It is the ongoing mission of Inglett & Stubbs to be the contractor that consistently exceeds its clients’ expectations. No matter the size of the job, the company has the resources to complete the work in a professional, thorough, timely, and cost-effective manner. We catch up with President, Miller Chalk, about its latest developments and strategy for the future.
A PROVEN PAST, A BRIGHT FUTURE
Our business is as strong as ever, and I’m told by our people that all the problems we are experiencing now are the kind that we have been looking to solve in our first seven decades of business.
“We celebrated our 70th anniversary this year, and the demand for our services is overwhelming, while our target markets are booming in Atlanta, and we are in a great position to begin work on a lot of exciting upcoming projects.”
As Miller Chalk, President, alludes to in his opening statement, Inglett & Stubbs is a recognized leader in the electrical construction industry.
Indeed, the company is consistently ranked in the top 50 electrical contractors in the US by EC&M magazine.
Remarkably, with a history of successful electrical construction projects spanning more than half a century, Inglett & Stubbs also enjoys the advantages of a dynamic team of young and seasoned professionals made up of electricians, technicians, foremen, engineers, project managers, and more.
“Our tradition of accomplishment and the sustained growth of our people have secured our position in the market and ensured a promising future for both Inglett & Stubbs and our customers,” Chalk sets out.
HISTORY OF SUCCESS
Founded in 1954, Inglett & Stubbs has since developed into one of the most progressive and innovative electrical contractors in Atlanta.
Historically, the company’s focus has been on the city’s metropolitan area, specializing in healthcare, commercial, industrial, institutional, telecommunications (telecoms), information technology (IT), and co-generation projects.
With its main headquarters located in Mableton, Georgia, the company now also specializes in hospitals, mission-critical projects, sports and entertainment, fiber and copper cabling, off-site construction, and preventative maintenance.
“In recent years, our expertise on high-end, technically challenging projects has resulted in securing contracts on both a national and international basis, and we emphasize cost efficiency within all of our work,” Chalk acclaims.
“Paired with our past performance and superior quality, this has resulted in a high percentage of our workload being negotiated,” he adds.
A team of expert foremen that are experienced in all aspects of electrical construction make up the heart of the company’s field operations, and many of these proficient professionals have been with Inglett & Stubbs for their entire careers.
As such, the company operates on the conviction that the electrical contractor is a key member of the construction team on any project.
“We know that all team members must work together to provide the best finished projects in the most cost-effective manner for the end user. We work with the most prominent architects, engineers, and general contractors in the US, and we constantly strive to maintain excellent relationships with our customers,” Chalk elaborates.
SAFETY FIRST
After acquiring vast levels of electrical experience, Inglett & Stubbs now impressively maintains a 0.69 experience modification rate (EMR) which gauges past injuries and future risk.
“We are proud that this rating lies well below the 1.0 EMR industry average,” Chalk shares.
“Our rating is kept low by maintaining safety as a priority and the main focus of our daily business. “We recognize that electrical power work remains within the Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s Focus Four Outreach Program and is consistently listed in the top 10 most dangerous occupations by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, so we strive every day to promote a safe work environment,” he details.
This relentless diligence begins with Inglett & Stubbs’ safety directors, instructors, and coordinators, and trickles down through each and every employee.
“Our proactive approach makes Inglett & Stubbs one of the safest contractors in the industry.”
The company is also now hosting training classes for its customers and others in the industry who are interested in understanding arc flash risks and the requirements of NFPA 70E and 70B.
TEAM ADVANCEMENT
Without a doubt, it’s the people at Inglett & Stubbs that continue to set the company apart and define its ongoing success.
“We have an incredible team and they have gotten even stronger over the past year through formal and informal development and strategic additions to the team. Alongside this, our alignment with our vision and values has grown as well,” Chalk tells us.
Drawing on a firm sense of unity in its senior leadership team, Inglett & Stubbs now finds itself a year and a half into working within its “System and Soul” business operations framework, which has helped the company to both become and stay aligned.
This successful framework is designed to support and grow both the system and the soul of a business to create key breakthroughs.
Growth creates complexity, and even the best teams struggle to be effective without a clear structure, direction, and collective goals.
Using this method of working, Inglett & Stubbs believes in helping its teams design clear structures and develop cadences for their most important activities.
“We do a great job at giving people the room and resources to empower themselves to make changes. We spend a lot of time trying to figure out new and improved ways to show recognition and appreciation, and we can and will do better in acknowledging and appreciating our teams that continue to make us shine,” he gushes.
DEVELOPING ATLANTA
Over the past 40 years, the Atlanta area has experienced heavy growth and expansion of its cultural centers, educational facilities, entertainment hubs, and sports venues.
Inglett & Stubbs has been honored to participate in the construction of many of these major iconic projects throughout the region.
“We have worked on constructing galleries and sports facilities, as well as the modernization of many of the best-known stadiums, museums, and performing arts centers statewide,” Chalk outlines.
“We at Inglett & Stubbs are continuously innovating, with state-of-the-art products and installation methods which allow us to meet the demands of building an array of unique signature facilities. We hold our construction methods, management systems, and field workforce to the highest standards so that we are prepared for the challenges that come with high-profile projects,” he confirms.
With a history that is unquestionably proven, the company has positioned itself to be a superior electrical contractor in the field of sports, entertainment, and cultural building construction for years to come.
HELPING UPGRADE HEALTHCARE
Healthcare is a critical and ever-present division of the electrical construction market.
Since its inception, Inglett & Stubbs has worked diligently to make this market segment a focal point of its business and has completed a wide variety of projects ranging from new hospitals to small one-room MRI additions.
Inglett & Stubbs works in most of the key medical facilities in metropolitan Atlanta and the surrounding areas, and on many hospital campuses the company maintains a full-time workforce to perform maintenance duties as well as ongoing construction projects.
In this way, the company has been maintaining several facilities for over 30 years, making customer satisfaction its highest priority.
As working in a healthcare facility requires a high level of expertise with contamination control measures, Inglett & Stubbs therefore keeps facilities fully functional during invasive renovations and works with existing electrical distribution systems to minimize downtime.
“We take great pride in our ability to perform and succeed in these highly technical and clinical environments,” Chalk affirms.
“We have developed long-standing relationships with our healthcare partners built on trust, respect, and confidence. We at Inglett & Stubbs take pride in that and continue to expand our medical capabilities in order to exceed client expectations,” he follows.
To date, Inglett & Stubbs’ healthcare facilities include hospitals, cancer treatment, radiology, surgical, and women’s centers, emergency departments, central energy plants, and medical office buildings.
A DIVERSE PORTFOLIO
Inglett & Stubbs prides itself as a multifaceted electrical contractor, and due to the variety of construction opportunities that exist within colleges and universities, these facilities have been identified as further optimal places to display and enhance the company’s construction knowledge.
As such, because of its dedication to being part of this burgeoning environment, Inglett & Stubbs has sought and completed numerous successful projects on many campuses in North Georgia.
The company’s long history of higher education projects varies widely, from site lighting contracts and electrical utility infrastructure to sports stadiums, teaching and laboratory buildings, research facilities, student centers, and more.
“Inglett & Stubbs has developed project managers who specialize in this field,” Chalk prides.
“We are very proud of our excellent reputation and work every day to earn repeat customers with each institution. We do this by always increasing our project diversity and adding value to the overall construction team,” he continues.
DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION
Inglett & Stubbs has been working in the data center construction industry for almost 40 years.
“Our first major project was built in 1985 in Alpharetta, Georgia, where we also constructed the first major Tier 4 data center in 1994 for UPS,” Chalk recalls.
“Since then, we have worked on numerous major data center projects in Georgia and across the US. Our expertise in this field has also led us to collaborate on projects in South America,” he adds.
Inglett & Stubbs acts as a design-assist team member in many of its projects, lending its experience to owners, engineers, and general contractors. This collaboration leads to long-term relationships in the form of renovations, upgrades, expansions, and maintenance contracts.
“We attribute the majority of our success and knowledge to the collaborative nature of these projects. Our experienced team can assist with all aspects of data center design, construction, and maintenance.”
Inglett & Stubbs works on all project sizes, from small computer rooms to large, dedicated facilities.
“Some of our customers work with us to design a small single generator system, while other clients utilize large, dedicated utility services paired with dozens of generators and UPS modules. We work to meet the needs of our customers, whatever they may be,” Chalk emphasizes.
MODULAR PRODUCT DESIGN
Across the board, Inglett & Stubbs’ modular approach brings innovation to the way that its clients design, build, and maintain electrical and low voltage systems.
“Our in-house design team can customize and optimize electrical set-ups so that each component fits precisely and seamlessly interconnects with other systems. We can engineer products that drive efficiency and enhance productivity within the project footprint,” Chalk excites.
As such, the company uses the latest technology and its construction expertise to design solutions that meet specific needs. Meanwhile, its expert team leverages the latest virtual reality (VR) technology to create immersive design experiences.
“Our modular manufacturing services help gain a competitive advantage in rapidly changing markets. Our modular solutions will allow our customers to optimize resources, minimize waste, and improve production capabilities.”
The manufacturing teams of Inglett & Stubbs are made up of skilled union labor workers that ensure the highest level of quality for the finished product. This process involves design and coordination, schedule planning, manufacturing control, production quality assurance, and testing.
After the manufacturing process is complete, the company’s logistics services team manages the delivery to ensure a seamless and efficient transition from production to site location. This process also involves strategically planning for just-in-time delivery to help minimize storage fees and requirements.
“We can self-deliver locally and have strategic partnerships with top-notch logistics providers to offer flexible delivery options. Our team will handle all modular components with the utmost care during transportation, and design and plan packaging to ensure that it arrives safely and ready for installation,” states Chalk.
MULTIFACETED MANAGEMENT
Regarding the multifaceted management of a project, Inglett & Stubbs splits this process into the three key areas of budget, schedule, and material cost.
“We believe that quality begins in the pre-construction stage, which is used to accumulate information into a format effectively managed and accessed by the field,” says Chalk.
This information is managed using work packets and tradesman manuals to bridge the gap in quality standards.
Each manual consists of equipment-specific drawings, specifications, and approved submittals, the latter of which are condensed to only include information pertinent to the installation. These manuals are updated with common issues and best practices throughout the project,” he continues.
Inglett & Stubbs provides all parties with a full plan of activities and durations to be plotted on the master construction schedule. Critical milestone dates such as equipment delivery, equipment energization, system testing, and system checkout are all plotted.
“We develop a load schedule to monitor the work progress on a week-by-week basis, which allows us to address all scheduling issues immediately to ensure on-time project delivery.
“Our project management team also develops a cost accounting structure broken down by systems and phases. This enables us to monitor the budget, delivery, and installation of each critical component of the project,” says Chalk.
By tracking costs, Inglett & Stubbs is able to identify budget changes quickly and accurately, whilst savings can be identified so that the owner can spend resources on other items or areas. If overruns are anticipated, the company provides alternatives to bring the project back within budget.
Inglett & Stubbs regularly tracks current market conditions for commodities including copper and aluminum (wire), steel (conduit, cable tray, boxes, and fittings), electrical devices and equipment, and PVC (conduit).
In this way, the company issues a request for proposal (RFP) to major vendors of these products to support acquiring and supplying them, and to offset and mitigate extreme price increases.
CHARITY AND COMMUNITY CHAMPIONS
One of the company’s greatest sources of pride is how it has supported many charitable organizations.
Over the years, Inglett & Stubbs has supported many charities in the Atlanta region, raising funds and awareness as part of a deliberate endeavor to increase its CSR practices. These include inter-office fundraisers, local community events, golf tournaments, and other initiatives.
“We set up a charity team to steer our decisions around the organizations we give to and volunteer with. In the past, we would select one charity a year to support; this year, we are financially supporting three organizations and working on additional volunteering opportunities,” Chalk informs us.
“We are blessed, but the needs around us are great and we are excited to partner with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Free Bikes for Kids, and Sunrise Ministries to help those in need in our community,” he tells us passionately.
The company has given its unwavering support to the former for many years, as the charity continues to complete crucial work in the Atlanta community and benefits people across the world with its research.
Inglett & Stubbs has also been honored to support the Alzheimer’s Association of Georgia, and through its incredible fundraising efforts has donated over $400,000 to help stamp out this pervasive disease.
Fundraising efforts have equally supported Atlanta’s Children’s Hospital, with over $100,000 donated to help fund cancer research efforts.
Furthermore, Inglett & Stubbs’ field and office staff have previously volunteered through both financial donations and boots on the ground to assist in building three Habitat for Humanity homes for deserving local community members.
On top of this, the company is also working with several high schools that offer work-based learning and was previously named Newton County Schools’ Work-Based Learning Employer of the Year.
“We have supported high schools through conduit bending and other electrical classes, careers fairs, and hiring graduates. This has been a great program for us to be part of because it provides a workforce that is motivated and interested in the trade, and we have had many of these students join our team full-time after graduation,” Chalk explains.
ARTHUR M. BLANK HOSPITAL
One project that perfectly surmises the company’s beliefs and achievements is its work on the new Arthur M. Blank Hospital.
Made possible through a generous $200 million donation from the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, the hospital is part of a transformative $1.5 billion project that will be a huge leap forward in how it cares for children in Georgia.
The 1.5 million square foot (sqft) facility, slated to open in late 2024, will be located at the northeastern corner of the North Druid Hills suburb.
Designed to take advantage of research-proven healing views of nature, the Arthur M. Blank Hospital will include one tower with two wings and additional operating rooms, specialty beds and diagnostic equipment to meet anticipated patient needs, and space for clinical research, clinical trials, and overall patient care.
The North Druid Hills Campus, where the new hospital will be located, also includes the Center for Advanced Pediatrics, support buildings, and plans for more than 20 acres of greenspace and walking trails.
“Construction on the vastly impressive new hospital began in 2020 when we partnered with one of our largest competitors, Cleveland Electric (Cleveland), in a joint venture agreement to take on the project. It is the largest hospital to be built in Georgia,” notes Chalk.
The company was able to incorporate prefabrication into all areas of the project, and the prefabricated headwalls were built in a warehouse, with the Inglett & Stubbs and Cleveland team working alongside plumbers and the drywall contractor.
“We prefabricated mixed trade racks with the sheet metal, plumbing, and mechanical piping contractors,” he enthralls.
CONTINUING THE LEGACY
Inglett & Stubbs has now established its reputation and prominent standing within its field of electrical construction expertise.
“In terms of the future of the company, our focus remains on off-site construction, from pre-construction and virtual design and construction (VDC) to prefabricated and modular methods. We will continue to grow that side of the business, which truly sets us apart from others in the market.
“We take a lot of pride in our history and the people who built the foundations that we are privileged to start from. The recent anniversary was a great time to stop and celebrate,” Chalk finishes.
“Bringing our people and their families together is something that we plan to do more regularly. 70 years on, our team has more energy and willingness to change and innovate than ever before.”
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