After 50 years in the business, one of EAD’s most loyal clients in the parcel / logistics industries has managed to revolutionize global business practices and now defines the market standard for speedy and reliable package deliveries. Renowned for their overnight shipping service and for pioneering the industry’s first real-time package tracking system, the company realized that their outdated controls systems posed an immediate risk to their daily operations and position as a market leader.
Thanks to our brownfield expertise successfully designing and executing fast-tracked projects, our client selected EAD as the trusted advisor and engineering partner for a $60MM controls modernization project. The scope of the project included program administration, designing the upgrade of their controls automation systems, procuring equipment, and managing construction at their 24-hour package sorting hubs at over 10 key airports across the nation.
As part of the project requirements, our client required that their sorting systems maintain 100% throughput during the controls conversion. However, because our client needed to reach 4 million customers on a daily basis, they could not provide EAD with the standard operational downtime needed to perform the modernization.
Therefore, in order to deliver upon the project requirements, EAD developed an innovative phased design approach. Using 24-hour construction windows phased over over two-to-three year periods of time, we were able to complete the project work without major disruption to our client’s daily business operations.
Surpassing our clients needs.
In line with our client’s directive, we made sure that construction work only happened during the week during very limited non-production windows. We also ensured that cut-overs were limited to one 24-hour window each week because at the end of the 24 hours, all of our client’s systems had to be operational to support the sorting of 10,000 packages before the arrival of the next plane.
Throughout the project, EAD frequently communicated with key stakeholders utilizing the latest software, including Bluebeam, for real time studio reviews and Procore (a construction project management tool) to allow all stakeholders full visibility on the project. This made it possible for our client to view any of the thousands of drawings that the EAD design team was required to complete for the project at any location or at any time of day.
When the client challenged EAD to further accelerate the design process, EAD successfully managed a condensed work schedule to ensure the delivery of timely and high-quality deliverables. The large scale of the project and small margin for error also proved important to the project’s success. EAD’s project management team managed the work based on LEAN principles and our stringent quality control methodology.The new automation design and equipment modernization greatly improved the reliability and performance of our client’s 10 facilities nationwide.
In an industry where competition is intense, our client continues to seek the expertise of EAD to ensure its facilities have modern systems. Impressed by the way EAD managed to accomplish the work under an accelerated schedule, the client continues to collaborate with EAD in multiple projects to this day.
Project Highlights
EAD developed an innovative phased project approach to complete the project under limited operational downtimes
EAD’s design team developed thousands of drawings for our client’s multiple project sites
EAD was responsible for modernizing the controls systems at our client’s multiple sorting facilities to ensure 100% throughput
EAD managed the project and communicated with project stakeholders using state-of-the art technologies
When the client accelerated the design schedule, EAD still managed to produce a high quality deliverable and meet all schedule and budget requirements
Through our successful system modernization, EAD managed to improve the efficiency of our client’s sort systems
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