For more than 50 years, Haskell has served as a leader in the architecture, engineering and construction industry, driven by an entrepreneurial spirit to continually redefine how it can best serve its clients.
This innovative approach, one that relies on leveraging a deep and wide body of knowledge to develop client-centered solutions, has pushed the firm to seek new ways of doing business and identify avenues to grow its expertise.
Like Haskell, Seiberling’s roots are grounded in discovery. Its founder, Gale Seiberling, emphasized continuous innovation, believing the future of manufacturing processes was in automation. In the 1950s, he envisioned a time when production efficiencies would be realized through futuristic facilities that incorporated highly automated cleaning processes.
“He believed that people would have to interact with the facility’s equipment itself to get it ready, but once it’s ready, you could press and button and it would act like a dishwasher and clean itself,” said Mike Byron, a senior project manager who leads biopharmaceutical work at Seiberling, which today is a Haskell subsidiary.
Guided by its founder’s vision, Seiberling established itself as one of the premier engineering consulting firms specializing in the design of complex process systems, primarily for cleaning and sterilization practices for the food and pharmaceutical industries.
Seiberling’s knowledge base and expertise made it a natural partner for Haskell, which in the early 2000s sought to enhance its offerings by building its own process engineering group. In 2008, the companies partnered to audit the capabilities of a yogurt-production facility for Pepisco.
This collaboration proved successful and, seeing the benefits of integrating a leading process engineering practice with expertise in the concepts of clean-in-place (CIP) and steam-in-place (SIP), Haskell acquired Seiberling in 2012.
“Some of Haskell’s customers were saying, ‘You do a great job on the buildings, and it would be great if you guys could have the same service for other elements of our projects,’” Byron said. “That’s when they started looking at becoming more vertical.”
Increasingly, manufacturing companies seek engineering design firms and construction partners that not only focus on the planning and construction of the facility itself, but also the internal processes of day-to-day operations. Having already acquired packaging engineering firm E²M, Haskell opened additional opportunities by incorporating Seiberling’s knowledge base.
This fully integrated approach ensures a cohesive, interdisciplinary effort for all elements of a project.
With the full range of expertise under one roof, Haskell can manage projects seamlessly from concept through commissioning. Each phase of design and construction is continually represented, so work is sequenced, conflicts eliminated and construction clashes avoided.
Clients reap the benefits of impeccable quality, accelerated delivery and cost savings.
“By having all this in-house,” Byron said, “one clear benefit is that we control more of our own destiny.”
It also has made Haskell a leader in Engineer, Procure, Construct (EPC) delivery method, which focuses on the design, engineering and installation of the manufacturing systems. Again, clients realize greater efficiencies throughout the process that lead to the most reliable business outcome possible.
Byron noted that EPC enables Haskell and Seiberling to take on many of the risks the customer normally would assume. For instance, by taking ownership of the procurement phase, Haskell is able to leverage its relationships with wide range of vendors.
It’s just another example of how having this vast collection of capabilities in-house has strategically positioned Haskell and Seiberling as the right partners to deliver successful, meaningful projects for their clients.
“This level of integration has opened a lot of doors,” Byron said. “We can approach anybody working in an industry and say, ‘These are our capabilities,’ and they will listen to us. It puts us in the right position to succeed.”
