QuarryEngineers - Field Support Solutions

"If You Always Do What You Have Always Done... You Will Always Get What You Have Always Got!"

Unquestionably, the most effective way to lower unit cost in an aggregates operation is to provide more saleable tons to divide into constant operating costs.  With this in mind, our field evaluation services begin by establishing current limitations throughout the production process. We verify and validate your process flow with minimal interruption to your scheduled production using AggFlow along with field observation and simple measurement techniques including digital photo gradation analysis. Production capability and product yield are defined in each common operating mode as performance models are created. 

Optimizing production cost; maximizing saleable tons; reducing surplus inventory and minimizing waste ALWAYS increases profit.  Whenever a plant is run out of balance to meet sales for high demand products, the true unit cost of production goes up.  Using the performance models along with reasonably accurate sales and inventory information, added cost related to running a plant out of balance can be calculated.  

Our report provides an analysis of each segment’s limitations on the performance potential of the entire processing system and includes recommended changes intended to reduce production losses and extraordinary costs.

Field measurement and analysis techniques are extremely easy often resulting in cost reduction of up to $2.00 per ton. It is rare that performance improvement of 20% is not achievable.  Our services are offered with sincere expectation of providing substantial value to the quarry owner.  In real-life operations, the value from our services is often measured in millions of dollars and always exceeds the cost of our services many times over.  References and examples are available. 

“Who Is Managing Performance Within Your Operations?”

Performance Management vs. Compliance Management

There is a point in every operation that yields the highest percentage of quality product at the lowest cost with the least amount of waste.  However, with an increasing obligation to manage non-operational, non-production details few managers have the time required to effectively evaluate process details limiting current performance much less establish the optimal potential of their systems. This results in performance being relegated to short-term reactionary status with management focusing primarily on compliance with targeted expectations based on historically “budgeted” performance and financial projections.  These targets seldom represent current reality as they invariably ignore the multi-year cyclical, but inevitable, cost of pit development, equipment repairs, overhaul and replacement fundamental to the performance and operating cost of every aggregates plant.  The result is that compliance with spending limitations becomes the primary means of controlling cost. 

It can readily be shown that one of the worst ways to lower the cost of production in an aggregates plant is to arbitrarily stop investing money on maintenance and repair.  Reality in a quarry is that if you do not repair or maintain a plant, eventually it will not run or at best it will not run effectively.  Less tons divided into dollars spent causes unit cost to go up, not down. 

Aggregate operations require both competent compliance and performance managers.   However, it is “Performance Management” that improves production, reduces cost and increases profit.  It is important to consider that, just as we know that without regulatory and corporate compliance there would be no operations allowed, without adequate profitability there is no reason to operate and therefore no compliance to manage. A reactionary approach to managing performance restricts improvement initiative and results in millions of dollars in lost profit and misallocated upgrade capital spent replacing systems that are operating at 40% - 60% of capability merely because they are improperly utilized or maintained.

You Can’t Manage What You Can’t Control              You Can’t Control What You Can’t Measure

   If You Can’t Measure It …You Can’t Manage It.