P1 News

Can't Keep Creativity Down: Associate Spotlight on Beth Martens

“I’m pretty sure I have creative Attention Deficit Disorder because I want to do it all.” These are the words of Marketing Proposal Specialist Beth Martens, and while those who know her work would never call it a “disorder”, we think she just might be able to do it all.

Creativity is in Beth’s blood, coming from an artistic family. Her mom was a professional seamstress, which is where Beth mastered the art of sewing and fabric. This skill set has ultimately made Beth the P1 Group Marketing Department’s swag guru, where she has significantly improved our promotional apparel capabilities.

However, her true passion begins, and ends, with illustration. “I have always liked to draw,” Beth said. “I was awarded 2nd place at the Missouri State High School Art Show my senior year and went on to the University of Kansas to pursue a degree in Visual Communications.”

Although she had to leave after three years due to financial hardship, Beth began another of her life’s greatest projects: Her family.

“I got married and started a family, then went to work for Gear for Sports in the QA department because I had sewing experience and knowledge of fabric,” Beth explained.

With more creative support from her brothers, one a movie visual effects professional and prominent sculptor, and the other a professional painter (of the fine arts variety), Beth got even more into design.

“I started producing a small children’s magazine through my church,” Beth said. “I did all of the illustrations and my brother taught me Quark and Photoshop so I could do the layout.”

Over the years, Beth has had a series of jobs, from layout artist to working at Target. When the 2008 financial crisis hit, Beth found herself needing a more financially viable job to help support her family, and that’s how she found P1.

“My son played baseball with P1 Group Executive Vice President Phil Nehring’s son, and my husband and I became friends with Phil and his wife Rebecca,” Beth said. “Phil talked about what a great company P1 was, and encouraged me to try to get a job there, so I watched the openings for a while.”

In 2012, a service coordinator job opened up and Beth took the opportunity. “I enjoyed working with the techs and learned to really respect the job they do, and I think I got to be a decent dispatcher,” Beth said.

But every creative knows a good creative can’t be kept down, and Beth’s eye was always on the Marketing side of P1, hoping to join the department and bring her creativity to the table.

“I had this creative side that just wasn’t being fulfilled, and I really missed using those creative skills in my day-to-day job,” she said. When a position opened up in Marketing in spring 2019, Beth applied, and the rest is history.

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P1 Group Creates Comprehensive Customer Solutions, One Trade at a Time

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P1 Group Brings Single-Source Advantage to University of Kansas Health System

“Success favors the prepared.” This famous philosophy from biologist Louis Pasteur is the reason P1 Group has all trades, including mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and technologies, working to create single-source solutions for The University of Kansas Health System (TUKHS).

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P1 Group Earns Top Safety Award from Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA)

P1-Group-Safety-Award P1 Group Earns Top Safety Award from MCAA

When every associate - from executives, to foremen, to project managers and field personnel – consistently dedicate themselves to the company’s safety culture every day, it gets noticed.

Innovation and associate buy-in are just two of the reasons P1 Group was recently awarded the highly competitive Safety Excellence Award from the Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA) and CNA Insurance.

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P1 Group Pop-up Store Provides 1,000 Meals for Meals on Wheels

Supporting the communities in which we live and work is a fundamental goal at P1 Group each and every day.

One way in which we’re making a difference through “pop-up” swag sales. P1 Group’s Marketing Department periodically conducts “pop-up” stores during which P1 Group associates can purchase limited-edition swag featuring a one-of-a-kind design.

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P1 Group Offers Value-added Ship and Repair Circuit Breaker Service

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When that circuit breaker goes out and the cost of all-new gear replacement is not an option, P1 Group has a convenient circuit breaker rebuild service that could save customers thousands of dollars.

Electrical Preventative Maintenance (EPM) Manager Jeff Gardner says circuit breaker shipping and rebuilding is a service not commonly offered by many companies. P1 Group is able to offer it after hiring Electrical Service Technician Nate Boettcher, who is particularly skilled at this type of rebuild.

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P1 Group Team Las Vegas: Meet Catalina De Leon

This is the time of year some people might question their decision to live in Las Vegas, NV.

“When I got up this morning at 5 a.m. for a walk, it was already 96 degrees,” P1 Group Office Manager Catalina (Cat) De Leon told us at the time of this interview in late July.

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Saint Luke’s East Hospital Flex Capacity Expansion: Single Source Approach Helps P1 Group Navigate Timely Challenges

P1 Group has been serving the healthcare community both locally and nationally with single-source facility solutions for many years, and our recent work on the Saint Luke’s East Hospital Flex Capacity Expansion is no exception. The SLE Expansion project will address the hospital’s need for growth by expanding the emergency department. It includes a small renovation of the ER waiting room, but the bulk of the job is the construction of additional ER patient rooms.

P1 is putting virtual design and construction, fabrication, and mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and technologies construction (MEPT) capabilities to work, all while navigating new safety mandates and challenges due to COVID-19. Although P1 has done MEPT projects before, this will be the first MEPT project in the Kansas City metro area. The project has only been underway about five months, but Senior Project Manager Eric Affolter has already noticed a difference in the efficiency with which the project is progressing. “Having all trades within the company working together has really increased the level of communication and efficiency you just can’t get when you work with multiple entities,” Eric said. “Especially with all the COVID-19 guidelines we are now required to follow.” The SLE Expansion project is scheduled for completion in April of 2021.

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P1 Group Project Profile: Central Plains Kaolin Silo Modifications

P1-Group-Millwright-Central-Plains Kaolin Silo Modifications at Central Plains

What do you do when your 500-ton capacity silo needs to be modified from a tapered, oval shape to “true round”? It’s not something most of us will ever face, but it’s exactly the type of challenge P1 Group Millwrights are highly trained to solve.

When Central Plains Cement in Sugar Creek, MO, needed to change the shape of its 500-ton capacity silo to accommodate a new material, P1 Group was chosen as the prime contractor to design, fabricate, and execute the modifications of the silo and also allow the install of a new 34,000 lb. flange-mounted rotary feeder.

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P1 Group Welcomes Students to Kansas City and Las Vegas Offices

Due to COVID-19, P1 Group was not able to have our typical summer intern program, but we are excited to introduce you to the following students who have joined our Lenexa and Las Vegas offices for the summer. Here’s a little bit about who’s getting some hands-on experience at P1 this summer!

NINA ZEPEDA
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS, MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

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P1 Group Optimizes Ventilation Rate to Increase Safety for Associates

You don’t have to be a an HVAC expert to guess that increasing your building’s intake of fresh outside air is beneficial during a pandemic like COVID-19.

P1 Group values safety above all, and in order to follow CDC interim guidelines, has increased outside air (OA) rates during the pandemic at the company headquarters in Lenexa. In addition, P1 Group offers this service to customers as part of our Healthy Buildings initiative which includes options for UV-C treatment and surface sanitization as well.

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Safer Vacations through Virtual Options

With warm weather on the doorstep, attention is turning toward that time-honored tradition of the summer vacation. We plan, save money, look forward to new scenery and time with our family, and just plain relaxing. But with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that has impacted the entire globe, many are opting not to travel this summer.

When physical travel isn’t desirable, our age of technology puts that vacation “virtually” at your fingertips.  

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Electrical Maintenance to Electric Guitars: Associate Profile on Jeff Gardner

There’s just something about electrical things that appeals to P1 Group Electrical Preventative Maintenance Manager Jeff Gardner.

Jeff says he originally became an electrician because enjoys working with his hands. He finds great satisfaction in doing something tangible, so it is no surprise he also spends his leisure time in an equally fulfilling manner.

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Project Profile: Aisin Light Metals LN2 Installation

P1 Group Mechanical Construction

When Chart Industries called upon P1 Group as a trusted ESP (Engineered Systems Partner) to do the LN2 (liquid nitrogen) installation/replacement at Aisin Light Metals, Project Manager Nick Lawless knew there would be challenges.

Through the ESP Program, Chart helps P1 Group by bringing regional opportunities to our attention. In turn, P1 Group supports Chart by promoting their product and sharing opportunities with them as well.

The most challenging components of this project were:

  • Measuring new piping while the equipment was in use and the new components were not in place
  • Installing a new system while existing system was running, with limited down time

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Overall, P1 Group installed 400 feet of new rigid piping and final connection hoses.

“In order to replace the system, I had to go out and field measure for new components being added while the equipment was up and running,” Nick explained.

Nick said that besides the equipment being in use while he was measuring, new sub-coolers were being added at a later date and were not yet in place, forcing the team to “best guess” final valve locations.

The team had to be nimble as well. During installation, the equipment was still up and running, producing parts. As each piece of equipment came off line, new piping was installed, requiring P1 Group to work quickly in between those production intervals.

Nick says Brock and Trace went the extra mile to ensure the success of such a challenging project.

“Not only were Brock and Trace able to make sense of the layout as I had intended, they had to make some on-the-fly adjustments to some pretty unforgiving piping,” Nick said.

“Since the system is engineered to order and it takes 4-6 weeks to produce, they had to be innovative in making the new system fit while the old system was still in play,” he explained. “While working safely, they had to crawl all over the equipment to place hangers and coordinate limited downtime for the more difficult-to-reach locations.”

“We did a similar project at Honeywell, but this was the first time we were called upon for an ESP installation outside of the Kansas City Metro area,” he added.

This meant the team was in an area with limited resources (compared to a metro area like Kansas City) and had to overcome obstacles in procuring parts installation.

In addition, Nick noted there was no way to make field alterations once the pipe was fabricated by Chart, leaving little room for error.

Stepping in to work while production is in full-swing and getting the job done right is what P1 Group is known for, and the Aisin Metals project was no exception.

“Brock and Trace really brought this one home for us,” Nick said. “Working right up until Christmas, away from their families, they put a nice big bow on the entire package.”

P1 Group Aisin Light Metals

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Fabricator Magazine Features P1 Group Innovations in Pipe Fabrication

P1 Group was recently featured in The Fabricator magazine for our streamlined processes and innovations in fabrication, particularly our new WM-36 3D pipe cutting system.

"Sometimes meetings and proper scheduling can take you only so far in a fabricating operation. As business grows, maintaining that correct balance of flexibility and on-time delivery gets tougher if the same number of people have to tackle the increased work load in the same amount of space.

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Happy Earth Day from P1 Group's Green Team

Celebrating Earth Day’s 50th Anniversary

In the midst of social distancing and staying at home to slow the spread of COVID-19, it’s more important than ever to do our part to reduce, reuse, and recycle. In June of 2018, P1 Connection brought you a story about the recycling efforts of P1 Group and one of the program’s biggest champions, Manpower Coordinator Assistant Emily Barber. 

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Associate Profile on Heather Richards-St. Clair – Forging her own Path to Success.

Associate Profile on Heather Richards-St. Clair – Forging her own Path to Success.

Not so long ago, Heather Richards-St. Clair headed off to the University of Central Missouri (UCM) with the dream of becoming a reporter and traveling the world. But when graduation came on the heels of a huge economic recession, she found herself following a different path.

Armed with a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism, she looked for what was available and was able to secure a position with a maintenance management company selling commercial janitorial and minimum maintenance service.

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COVID-19: P1 Group Office Workers Stay Motivated at Home

Even though we continue to provide our regular services during regular business hours, P1 Group has temporarily closed offices for those personnel not deemed “essential” in compliance with government and state COVID-19 stay-at-home orders.

Some of us have jobs that allow us to work remotely with very little change to our actual work. But for most of us, we still face the very big difference of not reporting to an office, seeing our co-workers face-to-face, and the routine that goes with actually working on site.

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Hooking the Big Fish: Associate Profile on Michael Schram

Michael Schram has filled many roles during his 10 years at P1 Group, including field technician and Ammonia Division service manager. But after his recent move to the role of Industrial Mechanical Specialist, he’s going after some “big fish” for both the Ammonia division and P1 Group.

Michael started at P1 in 2010 as an HVAC field technician with primarily industrial clients. Soon, he was pricing small service projects and moved into a project manager role, where he worked with ammonia refrigeration customers. He then became a service manager focusing entirely on ammonia. Thanks in part to his leadership, the ammonia division has seen much growth and success.

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Connecting with Customers: P1 Partners Tour Fabrication Shops and More

P1-Group-Fabrication

Thanks to the leadership of P1 Group Business Development Manager Tim Moore, P1 Group has been doing a lot more entertaining.

Tim has been instrumental in organizing events like P1 Fun@4 and fabrication shop tours that allow customers, prospects, and partners a chance to get to know us better.

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P1 Group Productivity Committee Improves Efficiency and Outcomes

What happens when fabrication, project managers, VDC, manpower, and field experts in multiple trades get together on a committee?

We do things better.

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Our Office Network

Kansas City

13605 W 96th Terrace, Ste 200
Lenexa, KS 66215
(913) 529-5000

Omaha, NE

14135 S 220th St, Ste 5
Gretna, NE 68028
(402) 401-4676

St. Joseph, MO

3815 Faraon Street, Ste A
St. Joseph, MO 64506
(816) 233-3305

Las Vegas, NV

5685 Cameron Street
Las Vegas, NV 89118
(702) 270-4432

Lawrence, KS

2151 Haskell Ave, Bldg 1
Lawrence, KS 66046
(785) 843-2910

Architectural Metal

8701 Elmwood Ave, Ste 500
Kansas City, MO 64132
(816) 708-0419

Manhattan, KS

301 S 4th Street, Ste 110
Manhattan, KS 66502
(785) 236-7350

P1 Group works with P1 Service, LLC to provide HVAC, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing service, performance solutions, and preventative maintenance. P1 Service, LLC has locations in Lenexa, KS, Wichita, KS, Topeka, KS, St. Joseph, MO, and Ankeny, IA.

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