It’s tough not to empathize with ready mix producers like Michael.
He currently runs six plants. He’s got a strong operation with solid people, and he has good margins for right now. He’s not struggling. He’s not behind, but he is beginning to feel a little bit of pressure.
Michael’s plants are running well when the right people are there. But, as plant managers know, each plant requires a batcher, and each batcher is tied to a batch house.
Coverage can become fragile.
If one person doesn’t show up, Michael’s phone begins to ring. Even when everyone does show up, Michael’s noticing that his model is inefficient — as production slows towards the end of the day, his plants still need to be staffed, sometimes up to hours idly waiting for the day’s remaining loads.
Michael isn’t short on effort. He’s constrained by an operating model that doesn’t flex when demand does.
And this is a growing risk.
Meanwhile, two of Michael’s most experienced batchers are set to retire this year. Out of these two batchers, one is nice and gives him a six-week notice, but the other doesn’t. Michael doesn’t panic, but he realizes his operation only works because of the people he’s about to lose. If he’s going to replace these people, the recruitment may take months; the training may take weeks. It’s going to require extensive supervision and could pose a risk to his operation.
What would you do first if you were in Michael’s situation?
- Hire and train new batchers as fast as possible
- Ask experienced batchers to cover more plants
- Accept higher operational risk and hope staffing stabilizes
- Rethink how batching is done across plants
At one of our recent batch webinars, more ready mix producers said they’d rethink their batching model than hire and train replacement batchers as fast as possible.
Producers can now address the traditional batcher-to-batch house physical constraint head-on with our latest cloud-based innovation.
The Far-Reaching Benefits of Multi-Plant Remote Batching
To start, remote batching helps alleviate costly staffing constraints. Overtime is minimized when late-day orders at a lower-volume plant can be seamlessly batched and dispatched from a higher-production location.
Multi-Plant Remote Batching in Command Cloud is added to a producer’s existing COMMANDbatch or Marcotte Batch, automatically inheriting the safeguards of those systems. Plus, wherever they physically are, batchers can monitor the load being batched by accessing live camera feeds from the corresponding plant.
Built For All Situations
We get it — remote batching unchains ready mix batchers from the batch house, but some situations call for even more flexibility. In today’s marketplace, having to rely on the veteran expertise of a handful of employees can squander an operation’s forward momentum.
No matter who is available, from operators to drivers, ANYONE can safely use this solution thanks to its simple and intuitive user interface. Designed to bypass a time-consuming learning curve, Multi-Plant Remote Batching’s ROI quickly kicks in as trusted operators batch with ease from either a desktop, laptop, or tablet, from the front-end loader, or a concrete truck.