Driving Fabrication Innovation

Founded in 1988 in Austin, Texas, Dynamic Systems, a Quanta Services Co., has grown from a small local contractor into a formidable player in precision fabrication and mechanical contracting. 

“We started here in Austin, Texas in 1988,” says Jay Rohan, Senior Vice President of Operations at Dynamic Systems. “We do piping, plumbing, sheet metal; we’re a full-array contractor.” Most of the company’s locations are in Texas, but they also have offices in New York, North Carolina, Massachusetts and Utah.

The company designs and constructs energy-efficient, health-conscious environments across a wide range of specialty sectors, including those in the industrial space. These places face unique challenges, such as high-occupant density, food service proximity and noise pollution — complex environments that need innovative solutions, including energy-efficient underfloor and displacement air systems, CO2 monitoring and pressurization control and code-compliant delivery of outside air. 

Dynamic Systems has built its reputation on industry best practices that fuse advanced technology, safety-first culture and a focus on customer dedication.

Dynamic Systems optimizes project outcomes by focusing on off-site fabrication. The company has 535,000 square feet of fabrication space in the Texas cities of Burlington, Buda, Houston, Dallas, McKinney and College Station, as well as Salt Lake City, Utah; Poughkeepsie, New York; and Boston, Massachusetts. 

This fabrication focus maximizes cost effectiveness, safety, labor efficiency, material control, logistics, quality and schedule adherence, while minimizing waste. 

The facilities utilize cutting-edge technologies, including laser cutters, plasma cutters, automated coil and spiral line systems, ED virtual design software, and a comprehensive tracking system that bar codes every item to guarantee traceability and accountability. 

“One of Dynamic Systems’ claim to fame is that we track, monitor and measure every single aspect that we can of our business,” Rohan says. 

In 2023, the company started using a new software program called Stratus to digitize its fabrication processes. The software helps integrate data from models, connects to manufacturing tools and creates digital workflows to reduce manual effort and improve efficiency and profitability. The program, “gives us all the pertinent job data. Once that information is given to a superintendent, he can build a job out electronically,” explains Doug Smith, the company’s Director of Technology and Innovation. “It tracks the entire process digitally, so no papers are printed out, no drawings are printed out. It saves on revision control. The model is the revision, the single point of truth.”

With Stratus, “we can run regular status reports on projects,” adds Adam Nichols, the company’s Director of Virtual Design and Construction. The employees “on the shop floor are fed their work data in Stratus and it shows them what’s on their plate for the day. As they complete a task on the list, they check it off and it’s done. It also designs and builds the criteria they need for a job on the screen, so they can see how something needs to be built in the program.”

More than half of the company’s clients were asking for something like Stratus, Rohan says. “They like the verifiability aspect of tracking every part that’s being put on their job,” he explains. 

“We even give clients a log-in to our model, so they can see how the project is coming along at any time,” Smith adds. 

EMPHASIZING SAFETY AND QUALITY AT EVERY TURNThough the company started out small and has grown considerably, it tries to keep a fun culture intact. The company has very little turnover in its management ranks as a result. 

“The hardest thing has been to keep that culture as we’ve grown, but I think we’ve done a pretty good job of it,” Rohan says. “We always wanted to make it fun. We started out as a little bitty mom-and-pop shop, and now we’re a larger contractor, but we still have the same attitude. We want to have people work here because they enjoy it.”

Embedded deep into that culture is the safety aspect. Safety is foundational to Dynamic Systems’ operations. The company culture ingrains safety in every employee because protecting its people and customers comes first. The company’s robust protocols and continuous training programs reflect in their exemplary safety records, enhancing client confidence.

“We’ve been able to improve our modifier rate significantly over the years,” Rohan says. “And we’ve gotten better and safer over the years, which is good for us, good for the company and good for the employees.”