CCS Group, LLC • 855-752-5047 • http://www.ccsgrouponline.com
Reprinted from Grain Journal July/August 2016 Issue
In a safety article published in the March/April 2014 issue, Grain Journal reported on the dangers and frequency of grain bin failures. As aging infrastructure continues to be an issue that grain elevator operators must address, CCS Group, LLC in Seward, NE stands ready to help blend today’s technology with yesterday’s structures to ensure safety for all.
CCS provides a wide variety of grain elevator maintenance and repair services nationwide, including shotcrete/gunite liners, hopper repair and installation, concrete crack and spalling repair, catastrophic failure, and silo assessment services. The company also offers specialty services using carbon fiber including beam pocket repair, cornice repair, cold joint repair, and steel pipe repair.
The company opened its doors in 2009 with just a handful of employees serving customers throughout Nebraska, before expanding quickly across the Midwest and the entire United States.
“We provide service nationwide, but also we have expanded into international markets such as work in Nairobi, Kenya, and looking at some other international opportunities,” explains President and CEO Cheyenne Wohlford. “A lot has changed since day one, from just working in sections of Nebraska or the Midwest to working throughout the country, from port to port and everywhere in between.”
Safety and Integrity
The success of CCS can be traced directly to its dedication to making sure people are safe, as well as the company’s involvement with customers through every step of a project. Communication plays a huge role in that process, and it’s one of the reasons Wohlford believes customers have been so responsive to the company’s approach to business.
“A lot of the feedback that we’re getting from customers about what makes us different is the level of professionalism that is displayed from the start to the end of a project,” says Wohlford.
“We’re involved heavily in every aspect – be it a pre-construction meeting or daily [job safety analysis (JSA)] meeting that our staff holds onsite. Not only do we meet as a group every morning and conduct a JSA for every project, but also we involve the staff at the facilities we’re working in just to notify them of where we are, such as what we’ll be doing for the day and what safety aspects we’ll be dealing with.”
This high level of communication begins at the onset of each project and continues all the way to the very end, when CCS reviews with the client any problems encountered and the changes made throughout the project.
Wohlford notes that there are times the company has encountered situations where a portion of a facility didn’t require the requested repairs, and CCS ended up backing out of those portions of the project saving the customers money that didn’t need to be spent.
“The customers say, ‘wow! You could have flown that under the radar without us knowing and charged for it,’” he says.
Case in point: Wohlford recalls a scenario where a competitor told a customer he needed to install 10 gunite liners in his facility to the tune of nearly $1 million. Having called CCS Group for an estimate on the repairs, Wohlford says he was “a little suspicous as to why they were asking us to do gunite-repaired liners. I took it a step further and scanned all of their silos, then sent the report to a third-party engineer, who discovered that they only needed to line four of those 10 silos. We were able to save that customer approximately $600,000,” he explains.
Going the Extra Mile
The company takes pride in going the extra mile, when it is called out to do a bid or inspect a facility, according to Wohlford. Not only will CCS inspect a silo for repairs that have been requested, but will also take all of the information gathered during its fact-finding mission and generate a report based on pictures, measurements, and even rebar scans to show customers exactly what might be wrong structurally with their facility.
This three-part report, which includes CCS’ observations, its recommendations, and a quote to complete the repairs, is given to customers to help them make informed decisions about where their money ought to be spent.
“We even allow our customers to send off those first two pieces of that information out for bid, if they would like,” Wohlford adds. “We tell them, ‘we have no problem with you sending our report to competitors for bidding on our rebar findings.’ Giving customers c a true apples-to-apples comparison simplifies the bidding process by allowing them to compare and contrast bids for the exact same scenario,” he explains.
“I think that’s why our customer loyalty has increased significantly. We’re willing to do that instead showing up at their facility and saying, ‘I’ve been doing this for 30 years – this is what you need to do.’”
The reason CCS goes to such great lengths to ensure customers satisfaction comes back to its commitment to safety, which is the backbone of its business.
“We have one of the lowest [experience modification rates] in the industry,” Wohlford points out. “We pride ourselves on that. We truly care about our employees and their families and making sure that they return home safely at the end of the day. That’s what we do.”
Diversifying the Business
In addition to structural repairs, CCS also offers hopper installation and repairs, a segment of the business that was the result of disastrous consequences. “That section of our business really began with the tragic deaths of a couple individuals at some facilities, where people made a stand and said, ‘We’re no longer going to send people into the bins to clean them. We’re going to make a financial investment in putting sloped hoppers into every one of our flat-bottom bins,’” he says.
Wohlford notes that hopper installation has become a significant portion of CCS’ business. In addition to hopper installations, CCS is one of the few companies that utilizes carbon fiber to complete structural repairs in grain silos. “Carbon fiber repairs require less installation time and minimal capacity loss in comparison with traditional structural repairs,” he says.
Extending beyond the grain industry, CCS is a full-service dealer and parts provider for REED concrete pumps offering services, sales, and rentals throughout the Midwest and Mountain regions. It exclusively uses REED pumps in its own fleet providing contracting services for shotcrete and specialty applications. The company’s knowledgeable staff is able to service and troubleshoot problems successfully and is fully stocked with inventory that allows CCS to accommodate all parts, supplies, and material requests. CCS Group represents many products, including Spec Mix, Fritz-Pak, Conforms, Allied Mineral, Quikrete, Enviro Systems, and many more.
Wohlford says the company also employs a full line of ACI-certified (American Concrete Institute) nozzlemen on staff and offers ACI nozzlemen certification training classes several times a year.
Having skilled, highly-educated employees able to do every facet of repairs enables them to go from grain elevators one month to working inside heated power plants during winter months, Wohlford notes.
“The diversification of CCS has provided year-round work for our employees and avenues to further their skill development. This, in turn, has led to a reduction in safety-related incidents, increased quality control, and overall improvement in customer satisfaction. We, as a company, have and will continue to search for the safest, most technologically advanced, and efficient repair methods to restore our customers’ facilities,” Wohlford explains.
