UPI celebrated yet another Annual Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) week in February. It started off a few years ago when some employees heard about The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation which has a mission to make kindness the norm in our schools, workplaces, homes and communities. The mission directly relates to one of the UPI Values – CARING. Therefore, it was easy to get a group of volunteers together and dedicate a week to promote kindness and taking care of each other. This year the initiatives included: – Employees and their families baked and donated goodies that were sent to our our crew ..read more

After 5 years of working in a double wide trailer next to busy I-80, the Chicago Region has finally found a building to call their own. The new building is located in the Village of Newark, about 20 miles northeast of their prior location in Morris, IL. The steel pole building is 9600 square feet and sits on 3 acres. The 6600 sq.ft shop/warehouse is ideal for storage, preparing for projects and setting up dig trailers. With 22-foot ceilings and a garage door on each end, it is the perfect setup for pulling in large pieces of equipment for maintenance. The other 3000 sq.ft of finished space has ..read more

My ongoing safety moment: STOP WORK is more than a phrase, it is everyone’s responsibility. A simple or significant pause during the workday to make sure everyone is on the right page is within everyone’s right and I will always support your decision to do so. No matter what! As you plan your day, how would you look at your Job Safety Analysis if your family was working alongside you? Your young son or daughter? The health of our team continues to be a priority. COVID is still present, mental health and depression is prevalent in our personal lives, and stress is a daily obstacle. Work-life ba ..read more

The Fabrication Shop has begun implementing the LEAN Principle to create a more productive and efficient work environment. By eliminating unnecessary equipment and unused material, we have opened up new areas within the shop to store and organize daily used items for quicker access. While the process has just begun within the shop, we plan to continue utilizing the LEAN Principles throughout the yard as well. Before LEAN After LEAN The post LEAN Fabrication Shop appeared first on Piping Hot News ..read more

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and is rejuvenated for the excitement of the new year! We remain very optimistic for the new year. Pricing opportunities continue to keep us busy and confident we will have a successful year. We recently celebrated Safety and Quality day and it remains our primary focus to get everyone home safely each day to their families. We must continually challenge ourselves and those we work near to identify risks and hazards with a skeptical eye. Never assume all the risks are identified and make every day a teaching opportunity. Please commit to documenting safe ..read more

Despite all the challenges 2020 brought, there were some very bright spots this past holiday season and we thank those that joined us in giving back. Across our regions, we were able to support our local dedicated front-line healthcare workers and many individuals and families in need. The spirit of giving within the UPI family is always amazing. Thank you to all! We’re looking forward to being able to continue giving back this year and supporting our neighbors and friends in the communities we work in. DULUTH The Duluth Office raised money to support those on the front-line of fighting Covid ..read more

I’d like to start my operations update by talking about Safety. UPI went 22 months without a recordable incident. We need to get back to zero again. I believe safety is a choice that everyone needs to make for themselves, and a commitment we each make to each other. Don’t take shortcuts. If you have questions, ask them. Keep an eye on each other. Be diligent and keep situational awareness high. Work safely today, and then come back and do it again tomorrow. We have been doing a really good job at managing COVID on our jobsites. The key is keeping 6’ of distance when the tasks will allow it. I ..read more

COMPLACENCY AND FINISHING THE YEAR SAFELY It’s no secret that we’re not having the success we saw last year when it comes to safety. It’s been a reality check and we will work hard to get better. We need to get better. Please place an even higher emphasis on safety as we finish the year. We all want to see 2020 in the rearview mirror; however, we need to stay focused on the task at hand. Below are some questions to ask yourselves each day to combat complacency on the jobsite. We know we can be incident free if we are committed to zero. We have reached zero before and will again. The post Safe ..read more

Steer Donation For the 7th year in a row UPI Superintendent Rich Oswskey attended the Douglas County Beef Improvement Association’s annual Youth Livestock Auction and purchased a steer that was raised for the auction by a local youth association member. Youths ages 8-21 raise livestock to be sold at auction and they work with their animals throughout the year to get ready for the show. The purchased steer was then processed into ground beef and UPI donated the ground beef to a local food shelf at the Faith United Methodist Church in Superior, WI. Approximately 500 pounds of ground beef was don ..read more

Safety Opportunity Program Our Safety Opportunity Program is a hybrid safety observation and hazard identification program. It encourages employees to identify behavior-based safety observations and hazardous conditions and to correct the situation. Safety Opportunities are documented on our Safety Opportunity form. They are then sent to the Safety Department where they are reviewed, assigned points based on hazard mitigated, and tracked in our Safety Opportunity database. Employees’ points are tracked on pay. Stop Work Authority  We have noticed, through observations and our Safety Oppo ..read more