Our day started off at the Detroit office where we met with AGI Construction: the GC for the Cafeteria Project at Detroit Cristo Rey. Later that morning, we headed off to Cristo Rey for their owner meeting. After the meeting, we headed over to the soon to be cafeteria and Steve walked me through all the construction that is being done. I really enjoyed attending this meeting because I find it incredible that Cristo Rey students will now have a cafeteria. The gymnasium used to be our cafeteria when I was at Cristo Rey. The school is going through some very big, positive changes, and I am very excited for all the student body. 

After the owner meeting, we headed off to lunch and went over to Toyota where I got to see everything that is going on there. A pond near the entrance was extended, so that it can accept more water shed that comes off the parking lots. I got to see the area where they will be adding a 110,000 square feet building. Finally, I learned that Ideal will be installing a new generator system that will be able to power the whole facility. The day concluded with checking out the new trailer on site, and helping Steve and Chelsea install their punch in machine. 

Shout out to Steve for allowing me to shadow him for a day, thank you! Below are some pictures of the soon to be cafeteria at Cristo Rey: 

Chris Kuenzer: Moving Drywall

Michael and I had a busy day yesterday. We started the day by using our tape measures to verify the dimensions of the walls for our as-built drawings. If we found a dimension that was different than what the architects called for, we would mark the correct measurement on the prints with a red pen. We found a few measurements that were different, but all of our important dimensions (widths of hallways, locations of doors) were spot on. The discrepancies we found were all pretty small, and they were all due to the fact that we are doing a renovation, so we have to work around the existing structure. An example of this is that several of the conference rooms on the south side of the building are smaller than expected, because it is more important to keep the hallways at the proper width.

We had a taco truck come on to the site for lunch, and we got to talk to Riley and Dylan Yore for a while after we had finished eating. They came back to Building 70 to help move 290 sheets of drywall into the building with us and the laborers. We signed a Pre-Task Plan and went over the potential hazards before we started working, then two of the laborers gave us some tips for how to load and unload the carts without straining your back. We also learned a little bit about efficiency and optimization, as they explained to us that we should stack the drywall with the white sides facing down so that they would be easier for the carpenters to work with later, and to protect the white side from scratches and scuffs if the stack is used as a table.

Going over the PTP with Roger and Dylan 

Loading the drywall onto our cart

Moving six sheets of drywall into the building

Magna Volunteer Day & Princess Tea Party: Paulina Torres

This past Friday, the Build U interns had the opportunity to work at Cadillac Urban Gardens and Scarcyny Park with Magna International. Although it was an extremely hot and sweaty day, we were able to get a lot of work done and have a great day. 4 interns stayed to help in Cadillac and the other 4 headed to Scarcyny. I was on the Scarcyny team and assisted in pulling weeds, spreading dirt on top of the mulch, and help set up for the Mad Hatter Tea Party that occurred this past Saturday. We had tacos from Taco Veloz for lunch, followed by a refreshing paleta. I also got to drive a skytrac lift toward the end of the day with the help of Angel from PDPM. Below are some pictures from the volunteer day and the Mad Hatter Tea Party.