U.S. Pipe Streamlines CapEx, Offboarding, More

TL;DR

_ too long; didn’t read _

Before Nutrient Workflow, U.S Pipe’s processes were manual and slow. Nutrient Workflow was able to scale throughout the multiple locations and provide a centralized solution. They took their original need for automation from just CapEx to other departments such as IT, HR, Supply Chain, and Safety and now have improved overall communication throughout the organization.

Background

Originally incorporated in 1899 as United States Cast Iron Pipe and Foundry Company (the “Cast Iron” has since been dropped) the incorporation consolidated 12 companies located in eight states. Since then, the company has continued to acquire companies and expand its operations, becoming the largest domestic producer of Ductile Iron pipe, which is superior in strength to cast iron, and was the first in the industry to use Ductile Iron exclusively for all its pressure pipe and fittings.

U.S. Pipe continues to lead the industry through the principles the company was established on over 100 years ago: Innovation, Service and Quality. But what really sets U.S. Pipe apart isn’t just their pipe. It’s all the other superior products offered to serve the water and wastewater industry. From restrained joints to welded outlets and fittings, U.S. Pipe has been providing dependable and economical solutions for their customers for over 100 years.

Finding a Better Way

Finding a workflow management solution that could be deployed and managed with internal resources became a priority. After reviewing several different new workflow management vendors, they chose Nutrient Workflow in July of 2013.

“The ability to create and manage our workflows without a lot of third-party help was very attractive. It was easy to learn by diving right into the program.”

“We liked the environment and the support options available with Nutrient Workflow”, says Mike Ebner, an IT Manager for U.S. Pipe. “The ability to create and manage our workflows without a lot of third-party help was very attractive. It was easy to learn by diving right into the program.”

Initially, U.S. Pipe had been using a manual capital expenditure requisition process that was unwieldy and slow. The company was clearly a great candidate for an automated workflow solution. Once the CapEx workflow was rolled out and running, use of Nutrient Workflow began to grow into other departments and functions including IT, HR, Supply Chain and Safety.

Making Safety Reporting Easier

To help automate the safety program, Mike worked with stakeholders from U.S. Pipe’s Alabama Works plants to come up with a system for handling safety incident reporting on the floor. “We were looking to create a workflow that was both effective and efficient.” Ebner stated. “If a safety incident were to occur in the plant, any supervisor can use our internal intranet site to report an incident by completing a short form from their desk.” Based on workflow rules, safety incidents are logged and emailed out to relevant managers throughout the company who need to be informed.

Connecting All Locations

Managing disparate locations around the country presents unique challenges. Consistency and scalability of standardized processes can be very difficult. However, Nutrient Workflow is helping U.S. Pipe not just standardize their processes, but automating those critical processes to help keep things moving throughout the organization.

“We were looking to create a workflow that was both effective and efficient.”

Today, all of U.S. Pipe’s different locations use Nutrient Workflow in some capacity. For instance, all locations use Nutrient Workflow for their CapEx requests and employee offboarding processes.

Just the act of bringing in a workflow management solution like Nutrient Workflow has improved communication throughout US Pipe. “Sometimes, just talking through the processes and getting everyone involved as you go along helps people see the bigger picture”, Ebner says. “People know what they do but they don’t always think about the other people involved in a process and how it all ties together.”

With a wide variety of workflow processes already built, U.S. Pipe sees many more to come thanks to the scalability, flexibility and ease of use of the Nutrient Workflow solution.