10,000 Tickets and Counting: P1 Group Tool Shop Feeds Fab and Field Work

On October 5, 2018, the P1 Group Tool Shop celebrated ticket order #10,000. The tool shop started doing business out of the merged tool department in Lawrence on October 5, 2015.

Whatever anyone in the fab shops or field may need to perform work, from batteries and hand tools to welding machines and Victaulic grooving machines, the tool shop is designed to be the one-stop shop for those needs.

“All fabrication and freight is housed here. We bring the tools, fabrication and freight to the field so they can stay on the job and get the job done,” Ben Gannaway, Warehouse Operations Manager, said regarding the Lawrence warehouse space.

“We carry all the tools each trade needs to go out and do a job,” Ben said. “If we don’t have it and the need is justified, we’ll get it.”

The warehouse team has honed the process of procuring and returning tools to run, well, like a well-oiled machine.

There are 12 full-time employees representing two Teamster Locals, IBEW Electrical Expediter and non-bargaining employees as well. Laborers are also used to help out when needed, helping with tasks like cleaning tools or putting them away.

Request tickets for tools can range from one item to six pages of items. “Everything that goes out or comes back goes on a ticket,” Ben explained.

The tickets are then scanned into the system so project managers can easily go into the LINK to see what has been ordered out, what has been returned, etc. Efficiency is paramount in the process, and requests go into a queue where they are ranked by urgency.

Schedules play a major role in that efficiency: when fabrication or tools are scheduled for delivery, that truck will most likely pick up whatever tools are no longer needed on the job site for return.

“We may send a truck to five different job sites before it comes back,” Ben said.

Ben said P1 field associates are very good about using and returning tools efficiently, even when there are multiple trades working at a jobsite.

Ben also noted most competitors and colleagues in the industry do not have anything close to the P1 Group tool department/warehouse space or capabilities, especially not under one roof.

Did You Know?

• P1 Group has a crane truck. Associates may look at the truck schedule on the Hub any time.
• There are 11 delivery trucks: pickups, 1- and 2-ton stake bed trucks, trailers, + crane truck.
• In just this past year, warehouse vehicles have driven 256,814 miles making deliveries and pickups, not including the warehouse associates in Las Vegas, St. Joe and Wichita.
• At any given time, the tools you see in Lawrence represent only about 1/4 of the total inventory.

BY THE NUMBERS:

• 76 ladders in stock
• 8 Miller Bobcat gas welders
• 330 18V drills*
• 305 18V ¼” impacts*
• 25 rigid press tools*
  *purchased Jan. 2017-Oct. 2018; numbers don’t include tools currently out on jobs