Blog posts tagged with 'inc company information'

When striving to be the best, you can never settle and should always explore opportunities to improve. Albina adopts the philosophy of continuous improvement in all aspects of our company. We are ALWAYS looking to make improvements in everything we do. The most recent improvement we are committing to is with some of our bending equipment. We are purchasing two new bending machines to allow us to provide parts to higher quality standards and provide for better repeatability. The two machines we are purchasing are smaller rotary draw benders. The larger of the two machines will bend up to 3½” OD material while the smaller of the two machines will bend up to 2” OD material. We are very excited to bring these two machines to our already vast list of equipment.

The quick and easy way to find out what we require when quoting a project specifying bent steel parts is to visit our online Steel Bending and Fabrication Request for Quote form on our website. Below is a summary of the information that we need to accurately and efficiently quote your job: a) Company Name, Address and Phone Number b) Primary Contact Name and Email Address c) Description of your project d) What is you Bid Deadline? e) Material Type & Size f) Material Quantity g) Provide any supplemental drawing or attachments that will help us bid the job. Give us the chance to quote your next job that specifies bent steel parts! We are a dependable supplier! Not only can you count on parts arriving on time, but the level of customer service and quality of parts that we provide will exceed your expectations. We value the relationships that we have with our customers.

We are continuing our efforts to reduce our collective dependence on fossil fuel and we are installing a solar power system on our shop roof to derive clean, pure energy from the sun! We are doing our part to go green and reduce our carbon footprint. Just today, over 100 panels were installed! 168 panels were installed in just two days and that includes panel installation and wire management! Here is what we are doing: • We are installing a 135kW (kilowatt) system. • The panels will be covering the roof of our 4th bay (this bay is 12,500 square feet)….that is a lot of solar panels. • Our building is perfect for solar as we have no shading and the panels will be southern facing for optimal efficiency for all seasons. • One array of solar cells will be 45 ft x 106 ft and the second array of solar cells will be 45 ft x 113 ft. • We will generate our own power for use. If we have excess power it will go back to the grid. What are you doing to reduce your carbon footprint? Do you consider the what your vendors or suppliers are doing to combat greenhouse gas emissions and global warming? People who are continuously looking for ways to improve their output without having an adverse effect on the environment is the type of vendor you want working for you. Vendors who look for new and innovative ways to improve their business will be the same ones that will give you a quality product and care about the outcome of your project.

Albina was recently awarded the bending for the Segerstrom Center for the Arts located in Costa Mesa, CA. This project consists of 48,000# of bending out of TS 20" X 12" X .625" WALL A500 GR B (4 lengths x 48 ft and 3 lengths x 60 ft). All of this material is being bent with our in-house designed induction bending method. 30% of the parts will be spiral bent while the other 70% of the parts are being bent the easy-way to various configurations and radii. We are working to a critical ship date and will certainly deliver as promised.

A loyal customer recently came to us with a scheduling problem. They needed 60,000# of structural steel and pipe bent in a very short period of time. Yes, our shop is very busy right now, but we needed to figure out a way to get this material bent and ready to ship. We modified our schedule, worked extra shifts and long days to meet the requirements for this job. We also procured the material for the project so our customer didn’t have to worry about finding the material. All 28 lengths were bent to various configurations each length varied from 20 ft long to 60 ft long. The largest structural member processed for this job was W18 X 106# A992 bent the hard way to a 150 ft radius. All materials were bent to AESS standards for the Mountain Park Church located in Arizona.

It is our pledge to our customers that you are never surprised at the end of a project. We will confirm our anticipated delivery schedule at time of order acceptance. If something occurs to change that anticipated delivery schedule, your project manager will contact you to make sure you are aware of any scheduling changes. Many of our return customers come back to us due to our unparalleled customer service and communication. One customer recently told Albina management that they have used other benders in the past and will only use Albina moving forward. Never had they been so well informed throughout the production process. Albina provided answers to questions before the questions were even asked. Another example of customer service is our automated shipping notifications. The morning after an order ships, Albina sends an email informing the customer of the method of shipment and tracking number if available. This will allow our customers the ability to track their shipment as soon as it hits the road. Also included with this email are any MTR’s, if required, so the customer doesn’t have to wait for these critical reports to arrive with the shipment. Our customers have the reports (electronically) even before receiving their shipment. We know that customers rely on the information we provide and make plans based on the information we provide. We strive to meet or exceed every customers wants and needs.

Albina continues to be one of the steel industry leaders in safety. Our shop workers always approach their jobs with safety in mind. We have a team of workers and management that make up our safety committee. These team members meet monthly and conduct onsite walk throughs in our steel bending shop to identify potential safety hazards. These hazards are always promptly remedied to avoid any potential issues. While most companies want to avoid safety inspections from OSHA, Albina welcomes these inspections. In fact we volunteer for OSHA safety inspections every year! Along with OSHA inspections we team up with a local vendor to act as our outside safety consultant. This vendor assists with our safety committee, educating us on current safety regulations and conducts safety walk-through’s with our safety committee team. Albina is proud of being an industry leader in safety and continues to make improvements keeping our steel bending shop as safe as possible.

We are continuing our efforts to reduce our collective dependence on fossil fuel and we are installing a solar power system on our shop roof to derive clean, pure energy from the sun! We are doing our part to go green and reduce our carbon footprint. Here is what we are doing: • We are installing a 135kW (kilowatt) system. • The panels will be covering the roof of our 4th bay (this bay is 12,500 square feet)….that is a lot of solar panels. • Our building is perfect for solar as we have no shading and the panels will be southern facing for optimal efficiency for all seasons. • One array of solar cells will be 45 ft x 106 ft and the second array of solar cells will be 45 ft x 113 ft. • We will generate our own power for use. If we have excess power it will go back to the grid. What are you doing to reduce your carbon footprint? Do you consider the what your vendors or suppliers are doing to combat greenhouse gas emissions and global warming? People who are continuously looking for ways to improve their output without having an adverse effect on the environment is the type of vendor you want working for you. Vendors who look for new and innovative ways to improve their business will be the same ones that will give you a quality product and care about the outcome of your project.

We recently supplied rolled tubes for the Jimi Hendrix Park project in Seattle, Washington. The customer was so pleased with the rolled tubes that they received that they reached out to us to let us know. "We are currently in fabrication, we are looking at an install at the end of March. I will first say that the rolled tubes are exactly correct in terms of radius. You are experts at your craft and it shows." Remember that there is a price and a cost associated with every purchasing decision. Do not chose the lowest initial price or you may deal with excessive and unanticipated costs throughout the project. [caption id="attachment_1104" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Rolled Tubes for Jimi Hendrix Park Seattle, WA.[/caption]

It seems that during this time of uncertainty in the US Economy, we are returning the 2008 trend where consumers make purchasing decisions based solely on price. If you chose the lowest price, you are opening yourself up to many more "costs" that are not necessarily represented in the quoted price. It might seem like a risk to purchase from a supplier that isn't the "lowest price." The rewards are greater than the risk. What is important to you? Do you want to receive the correct parts the first time? On-time delivery? Communication throughout your project? Proper documentation? Billing Procedures? The price of a competitor might be below ours, but when you add up all of the actual costs to receive and install the material, is there really a cost savings? If you chose the lowest price, you may deal with late delivery, poor quality or incorrect parts and a lack of or delayed communication. If you choose the lowest price, you will get what you pay for.