Manufacturer on production wave
A deck barge is shown near completion in the yard of Brownsville Marine Products.
Welders work on a section of a barge in production at Brownsville Marine Products.
Tim Scheib, chief executive officer of Brownsville Marine Products, stands inside a three-year-old plant addition that has brought more efficiency to the sorting and handling of large quantities of steel plates that are used at the beginning of the barge-building process.
BROWNSVILLE – Toward the end of a tour of Brownsville Marine Products for a visiting reporter, Chief Executive Officer Tim Scheib casually notes the company is about ready to launch its most recently completed barge.
Deftly walking past several other hulking barges in various stages of completion, Scheib leads the way toward the banks of the Monongahela River that borders the one side of the 43-acre site.
BMP’s Production Coordinator Mike Fartini is standing next to the launch area where a 340-ton, 40-foot-wide hopper barge painted in battleship gray perches atop rails slanting toward the river.
Fartini presses a button on a remote control, and a giant whirring sound emanates from the launch, which in about 30 seconds sends the barge sliding into the Mon with a massive splash.
“Great launch, Mike,” Scheib yells. “It doesn’t get any better than that.”
In six years, Scheib, an Annapolis graduate and 27-year Navy officer with longtime experience in shipyard management and two degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has turned BMP into a ship-shape producer of barges that make a splash in the Mon with assembly-line precision.
The company, which specializes in hopper barges and deck barges for carrying everything from coal and ore to fertilizer and grain, serves customers from a variety of industries up and down the Ohio River.
BMP operates out of the former Hillman Barge Co., but under Scheib’s guidance, the company has moved toward more automated functions that helps its 400 welders, painters and steel fitters work with greater efficiency.
Scheib noted the company has two competitors, both based on the lower Mississippi, that are bigger, but he believes BMP can take its share of the business by focusing on building a high-quality product.
“We have got to do it better than our competitors,” he said, showing a BMP logo that uses a large “Q” with the silhouette of a barge passing through it.
To achieve that goal, Scheib took a number of steps on various levels over the past several years, including putting in place a management team in key positions of sales and marketing, administration, engineering, production and finance.
BMP also runs a welding school for new hires that focuses on developing a barge-making workforce for the long haul.
According to Scheib, the three-week course prepares novice welders “so that in three weeks they can be working in production doing the most basic tasks.
“We’re focused on the workforce here and developing a mature corps of people. We’re getting a lot of good guys and gals who work here. We’re exceedingly proud of the transition of this workforce that does a very good job.
“If we don’t have the right guys that can build barges well, there’s no barges,” Scheib said.
But BMP is also a place that offers first and second chances. Scheib has relationships with area commercial and technical schools that offer welding training. He also offers the plant’s training program to people at the Washington County Correctional Facility, as well as the one in Uniontown.
“We have relationships with schools like Penn Commercial who train welders and we love to place these folks.”
Entry-level pay is $9.50 per hour, but those who gain experience can work their way up to $17 per hour.
Scheib, who said BMP had a workforce of 200 when he took over six years ago, has more than doubled it to the current level of 423, a number he said puts the company where it needs to be.
But he always leaves room for a few more positions, acknowledging the work isn’t for everyone.
“This is hard work. In the winter, it’s cold, in the summer, it’s hot. We expect everyone to show up on time, be part of a team and be drug-free.”
While basic welding skills are a must, Scheib took steps over the past few years to make the process of barge-building a much more streamlined affair than when he first arrived at BMP.
“We do all of our own design, abrade and paint, do all the cutting and forming and all of the assembly. We take the raw steel and build the product on the production line.”
Three years ago, he had a rail spur built that delivers the raw steel to a receiving area where the steel plates can be lifted by magnets and moved into place for abrading them for painting and separated into the various components that will become a finished barge. Around the same time, he found a bargain price for a system that quickly positions the plates for cutting into the components, another move that brought greater efficiency to the line.
At the same time, Scheib also expanded one of the three production lines in the plant to be able to build barge widths up to 54 feet, another way to serve customers who need bigger capacity models.
“We have now outfitted ourselves where we could build anything up to 54 feet wide,” he said.
The new steel handling capabilities are critical to the process because of the sheer volume of steel coming into the plant.
“We used more than 60,000 tons of steel in the last year,” Scheib said. “That’s a lot of steel.”
But with an assembly line configuration that Scheib compares to those that make autos in Detroit, BMP is turning out barges at a steady clip.
“We build a barge every five shifts,” he said, adding the plant is on line to build and deliver 180 units this year.
That’s a lot of big splashes in a year’s time, but an impact Scheib expects to keep making on the river.
“We plan to be building barges for a long time to come,” he said.