Connections

Issue 2 • Volume 3 • April 10

LEVERAGING THE PORTFOLIO

LTP at Work in the Midwest

Communication within any large organization can be an ongoing challenge, especially when introducing a new initiative like Leveraging the Portfolio (LTP). Oldcastle conducts LTP quarterly meetings across the country with the purpose of exchanging information between Oldcastle's six product groups.

Progression of the repaving project from an aerial view

At the first Minneapolis/Des Moines regional meeting in August 2009, John Deering, branch manager at Allied Building Products (Oldcastle Distribution), related how the company needed to repave the parking lot at its Brooklyn Center, Minn., location. Eric Leverson, general manager of construction, OMG Midwest, also was in attendance and advised that an Oldcastle company, Southern Minnesota Construction (SMC) of Mankato, specialized in road construction and paving.

Leverson visited the Allied site and quoted the repaving of the parking lot, which was accepted. The $500,000 project, entailing reclaiming and re-grading the existing lot, installing a rain garden and then repaving the area, would have been awarded to a third party had it not been for the exchange of information at the LTP meeting.

Allied needed to move its entire inventory to accommodate the paving, as well as maintain daily operations. The project was split into two phases: phase one involved moving the inventory in the yard to accommodate the paving, and during phase two, the inventory was moved back onto the new asphalt. Since the project occurred at the end of the year, the inventory was reduced, and a portion of the materials could be held in indoor storage. The project took about three weeks to complete and involved SMC's grading crew, paving crew and numerous truck drivers. "The Allied guys were really great to work with," stated Mark Hobday, the SMC foreman who was in charge of the project.

Cal Jordan, Allied's operations manager, was impressed with the knowledge and capabilities that Hobday and his crew displayed. "From beginning to end, I pretty much worked exclusively with Mark. He was a pleasure to deal with and was very responsive in meeting our needs and keeping our shipping lanes open. The whole crew was outstanding!"

Deering added, "This is a great example of what we are trying to do here at Oldcastle. If Eric and I hadn't sat next to each other at the meeting I would not have known about SMC. We already had three bids lined up from local contractors and were ready to proceed with the project. SMC did a fantastic job."

Through the process of sharing information, we can decrease external spending and build relationships among Oldcastle companies and employees, as well as strengthen the solidarity of the organization. That's what LTP is all about!

Progression of the repaving project from the office

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