How Averill Electric Is Elevating Its Performance and Challenging the Status Quo of the Conventional Construction Site
It is an unfortunate fact that the construction business can often be slow-moving, overly complex, and immensely inefficient. As anyone who works in these trades can attest, a typical day of work can be fraught with miscommunication and misallocation of resources. The result of which is usually a lengthier and more expensive construction project for all parties involved. However, the team at Averill Electric is endeavoring to change this and, in doing so, challenge the status quo of the typical construction process. By embracing a series of innovations and trailblazing new technologies, Averill Electric is changing how electrical contracting in the New England area is being implemented. The following article describes how.
The UL-Certified Prefabrication Facility
First and foremost, with the decision to embrace the concept of off-site prefabrication, Averill Electric has elevated its professional performance to exciting new heights. According to the company’s founder, Frank Averill, “Prefabrication is a process wherein complex components, structures, or, in some cases, entire buildings, are assembled outside of the construction site through the use of detailed computer schematics and cutting-edge technologies.”
In the case of electrical contractors, many times with complex electrical systems like lighting, communications, or security systems, utilizing conventional techniques has proven to be less beneficial for all parties on a project. Whereas when using prefabrication models, these ready-made components, structures, or buildings are then transported to their intended location and installed far more swiftly than they could be if they were assembled by workers on-site, which inherently is fraught with unavoidable internal errors that are commonly regarded as a routine part of the industry. Averill Electric found an alternative way of conducting standard operating processes that allow for a significant reduction of these inherent errors. As such, Averill Electric created an Underwriters Laboratories-certified (UL) prefabrication facility in its headquarters and began putting the prefab concept to use.
Streamlining Projects
Upon its implementation, one of the most immediate and noticeable effects of employing the prefabrication process was just how many valuable hours it saved the workers. Thanks to the prefabrication facility, they now accomplish much more work within a shorter time frame. Implementing this process has enabled management to re-appropriate labor and resources more efficiently, and the company’s core processes have been streamlined to a point previously thought impossible. As a result, Averill Electric has won more bids and taken on more building contracts. Overhead is down, productivity is up, and the company’s vision of becoming one of the most efficient and resourceful electrical contractors in the industry has never been greater. Indeed, it has become clear that the development of a UL-certified prefabrication facility has supplied the company with a significant and measurable professional advantage in the field of electrical contracting.
An Improved Building Experience
The shifting of time and resources benefits Averill Electric’s clients, workers, and subcontractors. For instance, consider the position of a real estate developer or an investment group that has invested millions of dollars into a building venture, viewing each schedule setback in terms of loss of time and money. To them, every time a contracting firm completes their task on time and on budget is looked upon as a success. For that matter, consider the position of the architect or the firm that designed the building, whose professional reputation is at stake if it does not get built in a timely manner and to their precise specifications. They, too, are thrilled by each added element of efficiency brought to their project by contracting firms.
The fact that Averill Electric produces many of the complex components, structures, and buildings necessary to complete its projects at its prefabrication facility means that construction sites are at substantially less risk for internal errors and safety and health hazards, such as COVID-19, due to unavoidable varying factors because of multiple sub-contractors working in the same area at the same time. All things considered, the fact that Averill Electric employs the use of a prefabrication facility has led to an improved building experience on every level of the construction process.
The Bottom Line
“By taking full advantage of our UL-certified prefabrication facility, Averill Electric is able to conduct a great deal of assembly off the construction site and reduce most on-site labor to that of a simple installation,” states Averill. This ultimately saves the company vast amounts of time, reduces its operational costs, increases worker safety, and improves overall quality—benefits which in turn are passed along to their clients.
The prefabrication facility also produces the secondary effect of making it easier for management to streamline projects and produces the overall cumulative effect of making the practice of electrical contracting much more efficient, thereby leading to an improved building experience.
To summarize, by transposing a large percentage of its construction away from the construction sites, Averill Electric is challenging the status quo of the conventional construction process. Put bluntly, the company is taking its business model, and, by extension, electrical contracting in the greater New England area, to a whole new level of artistry and efficiency.
Frank Averill is the founder, owner, and chief executive of Averill Electric Co., Inc., a privately held electrical contracting firm. Based out of Easton, Massachusetts, Averill Electric has been providing innovative, high-quality electrical design and construction services since its inception in 1996.
Among its more notable large-scale projects is the Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center, which at 100,000 square feet is New England’s largest social services development project, and features classrooms, a gymnasium, a chapel, a fully-equipped commercial kitchen, and an indoor aquatic facility. Averill Electric was responsible for installing its main service power generator, switchgear, emergency power network, fire alarms, lighting controls, security systems, as well as its outdoor soccer field lighting and score board.
Averill Electric was also awarded the contract to oversee a retrofit and reinstallation of most electrical and communications systems in the Emerson College Colonial Building Dormitory, a ten-story building located in the heart of Boston’s famed theatre district and containing the historic Emerson Colonial Theater. This $6 million gut-and-refit project required a team of 25 electricians and technicians to work for two years straight, installing a top-of-the-line 4,000-AMP power distribution system, brand new switchgear, state-of the-art security and alarm systems, as well as a 750-KVA roof-mounted emergency power generator, all the while leaving the surrounding theatre structure (which is pending Boston city-approved landmark status) pristine and virtually untouched.
Besides being an entrepreneur, a certified electrical contractor, and an outspoken proponent of small business, Frank Averill is also a philanthropist. He and his company are proud to lend their support to multiple charities, most prominently the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the Shriners Hospital for Children, as well as conducting their own in-house winter coat and clothing drive each year. When the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, Frank Averill noticed the terrible impact it was having on the ability of working families to keep food on the table and added the organization Feeding America to the roster of worthy causes directly supported by Averill Electric Co., Inc.
