March 2006 - Evergreen in BIC Magazine

SETTING THE STANDARD FOR INDUSTRIAL SERVICES

AS FEATURED IN BIC MAGAZINE

"Setting the Standard" - Service, Safety, Savings

The "survival of the fittest" concept fails to mention being the "biggest." Evergreen Industrial Services has not only survived, but has thrived, on that very notion. It's simple - Evergreen doesn't claim to be the biggest because that is not what’s important to it as a company. Instead, Evergreen has focused on "setting the standard" in industry, bringing service, safety and savings to the table with a driven, high-performance mindset.

By providing outstanding personnel and advanced equipment, Evergreen helps its clients maintain productivity and realize significant savings. The company is so confident in its high-quality services that it provides financial accountability through industry leading performance guarantees.

Evergreen's rigorous attention to detail and extensive training program are the cornerstones of the company's top-down, award-winning commitment to safety - just another way Evergreen is setting the standard. Equally superior in each of its main service offerings, Evergreen is determined to meet or exceed its clients' expectations.

 

Hydroblasting

Evergreen's highly trained technicians provide safe and effective high-pressure cleaning using the latest equipment and technology - a standard the company is founded on. With cleaning pressures from 10,000-40,000 psi, Evergreen's clients will find the best fit for their needs. Evergreen provides a full complement of hydroblasting tools to facilitate completing projects in the most efficient manner.

Remote operated multi-tube lance machines and high-volume automated shell side cleaning equipment deliver horsepower right to the product. Automated equipment improves productivity and reduces safety issues based on a lower fatigue factor involved as compared to operating manual equipment. Clients will experience longer run time on cleaned equipment and also reduced downtime during cleaning. "The last exchanger cleaning Evergreen performed was very successful," said Bill Domescik, maintenance manager for Pasadena Refining Systems Inc. "The U value increased significantly. This kind of result goes straight to the bottom line."

 

Vacuum Services

Evergreen provides a complete line of vacuum services for its industrial clients. The company uses a variety of liquid vacuum and air machine units to fulfill clients' vacuum needs. Highly trained operators and state-of-the-art equipment equals quality service delivered on time and on budget - a cornerstone of Evergreen's mission.

Its liquid vacuum units include:
- 70-barrel hatch back, 3,000 capacity.
- 130-barrel vacuum tanker, 5,500-gallon capacity, for liquid and slurry materials.

The company's air machine units feature:
- 16-cubic-yard debris box.
- 27-inch Mercury maximum vacuum.
- 5,500 scfm maximum air flow, used for heavy sludge and solids.
- Two-stage filtration to eliminate dust.
- Cyclone attachments.
- Auger attachments.

Evergreen's vacuum services line also includes best-in-class safety devices, such as in-line hydrocarbon scrubbers and pressure relief tools.

Chemical Cleaning

By definition, chemical cleaning is the removal of unwanted soil deposits from process equipment utilizing various chemicals such as alkalis, acids, inhibitors, wetting agents, sequestrants and organic solvents.

Over the past 30 years, it has become increasingly apparent that in-place "chemical cleaning" is in many instances safer, quicker and more economical than labor intensive, mechanical cleaning methods requiring extensive disassembly and re-assembly of equipment.

Normally, samples of target fouling are gathered and lab testing is completed in order to determine the most effective cleaning chemistry. All factors such as system metallurgy, flow rates, degrees of fouling and operational parameters are taken into consideration by Evergreen's project manager prior to final recommendation.

Evergreen utilizes state-of-the-art equipment that is custom tailored to deliver quality cleaning with ease and effectiveness. Evergreen supervisors and technicians are among the most experienced in the industry and have access to volumes of proprietary cleaning formulations that can handle the most difficult cleaning challenges.

Tank Cleaning and Waste Minimization

Evergreen provides a turnkey service for tank cleaning and waste minimization. Its highly experienced project managers provide safe and cost-effective tank cleaning methods and processing using the latest in equipment and technology. With the robotic vapor tight cleaning system (RVTC) and 300 gpm centrifuge capability, Evergreen's clients are provided solutions best suited to their high-risk tank cleaning requirements. The high-volume centrifuges also allow for increased production from product recovery to waste minimization.

Each tank cleaning project is custom engineered to reduce tank downtime and minimize risk and waste - an expectation Evergreen meets or exceeds every time.

In addition, Evergreen's belt press and filter press technology, floating dredges (for pond and basin cleaning) and waste transportation (roll-off box service) provide the company's team with the tools it needs to complete projects in the most efficient way possible.

The tank cleaning equipment utilized by Evergreen's crews reduces employee exposure to hazardous vapors, increases efficiency and offers applications best suited to a project's needs.

Turnaround Services

Evergreen recommends ON POINT™ turnaround services as the preferred method of completing large complex shutdowns ahead of schedule and budget.

ON POINT™ is a complete integration of:
- Evergreen's turnkey cleaning systems.
- Advanced planning and scheduling systems.
- Execution of QA/QC procedures.
- Project specific performance pricing and guarantees.
- Development and integration of task specific safety parameters.

Evergreen has a proven success record using ON POINT™, including its success on the largest turnaround on the Houston Ship Channel in 2005, which was completed 30 percent below budget.

As part of this approach, Evergreen uses Six Sigma methodologies, which reduce variation and increase efficiencies. The company employs the only certified Six Sigma Black Belt in the industry, Rick Pitman, vice president of business development.

The more variation a system has, the more likely the system will suffer from communication errors, overlapping components and results that miss the target. All of this costs the customer additional money.

Six Sigma methods identify process variation and money-wasting defects within systems so that service runs more smoothly and cost efficiently. Measuring outputs and designing control systems to sustain improvements versus baseline values is the key to long-term success. Companies such as Motorola, General Electric and DuPont have credited Six Sigma programs with saving them billions of dollars. It only makes sense to use these tools to deliver superior, cost-effective industrial cleaning solutions.

Putting the Customer First

In addition to its line of industrial cleaning services, Evergreen provides an even more important service - customer service. Evergreen provides the highest quality of service because that is what customers need and deserve. Teamwork is a key factor in Evergreen's success in the customer service arena, and its people are the key driver behind that success. Their levels of professionalism, training and, most of all, pride in delivering the best possible job set Evergreen apart from the crowd. Evergreen's team is headed by CEO Jon Hodges, who is committed to assembling top-notch, experienced personnel to spearhead his company's success. The company's management and sales personnel alone has more than 100 years' experience. Hodges has assembled a team of the "best and brightest" in the industry - people with a wide variety of expertise and experience who are committed to building a company that is the model for industrial cleaning. "Our goal is to be recognized as being the very best at what we do," Hodges said. "Our people are the main reason we have doubled in size in the last two years while maintaining superior safety and service quality." "Evergreen's team is very customer-focused, and we have a long-standing relationship with them. Their managers want to know how their employees are doing, and the company is very responsive to our needs," said Carlos Mata, maintenance manager for Sterling Chemicals in Texas City, Texas.

Evergreen works as an on-site contractor for Sterling, providing hydroblasting, chemical cleaning and vacuum truck services. "In turnaround situations, Evergreen has the ability to staff up very quickly. If we have a special job or turnaround, Evergreen can have 60 people on site quickly," Mata said. This type of customer-focused service is the standard for Evergreen. The company strives to not only meet customers' expectations, but to exceed them. "Evergreen recently executed the maintenance turnaround in one of our units, with several crews here around the clock for two weeks pressure blasting," Mata said. "They had no injuries, stayed on schedule and overall have done a really good job. "Evergreen provides customer-focused, cost-effective service, along with consistently demonstrating good safety performance."

Setting a Safety Standard

Evergreen leads the industry in developing and providing its employees and clients with the most advanced safety processes and safety tools. It is dedicated to taking proactive stances in the area of safety. The company's dedication has garnered tangible results in the form of several prestigious safety awards, including these recent honors:

- 2005 Houston Business Roundtable Safety Excellence Award.
- 2005 NPRA Contractor Merit Award.
- 2005 Industiral Safety Training Council Contractor Merit Award.
- 2005 Association of Chemical Industry of Texas Supplier of the Year.

In addition, Evergreen has experienced more than 1 million man-hours without a lost work case and hasn't had an OSHA recordable in approximately two-and-a-half years.
Evergreen's safety program centers around three main points: behavior-based safety, process safety and engineering controls.

As an example, if an employee wants to deviate from a safety policy, he is required to get the signature of the site manager, the safety director and the CEO. The person will be asked what he is going to do to compensate for the deviation. It may take extra time during the preplanning stage to get the signatures and some running around, but even if the task takes only 30 minutes in the end, that doesn't matter.

"Safety is the cornerstone of our company culture," said Craig Byard, Evergreen's vice president. "It is a commitment that we make to our employees as well as their families that we will only work according to the highest safety standards."

All Evergreen employees must conduct their duties and responsibilities in compliance with applicable law and industry standards relating to health and safety in the workplace and prevention or pollution to the environment.

Evergreen also continuously evaluates the health, safety and environmental aspects of its products and services. It recognizes that HS&E management is good business, and as in other areas of its business, Evergreen is committed to continual improvement of these practices. The company's safety program is built on corporate commitment, accountability, consistency, program integrity and personnel training.

In addition to getting everyone home safely each day, Evergreen's commitment to safety affects the customers' bottom line. Safety incidents, especially where serious injury occurs, can shut down a job until people are treated and initial investigations are performed. Implementing corrective actions and waiting for replacement personnel also delays production, costing valuable time and money.

"It's been almost 1,000 days since our last OSHA recordable," Pitman said. "That also means it's been almost 1,000 days since a customer's operations have been held up by an Evergreen safety incident."

Elements of Evergreen's award-winning safety program include:
- 40 hours of classroom and hands-on training before beginning work.
- Methods to visually identify newer workers so that they can be given extra help and coaching in the field.
- Daily review and feedback program for new hires with built-in pay increases for achievement.
- Prejob safety analysis prior to every job and every shift specific to the service being performed.
- Job safety observations - tracking and identifying trends so that potential issues can be addressed and proactively solved.
- Mechanically attached safety devices such as the Safe Hands™ device - with this device in place water cut potential on lance jobs is reduced to zero.
- Activity-based incentive programs.

Evergreen's safety performance has not gone unnoticed. Mata said safety is good business and is good for business, and his company wants to work with companies that demonstrate a very strong safety performance.

"In turnaround mode, with tight budgets and schedule, you want to use people you can trust," he said. "Evergreen has a top-down commitment to safety; the company's management demonstrates that safety commitment. You always see a safety manager out here on site, and the foreman and other employees are properly trained and also required to undergo refresher training."

"Compliance alone is not good enough," said Ed Harrington, Evergreen's safety director. "We strive to consistently exceed the federal, state and industry safety standards." "There are other companies to pick from," Mata said, "but I have to consider Evergreen's safety performance year in and year out. I also know them very well and know that they provide a good value for us."

Case Study: Nova Chemicals Turnaround

Using its ON POINT™ system, Evergreen completed a turnaround at NOVA Chemicals, the largest turnaround on the Houston Ship Channel last year. Originally budgeted for 23,000 man-hours, Evergreen completed the turnaround within 20,000 man-hours, saving valuable time and money. The turnaround was also completed with zero OSHA recordables, a testament to Evergreen's commitment to safety.

Evergreen had been a secondary contractor on NOVA's previous turnaround, and due to its performance, was chosen as the primary contractor this time around. Evergreen's process efficiencies led to a significant reduction in the overall spending compared to the previous turnaround.

As the sole provider of industrial cleaning throughout the turnaround, Evergreen performed mainly hydroblasting, as well as ultra-high cutting and vacuum truck services. While on site for the turnaround work, Evergreen was also called to perform on NOVA's beam expansion.

Evergreen benchmarked the entire turnaround, breaking the jobs down to chart any possible problems or delays, listing all the equipment cleaned, etc. This allowed Evergreen to turn over a final report to NOVA, giving the company a better baseline for future turnarounds.

"Using the key performance indicators from this last turnaround as a baseline, we are already meeting with NOVA and forming strategies to increase efficiency for the next shutdown," Pitman said.

"Given the size and complexity of our turnaround and major capital project, Evergreen impressed us with the level of turnaround management skills and execution resources they employ," said Jay Hughes, maintenance manager for NOVA Chemicals.

"These skills, in collaboration with our planning and scheduling team, were instrumental in finishing their scope of work ahead of schedule and below budget," Hughes said.
"We were particularly impressed with the dedication and determination of Evergreen's field supervision to work the plan and do it safely," Hughes said.

"There was a lot of planning that went into this turnaround," Evergreen's Dwayne Green said. "We told NOVA that we could do it, and we got it done, exceeding their expectations."

Exceeding Expectations ... Again

After completing a successful turnaround project at Solutia Chemical, personnel there were impressed with Evergreen's performance. "Solutia proposed a very aggressive performance-driven contract that Evergreen not only accepted but was more than willing to accept to show that they not only understood the premise of performance-based contracts, but knew they could benefit from such an agreement - which they did by meeting and exceeding all the targets that we set for them," said Greg Stadtler, regional industrial services sector lead for Solutia. "Solutia's AN 2 shutdown is always a challenge for cleaning contractors due to the type of deposits and the compressed schedule that is necessary to complete this shutdown as planned," said Donald Brown, AN turnaround coordinator for Solutia. "Evergreen showed that they have the planning and execution skills necessary to not only meet the aggressive schedule and budget, but most impressive was their commitment to safety and service quality," Brown said. Other industrial facilities have seen the results that Evergreen provides its clients. "Best of all, we save money. At the end of the first year, we saved over 30 percent in spending from the previous year. They (Evergreen) are very responsive to our needs and requests," said Travis Besselman, purchasing manager for Valero Refining in Houston. As it continues on its trailblazing path, setting the standard in industry, Evergreen remains committed to its mission statement - to be successful with professional personnel safely meeting its clients' highest expectations with integrity, accountability and adaptability.

 

For more information, please call (281) 478-5800 or E-mail Evergreen at
Solutions@Evergreenes.com