Saulsbury Industries’ SVP Vaughn shares his view of the EPC industry
Saulsbury Industries has built a reputation for being a credible expert in full-service engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) and maintenance in heavy industrial markets. As demand for its services has grown, Saulsbury’s core values — Safety, Integrity, Excellence, Relationships, Community — have remained unchanged for over 50 years. Today, Saulsbury is stronger than ever as a result of its investment in project execution capabilities through the advancement of employees, processes and technology.
At the heart of Saulsbury’s success is its commitment to industry-leading achievements in safety; its 2017 Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) was .25 for 6.4 million work hours. This focus on safety is seen throughout the company as the team plans for and builds capacity to satisfy the demand for their expertise.
With over 40 years of experience, Tom Vaughn has seen his share of changes and excitement in the EPC industry. As senior vice president (SVP) of Gulf Coast operations at Saulsbury, Vaughn is currently focused on leading the company’s LNG, petrochemical, chemical, refining, and downstream oil and gas projects.
Vaughn has built a career managing construction, engineering, and full turnkey EPC projects globally, with an emphasis on safety, cost, schedule and quality. Prior to joining Saulsbury in January 2018, Vaughn served as the president of Yates Construction’s industrial division, where he was responsible for the company’s tremendous growth in revenue, profitability and talent development. He has also held top leadership positions in multiple markets at KBR, BE&K, Williams Group International and Fluor Corp.
When coaching high-potential future leaders and talking with potential clients, he has a wealth of knowledge and experience to share. He recently sat down with BIC Magazine to discuss the future of the industry, his advice for young leaders and his current focus at Saulsbury.
Q: How do you see the EPC industry evolving in the next decade?
A: The EPC industry will continue to see a need for experienced full-service contractors like Saulsbury to be solution providers and trusted advisers as more and more clients operate leaner and with less staff.
Also, because of a shortage of skilled craftsman, I believe we will continue to see a shift in moving effort hours from the field into the shop environment in the form of prefabrication, preassembly and modularization.
Q: What is Saulsbury’s focus for the next few years?
A: Our No. 1 priority will be to continue our relentless focus on world-class safety, both on our side and our clients’ side. Next to that is a focus on the ability to continue to build relationships with partners and clients that share our same value system and core values of Safety, Integrity, Excellence, Relationships, Community.
We are also focused on continuing to develop, refine and perfect consistent EPC work processes. Our project execution model was built to support consistency in design, service and our employees. This reliability has led to our record of accomplishment in delivering projects on time and on budget. We believe speed to market makes us stand out and helps our customers gain an advantage in their markets, which is good for everyone’s business.
Our leadership team is also focused on recruiting and developing highly skilled technical leadership personnel to set us up for future success.
Q: What steps is Saulsbury taking to secure a position as a leading EPC company?
A: I believe that Saulsbury has been and will continue to be successful because of its reputation for delivering on projects and being a solution provider for its clients, which leads to repeat business and being a preferred contractor. This reputation was established because of the company’s commitment to ensuring that work processes are fit-for-purpose for the types of projects that we are working on and plan to work on in the future.
In addition to our focus on work processes, Saulsbury has seen significant growth of our employee base (hitting over 5,000 earlier this year) and has established more regional offices to provide local support to our clients throughout the country.
Q: What are some of the ways Saulsbury is helping its clients achieve optimal total cost of ownership?
A: Because Saulsbury is a full-service EPC company, we have the ability, desire and preference to engage early in the project decision-making process and truly partner with our clients from start to finish. By bringing our process and commercial expertise to the table, we can consult with our clients on best practices and historical knowledge to achieve the best, most efficient result.
Additionally, Saulsbury can self-perform all aspects of EPC projects, which allows for greater flexibility, certainty and dependability. This allows Saulsbury to fully integrate and control all aspects of the project execution process using the latest technology from process simulations, plant modeling and design, engineering, procurement, QA/QC, safety, progress measurement, scheduling, reporting, planning, change management and risk management.
Q: What advice do you have for aspiring leaders just starting their careers?
A: First, focus your attention on developing a competency in your field of work; get good at something and then expand your knowledge base. I would also suggest staying flexible when evaluating future job opportunities because career paths don’t have to be linear and clearly laid out in front of you. Finally, it’s important to always continue learning to achieve a broad understanding of the industry and economic environment.
Q: What do you think is the biggest contributing factor to being a successful leader?
A: This can sometimes be hard to hear, but a successful leader must be willing to work hard and lead by example. There are no part-time leaders. Another important aspect of leadership is the ability to relate to your employees, be accepting of different work styles and gain an understanding of what motivates your employees.
About Saulsbury Industries
Saulsbury Industries is a full-service EPC and maintenance contractor that provides engineering, general construction, electrical and instrumentation, and maintenance services to heavy industrial markets nationwide. Headquartered in Odessa, Texas, the company’s national office footprint includes Dallas, Houston, Port Arthur, Henderson and Abilene, Texas; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Greenville, South Carolina; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Farmington, New Mexico; and Denver, Colorado.
For more information, visit www.saulsbury.com.