MCM Management replaces hand labor with machine operators to increase safety and productivity.
MCM Management has developed a unique demolition process that reduces the need for hand labor in an inherently dangerous worksite environment. Operators in FOPS-protected cabs perform tasks previously completed by burners.
“By virtue of our equipment, we have very little ground-based labor,” explains David Mardigian, president, MCM Management Corp. “We have done jobs where we never hired a construction laborer – nobody on the ground. Every function on certain jobs can be preformed by a man in a machine for a couple of reasons, but the first one is safety.”
It’s hard to argue with the results of MCM Management’s mechanized approach. At the time of our visit, the company had completed 160,000 effort hours in 2000 without a lost-time injury, and it boasts an EMR of .69, according to Philip Kennedy, senior project manager.
Besides increased safety, MCM Management’s approach raises productivity. “We feel our field costs are 20% to 25% under the competition because of productivity,” says Mardigian. “We do add some of that back in the form of enhancements to our service. We think we should be good neighbors and should help enhance the owner’s image. Some jobs have 15 to 20 customers even though there’s one customer paying us. Anybody who can get mad at an owner or get upset by our process – anybody who can be influenced by this project – is an internal customer.”
A mechanized approach
At the heart of MCM’s unique approach is a fleet valued at approximately $13 million. While MCM uses wheel loaders, dozers and track loaders, the fleet is heavily skewed towards excavators. At the site we visited, there were approximately 13 excavators in the fleet. But the term “excavator” is a misnomer – these machines are not used for digging. They are set up as demolition tools, not merely modified earthmovers.
“We are excavator oriented. We lobe swinging machines,” says Mardigian. MCM claims it can perform 90% of the tasks on its demolition jobs with excavator-type machines equipped with shears and grapples. “We use them because they hold their value, they require very little maintenance and an operator is in a great position to see what he is doing at all times.”
Perhaps the most unique tool in the fleet is a Caterpillar 345B Ultra High Demolition excavator. MCM Management says this is one of the first units in the United States, even though they have been available in Europe. “Europe is ahead of us in this category,” Mardigian notes.
The Ultra High Demolition excavator accomplishes many of the tasks normally dedicated to a cable crane. “We are, without question, the biggest wrecking company in America that does not own a cable crane,” says Mardigian. “Companies our size and bigger own anywhere from five to 25 cranes.”
However, MCM doesn’t believe cranes are efficient for its operations. “It’s very easy to get hurt in a crane,” Mardigian points out. “We wanted to go back up in the air without a crane.” In addition, the company wanted the better control offered by hydraulics.
The 345B Ultra High Demolition excavator proved the right choice. “We have the ability to stand flat-footed on the ground and cut a steel or concrete beam 83 ft. in the air,” says Mardigian, although he admits that Caterpillar does not advertise 83 ft.
“The operator is still a safe distance from falling material,” he adds. “He has absolute visibility. He has control you don’t have with the approach of a wrecking ball smashing through a wall.”
On this particular job site, the Ultra High reach excavator was making quick work of picking apart an old manufacturing plant. Kennedy explains that MCM Management’s larger excavator could reach the wall and pull it over. “But the advantage is the operator is cutting and handling the material with complete control. He’s separating the building materials as he goes, which is a function that is going to have to happen anyways.”
Admittedly, operating the Ultra High unit is a skill to be mastered. Not every operator can jump in and be productive. For the reason, MCM Management identified an operator who has become highly proficient, and that individual is now permanently assigned to the machine. “Hugh Glime is in that machine and will always be in that machine,” says Kennedy. “Hugh has definitely got the touch. It’s not designed to take a lot of side load. You get in there and start grabbing beams and swinging and it wouldn’t be long before you tore it up.”
Organized demolition
The demolition process MCM implements is highly orchestrated. As we watched, the operator of the ultra high pre-separated materials into piles as he cut the building apart. The excavators then pick through and further size and separate the building into ferrous and non-ferrous piles. Finally, ferrous material is picked up and loaded into trucks by a wheeled Caterpillar W300 material handler.
“By the time you get downstream to the loading process of prepared iron, it will be clean and it will be sized right,” says Kennedy. There should be non non-ferrous or excessively long pieces at this point. “That would be the referendum on how efficiently they are working.”
The whole premise is not to take a lot of time, but to efficiently sort the material. “That is really the name of the game,” says Kennedy. “If you are not going to add value to it, don’t touch it. If you are going to pick it up, either prepare it, size it or load it. Do anything other than move it.”
Safety by design
MCM Management has tried to design safety into its process. Part of this involves the use of mechanization. Supervisors are in trucks and all of the operators are in FOPS-protected cabs. Very rarely do you see a person on the site who is not in a machine.
Mardigian uses the example of MCM Management’s water cannons. “We can put a man out there with a fire hose and a booster pump with 800ft. of hose coming out of a fire hydrant,” he states. “He can stand unprotected and battle a falling building with a hose, which we see all of the time. It’s just not safe.”
Instead, MCM Management chose a mechanized approach. “We have Caterpillar D25 two-axle articulated trucks that are modified as water trucks. They have water cannons,” Mardigian explains. These rigs can cover an entire site in a matter of minutes.
“We design out manual labor,” he adds. “This is part of our safety by design. It’s far easier to train an operator. It’s almost impossible for us to take manual labor and try to update their skills. A man holding a torch that’s in a crane basket 90ft. in the air cutting a column is no more well equipped now then he was 50 years ago, with exception of a harness. That’s what we have done by safety by design.”
The emphasis on safety goes much deeper than simple mechanization. Even in a mechanized operation, employees are surrounded by hazards. Kennedy explains that something as trivial as employee blowing out a radiator can lead to a recordable injury if the employee gets something in his eye. “It really doesn’t take much to impact your EMR,” he says. That’s why the firm strongly stresses the basics of hard hats, safety glasses and steel-toed shoes.
“We engage in a lot of third-party training,” says Mardigian. “We also send core employees out for appropriate training at companies that provide that service. The core employees are trained in the safe operation of their machines. They are trained how to work next to other machines. They have a real strong field understanding of structures.”
Core employees know where a machine should and shouldn’t sit to wreck a structure. “We look to them as we go to different cities and add people that have not worked for MCM before,” says Mardigian. “There’s a very strong cultural and safety training component to the first three to four weeks of the job.” The company quickly identifies new employees who may have the motivation to perform the work, but don’t respect what the building or machine can do to them or others.
“It’s a hard part of our job, but we will do whatever it takes to rescue that person,” says Mardigian. Sometimes this means terminating the employee. “We had a couple instances this last year where the best thing we did for our company, a given employee and the local union was to let that person go. Some people are like suicide bombers. They are just an accident looking for a place to happen.”
Fleet turnover
Looking at MCM’s fleet from a distance, it’s almost hard to tell it’s used in the demolition business. The majority of the fleet is made up of 1999 and 2000 model years. The company is always looking for new equipment that will allow it to perform its job more efficiently. According to Mardigian, if the company used the same equipment today that it had in the fleet 18 months ago, it would be functionally obsolete.
MCM Management continually sells used equipment while there is still a useful life for the next owner. If Mardigian can sell a used machine for the right price as determined by the cost per hour, he closes the book on that piece of equipment.
As a result, MCM Management has no mechanics. It relies on the local dealer for repairs and service. Mardigian says the name of the company is MCM Management for a reason. “It’s never going to be called MCM Repair,” he says. Ninety percent of the maintenance performed is scheduled periodic maintenance. And the relatively young fleet maximizes machine availability.
“When an operator is fixing a machine, I want to look at him and say you’re not ringing the cash register,” says Mardigian. “You are not doing anything to add value to this job. I’m not as worried about the loss of production if the machine goes down. I’m worried that they may lose focus and start to think that the reason they work here is to fix something.”
But MCM Management is obsessed with the machines’ upkeep. “I like machines to look new,” Mardigian adds. When panels on the equipment are scratched or dented, they are replaced. “It’s not that we are so profitable that spending that money is nothing to think about. But we like our people to be proud of what they run. If you don’t fix the panel, you’ve sent a message: Your stuff doesn’t have to look good.”
Mardigian admits that on any given day this policy may not appear to make sense financially. “But it sets an example,” he says. He also notes, “Out people go home clean and we have become a hot property for operators who want to run machines.”