SOFTWARE, TELEMATICS & AUTOMATION How BARD Materials traded in spreadsheets for a sophisticated production tracking and analysis system EDITED BY KEVIN YANIK MAJOR UPGRADE C apturing performance data and using it to adjust op-erations offers competitive advantages across the con-struction sector. Require-ments for aggregate operations, however, are specific and unique. Alex Gribben, assistant aggregate production director at BARD Materials, knows this full well. BARD, which is headquartered in Dyersville, Iowa, pre-viously relied on complex spreadsheets to track performance at a number of mobile production sites in operation at a given time. “Logging into Excel on laptops to report quantities was cumbersome, and it was easy to make mistakes or delete formulas,” says Gribben, whose company has dozens of quarries and sand pits throughout Iowa and Wisconsin. “We weren’t efficient or accurate, and we had trouble maintaining consistency across our sites.” According to Gribben, reporting and analysis required an extensive manual effort once data was recorded on aggre-gate production, downtime, and hours for employees and equipment. Variations in how data was collected compounded the reporting challenge. ON A NEW TRACK BARD partnered with a soft-ware vendor to replace those spreadsheets with an im-proved production tracking and analysis system tailored to multiple production sites. Information is power, and having it more readily available allows BARD Materials to better evaluate whether or not replacements or upgrades are needed. Gribben Customized, electronic daily logs and reporting capabilities with B2W Software’s B2W Track are the key com-ponents BARD utilizes. Supervisors at BARD sites now record performance data each day using mobile tablets. The B2W Track log is customized for BARD’s operations and is the same across all sites. Production reports based on data arrive the next morning for comparison of actual and planned performance. “B2W Track is far easier and more accurate than Excel,” Gribben says. “We capture information while its fresh, and it’s a simpler, systematic process. It’s also more consistent. Nobody can change the background settings or the methodology.” Supervisors can work offline during the day at sites where con-nectivity may be a challenge. They then sync and submit logs when they get a connection. PURPOSE-BUILT REPORTING Rather than struggling with Excel or relying on generic options, Gribben and his team worked with B2W to design reporting capabilities for the specific needs of the company. “B2W built custom reports and dash-boards that provide instant feedback,” Gribben says. “We know right away when numbers don’t line up with what we expect. We can dig into it, figure out why and address issues fast.” B2W Track reporting also makes it simple to analyze production at a spe-cific site or compare across multiple sites, Gribben says. Each month, BARD exports data from daily logs directly into a system for comprehensive production and financial reports. “This is now much more streamlined than with spreadsheets, with far less manual effort, redundant data entry and opportunities for error,” Gribben says. pitandquarry.com 20 PIT&QUARRY February 2021 BARD MATERIALS
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