Lee Contracting hosted its second annual charity golf outing, raising over $10,000 for Detroit based Focus: HOPE. The outing was held on August 10^th at Cherry Creek Golf Club in Shelby Township. Over 160 Lee customers, vendors and employees participated in the outing which included 18 holes of golf, breakfast, lunch, dinner, an awards ceremony and prize drawings. The outing started at 9 a.m. with a shotgun start.

During the outing, there were several different contests set up on the course. There were four hole-in-one contests, where someone could have won $10,000 cash. Other hole-in-one prizes included, airline tickets, a golf bag, or a 7-day Caribbean Cruise. There were also smaller contests such as longest drive and closest to the pin. On another hole, we had what we dubbed as the ‘Vegas Hole’ where golfers could wager money on the accuracy of their drive. If their shot landed on the green, they could win double their money back. If they landed anywhere else, their wager would be donated to Focus:HOPE.

Following golf, attendees had an opportunity to network during cocktail hour, buy prize tickets and eat a delicious dinner. After dinner, awards were handed out to the winners of the longest drive and closest to the pin contests, as well as the winning team of the outing. This year, Legacy Industries defended their title and won the golf outing for the second year in a row.

The outing ended with a drawing for a variety of different prizes,

several of which our vendors graciously donated. Prizes included: Tiger’s tickets, garage door openers, a Traeger Grill, Red Wings tickets, Adirondack chairs, golf bag, free golf, and signed sports memorabilia.

Lee Contracting would like to extend a huge thank you to all our sponsors this year who made our 2^nd annual golf outing a success. We look forward to seeing everyone at next year’s outing.

As the manufacturing industry grows, many companies might consider growing their business through capital investments. CMTC (California Manufacturing Technology Consulting) recommends companies plan their expansion carefully and execute it correctly the first time. When it comes to these large investments, Lee Contracting understands their complexity and specializes in the entire value-engineering process from quoting the project all the way through start up.  When planning your investments, you should pay extra attention to equipment upgrades and warehouse space, as ThomasNet says these are two of the most important aspects to your expansion.

Equipment

New machinery can increase production capacity for your company which will create more opportunities. Your equipment is the

lifeblood of your company and deciding to invest in new equipment comes with a lot of upfront costs and decisions. Lee Contracting can help you every step of the way with the planning of this investment. Using our in-house manpower and equipment, we take care of every aspect of the installation: foundations, transportation, rigging, utility hook ups, and start up. Our unique approach eliminates the need to coordinate multiple contractors and delays caused by one contractor waiting for another to finish a portion of the project.

If investing in new equipment isn’t in your scope, you may be able to modify or update your equipment to work more efficiently. Lee Contracting’s maintenance and repair department is experienced to make sure your equipment is running better than before. We recently refurbished a 30-year old press for Delaco Steel Corporation and today it is running twice as fast.

Warehousing

When you expand your production area of your facility, this changes your usable on-site warehousing space. If you find that you cannot grow your facility’s footprint at its current location, you might consider off-site warehouse space. Offsite warehousing can lower the additional costs of maintenance and overhead. Lee Contracting has over 300,000 square feet of warehousing space available to keep your assets safe. We offer short-term and long-term storage for your heavy or light industrial items.

Whether you are looking to invest in new equipment, refurbish old equipment or looking for a place to store your assets, Lee Contracting has what you need to grow your business. Call us today for a free quote: 888-833-8776 or request your free quote here.

We’ve been busy here at Lee Contracting preparing and launching another round of leadership program training.  We, at Lee, believe that all employees of a company can benefit from additional leadership training. We aim to foster a team environment where every member is a leader in their own right.

There exists a multitude of benefits to empowering employees to act and feel like leaders. We will cover some of them in this article to give our readers a glimpse on some of the methods we have used to achieve a 115% increase in growth in the past 3 years alone!

Increase Employee Engagement

Successful leaders know the importance of giving or receiving feedback. Where most employees run into issues is when it comes to how to give feedback. Leadership training can give employees and managers alike a structure to not only know how to communicate feedback well, but how to receive and implement the changes as well. Understanding is half the battle, once an employee can speak the same language as a manager, or anyone in a leadership position, they can both be better equipped at enhancing the quality of their work.

Employee Retention

On average, 75% of people who voluntarily leave jobs don’t quit their jobs, they quit their bosses! Imagine the benefits of not only having effective leaders, but happier employees who feel nurtured and appreciated in the workplace. Lee Contracting Careers is always hiring motivated individuals who would like to join a work environment where employee growth is tied closely to company growth. We truly believe that employee retention has been one of the key reasons we continue to succeed in the highly competitive industrial contracting field.

Better Decision Making Process

Unfortunately, regardless of personal belief, it is a known fact that a great employee does not necessarily make a great leader. So why do most companies continually promote individuals without proper leadership training? The answer is simple, lack of effort. Now, imagine a workplace where not only do the leaders receive training but so do the employees! This united front of experience fosters a dynamic environment where from the top to the bottom of the employee ladder every individual understands their role. This understanding leads to better decision making, as well as increased productivity.

Follow Lee’s Facebook page for more updates on the current Leadership Training program as well as information on how you too can join the Lee Contracting team!

Having the right industrial foundation is important when it comes to installing new machinery. This foundation is responsible for supporting your expensive and heavy equipment. At Lee Contracting, we take that responsibility very seriously and want to ensure that your equipment is going to be safe and secure for years to come.

Our foundation teams are highly skilled in completing any type of concrete work. We only use the latest model equipment and company owned trucks to complete the work. We excel at digging pits without disrupting surrounding structures using our industry exclusive excavation technique.

Our customers have come to expect only the best work from Lee Contracting when it comes to installing their foundations. When Visioneering was building a new facility, they needed to install eight milling machine foundations. Lee designed, constructed and poured these foundations. The project needed 2,320 cubic yards of concrete, of which 750 cubic yards were poured in one day.

Odyssey Industries had a forty-foot Parpas High Velocity XS Mill

that needed a very specific foundation due to the mill manufacturer requirements. Lee designed and poured the foundation. It was over four feet thick, poured in a single monolithic pour, and reinforced with large diameter rebar.

New Center Stamping needed a custom 127-foot-long press pit installed to fit five stamping presses. Each press was individually measured and those measurements were used to design the custom pit. We conducted the demolition of the current common press pit, excavated the area for a new press pit and installed six rolling bolster foundations. We worked around and incorporated the existing pits into the new ones and redesigned and modified the entire scrap system.

Whether you are looking for foundations for stamping presses, injection mold machines, slitter lines, mills, or you need utility trenching, isolation pads, truckwells or precision grouting our foundation team can complete it all. For more information on our foundation experience, visit our foundation page or if you are ready to request a free quote you can do so here.

In the past, rigging referred to a system of ropes and pulleys used to support a ship’s masts. As technology evolved, the definition of rigging expanded to include the process in which objects are raised and moved into position. Today, rigging equipment, such as cranes, are used in a variety of settings including, manufacturing facilities, shipyards, cargo ports, and construction sites.

Over the last quarter of a century, the technology used in industrial rigging has made the process of lifting heavy objects and placing them more efficiently. Lee Contracting uses a variety of gantry systems and cranes which have a capacity up to 1,200 tons, to set your heaviest equipment. Gantry cranes allow us to set the heaviest pieces of equipment. We recently stacked two 2500-ton stamping presses. The crowns for each of the presses weighed 272 tons.

In addition to gantry cranes, Lee Contracting also has a fleet of several other cranes. We have three Broderson cranes with a capacity up to 50,000 pounds,

an Ormig crane with a pick and carry 70-ton capacity, a Lifts-Systems mobile lifter with a 75-ton capacity, a Terex crane with a 70-ton capacity and a Grove crane with a 300-ton capacity.

Lee Contracting has over 25 years’ experience in the rigging industry. We like to be tested beyond the limits. Our riggers travel all around the world to make sure you have an efficient, safe, and expedited experience with plant projects and relocations.

Our customers enjoy the benefit of our riggers being available 24/7, 365 days a year, our ability to cut down project completion time up to fifty percent of our competitors and the ability to complete every project with state of art equipment from layout to final assembly.

Our teams have the experience to take care of all your equipment including stamping presses, injection mold machines, blow molding machines, weld cells, robotic cells, assembly lines, and machining equipment.

View more of our capabilities, or contact us for a free quote today.

Here are a few ways to practice safety at work, at home, and in the community.

At Work

Here are the top 3 most workplace injuries resulting in lost work days and how to prevent them:

1. Overexertion – lifting/lowering, or repetitive motions.

    How to prevent:

• Avoid bending, reaching and twisting when lifting
• Take frequent short breaks

2. Contact with objects and equipment – struck by, caught in or crushed by equipment or material.

How to prevent:

• Store heavy objects close to the floor
• Be aware of moving equipment/objects in your work area
• Wear the proper personal protective equipment

3. Slips, trips, and falls – falls from all levels.

How to prevent:

• Place the base of the ladder on an even, solid surface
• Use good housekeeping practices – making sure the area is clean and free of obstructions and debris

At Home and in the Community

Here are the top 3 more common injuries occurring in the home and in the community and how to prevent them:

1. Poisoning – Poisoning deaths are caused by gases, chemicals, and other substances.

How to prevent:

• Be aware of poisonous substances
• Keep all poisonous substances out of reach of children

2. Falls – Falling is the third leading cause of unintentional-injury-related death overall age groups, but it’s the #1 cause of death for those 65 and older.

How to prevent:

• Remove clutter, small furniture, pet gear, electrical cords, throw rugs and anything else that might cause someone to trip
• Arrange or remove furniture so there is plenty of room for walking
• Secure carpets to the floor
• Wipe up spills immediately
• Provide adequate lighting in every room and stairway

3. Motor Vehicle Accidents – Impaired driving, distracted driving, speeding, and inexperience can all cause serious injury or death.

How to prevent:

• Avoid using a cell phone while driving. Even hands-free calling is distracting
• NEVER drive while impaired – Call for a ride
• ALWAYS wear a seat belt and secure children safely
• Be aware of the speed limit and of children and pedestrians
• NEVER leave children or pets in a hot car. Even in 70-degree weather, cars can reach life-threatening temperatures

Lee Contracting is proud to be recognized for a second straight year on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing private companies in America. This year, Lee jumped up 543 spots to #2925. With an annual revenue of $126.4 million, Lee Contracting achieved 115% growth over the last three years. This growth has been facilitated through providing full turn-key services to our manufacturing customers.

“Our employees work tirelessly to give our customers the best experience and to have their hard work and dedication recognized nationally is a huge reward,” says Ken LaBruyere, CEO of Lee Contracting. “We are always striving to grow as a company and being included on this list solidifies we are continuing to move in the right direction.”

Lee Contracting’s aggressive growth plan has helped the company grow their customer base. Our machine repair department, which was new when we made the list last year, has proven to be a valuable asset for our customers. Over the last year, Lee is continuing to expand their industry value with an expanded crane fleet and over 300,000 square feet of storage space available.

This year, Lee Contracting joins 101 Michigan companies to make the prestigious Inc. 5000 list. More than half of the Michigan companies call Metro Detroit home. Companies included on this years list provide services in engineering, logistics & transportation, manufacturing, and more. Over the last three years, companies on the Inc. 5000 list have created 619,631 new jobs.

“We honor just one thing: real achievement by a founder or a team of founders,” says Eric Schurenberg, president, and editor-in-chief of Inc. “No one makes the Inc. 5000 without building something great—usually from scratch.”

Lee Contracting congratulates all Inc. 5000 honorees and is thankful to be named two years in a row to an influential list which has featured some of the biggest companies in the country. We look forward to continuing our ascent up the list for years to come.

Lee Contracting’s in-house approach to working in the industrial field has yielded continued company growth. Over the last two years, Lee Contracting installed two new 2500 ton presses using their in-house equipment and manpower.

Lee Contracting is an industrial contractor who self-performs all work in-house, including electrical, rigging, mechanical, foundations, machine repair, and fabrication. When all of our trades work together they complement each other and seamlessly execute the project for our customers.

This is the case with the installation of two-2500 ton Fagor presses. Lee’s foundation team started with demolishing part of an existing exit scrap conveyor tunnel so they could extend the press pit for the new presses. The newly installed pit was 38 feet by 36 feet and 20 feet deep. With the addition of these two new presses, the scrap conveyor was extended another 20 feet and included a bump out for the aluminum bailer.

While working in an active manufacturing facility, Lee’s riggers worked to fully assemble each of the presses internal components. They were shipped in 16 separate crates from Spain to the United States. When fully assembled, the base of the press weighed 150 metric tons, the slide weighed 112 metric tons and the crown weighed 225 metric tons. The flywheel alone weighed 15 metric tons, while the two eccentric gears weighed 30 metric tons each. The riggers then used Lee’s in-house 500-ton gantry crane to stack each of the presses and install a feed line for the presses.

Lee’s electricians and pipefitters worked on all of the electrical, hydraulic and piping interconnections to the press. This included setting a new primary transformer, installing a new 2,000-amp switch gear, installing a 1,200-amp main power feed to the new presses, installing chiller water, compressed air, a fire suppression system and an oil containment trench drain.

With Lee Contracting’s expertise, unique equipment and in-house approach to serving the manufacturing industry, they remain an indispensable asset for hundreds of companies. Learn more about Lee Contracting: leecontracting.com.

Lee Contracting has a state-of-the-art in-house fabrication shop with full capabilities. Our expert fabricators handle custom design and installation of everything from stairs and mezzanines to pump skids and structural steel layouts. We have structural engineers stamp and certify all structures and designs. We also offer 24-hour welding and fabrication services and full machining capabilities.

Lee’s fabricating teams are routinely exceeding our customer’s expectations. One example of this is when US Ecology was looking to replace seven tanks at their facility in Belleville, MI. Other contractors said it would take 26 weeks to replace one tank. Lee came in and set a very aggressive timeline to replace all seven tanks. We started replacing the tanks two at a time, in a three-week window. All seven tanks were fabricated in our 40,000 square foot in-house fabrication shop. Each tank, which weighed about 150,000 pounds, were then loaded on to one of Lee’s trucks and transported from Pontiac to be installed at the US Ecology facility in Belleville, Michigan.

Another example of exceeding our customer’s expectations came when Steel Dynamics needed a liner built for their descaling pit. This liner protects the concrete of the pit from eroding during the descaling process. The liner is approximately 9 ft. x 8 ft. x 10 ft. tall. We only had a small window of time to fabricate the liner and transport it down to the customer’s facility in Indiana. If the timeline was not met, the customer would lose out on valuable production time. We met the customer’s deadlines to ensure they would not lose any production time.

These are just two of our fabrication shop success stories. If you are impressed and want to find out more about how Lee Contracting’s fabrication department can be an asset to your business visit our fabrication page. Or, if you’re ready to request a quote, you can do so here.

Ductwork plays an important role in industrial facilities. Large HVAC systems maintain air quality, employee health, and quality assurance benchmarks. These large, secure passageways for airflow improve total system efficiency and reduce the likelihood of an air quality crisis. Any process that creates health hazards in an enclosed environment will benefit from a properly sized duct system.

Marc Neiman, Lee Contracting’s HVAC Coordinator warns that duct systems that are too large or too small can impede airflow levels, ventilation, and dust collection system performance. Industrial ductwork contains air flow passageways designed to keep pace with air volume requirements. These duct systems are important in areas that rely on consistent temperature management and efficient dust collection/ventilation.

Dust collection systems are integrated within an industrial HVAC system. These systems rely on ductwork to carry industrial dust from a machine to the collection system. Large ductwork can accommodate these industrial applications to deliver consistent air quality without overtaxing the system.

Industrial ductwork systems often feature galvanized, stainless, or rolled steel constructions to deliver maximum performance in an industrial environment. Industrial environments need carefully designed, fabricated, and installed components to meet regulatory air quality standards and minimize system maintenance requirements. Sometimes, prefabricated ductwork systems may not meet the standards for a facility. When this occurs, the facility will benefit from a custom fabricated HVAC system design.

Lee’s HVAC department is prepared to handle any project when it comes to your sheet metal fabrication, installation, service, and preventative maintenance needs. Our key advantage is maintaining a fully stocked sheet metal and fabrication shop to meet our customer’s needs, whether it is on a moment’s notice or a large planned-out project. Our teams can handle any project of any size to get the job done. We have experience installing dust collection systems, exhaust and ventilation systems, roof top, split or ductless systems, chiller systems, refrigeration piping, environmental chambers and computer/server room systems.

To request a quote for your next HVAC system, call us at 888-833-8776 or request a free quote here.