Committed to Pride

The Lincoln Academy in Beloit, Wisc. Photo courtesy of Corporate Contractors, Inc.

When it comes to work, pride can mean different things to different people.

Generally speaking, pride refers to the satisfaction that an individual gains from something. The Cambridge English Dictionary defines pride as a feeling of pleasure and satisfaction that you get because you or people connected with you have done or gotten something good.

As a company, we take pride in partnering with our customers to innovate, design, and build meaningful buildings in which to live, work, learn, and play.

We strive to live our World-Changing Behaviors – safety before all else; have a yes! attitude; be candid; put yourself in someone else’s shoes; practice the four referrability habits (which are show up on time; do what you say you are going to do; finish what you start; and say please and thank you), and be a little weird!

“One of the most important things for us is to be involved in our community,” Said Jeremy Olivotti, Vice President of Preconstruction. “An opportunity to be part of a project where people work, learn, and play gets us very excited.”

For Foreman Patrick Yates, who leads a team in our Wet Cast department, it is important for him to have pride in anything he puts his hands on.

“If someone sees what I’ve done or the work that any of the people I’m with have done, it’s a great feeling inside to know that you did a good job at whatever you did,” Yates said.

For Foreman Matt Phillips, who leads a team in our Fab Shop, it’s easy to take pride in the buildings we build, and nice to be able to see the local ones regularly.

“That’s something we strive for here at Mid-States – to have good quality buildings and all be proud of what we do,” Phillips said.

Foreman Israel Casique said it is easy for him to take pride in what he does because he is doing what he loves.

“I want to show my kids what I’ve done,” Casique said. “I’m proud of (our work) and proud to be in this company.”

And our foremen aren’t the only ones who like showing off their work. Project Manager Brad McCaslin also has an affinity for local projects he has been part of, like Lincoln Academy in Beloit, ABC Supply Stadium in Beloit and the new Stateline Boys and Girls Club.

“I grew up going to the Boys Club at its old location and love the fact that we got to be part of building their new home, which will benefit generations to come,” McCaslin said.

Preconstruction’s Troy Yaun has also worked on projects that have special meaning for him, like the Hononegah High School Field House in Rockton.

“I enjoyed working on this project because both my kids graduated from Hononegah High School and I know a lot of people in the district and administration,” he said of the project.

Committed to Expertise

These are just some of the Mid-States Concrete Industries Wall Panels that were part of CCI’s Phoenix Warehouse Distribution Center project.

Since 1946, Mid-States Concrete Industries has produced structural and architectural precast concrete systems that provide our partners with high quality building materials with sustaining performance.

With dedicated preconstruction, engineering and design, project management, production, and installation teams, Mid-States has what it takes to meet your precast needs and find the right solutions for your projects.

Your project starts with our Preconstruction team, which boasts more than 140 years of combined experience. The team includes dedicated sales professionals, estimators, and a preconstruction engineer to get your precast project off to the right start. Our sales professionals are eager to talk with you about upcoming projects and, with the expertise of our preconstruction engineer, help you design your precast project. Once we have worked together to create drawings, our estimating experts will put together an all-inclusive proposal for your review.

Nicole Shelton, Project Manager, CHC, with CORE Construction, said she appreciates the ability to ring up Troy Yaun, one of Mid-States Preconstruction Sales team members, and bend his ear about how the precast schedule works and get details to help her prepare for a future project and accommodate that schedule. She recently worked with the Mid-States team on CORE’s El Paso-Gridley CUSD project, which included nearly 5,000 square feet of Hollowcore and Solid Slabs and 178 Wall Panels.

“I know that our preconstruction team really appreciates the collaboration of Mid-States on the design of the project,” Shelton said.

Once your team has awarded the precast portions of your project to Mid-States Concrete, it heads to our Engineering and Design team. With more than 100 years of combined experience, our Engineering and Design team asks questions and listens to your objectives and goals so we can apply the latest design and engineering techniques to your projects. Once our drawings are approved by your team, we’ll send shop drawings to our production team to get to work on the manufacturing of your project.

Often working simultaneously with Preconstruction and Engineering and Design, our Project Management team focuses on how to install your precast components in the most effective way for your jobsite. With more than 70 years of combined experience, our Project Management team works with your team to ensure access to the project site, the right size crane, the best sequence to install the precast concrete, the number of loads to deliver per day, and so much more.

“I’ve always been impressed by Mid-States’ communication and making sure we are looking ahead at things and making sure we are trying to get ahead on issues or anything that may come up in the future,” Shelton said.

As a PCI-Certified Plant, the Mid-States Concrete Production team adheres to strict standards regarding the quality planning and the process of manufacturing precast and prestressed concrete components according to requirements specifically developed for the types of products being manufactured which provides greater assurance to owners, architects, engineers, and contractors that precast concrete components will be manufactured and installed according to stringent industry standards. With combined experience of more than 1,000 years, our Production team ensures that each of your custom precast components is designed to its exact specifications to ensure pieces can be installed smoothly once they arrive on your jobsite.

Mid-States Concrete is also a PCI-Certified Erector, which provides assurance that the high-quality precast concrete components produced by our PCI-Certified Plant are erected to the exact standards expected by owners, developers, architects, contractors, and the precast concrete structures industry as a whole. Our Installation team has a combined 170 years of experience installing your precast concrete components. This team ensures that the highest level of safety, quality, and efficiency are maintained throughout the installation of your project.

“[The Installation Team] did great,” said Aaron Combs, Project Manager with CCI. “The teams were there on time every day. They worked hard. They did everything they could. They kept the site clean and the communication from your team to my team was great.”

Mid-States Concrete recently worked with CCI on their Phoenix Warehouse Distribution Center projects, manufacturing and installing 246 Wall Panels.

“The quality was pretty spot on,” Combs said. “The punch list was pretty minimal of things that needed to get corrected and the guys took care of it.”

Working with precast from Mid-States Concrete gave CCI the flexibility needed on how to erect the building on a tight timeline. The project was started in March and turned over to the owner in December.

“At the end of the day, we’ve got a really good product and a happy client and it’s because of partners like you guys,” Combs said.

Committed to Safety

When it comes to our team, and the teams we work with, our number one priority is safety. We want everyone to go home to their families in the same condition at the end of their shift as they were in when they arrived for that shift.

Prioritizing safety also benefits the work we do for your projects. When team members feel safe, and operate safely, they remain part of the team longer, gaining more experience in producing and installing the highest quality precast concrete components. And when team members keep mind on task and do not get complacent with safety procedures, it helps them to avoid errors and injuries, produce the highest quality products, and ensure delivery deadlines are met. Team members operating safely in the plant and on job sites for installation prevent injuries, keeping projects moving forward.

For Mid-States Concrete Industries, our commitment to safety is above all else. We treat our team members like industrial athletes – ensuring the highest quality safety program to keep them from getting injured, and to eliminate risks wherever we can.

Through things like partnering with Athletico to create a warm-up program designed to stretch and strengthen our team members for the movements required of their jobs, to putting a detailed housekeeping program in place to eliminate hazards, to constantly evaluating our safety procedures, we keep our team members safe.

In 2022, Mid-States Concrete renewed its SHARP designation through OSHA for the third time, making us the only precaster in the United States to have this elite recognition. Mid-States first achieved this Safety & Health Achievement Recognition Program designation in July 2017.

“The safety culture and sustaining it is something we are very proud of,” said Mike Wolff, Vice President of Safety and Quality.

Additionally, the entire Mid-States Concrete Field Crew and all Plant Foremen are OSHA 30-Hour Certified. All team members also annually participate in Safety Days – which serves as a refresher on all of our safety programming through both classroom learning and hands-on activity. Training is run by the Vice President of Safety and Quality, Safety Manager, and all Production Supervisors.

“We flow it through everyone to create ownership over safety,” Wolff said.

In 2022, Mid-States Concrete Industries had just five OSHA recordables. Mid-States Concrete Industries is also a PCI (Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute) Certified Plant and PCI Certified Erector. These certifications provide assurance to owners, architects, engineers, and contractors that precast concrete components will be manufactured and installed according to stringent industry standards.

To ensure we constantly live up to our high safety and quality standards, we have several PCI Certified Field Auditors who go on site to audit the safety and quality procedures of Mid-States Concrete’s work on your projects. They complete a detailed safety and quality inspection specific to precast concrete. Every foreman has at least two project installations per year evaluated.

For Safety Manager Tracy Miller, one of the best things about the safety culture is watching the team embrace it so wholeheartedly.

“The best part is when you see them do the right thing when they think no one is looking,” Miller said.

Miller and Wolff also really appreciate that the entire team takes ownership of safety. In fact, while Miller reports on near misses on a weekly basis, the corrective actions and retraining often come from the person with the near miss. Our team members always bring a solution.

The safety team continues to evaluate, improve, and grow the Mid-States Concrete safety program to ensure the team always operates at the highest level of safety, keeping our team, and your team, as safe as possible.

Not your typical Lunch and Learn

Image by sentavio on Freepik.

One of the things we pride ourselves on at Mid-States Concrete is living up to our World-Changing Behaviors.

Those World-Changing Behaviors include: safety before all else; YES! attitude; be candid; put yourself in someone else’s shoes; practice the four referrability habits, which are show up on time, do what you say you are going to do, finish what you start, and say please and thank you; and be a little weird!

While we practice all of these World-Changing Behaviors, we really (really, really) show up for the “be a little weird!” part. So, it should come as no surprise that we don’t generally offer the typical Lunch and Learn. A typical Lunch and Learn program is a presentation with a catered lunch that takes place at a workplace during lunch. In the digital age, Lunch and Learns are also often offered online as webinars.

While Mid-States has presented the typical Lunch and Learn before, we’ve found another style of Lunch and Learn we think benefits our customers more. Rather than a PowerPoint presentation where we stand at the head of the room with slides full of information behind us and talk AT you while you try to quietly eat Jimmy Chips (good luck, by the way), we’d much rather have a Roundtable where we can talk WITH you.

Much like a typical Lunch and Learn, Roundtables can be scheduled for 60-90 minutes, depending on the needs of your team. Prior to scheduling a Roundtable, a member of our Preconstruction team will have a call with the organizer to discuss the objectives of the Roundtable, including topics, attendees, as well as experience working with precast. From that discussion, we’ll tailor our presentation materials and discussion to your needs.

Within our Preconstruction department, collectively we have more than 140 years’ experience with Mid-States Concrete Industries. Our Preconstruction team includes three salespeople: Jeremy Olivotti, Troy Yaun, and Colin Jones; two estimators: Bill Abel and Ian Lewellin; one preconstruction engineer: Tara Loomis; one support admin: Tracy Christianson; and one marketer: Stephanie Kohl. Presenters will depend on the topics your team desires to discuss. And if the expertise you are looking for lies outside of the Preconstruction realm, Mid-States also has departments and experts dedicated to Engineering and Design, Project Management, Manufacturing, and Installation.

Our goal is to give you the information you need to make the best decision for your upcoming projects. When you partner with Mid-States Concrete for your precast project, we’re with you every step of the way – from preconstruction assessment, design and engineering support through construction and completion. It’s how we’ve done it for almost 77 years.

If you are interested in having Mid-States Concrete host a Roundtable for your team, please contact us at sales@msprecast.com. We’d love to get a date on the calendar.