Team members from EMJ’s Boston office take a tour of United Steel.
When EMJ Construction’s Boston team began a new project involving structural steel, office leaders seized the opportunity to make it an office-wide learning experience.
Neil Pratt, Executive Vice President, and Steve Rice, Vice President of Construction, took several project engineers and other team members to United Steel in October to ensure that all team members gained a deeper understanding of steel fabrication and how to apply this knowledge to their jobs.
“As someone who is new to working in the field, I haven’t really been exposed to a lot of the processes that go into subcontractor work,” said Adam Parker, Project Engineer, Boston. “It was great to get that kind of on-the-job training.”
Today, Adam is applying the knowledge gained from the field trip to a current project. The information gained from the visit is a good reminder that experiential learning is not just for students.
“Neil and Steve wanted us to get more well-rounded information on how things are run on the fabrication side,” said Adam. “When we arrived, United Steel sat us down in their conference room and discussed how steel fabrication works and how they work with EMJ. After an engaging question and discussion session, we toured their facility to see how they turn shop drawings into actual fabrication drawings.”
Adam said the experience gave him better insight into the erection of steel on jobsites and the impact of missing information. He also discovered how incomplete contractual agreements or schedule sequencing changes interfere with the timeliness and accuracy of structural steel column and beam deliveries.
“It gave me a better idea of the processes on their end,” said Ian Buckley, Project Engineer. “Knowing how they operated helped me understand how to better work with our subcontractors.”
The Boston team’s field trip exhibits EMJ’s C2C step of ASKing questions and continually seeking additional knowledge, but also it’s a testament to the many methods of learning. This type of on-site learning, whether it’s taking construction teams to a subcontractor’s place of business or getting office employees out on the jobsite, can be a powerful tool for knowledge sharing and relationship building.
Congrats to the Boston office for embracing continued learning through this unique experience.
