Randy Ames (President) answers "Why does it matter what we do?"
2/14/2022
The following write-up is the result of a simple question posed by a business consultant to company president, Randy Ames, during a review period to revamp their hiring process.
Question: Who is Ames?
Randy Ames: Ames Electrical Consulting, Inc.
We are a service oriented company whether I like it or not. We serve our customers. Our customers depend on us to get things done right and on the first try. We prove that to them over and over again that we do this really well. This is why they keep coming back. They know we are dependable. We still have customers that have been with us since the mid 1990’s.
Why what we do matters: As the world struggles with figuring out how to deal with the current reduced labor market, pandemic, food shortages, and environmental concerns, Ames Electrical Consulting, Inc. is on the front lines helping companies and businesses solve these problems for these crises now and into the future.
Pandemic: Long term customer (23 years) needs to ramp up throughput on their production lines for the elastic band for their contract for N-95 masks. Ames works with them to upgrade a system from failing, obsolete controls with multiple electrical, safety violations to a PLC Controlled system with increased safety and operator information. This results in increased production line uptime, increased operator awareness thus reducing product quality issues, and increased maintenance safety providing a safer work environment at a time when the world needs these critical safety masks. Ames cares about people and helps to save lives. It matters to us.
Food Shortage: Food manufacturer (commercial baked goods) struggles with trying to keep their older machinery running and keeps experiencing long downtimes due to obsolete PLC’s and Drives (20+ years). This is a constant battle for them and their only short term solution is to continue to “swap out parts”. Ames develops and engineers the migration path for all of their systems. This immediately reduces downtime and increases their production throughput. Ames cares about making sure people have enough food to eat. It matters to us.
Environmental Concerns: Water/Wastewater - Ames has been a leader in small cities and towns municipal wastewater and water facilities since the year 2000. Most of the small municipal wastewater plants were built in the 1970’s and 1980’s. These plants all have to maintain their required permits according to EPA and other state mandates. Many of these plants don’t have the municipal funding that would be required to update their facilities to meet current standards. Ames has been called on multiple times to “think outside the box” to work with these Cities and Towns to find creative ways to reduce the overall costs to the town but still meeting the requirements set by EPA. Ames cares about making sure the planet’s rivers are clean and people have good drinking water. It matters to us.
Nuclear Power Generation – The Majority of the Nuclear Power Gen plants in the US were built in the 1970’s. At that time, they used automated control systems for certain functions of the plant. Since 2000, Ames has been called upon to help support migration of these older systems, many of which are beginning to fail and not be 100% functional, per NRC regulations. Through developing new custom automation control systems, we are migrating that older technology into systems that will last another 20-30 years. This greatly reduces strain on the facility and actually allows the plant to operate more efficiently than it had prior, through newer technology. Ames cares about providing clean energy to power your homes, extending the life of the facilities and thus creating new, high paying jobs, and reducing environmental risk hazards. It matters to us.
Who is your customer: Somedays it’s the large conglomerates that provide energy and electricity to your homes or food for your table. Somedays, it’s the small mom and pop manufacturing company that bags candy or makes candles, or farm raises fish. Sometimes we are working to upgrade a machine that makes golf balls, or Play-Doh, or plastic film, or a special coating for paper that is used for lottery tickets. Most times, it’s a combination of any one of those industries in any given week. But they all have one thing in common. They all need to automate their control systems and they need to keep their systems running. Without Ames to support them, there is no more power in your homes AND no more candles. Without Ames to support farm raised fish, we will out fish our planet. Without Ames and our support for factories and automation, we will lose many of our luxuries we have come to know.
Ames Electrical Consulting, Inc. Growth Plan: Ames is strategically planning for its next 30 years of growth. As many of our competitors are staying complacent and riding out the current crises, here and abroad, Ames is taking this opportunity to review how we do business and sees tremendous potential to take the company to the next level.
We are planning to triple our staff in 3 years, both in the engineering/tech side and the panel shop. Our UL508A certified industrial control panel shop has seen over 500% growth in production over the past 2 years. This is due to our increased focus on providing contract manufacturing for repeat control systems. We have 4 companies currently under contract and are actively growing this part of our business.
We have recently developed a training program to provide continual education and training on the latest control systems to make sure all of our technicians are cross trained over manufacturing platforms. This is for CAD, PLC, HMI, and Drives.
We are investing in new software platforms that will continue to create efficiencies in our daily work lives. This includes new quoting and MRP software, as well as CAD.
As manufacturing in the US continues to start back up after the pandemic, we are seeing an increase in requests for support. This means continued growth for Ames.
Since the founding of the company, the majority of our customer base has been in the I-91 Corridor between Vt and CT. Over the past 3 years, we have developed many new customers in the central and eastern part of MA, heading as far as the 495 Corridor. This request for work in that area dictates an underserved population that needs support.
Ames is a forward thinking company and understands that our employees are the backbone of our company. Ames carries a great benefit package for a small, family owned company including employer paid health care, gym memberships, paid vacations and sick/personal days, company matching retirement plan, and more.