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Winter 2025 Issue

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Selecting the Right Tools for Plumbing Success: Tips from Ridge Tool Company

The complexity of longer, more elaborate pipe systems, paired with the urgency of getting a business back up and running, makes having the right tools for commercial plumbing repairs essential. You need tools with the appropriate power and size capacity to complete jobs, enough cable to ensure they can reach the end of longer pipes, and extra cable flexibility to allow navigation of longer pipe runs. Along with finding tools with these general features, here are five basic tools you should invest in for commercial work.

Ridge Tool Company

Simplify Tagging, Save Time Featuring Marking Services Inc.

An energy company in the Southeast teamed up with Marking Services Inc. (MSI) to replace its outdated labeling systems across their electricity generating plants, saving time and labor. Working closely with the company, MSI developed a standardized labeling system to help with safety, compliance, maintenance, and emergency response at the company’s many plants (including solar and hydroelectric facilities). As a result, the company implemented a labeling and asset management program using more than 500,000 labels. MSI’s field team ensured proper and precise installation, which in turn saved the energy company time and labor.

Marking Services Inc.

Explore BIM Related Cost Overrun Impacts with MCAA’s Management Methods Bulletin & New Change Orders Edition

Mechanical, electrical, plumbing and sheet metal (MEP/SM) contractors are normally at the forefront of Building Information Modeling (BIM) activities on a construction project. Substantial BIM cost and time overruns have occurred on many projects due to the fluid boundaries between coordination and design. MCAA’s Identifying, Quantifying and Preventing BIM Related Cost and Time Impacts Management Methods Bulletin explores the factors that contribute to these overruns, allowing contractors to better plan for them. The bulletin is now included in a 2024 edition of MCAA’s Change Orders, Productivity, Overtime—A Primer for the Construction Industry. MCAA members can download both resources free as a benefit of membership. Printed copies of the Change Orders resource are also available for purchase.

Small Steps, Big Wins: Staying Ahead with Cumulative Learning Featuring Tyfoom

For mechanical contractors, staying competitive is a constant battle. But that doesn’t mean you need to make big changes that take a lot of time, effort, and money—it’s about making small, steady improvements over time in processes and people that add up to remarkable results. Focusing on marginal gains and cumulative learning offers a practical way to boost efficiency, reduce risks, and retain top talent—all while building a smarter and more capable workforce.

Tyfoom

Advances in Oil-Free Compressors: Copeland Explains

In the air- and water-cooled chiller markets, oil-free compression technology is emerging as a more efficient, quieter, more easily applied, and easier-to-maintain alternative to legacy screw compressors. For original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and end-users of mission-critical chillers in large HVAC applications, oil management adds costs and complexities to system designs—which typically result in declining energy efficiencies throughout their lifecycles.

Copeland

Beacon Economics Report Offers a Strategic Decision-Making Tool for Service

The 2024 Beacon Economics Market Report for MSCA is here! This essential report delivers up-to-the-minute insights and data-driven analysis tailored for mechanical service contractors. Uncover updated key trends for 2024, including market shifts and economic forecasts that directly impact your business. This study is an invaluable resource for looking at market trends that will help guide strategic decisions and keep you competitive. Don’t miss out on this powerful tool—download the new report today!

Build Your Business with Updated Time Tracking: Advice from Raken

Modernizing the way you log, review, and approve work hours will positively impact more than just your payroll process. Streamlined digital time tracking with software from companies like Raken can help your construction business build more accurate estimates, increase profitability, and improve employee retention.

Acing School Installation Test with LAARS, a Bradford White Company & The Helm Group

Asked for advice on the Belvidere, IL, School District’s new boilers, the Helm Group’s Service Division recommended Laars Heating Systems Company’s MagnaTherm® FT boilers. The Helm Group was impressed with the product quality as well as Laars’ extended warranty and commitment to supporting customers. Helm Group then competed for and won the contract to install and maintain the Laars systems, successfully installing them in the strict three-month window before the new school year. LAARS, a Bradford White Company, is a benefactor of MCAA25.

LAARS, a Bradford White Company

Doubling Shop Productivity with Novarc Technologies Inc. & W.W. Gay Mechanical Contractor, Inc.

W.W. Gay Mechanical Contractor, Inc. saw a 200-percent increase in shop productivity and a 12-fold increase in weld productivity by implementing Novarc Technologies Inc.’s collaborative Spool Welding Robot (SWR). They are also realizing a 100-percent pass rate on radiography tests (RTs). The SWR has reduced W.W. Gay’s dependence on highly skilled welders, of whom there is a global shortage.

Novarc Technologies Inc.

MCAA’s New Podcast Available Now

Welcome to Inside MCAA, The Blueprint to Mechanical Contracting, the podcast dedicated to unveiling the strategies and resources that power success within the Mechanical Contractors Association of America. Hosted by renowned Customer Experience Coach and NEI Instructor Frank Favaro, each episode dives deep into the wealth of educational tools, networking opportunities, and advocacy efforts that define MCAA.

Quality & Productivity Soar with Tecnar and Way Engineering

Way Engineering was skeptical that automated welding could deliver the high quality they demanded, but Tecnar’s Rotoweld 3.0 technology proved so effective, the company purchased a second machine just three months later. The Rotoweld is also helping Way Engineering adapt to the industry-wide shortage of skilled welders.

Tecnar

Increase Sales and Customer Satisfaction with XOi & J.M. Brennan, Inc.

With XOi, J.M. Brennan, Inc. was better able to show customers exactly what their projects needed and why, resulting in increased sales and revenue. Tracking their key performance indicators (KPIs) with XOi, J.M. Brennan has seen their closure rate for field quotes increase by 10 percent, among other improvements.

XOi

New Lone Worker Safety Model Program Introduced at MSCA24

Lone workers are the focus of a new model safety program introduced by MCAA Chair Renee Fiorelli at MSCA24. The Lone Worker Safety Model Program helps contractors identify risks and hazards and ensure adequate systems are in place to protect those who work by themselves where assistance is not readily available when needed, or who do not have the benefit of interactions with others.

Monitoring Fab Projects in Real Time with MSUITE & McCarl’s

By swapping out Excel spreadsheets for MSUITE software across multiple fabrication shops, McCarl’s Industrial and Mechanical Contractors now has real-time visibility into their workflow, not the two-to-three-day lag time. Adopting a fully digital platform has optimized workflows and increased operational efficiency.

MSUITE

Chain Hoist Simplifies Install & Saves Labor with MILWAUKEE TOOL & Hooper Corporation

Switching from manual hoists to MILWAUKEE TOOL’s M18™ Compact 1-Ton Chain Hoist with ONE-KEY™, Hooper Corporation minimized the physical demands on its workers while making installation much easier and decreasing downtime. Using a cordless chain hoist takes less time to set up and also allows Hooper’s team to get into more tight spaces, increasing efficiency overall. MILWAUKEE TOOL is a benefactor of MCAA25.

MILWAUKEE TOOL