Com

mer

cial |

NEW

MIL

LEN

NIU

M B

UILD

ING

SYS

TEM

S

CONSTRUCTION-TODAY.COM MAY 2012102

t’s not apparent by looking at the amountof regional growth and technological inno-vation it has seen in the past few years, butNew Millennium Building Systems, a

wholly owned subsidiary of Steel DynamicsInc., is a member of two of the industries hithardest by the economic crash: steel produc-tion and non-residential construction.

From 1999 to 2007, the manufacturer of steeljoists, metal decking and castellated beams forthe non-residential construction industry builtand acquired five Eastern United States andMidwest plants.

After the 2008 crash, the company idled twoof its plants to align with market demand.

Then, in 2010, New Millennium saw anopportunity to revive previous plans of a west-ward expansion. Commercial Metals Co. (CMC)announced it was exiting the steel joist manu-facturing market. New Millennium quicklymobilized to acquire three complete operations– land, facility and equipment – in Fallon, Nev.;Hope, Ark.; and Juarez, Mexico. It also acquiredthe equipment from four other facilities inIowa, Pennsylvania, SouthCarolina and Florida.

The deal closed in October 2010,and the Juarez site was back inproduction the next month.The company developed a

western salesforce that also covers westernCanada. A revamped and revitalized Fallon plantlaunched in September 2011 and the renewedArkansas plant came online a month later.

New Regions, Same Progressive Plan“The addition of these plants to the NewMillennium network will allow us to efficientlyreach markets we could not previously serveand will allow us to better serve our customersthat have a nationwide footprint, such as majorretailers, structural-steel fabricators anddesign/build firms whose projects span thecontinent,” President Gary Heasley says.“Previously, our more limited regional coveragehad made serving these accounts challenging.”

New Millennium’s new nationwide expan-sion is matched by an expansion of productand service innovation. It may not be thelargest steel joist, metal deck and castellatedbeam manufacturer in the business – the com-pany is presently the second largest – but itdoes lead in the way of customer-centeredresearch and development.

In early 2010, New Millennium released theDynamic Joist® BIM component, making it thefirst steel joist manufacturer to develop a joist-specific BIM design tool. The Dynamic JoistBIM component contains steel joist configura-tions, specifications, material components anddesign requirements that can be used from theplanning room to the jobsite.

It’s a tool that architects, fabricators, contrac-tors and owners can use to make their jobs easi-er, which is New Millennium’s main goal – andthe sole objective of yet another breakthroughrecently made available to customers. At the

2012 North American SteelConstruction Conference in April,New Millennium announced anew series of online, digital joistspecification tools, enabling spec-

NationwideSupportNEW MILLENNIUM EXPANDS ITS CAPACITY ACROSS THE COUNTRY,GROWING WHEN COMPETITORS HAVE NOT. BY JAMIE MORGAN

I

New Millennium BuildingSystemswww.newmill.com• Headquarters: Fort Wayne, Ind. • Specialty: Steel joists, special-profilesteel joists, metal decking, castellatedand cellular beams, value-engineering,and BIM project management services

“The first thing we ask is,‘What do you need and whendo you need it ?’” –Rick Sugg, sales manager

New Millennium says itscastellated beams are a cost-

effective structural option.

«

MAY 2012 CONSTRUCTION-TODAY.COM103

ifying engineers to more easily design and spec-ify steel joists and joist girders.

“Specifying engineers who are accustomedto searching multiple catalog tables for varioussteel joist criteria will find the new digital toolsmuch easier and faster to use,” states Joe Pote,director of research and development, whoalso reveals the company is developing similarsolutions for metal decking and other productlines. Early reaction to the new tools has beenvery positive, and the company is alreadyincorporating requests from specifiers foradded features that will save time and moneywhen specifying steel joists and metal decking.

Employing these online digital specificationtools during design and manufacturing makesthe construction process simpler, faster andmore accurate, all of which Rick Sugg, salesmanager of the Fallon, Nev., plant, says is amajor trend in the construction industry.

“Customers are really looking for value-engineering and fast turnaround,” he explains.“Because if a developer or company has a dis-tribution center that they want to pull the trig-ger on to get product flowing, they want itdone as soon as possible. They need it donefast and accurately.”

The new tools also facilitate partner-basedrelationships, which are important to NewMillennium. “A key competitive advantage wehave is staying creatively ‘Flexible to theFinish,’” Sugg explains. “We are flexible all theway through the process. We are not afraid tosit down and try new ideas. The first thing weask is, ‘What do you need and when do youneed it?’ We are sincere about building rela-tionships with these customers for a long peri-od of time.”

Flexible Model for the FutureIn order to deliver on the promise of fast, accu-rate and collaborative services from design tomanufacturing to delivery, New Millennium

has to ensure that its manufacturing process isas efficient as possible. Through modernequipment and lean processes, NewMillennium turns steel into finished productsat less cost. For instance, in its Fallon plant, thecompany can employ 150 people to produce agreater volume than previously achievedusing a workforce of 400. Part of that is equip-ment, part of that is operating practices and abig part of that is culture, Heasley says.

Art Ullom, general manager at the Butler,Ind., plant, agrees that the culture of the com-pany has been strengthened, based on a meld-ing of experiences. Ullom says the company’sculture of flexibility is centrally important tohow New Millennium supports customers.

“We’ve focused as an organization on effi-ciently solving customer problems,” Ullomexplains. “This is the reason we developed theindustry’s first special profile steel joist catalog,offering greatly expanded specification tablesfor easier specification of unique rooflines.”

“We don’t talk in our company about wait-ing for a recovery of construction,” Heasleyadds. “Our view is that it doesn’t matter whathappened in 2006 and 2007. What matters iswhat’s happening today.”

‘We do not talk in our companyabout waitingfor a recovery.’