For over 140 years, Hatzel & Buehler has been a trailblazer in the electrical contracting industry. From wiring iconic landmarks like the Chrysler Building and the Biltmore Estate to delivering complex, multi-phased projects in healthcare, higher education, and pharmaceuticals, this full-service electrical contractor has consistently set the standard for excellence. Despite their large national footprint, the company has found success at the branch level by retaining the adaptability and requirements of local unions.
Today, Hatzel & Buehler stands as one of the largest electrical contractors in the U.S., with a revenue of over $700 million and 18 branches nationwide.
The company began investing in prefabrication construction methods nearly a decade ago, recognizing the potential to improve productivity, safety, and project delivery timelines.
Today, according to the company’s director of prefabrication, John Phillips, they’re growing faster than they can keep up—a common problem for trade contractors as the prefab sector continues its rapid advance.
Hatzel & Buehler’s approach is rooted in a step-by-step process that integrates layout and design, BIM modeling, shop drawings, prefabrication in controlled facilities, and efficient field installation. Each regional branch is supported by dedicated prefabrication shops staffed with IBEW electricians, ensuring that all assemblies are built in-house and to the highest standards.
Hatzel & Buehler duct bank prefab installation
Despite their experience, Hatzel & Buehler faced familiar industry challenges as their prefabrication efforts expanded:
“We were working like dinosaurs. Everything was paper and PDFs... none of the information was smart or connected. We were really hamstrung,” Phillips said.
Seeking a solution, Hatzel & Buehler’s prefab leadership attended the Advancing Prefabrication conference. After evaluating several platforms, MANUFACTON stood out as the best fit for their needs.
“We saw MANUFACTON as something that could house all our information for builds and installations in one location. We could track the progress from design all the way through installation, collect data on time and deliverables for our assemblies, and have everything accessible in real-time,” Phillips said.
They launched a pilot program at their largest branch, focusing on a pharmaceutical lab fit-out—a complex, multi-building project involving extensive offsite assembly of conduit panels, electrical skids, and substations. The timing was ideal.
“All the stars aligned,” Phillips said. “We had just switched to using Revit for the first time, and the project schedule allowed us to test MANUFACTON thoroughly.”
Implementation began with configuring custom forms and integrating MANUFACTON with Revit and Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC). Phillips led both the technical setup and day-to-day use, ensuring the platform matched Hatzel & Buehler’s workflows. The deep, bi-directional integration effectively elevated MANUFACTON into a full-featured fabrication shop management solution tailored to their electrical workflows.
“We started with just jobsite production and manual entry, then expanded to more automated processes. Now, we’re using it across five branches, with plans to grow further once we can dedicate more resources to oversight and training,” he said.
Fortunately, Phillips noted that once set up, “MANUFACTON is extremely user-friendly. That’s the biggest sell I have to people. Once it’s set up, it’s very easy to use,” he said.
Today, Hatzel & Buehler has MANUFACTON in the hands of their VDC modelers, constructability teams, prefab shop managers, and field crews. Some resistant team members who were initially against implementation—and prefab processes in general—are now 100% on board, Phillips said.
Hatzel & Buehler duct bank prefab installation
The most transformative impact MANUFACTON has brought to Hatzel & Buehler is the dramatic improvement in how information moves between office, shop, and field. Where they used to rely on drawings and PDFs, their project data is now digital, centralized, and always up to date.
“The biggest thing is just improved information transfer from the BIM department to the shop, and from the shop to the site. The schedule is clear. What’s being built is clear. And everyone can see the progress of the job in one place,” Phillips said.
This real-time visibility has not only streamlined internal workflows but also elevated client presentations, with color-coded model viewers helping them improve client satisfaction. “We do a lot of client presentations,” Phillips said. “We use MANUFACTON as part of our selling process.”
Another major impact is the elimination of many tedious, manual tasks—now automated through MANUFACTON’s integration with Revit and ACC. Production orders now flow directly from Revit into MANUFACTON, eliminating the need for printing and distributing paper drawings or tracking revisions by hand.
“All I have to do now is make the production orders to MANUFACTON—the drawings go right into the production order,” Phillips explained. “Before, we would have to print out paper drawings. Every time there was a change, we had to make sure we discarded the old one, updated the revision, got a new paper drawing down to the shop. Now, we go out to the shop, there’s large screen TVs, and they do everything digitally.”
This shift has freed up time for the team to focus on project execution and quality, rather than administrative overhead.
While quantifiable ROI data is still being collected, the anecdotal evidence is clear: MANUFACTON is saving time, reducing manual processes, and enabling continuous improvement.
“We looked at it this way: MANUFACTON needs to save us three hours a week to offset its cost for the year,” Phillips said. “I have no concerns that it’s doing at least that.”
As the platform is rolled out to more branches and integrated with additional systems, Phillips said MANUFACTON will be key to unlocking Hatzel & Buehler’s full growth potential.
“The ability to track what you’re doing, to really see your efficiencies and deficiencies,” he said, “that’s the only way you’re going to grow and get better.”
While quantifiable ROI data is still being collected, the anecdotal evidence is clear: MANUFACTON is saving time, reducing manual processes, and enabling continuous improvement.
“We looked at it this way: MANUFACTON needs to save us three hours a week to offset its cost for the year,” Phillips said. “I have no concerns that it’s doing at least that.”
As the platform is rolled out to more branches and integrated with additional systems, Phillips said MANUFACTON will be key to unlocking Hatzel & Buehler’s full growth potential.
“The ability to track what you’re doing, to really see your efficiencies and deficiencies,” he said, “that’s the only way you’re going to grow and get better.”
Ready to modernize your prefab workflows?Does Hatzel & Buehler’s story inspire you to achieve new levels of productivity, quality, and collaboration? Get in touch with us today and learn what MANUFACTON can help, no matter the size or structure of your business.
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MANUFACTON is the fabrication shop management and construction materials tracking platform built for prefabrication and field execution. Backed by ALLPLAN and part of the same global family as Bluebeam, MANUFACTON connects your VDC, shop, and field teams with real-time visibility from BIM to build.