WWE's got nothin' on precast!

Hello and welcome back to Connected Concrete! If you've been with me for a while, you know that I use this space to share what I've learned along the way about optimizing performance in the plant and at the company.

Today I will give you a way to help optimize plant performance.

And, I'm giving you the opportunity to prove your mettle pitted against precast industry titans.

We're not talking lightweights here. We're talking the likes of Shea Concrete Products, Gainey's Concrete, Gillespie Precast and Southern Indiana's favorite son, S&M Precast.

Wow, sounds kind of like a SmackDown.

Wrong.

Its a ScrapDown. The Precast ScrapDown Challenge.

There will be two winners who will receive wide recognition and a cash prize.

And here is the best part:

The contest will support the National Precast Concrete Association Foundation's work in attracting new talent into the precast industry.

Nice, a ScrapDown with greater purpose. How will it work?

Simple. During the first quarter of 2025 participants will:

1. Log the volume of repairs and scrap with the Idencia OneSource Connect app as necessary. Logging takes 1-2 minutes.
2. Enter the volume of concrete poured weekly. This takes about 1 minute.
3. Review their progress using the OneSource Gateway. They will be able to view their performance, note trends, and identify root causes.

The coolest part is that contestants will be able to compare their performance against the average of all others in real time. (No individual performance data will be shared.)

Each contestant will be asked to contribute $500 to the NPCA Foundation and $500 to a prize pool that will be held in trust.

There will be two prizes awarded: 1) Lowest Scrap Rate; and 2) Most Improved (over the course of the 3-month contest).

We are thinking big and targeting participation of 50 contestants, which would result in $25,000 raised for the NPCA Foundation and a prize pool of $25,000.

Contestants will have free use of Idencia's OneSource system to log and monitor their results.

We hope that winnings will be shared with team members in the form of a bonus for excellent work.

The winners will be announced in early April 2025.

Okay, but will it distract from our operations?

We developed both OneSource and the Challenge expecting this question.

The answer is no, it will help operations.

The NPCA 2024 Precast Industry Benchmarking Report states that the average precast plant produces $12 million annually and discards 1.0% of production due to errors. This amounts to $120,000 wasted each year!

Contestants will experience how they can easily monitor repairs, reduce scrap and increase profits as a result.

As the saying goes, the first step toward a solution is paying attention to the problem.

How can I learn more?

We've made it easy:

1. We have created a web page that describes the ScrapDown Challenge in detail and provides a list of FAQs.
2. Sign up for our explanatory webinar at noon EST on Wednesday, November 13, 2024.
3. A half-hour webinar will also be provided to show contestants how to set up and use OneSource.

Even if you know you can't make the explanatory webinar, sign up anyway. We will send a recording to all those who sign up.

So, why is Idencia sponsoring The ScrapDown Challenge?

Three reasons:

1. We want to promote the efficiency of the precast industry to the construction market;
2. We want to support the important work of the NPCA Foundation; and
3. We want to provide producers with a fun way to instill a spirit of continuous improvement among team members.

If you are in precast, I hope you will join us.

Get a little Bluto in you and... ScrapDown!

Next up... back to basics

We're looking forward to a fun contest and I will keep you posted on progress.

Meanwhile, in my next post I will get back to basics with a discussion about optimizing productivity.

Thanks for reading everyone! Have a great weekend.

Jeff