Managing Your Pump Station Project

When you’re getting a pump station complete and in the ground, it can be a lot to handle. You have to source all the pump station components from all sorts of different vendors. You have to check the pump submittals from the pump supplier. You have to check the electrical submittals and have a registered electrician on site to ensure the controls work as intended. You have to schedule the wet well supplier to arrive once the excavation is ready. You have to determine everything about the project is up to its specification and works how it was contracted. On and on and on… But what if you didn’t? 

What if you could get a dedicated project management team? A team that’s for your project from the purchase order, all the way through to start-up. At Excel Fluid Group, our dedicated project management team is ingrained in your project from start to finish. We can work with the customer (whether it’s the contractor, project engineer, and/or end user) to sort out the fine details of the project and they work directly with our engineering, purchasing, accounting, and production teams to get you the smoothest packaged product. We’ll keep you up-to-date throughout the project on each step along the way. Our team has set daily tasks for every project their assigned and we’ll review the progress each week in our weekly management meeting and weekly reports. In this blog, we’ll break down each of the steps our Project Management team takes when handling your packaged pump station project.

Your Dedicated Project’s Project Manager

Your Pump Station Project Manager from Start to Finish

Let’s start by defining what we’re talking about when we say, “packaged pump station.”  As mentioned in our What to Expect When Receiving a Packaged Pump Station blog post, the specifics can vary depending on the project design, but the main idea is to provide you with a prefabricated and factory tested pump station, complete with assembled components, ready to seamlessly connect to new or existing storm or sewer lines. These all-in-one solutions are designed to eliminate any gaps in the project scope, ensuring quicker and more efficient submittals and installation times.

A member of our project management team will be assigned to your packaged pump station project and will be your single point of contact throughout the whole experience. To start, our team will have a kick-off meeting where they get all the details about the project and the agreement from the sale representative. This will be our team's moment to sort out the contracts and paperwork. This can include supplier portal access needs, timeline concerns, company specific requirements, insurance obligations, and so much more. Our team is ISO9001 verified, and we have a control panel manufacturing center certified for UL508 and UL698A panel production in the shop. At this stage of the project, the project manager will loop in any specific parties like them who will have a part in your pump station design and build.

Define Your Pump Station Project Technical Requirements

To ensure we deliver the pump station you’re expecting, our team will work with you to refine the scope of the project. We will use this information as the agreed upon source of truth throughout the project unless otherwise overruled with a change order later in the process.

• Electrical: This is where we confirm what electrical components are in and around the control panel.

• Mechanical: This is for selecting what piping, valves, and other requirements (including component materials) are used within your system.

• Structural: Here, we identify and verify what wet well type your design will be along with any enclosure setup that is requested.

• Hydraulic: In this section, we explore and confirm the pump requirements for the application and confirm the wet well size and piping diameter are cohesive.

• Buoyancy: When required, we thoroughly examine the site elevations and wet well buoyancy requirements to make sure with the incredible underground pressures that your wet well doesn’t adjust or float once installed. This is all certified with a 3rd Party P.E. review for peace of mind.

• Orientation: We double check the design orientation matches the site plans to make sure our prefabricated design fits as needed once it arrives to site.

Pump Station Project Submittals

Once your pump station project’s technical requirements are confirmed, then our team will develop a single source submittal for you to review. Depending on your project complexities, our submittals provide 10-500 pages of specifications on every detail of your project. This one packet can be review at a single time to confirm every individual component on your pump station. From your technical requirements, this is where you’ll receive details on your electrical, mechanical, structural, hydraulic, buoyancy, and orientation project needs.

Additionally, you can expect to receive a scope of the work we’ve agreed upon and a 3D drawing of the project for reference. Our drawings are not just box representations. We have a library of Solidworks files that we use to show you exactly how your pump station layout will be completed. If there turns out to be a discrepancy or a change in the submittal packet, your dedicated Project Manager will continue to work with you during the re-submittal process to know where the hang up to your project lay. This can also be where we can expedite where possible and as needed to get your project to your job site when you need it. 

Packaged Pump Station Purchasing

Once we’ve received approval from you and clarified and comments or adjustments that are needed, then our project management team will coordinate with our purchasing team. Our purchasing team will work from the same Bill of Materials (BOM) that made the submittal package. We then use our expansive list of OEM agreements we have throughout the country to include in our packaged pump station solutions. In the times when needed, we can source specialty or specific products to complete your specifications. Throughout this process the purchasing team will communicate any delays or incoming product updates to the project manager. The project manager will then include these within any regular updates on the project to you throughout the process.

Packaged Pump Station Production

After components arrive in our Cleveland, Ohio warehouse, then our project manager will typically hold a Production Hand-Off Meeting with the production staff. Continuing as your champion throughout the process, your project manager will approve all production packages before they hit the production floor. We do this because the person who has been with your project from the beginning (your project manager) is there to make sure it’s right once it gets turned into reality. From there our dedicated production management and production staff will work through the pump station drawings, bill of materials, and anything else needed to produce your packaged system. However, all communication on the project will still funnel through your dedicated project manager. They will work to defend your project timeline with the other projects on the production floor and will give you updates along the way.

Once the pump station is made, we’ll complete our Internal Testing Process (ITP). As part of our ISO9001 certified process, our team will perform electrical testing between your control panel and your project specific pumps. This ensures that once everything arrives on site, it’ll work as intended. Additionally, our team will perform dimension verification between the 3D Solidworks drawing and the real life pump station to make sure everything lines up as expected. While it’s not a requirement, customer witness testing in our Cleveland, OH facility is available when necessary.

Pump Station Installation and Start Up

Pump Station Shipping Coordination

When your packaged pump station is tested and confirmed to be ready, your project manager will work with you to coordinate shipping. This will include confirming the site address, any site restrictions we should be aware of, a site contact, when you want it to arrive and any lifting documentation we think you might need.

Additionally, we can have a discussion on your lifting requirement and rigging requirements to get your wet well and enclosure installed as designed. This discussion is your time to voice any questions or concerns on the installation process and we’ll provide clarifications through our 30+ years of pump station experience.

Pump Station Start Up Process

Lastly, before you and your project manager go your separate ways, they’ll work with you to coordinate the start up of your pump station when needed. In order to perform the start up your pump station must have power going to the site and specifically to the control panel and everything within the design has to be installed, backfilled, and ready to go online. Your project manager will schedule our service team to meet at your pump station and get you up and running. Once you’re up and running, feel free to reach out for any project documentation through your project manager. We maintain all of our project records in an easy to navigate database where we can communicate historical project information.