Albert Einstein famously mused “If you can’t explain it to a 6-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself.” This can be applied to how many in the construction industry view ultra-high-performance concrete, or UHPC. While this type of concrete has been around for a long time, it is often dismissed as a complicated and expensive option. “It’s complicated” may not be…
Read More
Graphene is light, super strong and can lessen the CO2 footprint of cement. Sir Isaac Newton famously wrote, “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” A giant in the natural sciences, Newton knew sustainable progress is only possible through building on incremental advances. In November, the 2021 United Nations Climate Change…
Read More
A ready mixed concrete truck is more than a “truck.” It’s a mobile manufacturing environment. William Shakespeare might be tempted to say a truck by any other name is still a truck, but in the ready mixed concrete industry, a mixer truck is really a mobile manufacturing environment, or MME. Let’s take a few moments to “smell the roses.” One…
Read MoreThe association’s latest task group champions the latest advances in technology. By Craig Yeack Once upon a time, the winners and losers in our industry were separated mainly by one thing: pricing power. Be it through consolidation, vertical integration, or just being a superior operator, pricing power is an economic term that describes a company’s ability to raise prices without…
Read More
A solid financial case can be made to use precast concrete more broadly in projects. Decades ago, some bright guy built his own septic tank with forms, casting the concrete structure first and then installing it. His neighbors asked if he could help them do that, too. Boom. Precast as we know it was born. Modern precast is critical infrastructure,…
Read MoreProducers must decide between sticking with batching systems that do a good enough job and upgrading to one that runs masterfully with improved accuracies and uptime. Many of us grew up with the idioms “use it up, wear it out” and “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” These words of wisdom are essential for survival in a world of…
Read More
Ready-mix concrete is a “now” industry. Real time. No delay. It’s time for us to catch up with what our kids already have: Instant access to information and collaboration with everyone all the time. The phrase “digital enterprise” makes a ton of money for lots of advisors from big-name consultancies. They use it as a noun, verb and adverb. They…
Read More
Modernizing the business of ready-mix, part 3 of 3. Running a ready-mix concrete operation is tough. Pat yourself on the back for exactly three seconds. Now for the crushing reality: Running a concrete construction operation is just as tough, if not more. Let’s spend some time in our customers’ shoes (see sidebar). Think about what we can do to make…
Read MoreModernizing the business of ready-mix, part 2 of 3. Managing construction materials is a complicated “now” business. Dozens of independent factors must be tamed to achieve on-time, on-site, on-spec fulfillment. The most complicated is structural ready-mix concrete, which is driven by the real-time NOW factors of need, inventory, manufacturing, perishability and logistics. Complicating the issue even further, most material producers…
Read MoreModernizing the business of ready mix, part 1 of 3 Many concrete producers are considering the merits of upgrading their software and hardware for concrete batching. Some are even considering a DIY approach. Recently, one regional company owner asked me, “What would it take to update all of our 100-plus batching plants to a modern system, and why can’t we…
Read More