The results of inefficient processes have the potential to harm your business. Unhappy customers, stressed colleagues, missed deadlines, and increased costs can result from dysfunctional processes. As the Ready Mix leader in Peru, UNICON understands that when everyone follows a well-tested set of steps, there are fewer errors and delays, there is less duplicated effort, and staff and customers feel more satisfied.
UNICON
UNICON was founded in 1996, merging two of Peru’s leaders in the Ready Mix industry. The Rizo Patrón family began this venture to act as the concrete branch of the cement factory that operated in Lima, Cementos Lima (now UNACEM).
Now and for the last 23 years, UNICON has stayed on top by being trailblazers on the technology front. They embrace new technological advances and deliver that to their customers as an added value. They are also the go-to company for large-scale mining projects, thanks to their commitment to safety, the environment, and effective performance.
According to Enrique San Román Bianchi, Corporate Operations Manager, the groups’ Strategic Plan is what separates them from their competition: execution with excellence, responsibility, and flexibility. These are the values that lead UNICON to act with operational discipline.
The commitment UNICON has to their customers is what made them realize that they had some room for improvement in order to deliver excellent experiences.
Three main challenges that they were facing include: controlling quality and uniformity of concrete mixtures, managing orders and delivery, and having the proper analytical insights to determine performance and allow continuous improvement.
“The most important challenge we had to deal with was to have full control of the scheduling and delivery cycles. We didn't have any way to verify the accuracy of the information, from the number of orders per programmer, to the number of trucks available for dispatch.”
- Enrique San Román Bianchi, Corporate Operations Manager
Command Alkon Steps in to Guide the Way
To solve the problems that UNICON was facing in their everyday operations, they migrated to two Command Alkon systems: COMMANDbatch to improve quality and consistency of materials, and COMMANDseries to schedule, ticket and deliver quality concrete on time.
Eventually, UNICON also implemented Apex to check-in, load, and ticket trucks at their aggregate quarries.
Integration
“Command Alkon’s personnel was very attentive during the implementation, meeting UNICON’s very strict requirements. Despite this, they passed with flying colors and overcame several inconveniences.”
- Enrique San Román Bianchi, Corporate Operations Manager
The first initial training on the systems lasted for about two months. UNICON needed to migrate from their own system that was connected to their billing and accounting system, to a new tool with a different language. Many details were involved during the implementation, but UNICON and Command Alkon worked together to get the job done.
“The interesting thing about working with Command Alkon is that they are constantly working to update their solutions. Their post-sales staff is always checking in with personalized periodic visits and with online support if we have specific problems.”
- Rafael Llanos, Production Manager
UNICON’s employees were thrilled to simplify and automate their operations. They are constantly training and learning how to fully utilize these tools for maximum efficiency gains.
Results
The simplified processes yielded results almost immediately after implementation. According to Enrique San Román Bianchi, the most significant improvements realized after the integration was the quality of the finished product, uniformity of the mixes produced, simplified order entry (and the increase in the volume of orders that could be taken), and the number of mixers that the company is now able to dispatch. They are also able to control the man hours of their personnel to stay within the limits required by law.
“If we had not migrated to the products offered by Command Alkon, it would have been very difficult to achieve the level of growth that we have experienced.”
- Enrique San Román Bianchi, Corporate Operations Manager
