Kajima | Alberici Wins Global Best Project Award

Leon, Mexico; May 12, 2014 — Engineering News Record (ENR) recently selected Kajima|Alberici MX as a Merit Award winner in the Manufacturing category for their work on the Y-Tec Keylex Mexico (YKM) Automotive Parts Manufacturing Facility as part of the 2014 Global Best Projects Awards.

Kajima|Alberici MX, is a Mexico-based joint venture between The Austin Company, a subsidiary of Kajima USA Group family of companies, and the Mexican subsidiary of U.S.-based Alberici Constructors, Inc.

“Alberici and Austin have a long and successful history collaborating on important projects,” said Kajima|Alberici chairman and Austin vice president, Ken Stone. “We share the same Values, as well as markets, yet our services are very complementary. Achieving success on projects such as these really has few barriers, as our teams are fully committed to a shared project vision.”

Y-Tec Keylex Mexico serves as an automotive parts supplier to Mazda at their new automotive manufacturing campus in Guanajuato, Mexico. Under a single-responsibility design-build contract, Kajima|Alberici MX provided project design, engineering and construction services for YKM’s new 367,000 square-foot facility in the supplier park campus.

The project’s success stems from a true collaborative effort across the entire project team, which included members in Mexico, Japan and the United States. Meetings often took place in all three languages, with multi-lingual project team members assisting with translation. The team worked under a very tight schedule to meet already-committed production dates. Working through these logistics, managing three distinct languages, and aligning the different business cultures and organizational variances became the cornerstones of the project team’s achievement.

In addition, the award recognizes the project for maintaining an exceptional safety record, having completed over 900,000 man-hours with no lost-time accidents. Kajima|Alberici’s ambitious, but achievable, goal for safety was simple: execute the project to achieve Zero Incidents. This safety record can be attributed to the entire team’s consistent attention to detail throughout the project.

Alberici vice president and general manager Mark Okroy said, “The project underscores each company’s – Austin, Alberici and Kajima – long-standing commitment to providing quality construction solutions in a global industry. Our ability to manage complex logistical elements in a design-build business model helped make this project a success as we continue our commitment to the Mexican markets and the clients we serve.”

This is the second annual Global Best Projects recognition by ENR, which was established to honor construction and design excellence during the past year from around the globe. The award recognition focuses on responding to the challenges, risks and rewards of designing and constructing in foreign countries.

Winners were chosen by an independent jury of industry professionals with extensive global experience. Criteria included safety, innovation, contribution to the global community, aesthetic quality, and workmanship, with special emphasis on the global diversity of the project team.

Global Best Projects award winners are being recognized at the ENR 2014 Global Construction Summit, held May 13-14, 2014, in New York City.