Completely OVER The Cost of Overdesign?

Producers will often overdesign their concrete mixes to ensure the quality of their final delivered product. But why?! Because wasting money and materials used in overdesigns is better than delivering concrete that gets rejected because it is the wrong slump – or worse. Placed, and then removed. Money spent on the cost of overdesign can significantly hurt the producers’ bottom line.

Industry averages on the overdesign of concrete is about 30% with 20% being necessary to ensure test results meet specified amounts. For an annual production of 500,000 cubic yards and an estimate of 5 percent overdesign, your current cement costs on overdesign equals $620,000 annually.

If producers had visibility into the concrete properties while a load is in transit, they could ensure the proper quality of the concrete. Often producers will spend time in the yard or at the job site making adjustments to the slump. The average cost estimate of 1 minute of delivery time is $0.94, with the average time to adjust the slump equating to 5 to 15 minutes in every delivery cycle. A single truck delivers about 600 loads/year, so the cost to adjust the load, based on 5-minute delays, equates to around $2500 per truck annually. If you have 100 trucks, that is a quarter of a million dollars spend per year for a fleet to make load adjustments at the job site.

Load Assurance from Command Alkon provides real-time information on the concrete properties of a load. With Load Assurance, slump, temperature, volume, drum rotation and other information that details the workability of the concrete is available to the drivers in real time.

Load Assurance provides real-time notifications and displays to indicate when the load is ready to leave the yard, when it is ready to be discharged at the job site, when water needs to be added and how much material remains in the drum after discharge. The data collected provides historical reference for improvement of the next delivery cycle.

By reviewing the load data, producers can evaluate and optimize mix designs, reducing the need for overdesign of mixes. The data can help with disputes to prove quality of the mix. You know that the concrete you delivered was at the optimal quality for the job. The risk of having to replace the concrete already poured can be reduced using the historical information and quality data.

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