ISSUE 10

14. 13.

13. Operated TechnologyFlannery Plant Hire, trained operators and technology

10.

7. 24 Hour TakedownDemolition of the Princes Street bridge in Swindon

4. Quarrying Gold Dove Holes Quarry near Buxton Operator Gold Card Training

8. Waste Fit For RoyalsGreen waste specially processed to grow Jersey Royal potatoes

10. Profitable Technology JourneyJK Ashbrook plant hire and contractimg business

8.

4.

CONTENTS 7.

14. Making The 3D HighwayThe benefits of integrated machine control strategy

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Two years later, the majority of the CEMEX UK Dove Holes operator team are now enrolled on the Gold Card training scheme, responsible for running one

of the UK’s most productive mobile quarry fleets. To find out how the team has increased volumes of quarried material from 3.8 million to 5 million tonnes per year, using the same Caterpillar fleet, Finning News caught up with CEMEX UK director, Robin Doody.

Robin: “Dove Holes is our largest quarry in the UK and therefore strategically important to the overall success of our business operations. The quarry itself provides limestone for construction projects all over the country and premium aggregate for the production of concrete and asphalt. Thanks to its rail connections, we are also able to transport around 50% of our quarried product to major markets in Leeds, Manchester, London, Birmingham and the Home Counties.

“So in 2014, we made the decision to enter a long-term eight-year partnership with the Finning Managed Solutions team and Cat Financial, creating what was the UK’s first integrated equipment management contract. This involved a new primary production fleet of 8 Caterpillar units, including 7 Cat 775G Off Highway Trucks and a Cat 990H Wheel Loader. Plus full support on the existing Cat 990H and 13 items of secondary plant.

“As part of the deal, our onsite maintenance facility was also shared by Finning, with a permanent engineer

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QUARRYING

GOLDAt the Hillhead show in 2014, CEMEX UK announced a ‘game changing’ deal with Finning, to supply and manage its fleet

of Caterpillar® equipment at Dove Holes quarry, near Buxton. At the same time, the first Operator Gold Card training

programme was launched in partnership with Finning MP Awards and the Institute of Quarrying.

onsite, supported by colleagues from the local Chesterfield branch, who provide us with 24-hour support.

“From a strategic point of view, the aim of the deal was to deliver a whole site solution, incorporating the latest equipment, technology and quarry management expertise. Our goals at the time were also very ambitious, as we wanted to be able to increase volumes according to a projected increase in demand from a recovering market. We initially set this target at a 15% increase in production with a 10% reduction in machine operating hours and a 6% reduction in overall fleet size.”

Huge Productivity Gains“However, what we have achieved is close to a 25% increase in production, using the same fleet, working to our standard shift patterns. The story behind this success really has been the way in which we have made efficiency gains at each stage of the quarrying operation.

“At the start of the contract, we challenged our own team and Finning to develop an ongoing performance management and optimisation strategy, aimed at making continuous improvements throughout the contract period. In practical terms, this has been about building up an expert Dove Holes team, that interacts with each other in a positive way and works together to identify large and small opportunities to improve our operations.”

KEY DATA• 33% increase in production to 5.6M tonnes from 3.8M• 5% increase in machine hours delivering 33% production increase

• 16% increase in tonnes moved per litre• 99% fleet availability• 21% increase in tonnes per hour

What do you do over a weekend break? Well if you are Lawson Group, you take a fleet of Caterpillar® machines with accompanying work tools and demolish the Princess Street bridge in the centre of Swindon, capturing it all on time-lapse video viewable at www.finningnews.com/video.

It may sound simple, but faced with a very limited weekend closure, Lawson Group had just 36 hours to prepare the site, demolish the bridge and make good, before reopening the major town centre road for the Monday morning commuter traffic.

The success of the project was in the hands of two highly trained Lawson Group operatives, controlling the lead excavators, a Cat 374D with

7

MP40 work tool and a Cat 336E with MP20 work tool. These individuals were backed up by other team members responsible for breaking up and removing the demolition debris, using two smaller Cat 323E excavators and a Cat 242D skid steer.

So successful was the operation, that the road was handed over 12 hours ahead of programme, to the delight of Lawson Group MD, Martin Wilson who said:

“The power and capabilities of the Cat 374D in particular meant we were able to split the job into two main phases over the dual carriageway sections. This allowed us to start the breakdown and removal of demolition waste faster, with clearly defined working areas helping to significantly reduce the overall programme time for what ended up being an excellent job.”

24 HOUR TAKEDOWN

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Importance of training“Critical to this approach has been our ongoing investment in training, with each of our operators enrolled on the Gold Card scheme. As the Gold Card is accredited and certified as a professional qualification, our staff has really bought into the investment made with the programme. Equally, because it is delivered by Finning onsite, who have been training our staff on the Eco-DriveTM programme for a number of years, operators can really apply the training to the practical challenges they face in the Dove Holes quarry.

“Through this approach I believe we are setting a much higher standard for the industry as a whole, whilst getting the economic benefits of investing in our people. Through engagement and awareness, staff moral and retention has increased with the majority of staff now receiving advanced training. This means that overall we have a much better consistency of machine operation and with that the benefits of reduced maintenance and wear and tear associated with excellent operation techniques. In practical terms this has led to a 12.8% increase in machine availability over the defined baseline.”

MineStar – Live data every hour“Gold standards are not only what we are setting with our operators and managers, but also in the way we use technology to drive up efficiency and reduce downtime. For example, in 2015 as part of our continuous improvement plan, we introduced enhanced production reporting, powered by Cat® MineStar technology. This gave us the opportunity to move from weekly reports and reviews with Finning, to hourly live data, fed into our team onsite through handheld tablets. With all of our production statistics including loader efficiency, average payload, cycle times by segment and tonnes per hour at our fingertips, we can now make live decisions on fleet movements and activities onsite, reducing inefficiencies and ultimately cost.”

Using data to alter site operations“As we move closer to real time data, what we can also do is start to match live information with other variables,

like the impact of changes in site operations, haul road conditions or length and the availability or fragmentation of blasted rock. This sort of trending data can then be used to measure the cost benefit of operational changes and site modelling.

“Having the data to prove the impact of varying site conditions, can not just help reduce costs at Dove Holes, it can be used across the business to highlight quarrying best practice.

“We can even make the decision to change the activity and alter the truck fleet size at the quarry operation, if cycle times, tonnes per hour or loader efficiencies drop below predetermined targets.

Midnight maintenance For Finning engineers, supporting the Dove Holes team can, on occasion, involve burning the midnight oil to ensure the availability of prime movers for the daily shift patterns, which start at 6am and finish at 01:00am, five days a week. For Greg Wheeler Finning Managed Solutions Contract Manager, technology and the availability of round the clock service is critical to uptime, as he explained: “Through the ProductLinkTM system on the equipment, we monitor the health of each machine, receiving alerts on performance, and any critical issues like oil pressure, overheating brakes or erratic gear changing.

“These alerts are monitored by our designated CEMEX UK Finsight team in Cannock, who liaise with site engineers and operators to ensure machine uptime. Similarly the operators know that if they spot any issues with a machine, they can call the team directly. We can then make a decision on what actions need to be taken to keep the fleet operational. Over the past two years, this has meant that our engineers have often worked through the night, to maintain equipment productivity.”

With Dove Holes now projecting a production target of 6,000,000 tonnes, the Finning Managed Solutions team are in the process of optimising the fleet mix for the future.

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WASTEFIT FORROYALS

For anyone that is partial to potatoes, the famous Jersey Royal, grown from the rich

soil of the island, would certainly be one of those spuds at the top of your favourites list and so is the very innovative green waste that is being specially processed to grow them.

To find out more, Finning News recently visited the island, to meet with Denis Van der Vliet, Operations manager for solid waste and the man who is responsible for the running its state-of-the-art green waste processing facility, which now includes a brand new electric Komptech Crambo 5000 shredder.

With the cost of moving waste off the island for processing totally uneconomical, Denis and his team, have recently been part of a multi-million pound investment in a brand new sustainable approach to waste processing on the island.

Financed by the Infrastructure department of the States of Jersey Government, new commercial, domestic and green waste processing facilities have been constructed at an integrated site, known as La Colette. With the green waste plant located next to a brand new energy from waste facility, the aim of the site is to be carbon neutral, as well as innovative in its approach to 100% waste processing as Denis explained:

“Having the ability to be part of the planning process of a purpose built site like this, has allowed us to really think about how to be as efficient as possible when it comes to the processing of green waste.

“So in-line with overall island waste strategy, we have not only looked at the general green waste we receive, but also at harder to process waste, to see if we can recycle this into a desirable and usable product.

This process has led to our recent innovation to incorporate old plasterboard into an agriculture focused compost, high in lime content, that is perfect for Jersey Royal potato farmers. As a knock on effect this has also significantly reduced the cost of disposing of this particularly difficult waste stream.”

Operating seven days a week, the site accepts both commercial and domestic green waste, which is initially fed by a Cat® 966K wheel loader, into its latest investment, a newly commissioned, fixed electric Komptech Crambo 5000 shredder.

Replacing its older Crambo 5000 mobile diesel model that has been in operation for eight years, the new unit is powered directly from electricity generated by the energy from waste plant, supporting its efforts to become carbon neutral. Once shredded, the material is then laid down to compost, being turned for a period of 5-7 weeks,

depending on the grade of compost required. It is then fed by the Cat 966K into a fixed electric powered Multistar screener, which has been operating on the island for 4 years. By changing the setting on the Multistar screener, the onsite team is able to produce 0-10mm and 0-20mm agricultural grade compost, which is sold to end-users.

Denis “Because the site has to process waste every day, as part of the procurement process we went through to purchase the equipment, we set service level agreements with

It is also good to know that we are supporting our farmers and the Jersey Royals that make an important contribution to the overall economy of the island.

“

“the Finning Komptech team to ensure high levels of uptime.

“By monitoring the equipment and scheduling in the servicing for all three units (Crambo 5000, Multistar and Cat 966K), the overall cost of maintaining the equipment has been kept to a minimum. Being able to couple this with the benefits of our electricity coming from our sister operation and the revenue from the sale of our enhanced product range, we are now in a much more sustainable position as an organisation.

998

A PROFITABLE

In 2010, James Ashbrook, MD of independent plant hire and contracting business J K Ashbrook, took the biggest gamble he had ever made, taking on a £2.5m earthworks and drainage contract to build the 4.4km Wrexham industrial estate access road. (W.I.E.A.R)

The project was equal to the entire previous years turnover and would take the business on a technology journey that in the past 5 years has seen it triple its connected Caterpillar® fleet to over 400 units, with technology now delivering a 20% uplift in turnover.

To find out more, Finning News met with James at his Congleton base in Cheshire, where he explained just how important the W.I.E.A.R project had been and where it had taken the business. James: “At the time we won the W.I.E.A.R job, other contractors were going out of business due to the recession and the industry was a very tough place to be.

“I knew we had to grow and fight hard for every bit of business out there, large and small, so I made the ‘make or break’ decision to tender for the W.I.E.A.R job, knowing if we got it wrong, it could potential sink the business.

TECHNOLOGYJOURNEY

We focused on a three point plan, which in order of priority revolved around People, Finance and Technology.

“

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TECHNOLOGYJOURNEY• 20% uplift in turnover £1m per year • Tripling fleet to 400 units • 1 million bits of data processed a year

1110 1111

“So when we won the job, that would ultimately start us on the path to dramatically expand the business, we focused on a three point plan, which in order of priority revolved around People, Finance and Technology.

“To get the first and most important people element right, we relied heavily on our connection to the farming community, which we had nurtured since we first started the business in 1995. To this day, we continue to hire and train a large number of individuals from the agriculture sector, which has help us even as a much larger business, to build on our family values and overall work ethos.

“This is reflected in the times when, for example, adverse weather has impacted a job and we put out a call for extra help that sees staff from all over the business mucking in. “It is this attitude that forms the bedrock of our decision making as a business. For me, we have always needed to be able to work with people that understand how our business operates, when we need support and what they can do to help.

“So when we were making our key investment decisions for the W.I.E.A.R job, we went out to the market for not just a lot of equipment and technology, but for a sustainable equipment

13

Ever since Flannery Plant Hire was incorporated in 1972, the business has been offering operated plant for hire. But today, its trained operators don’t just benefit from the newest equipment, they also take advantage of the technology it comes with.

HOURTAKEDOWN

solution to support our growth plans, for which the right finance was critical. “What we ended up with was a fleet of new GPS connected Caterpillar equipment, including 3D Trimble enabled dozers, all with extended warranties, supported by Finning and its Finsight engineering team and wrapped into a finance package from Cat Financial.

“In really basic terms, what this allowed us to do was to take total control of our cost base for the W.I.E.A.R job. We knew the monthly payments we would have to make and having done the work on fuel burn, in particular using the 3D enabled equipment, we had a clear understanding of our cost per tonne per litre. This ultimately gave us the confidence that we could make it profitable.

“When it came to the practical delivery of the actual job, this was where the technology played a critical role. We monitored the performance of each machine onsite through the Caterpillar GPS Product Link™ system, with support from the Finning Finsight and engineering teams to maintain uptime, whilst spotting key performance trends.

“This process also allowed us to identify where improvements could be made, with more experienced operators helping to train others, a process that continues to this day.

“Following on from the success of the project, as a business we have spent the last 4 years using the right finance models to put technology at the heart of the services we offer, maintaining a key focus on productivity and fuel burn, right the way through our fleet. “This has led to us recently retrofitting the Product Link™ system to all of our fleet, including mini excavators. We have also made further

investments in 3D machine control, through the Trimble dealer SITECH.

“Looking back on our journey, it has never been and never will be about investing in technology for the sake of ticking a box.

I believe that if you are going to invest in something that is ultimately not a piece of equipment but a system or solution, you have to be prepared to invest in your own knowledge and the skills of your team.

“You also have to change your business and put in the right procedures to make technology a day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute part of everyone’s working life.

“By developing our own weekly reports and reacting faster, we are now better at maintaining uptime, better at training, better at spotting trends, better at reducing theft and much more. But better is a continuous process and for me so is the technology that can help.

If the whole industry could embrace technology better, or even start asking the right questions, the financial and environmental benefits to be gained, could see the plant sector play a much bigger role in delivering the Government 2025 construction strategy.”

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Operated Technology

This is thanks to the vision of Managing Director Patrick Flannery, who Finning News recently spoke to following the completion of its latest £35m new equipment deal with Finning:

“This industry is quite simple really, you need to put the right equipment, with the highest uptime, in the hands of the best operators.

“But for me, this simple process has now been revolutionised by technology, and thankfully we recognised the commercial advantage the bundled solutions from Finning EMSolutions could give us a number of years ago.

“From a practical delivery perspective, we now monitor the health and productivity of over 800 Caterpillar® units, with the help of the Finning

Finsight engineering team. They use the VisionLink™ GPS technology to run a variety of reports from fuel burn to machine utilisation.

“We then feed these reports back to site managers and operators, so they have all the information they need on the health of a machine, its productivity and overall performance. “This has led to a much more engaged operator community, who have also embraced other technology like Accugrade, 2D and 3D solutions on our Cat dozers.

“The machine alerts we get through the system also mean that no matter where our equipment is working, Finning can contact us, explain the problem and dispatch an engineer, who can be onsite in a matter of hours, helping us deliver industry leading uptime.

“I definitely think operated technology is the way forward, but in order to make it work, you have to engage your entire operation and people to take full commercial advantage of the information you can now have at our fingertips.”

151414

3DMAKING THE

HIGHWAYHighways England benefit from integrated machine control strategy

The future use of plant and equipment on UK road construction is already shaping up in 3D, thanks to the use of integrated surveying and machine

control techniques on the A1 widening project from Leeming to Barton.

Commissioned by Highways England, the once 19.3 km stretch of dual carriageway is being transformed into a three-lane motorway, complete with a 15km local access road. Tasked with delivering the project is the A1M2 consortium, a joint venture between main contractors Carillion and Morgan Sindall.

Since the project first broke ground, (due to complete in Spring 2017), plant hire specialist, Potter Plant, has been responsible for delivering all of the earthworks, using Trimble 3D machine control from SITECH UK and Ireland.

With up to 40 pieces of equipment in operation at any one time, the project boasts the largest and most integrated 3D enabled mixed fleet ever seen on a road job in England. Together with Trimble enabled A1M2 surveyors, the very latest in 3D Building Information Modelling (BIM) techniques has been used on the job, to ensure complete traceability of the key earthworks stages of the project.

The task at hand is significant, with 1,600,000m3 of earthworks excavation and 1,570,000m3 of deposition spread across the site followed by the exacting placement of 1,000,000 tonnes of dry stone to form the base for 650,000 tonnes of pavement.

For Highways England project manager, Thomas Howard, the importance of the lessons learnt from the use of technology on the project, can’t be

underestimated: “This is a ‘Big Data’ project, rich with information that is being recorded, analysed and processed, to give us an excellent BIM style data driven model for future civil projects.

“On this project, everyone has worked together to keep challenging the way data is collected, used and acted upon and ultimately this will ensure the construction of a better quality road, for a smoother end-user journey. It will also mean we will have a model that can be used to support the ongoing maintenance of the road into the future.

“The experience gained on this project is already being shared across Highways England and our partners and it is clear that an integrated approach using different technologies like 3D machine control, has a role to play in the future.”

For A1M2 construction manager Ashley White, there were a number of key decisions to make when it came to the practical delivery of the project and the teams

vision for the integration of new technologies. “The challenges with any major infrastructure project like this are how to maximise safety and minimise downtime, whilst delivering a high quality outcome in the designated programme time.

“So it is clear that if you can find ways of reducing hazards onsite, increasing productivity and doing each job right first time, you will be well on the way to meeting these goals.

“For my team, managing a scheme of this complexity requires the co-ordination of resource and suppliers across the project and that is why we have brought in numerous innovations to support these goals. They include different types of technology, from an advanced camera solution for traffic management, to specialist equipment warning systems and of course 3D machine control, on both plant and asphalt pavers.

“From a practical delivery perspective the collation and processing of data has been essential to the success of the project. By modelling earthworks in a BIM style model before work began, we could identify where to excavate and place material across the site. This eliminated the need to remove large amounts of material offsite for costly processing.

As the project has moved forward, we have continued to develop the BIM model and its capabilities, giving all members of the project access to the model online, so they can navigate through what is an ever-changing site. Keeping control of this process has been incredibly important to our overall ‘Lean Strategy’ and collaborative project planning process, as we receive large amounts of data every day, especially from the 3D machines and surveying teams.

Ultimately our ‘Lean Strategy’ is about combining data and knowledge of exactly how we are performing on a particular task, so keeping good up to date records for all operations is essential. 3D technology and ‘Big Data’ is definitely here to stay, but I think it is how you use it that really matters.

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It’s time to connect to intelligent telematics.Your Cat machine will do anything you ask of it. Including talking to you. If you have a machine with no telematics box installed – even a non-Cat machine - it’s no problem. We can retrofit our box and get your whole fleet connected from just £14 a month.* Allowing you to pinpoint your machine’s location, monitor its health and extend its working life. Once you’re ‘talking’, you can effectively manage your equipment and improve your efficiency. You’ll also have access to invaluable asset and fleet reports. If you already have one of our telematics box installed, we can activate it and get you connected. From just £6 a month, we can connect you to the Trimble VisionLink online application. To get connected call 0800 328 5597 or visit finning-solutions.com

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