More than 25 million yd. of ready mixed concrete and 15 million tons of cement plant capacity, along with hundreds of millions of tons of aggregate reserves, have changed hands through mergers and acquisitions in the past five years.

But the deal of greater consequence to most U.S. ready mixed operators involves two companies whose equipment helps deliver more than 300 million yd. annually. A 1998 acquisition of McNeilus Cos. in Dodge Center, Minn., positioned Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Truck Corp. to realize economies of scale in rear- and front-discharge mixer truck production and field service, while investing unprecedented sums in research and development. Such investment is yielding lighter, smarter and safer mixer trucks, and dovetails with a surge of communications technology that is economizing vehicle location and order-status tracking. For ready mixed producers, the net result is a vastly improved mechanism for controlling their largest cost variable — trucking.

“Our starting point when we bought this company was a dominant role in rear discharge mixer trucks, complementing a similar position Oshkosh had in the smaller area of front discharge units,” notes McNeilus President Dan Lanzdorf, a veteran of Oshkosh's commercial truck division. “If we saw anything lacking at McNeilus, it was measurables in engineering and production. Borrowing from Oshkosh examples, we developed new service, engineering, management, quality and support systems, along with a stepped up commitment to innovation.”

He cites some key benchmarks and investments in the five years since the merger:

• In McNeilus assembly operations, new robotics and automated processes have helped increase quality 30 percent.
• McNeilus' headquarters plant has been expanded with a 75,000-sq.-ft. welding and fabrication line, responsible for all new or replacement Oshkosh and McNeilus drums, as well as a 25,000-sq.-ft. paint shop, alleviating what had been a regular bottleneck for vehicle delivery.
• A 30,000-sq.-ft. addition to an assembly plant in Georgia.
• Expansion of branch network from seven to 20 offices, with authorized service centers totaling 57. (Beyond Oshkosh and McNeilus vehicles, some centers serve other Oshkosh Truck brands.)

Have customers noted the record dollars pumped into manufacturing and field operations? “One of the measurables Oshkosh has instilled at McNeilus is customer satisfaction surveying. The satisfaction level was high when Oshkosh came in. It is still high, but customers now expect more. Down the road, expectations will be greater,” explains McNeilus Mixer and Plant Division Vice President Tom Harris, the most senior member to remain at Dodge Center since the Oshkosh deal.

REVOLUTION

Harris credits former boss Garwin McNeilus for taking a family business from a small operation to a substantial industry leader. He also concedes that without product development and a commitment like the one Oshkosh has made at Dodge Center, any major mixer brand could go the way of past market leaders, Challenge Cook and Rex.

Harris has been the point man on a development team behind what figures to be the crowning achievement of the Oshkosh-McNeilus union: the Revolution composite drum. In June, the company opened a $15 million plant in Dexter, Minn. — about 25 miles from Dodge Center — dedicated to the drum. Initial production will be earmarked for rear discharge mixers, where the composite material offers a 2,000-lb. weight savings versus a conventional steel drum. The technology will then be applied to Oshkosh S-Series front discharge mixer drums — and perhaps other components for rear and front models. Company officials plan to have up to 300 Revolution drums ready for mounting by year's end. Since the drum's March 2002 introduction at ConExpo-Con/ Agg, McNeilus has circulated more than 70 test units in 10 markets.

Alongside the Revolution's grand unveiling at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the company announced an alliance with San Jose, Calif.-based Trimble Navigation Ltd., a GPS-enabled technology provider. It offers McNeilus customers the option of having vehicles factory equipped with the Telvisant fleet management platform, combining GPS sensors and wireless communications tools for a complete tracking and status-reporting package.

McNeilus and Trimble officials are preparing to launch a second set of technology tools aimed directly behind the wheel. A “Drive Safe Program,” based on Telvisant-gathered driver operating data, will be introduced at the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association's Operations, Environmental & Safety Forum and Expo, October 5-7, in Denver. “Drive Safe” coincides with strong NRMCA and OES Committee safety initiatives.

SHARED BEST PRACTICES

Oshkosh Truck has a commanding presence across vocational vehicles, with Pierce (fire and rescue) and Medtec (ambulance) brands complementing the namesake and McNeilus brands in mixers and refuse vehicles. In the latter category, McNeilus is the number one domestic player and operates in tandem with a more recent Oshkosh Truck acquisition, Europe's Geesink Norba Group.

The alliance behind the Telvisant platform is the only one of its kind in mixer trucks. With Oshkosh's' leverage, the choice of partners for a company like Trimble — which in addition to concrete delivery has adapted tracking tools for refuse and emergency vehicles — was obvious.

Yet Oshkosh veteran Frank Nerenhausen, director of sales & marketing, Concrete Placement, is quick to note that the McNeilus deal has provided more than the lead role in the ready mixed industry's top capital equipment category. “There is tremendous strength in cross pollination of our divisions. After the McNeilus acquisition, we found how others were doing things differently in fabrication and manufacturing than we had been doing at Oshkosh.”

Early on in the merger, he adds, production between Dodge Center and Oshkosh headquarters was streamlined, resulting in such moves as the consolidation of mixer fabrication and welding at McNeilus. Since then, engineering teams from both plants have begun to integrate design. “We are seeing how commonality between rear and front discharge units — drum fin design, outside control boxes and hydraulic gear boxes — can benefit customers,” says Nerenhausen.

Oshkosh Truck's focus on special vehicles provides concrete teams expertise in areas such as metallurgy and proprietary components. Currently, Nerenhausen and Tom Harris are evaluating with others in product development how Oshkosh and McNeilus vehicles might incorporate TAK-4 Independent Suspension and Command Zone multiplexed electronics system technology that has thus far been commercialized in the Pierce division.

Pierce is leading the charge on another company-wide front soon to affect McNeilus. The fire truck operation has recently completed an audit for certification under the ISO 9001-2000 quality assurance standard. It entails more comprehensive measurement of manufacturing, sales and distribution processes than the widely adopted ISO 9000 quality assurance standards. Oshkosh Truck has maintained ISO 9000 certification since completing its first audits in 1995, and has been ISO 9001:2000 certified since December 2002. To harmonize quality assurance across the enterprise, and cap off a five-year integration process, McNeilus officials will complete Dodge Center's ISO 9001:2000 audits this summer.