Everything Really Is Bigger in Texas
"We hit a sweet spot. We'll be here for the long haul," Honeywell Life Safety President Mark Levy said Sept. 18.
- By Jerry Laws
- Nov 01, 2013
Honeywell Life Safety executives cut the ribbon on a beautifully designed Training & Customer Experience Center on Sept. 18, welcoming hundreds of customers and media representatives to tour the 30,000-square-foot facility in Pasadena, Texas. The $3 million facility includes simulated confined space, construction, heavy metal fabrication, oil & gas, emergency responder, and utilities/energy environments that illustrate the full spectrum of products offered by three HLS units--Honeywell Safety Products, Honeywell Fire Systems, and Honeywell Gas and Flame Detection--for all of those industries.
The training gym has 40-foot ceilings. There are classrooms, meeting rooms, and a "vision room" where the company encourages customers to brainstorm about their safety challenges and possible solutions. It's a unique facility that already is booked through June 2014, said Mark Levy, Honeywell Life Safety's president. He said the location was chosen because it's in the heart of the refineries and the energy and petrochemical industries located in and around Houston, which is a major hub for clients in Latin America, as well.
"We want to be where we're needed, and this is it," Levy said. "This is the heartland of the oil and gas and industrial area, it all either originates in Houston or is blessed by Houston, and the whole oil and gas and chemical industries. This is the crossroads of this world," which is concentrated within a 50-mile radius of the new facility, he continued. "We hit a sweet spot. We'll be here for the long haul." Levy said there's nothing else like it within Honeywell or anywhere else.
The center can accommodate small classes of 10-12 students, classes of 30-40, and up to 125 in a lecture hall. While building it took about two and half years, from conception to completion, the facility is the crown jewel in the Honeywell Safety Institute, an education and training initiative that Levy and several colleagues--including Honeywell Safety Products President Jack Boss and Carl Johnson, president of Honeywell Analytics Global--announced just a few months earlier. Asked how the training facility fits into the Honeywell Safety Institute, Levy replied, "This is the mega center now. This is the mother ship, so to speak."
He said the Honeywell recognizes there is an urgent need for heightened safety equipment and training to ensure worker safety improves, both in the United States and around the world.
This article originally appeared in the November 2013 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.
About the Author
Jerry Laws is Editor of Occupational Health & Safety magazine, which is owned by 1105 Media Inc.