Tracking Infrastructure

There has been a lot of talk about 3D modeling and BIM in recent years. Both have experienced acceptance and application in commercial construction.... but very little in the civil construction market. However, it seems that the FHWA's push for e-Construction practices over the past 5-6 years is bearing fruit. Now, all of a sudden, DOTs are starting to require e-ticketing and Digital As-Builts from their suppliers.

Stubbe's Precast, based in Harley, Ontario, is a big precast producer with a great reputation. They serve eastern Canada with two state-of-the-art manufacturing plants specializing in structural and architectural precast. Speak to any precaster in Canada or in the northeast United States and they will speak of Stubbe's with high regard. The reason for this is found in Stubbe's values: quality, innovation and, as they state on their website, "forward thinking solutions". 

Since early in Q2 of 2020, we have seen a dramatic growth in inquiries from large precast manufacturers who want to 'go digital' in their plants. They all have their own specific needs, of course, but the acceleration of interest suggests that there is something bigger at work. Something that suggests a change in thinking or a transformation. It feels as if the industry has reached a tipping point, much the same way that the world rushed to embrace Zoom to manage through COVID.

We think it has.

We are very pleased to announce that Idencia has created a new service for the precast industry... and the best part is that it does not cost a cent!

This week we introduced Idencia Insights, a series of polls we will take from time to time on topics of interest to the precast industry. Participants can immediately see how their anonymous responses compare to others and Idencia will publish the results.

Now that things are starting to settle down and states are beginning to re-open from COVID-19 shutdowns, the question on everyone's mind is "What will happen next?". It feels like we were cruising (speeding?) along at a comfortable pace of 85 mph and slammed on the brakes to avoid a multi-car accident that came out of nowhere. We've crashed. Are we seriously injured or just severely shaken up?

Our discussions with concrete product manufacturers during the past month reveal that many are reassessing their workflows in response to the COVID-19 disruption. Smart managers see a break from normality as a good opportunity to rethink the old ways in order to emerge more productive.

The first cut is to find hidden costs that can be eliminated.

Most of Idencia's customers are precast concrete manufacturers located in rural areas. Often, these companies are among the larger employers in their community. Today, many of the local businesses in rural communities have been severely disrupted by COVID-19. This week Idencia will be announcing an initiative designed to help precast producers help the smaller businesses in their communities. We hope you will join us.

We recently read two really positive reports on social media by employees of producers that purchased lunch from local restaurants to help them during the COVID crisis. The employees were proud of their companies for stepping up and appreciative of a nice perk in trying times. We love(!) the idea and that got us thinking about how we could scale it.

In the spirit of this week's Thanksgiving holiday here in the US, I want to use this blog post to express our appreciation and do some giving of our own. We are enormously grateful for the opportunity to serve the construction market with our Connected Concrete^TM product tracking service. We're particularly grateful to our customers, all of whom stood with us during a difficult patch this year. As a result, we are better and stronger. Thank you for your patronage! 

We have a credo at Idencia that we want every party that engages with us in any way to find that they are better off for the experience. This is how we express our appreciation through actions all year long.

So, Thanksgiving week is a good time to share some things we are doing to show our appreciation.

This past week consumer apparel company, Ralph Lauren, announced that it is going to be 'digitizing' every product it manufactures. Why would a company with such well known brands (Polo, Club Monaco, Ralph Lauren Collection) go to the bother of ensuring that every product it manufactures has a digital identity? And why should manufacturers of products used in infrastructure and commercial construction care that Ralph Lauren is doing this?

Amazon engages its vendors through a web interface it calls Vendor Central. Parties invited to become vendors register on the platform and their relationship with Amazon is managed on it. Why does Amazon operate in this way? Because it is the most cost-efficient way of doing business. All commerce will eventually follow Amazon's lead and engender the efficiency that platforms offer.

This is the third in a series of posts from our recently published vision statement called The Infrastructure Supply Chain Platform. Today we discuss how infrastructure manufacturers will engage with their vendors on a platform to save time, reduce costs and add more value to the end users of the products they produce.