We really enjoy learning how our customers make best use of concrete product tracking for their plants. Since the practice is relatively new, by definition our customers are forward- thinking. So there is a lot to learn from how they improve their productivity. We learn from them and pass it on to the rest of the industry. Here are three of the most popular applications.

Customers tell us that the biggest headache in managing precast operations is in dealing with inventory. They subscribe to our RFID product tracking service because they want a more efficient way to do this. Though their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems automate management of most other business functions, they do not offer the complete inventory tracking solutions that precasters need. How nice would it be to automate this as well? 

Infrastructure product manufacturers face two pressing challenges today: tight margins and hiring/retaining high-performance people. Fortunately, there is a business practice called OKRs that addresses both of these. Originally introduced in the 1970s by Intel's Andy Grove, OKRs are now standard in virtually every company that has dominated its industry: Google, Amazon, Oracle and Microsoft to name a few. But, OKRs are not just a passing fancy for glitzy tech firms. They are also applied by stalwarts like GE, Anheuser-Busch and the Navy. Early adopters in manufacturing have an opportunity to become industry leaders that provide an environment for growing profits and attracting/retaining the best people.

The 'smart city' is the wave of the future and there is a lot of interest in making it happen. However, you don't seem to hear as much about 'smart infrastructure', which is curious. Every house has a foundation, and infrastructure is the foundation of the city, so it stands to reason that you can't have a truly 'smart' city unless it is 'smart' all the way down to its foundation. Idencia is all about smart infrastructure so we thought we would share our vision.

We conducted a Twitter poll this week asking what the construction supply chain expects to gain from adopting technology. By a factor of almost 2:1, 'Reduce paperwork' was the most common response. There have been a lot of solutions offered by many tech companies to help the AEC industry transition to digital records but most have (naturally) been targeted at the paper-intensive businesses in the supply chain... most especially design and engineering. The manufacturers, on the other hand, have not received as much attention as they deserve. Fortunately, RFID is a technology that is well suited to serving their needs.

This week we began conducting our new Twitter polls to get a finger on the pulse of what the construction supply chain is thinking these days. More respondents told us that they see productivity growth as their greatest opportunity, ahead of market growth and increased market share. Curiously, we also learned that only 26% see adoption of lean practices as the means for this. So, we asked how they expect to make the productivity happen.

In our conversations with precast concrete manufacturers lately, we have heard of a lot of interest in lean manufacturing. Some of our customers, such as Jensen Precast and Smith Midland, have engaged in the practice for some time with good success. The NPCA wrote about their experiences in a November 2017 blog post. Many others are starting to think hard about becoming lean because the gains in productivity and customer value are long known and well proven. We engage in lean practices at Idencia so we thought we would share the basics for those interested in learning about lean principles.

RFID systems are becoming more and more prevalent. We drive through tolls and the RFID tag in our car is automatically read and we are charged. Tags are included on items in stores to deter shoplifting. Hospital equipment is tagged so that supplies can be tracked. And, of course, infrastructure products are being tagged at manufacture so that critical QC/QA information can be tracked throughout the product's life cycle. They are everywhere but... how does it actually work?

Over the past two and a half years about 80 precast and prestressed concrete manufacturers have subscribed to the Idencia concrete tracking system to improve inventory control and implement paperless QC processes. As they have integrated Idencia into their operations, they have developed some great ideas for improvements based on their user experiences. We welcome this input because our customers often come up with suggestions that may never have occurred to us. Every once in a while we like to report the new features that have been developed from these ideas.

We were pleased to be asked to speak at the Command Alkon ELEVATE 2017 customer conference this past week. As the theme implies, creating ways to offer more customer value was a topic of extensive discussion. The Idencia presentation was Connected Concrete: An Opportunity to Lead. Since this was the topic of last week's post, we thought we would provide a deeper dive in this post by sharing our slide deck. Thanks to Command Alkon for a great conference!