Delivering Innovative Solutions in a Market Faced with Increasing Labour Shortages

Ideal Products is an innovative company focused on “Delivering Safety and Profitability” to its customers. They accomplish this with a forward-thinking, client-focused approach in which they anticipate problems before they occur.

That strategy is serving them well as the construction industry—including the pipeline construction industry for which they manufacture metal and insulation products—gets buffeted by changing demographics.

With Baby Boomers set to retire en masse by the end of the decade, and positions within the industry changing and oftentimes requiring a high level of skill, construction companies are finding it increasingly difficult to find enough qualified workers to keep projects running smoothly, on time and on budget.

Just how bad is it expected to become?

BuildForce Canada is an organization which provides national labour market data and analysis. In their 2021–2030 Construction and Maintenance Looking Forward report they forecast a loss of about 22 percent of the industry’s current labour force by the end of the decade, due largely to Baby Boomers retiring. And when the Boomers walk out the door, they take with them a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience.

As if that weren’t enough of a challenge, requirements of the industry itself are changing: increased digitization has altered the nature of many construction jobs and require a higher skill set to perform. As yet there just aren’t enough workers available to fill that void.

Bottom line for construction companies? The growing number of position vacancies coupled with the industry’s changing needs is leading to project slowdowns, reduced productivity and ultimately reduced profitability.

Ideal Products is ready to help. Known for being forward-thinking, this manufacturer has had this issue on their radar for quite some time. Setting the gold standard for the creation of cut and roll jacketing for insulated pipelines, they have gone one step further and created products that increase the production of construction companies with easier and safer products that do not require highly skilled fabrication.

Safer products keep injuries down—particularly hand lacerations—and workers on the job (always important but just that much more so during a labour shortage). This approach is already translating into quicker project completion and increased profitability for clients of Ideal Products.

What are the products making such a difference?

Just to name a few: SafetyJacs®, WeatherJacs®, ThermalJacs547®, and Precision Fit™ Custom Fab.

SafetyJacs®

SafetyJacs® are cut and rolled jacketing produced from both aluminum and stainless steel. Designed with safety and profitability in mind and manufactured with patented technology, SafetyJacs® have a folded hem on the leading edge and all circumferential edges have been deburred. This greatly reduces the potential for cuts and lacerations when handling, which has been a huge problem in the industry. The added feature also significantly reduces time needed to install by eliminating the work it takes to remove the “fish-mouthing” effect when securing.

One major contractor says SafetyJacs® have “helped reduce the risk of cuts and provided a better finished product”. They add that the reduced labour it took to install by eliminating the “fish mouthing” effect that commonly occurs, translated into a $700K to $1.2M in savings just by using SafetyJacs®.  Their labor on a recent project improved 3 – 5% by reducing the amount of time to go back and re-tighten the previous piece when “fish-mouthing” occurs. This translated into a $700K to $1.2M in savings just by using SafetyJacs®. Better strength at the lap and a better seal when the cladding is tightened are also cited as reasons why the company chose to use SafetyJacs® for all of their major projects.

WeatherJacs®

WeatherJacs® are two-piece pressed fittings which come in a wide range of sizes and thicknesses to fit 45 and 90 degree pipe angles. Clamping together like two pieces of a puzzle, WeatherJacs® are guaranteed to fit and make pipe installation easy. Being pre-formed, WeatherJacs® eliminate the costly self-fabrication process involved with traditional installation. And the patented weather seal system it comes with eliminates the need for beading and clamping.

ThermalJacs547®

Another item which prioritizes the health and safety of the contractor is pre-formed pipe insulation known as ThermalJacs547®. Being both easy to handle and fabricate, it eliminates the need for special tools. ThermalJacs547® pipe insulation can be easily cut with an exacto knife. This means reduced risk of lacerations to workers, and a highly skilled contractor is not needed for installation. Additionally, its clean handling properties and factory applied facers greatly reduce skin irritations and minimize job cleanup time and expense. Time and expenses are also lowered even before ThermalJacs547® pipe insulation arrives on site. Manufactured and shipped flat, ThermalJacs547® requires less space when shipping in comparison to pre-formed pipe insulation. Less space means fewer trailers, fewer drivers and lowered costs for shipping (see the calculations here). To top it off, the ThermalJacs547® manufacturing process creates less than 1% of production waste (compared to up to 42% waste with traditional V-Groove insulation).

Precision Fit™

Ideal Products’ Precision Fit™ custom fabricated products reduce the labour requirements needed for customized jobs including gores, sweeps and vessel heads. Pre-made to fit client dimensions and specifications, no on-site fabrication is required. This significantly cuts down the need for highly skilled labour as well as reducing fabrication related injuries for workers. As with all of Ideal Products’ products their Precision Fit™ line is produced for easy handling and safety.

Again, by increasing worker safety, and reducing the time needed for product installation and the skill level required, Ideal Products helps maximize client profitability and timeliness.

Safer. Smarter. Faster. It’s an ideology Ideal Products has always lived by. With it, they provide a manufactured solution to their clients so they can ride out the challenges currently facing the industry.