Liz Fong, Operations Integration Manager at MacDonald-Miller Facility Solutions, was named Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors’ National Association’s Innovator of the Year, receiving the prestigious award at MEP Innovation Conference in Los Angeles this January. For Fong, the recognition marked a career milestone.
When Fong joined MacDonald-Miller 13 years ago as a sheet metal apprentice, the company was already ahead of its time, using digital workflows in their sheet metal shop for labor forecasting, electronic time tracking and calculating detailed productivity metrics. This innovative environment provided the ideal conditions for Fong to excel and continue to challenge the status quo.
As Operations Integration Manager, Fong has been instrumental in expanding the company’s digital transformation with a focus on advancements in fabrication and other stages up and down the construction chain — one strategic step at a time. “My responsibilities include implementing, integrating, and managing select technology solutions and workflows on our construction side,” she explained. “I started with managing our model authoring software, database and customizations and followed the model data from there – to the fab shop and field, logistics, and back to estimating.” Having worked on multiple sides of construction data – from shop fabricator and field installer to VDC modeler, database manager, and developer – Fong has a uniquely diverse perspective.
When the company set the goal of paperless shop operations seven years ago, Fong was the ideal candidate to lead the charge, given her expertise in fabrication data, workflows, and programming. The sophisticated paperless system, which spans all fabrication activities on the shop floor and extends to CAM software, shop management and logistics activities, continues to be a key part of daily operations, and was the result of a systematic progression of collaborative efforts with various shop and IT stakeholders.
“We began with communicating order prioritization and status between the shop office and area leads on the shop floor … then we brought in fabrication data, eliminating paper fab sheets and cut reports, and continued on from there” she explained, describing the methodical approach to digitization.
Today, MacDonald-Miller’s sheet metal shop operates with remarkable efficiency through its paperless systems. While poly-vinyl labels remain necessary for fabrication, the company has eliminated paper documentation for fabrication sheets, cut reports, spool sheets, costing materials, and logistics tracking. Every step of the process, from ordering through delivery, is now digital and integrated with pre-existing digital workflows.
The system provides real-time updates on order status, date shifts, and priority items, enabling the shop and logistics teams to pivot quickly as needs and priorities change. Through interactive mobile apps on tablets or other handheld devices, workers can track everything from overall status to material cut lists, to bought out or specialty materials, maintaining a seamless flow of information across all stages of fabrication and delivery.
Fong takes pride in their paperless achievements, highlighting the uniqueness of the feat: “I haven’t really seen those types of workflows at other shops, let alone to the depth and scale that we have achieved.” She credits the success of these systems to the adaptability and engagement of the shop team. “As a sheet metal worker, I am extremely proud of the way our sheet metal team has consistently embodied the spirit of continuous improvement,” she said. “It’s a quality I can trace back to my first day as an apprentice. They receive and provide feedback and actively engage in the process, even when change is driven by external forces.”
The path to digital transformation hasn’t been without its hurdles. “Needs are ever-changing and there’s no one software out there that does it all,” Fong acknowledged, “so we’re constantly trying to fill shifting gaps.” Most products on the market typically address about 80% of a problem, leading to an ongoing balance between simplifying our technology stack and building or adopting new tools for greater efficiency.
MacDonald-Miller’s history of in-house development adds another layer of complexity. “We have a lot of apps that we build in-house, so the bar is high, and integration with existing systems is key for us,” Fong explained. This approach creates unique challenges when evaluating external software solutions, particularly when commercial products bundle features, many of which the company already has robust solutions for.
Over the past year, building on the well-established sheet metal and logistics workflows, Fong has focused on developing and implementing digital workflows for MacDonald-Miller’s mechanical piping and plumbing shops, integrating Stratus to enhance VDC and fabrication processes across all three trades, while also advancing company initiatives to improve data centralization, integrity, and visibility.
The SMACNA Innovator of the Year award recognizes not just Fong’s expertise in technical implementations but also her collaborative spirit and commitment to continuous improvement – traits essential to transforming traditional industry practices.
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