As much as I hate hearing this myself, I’m going to type it right here: You must measure what you’ve got if you’re going to manage it.
Now let’s apply this maddening concept to the asphalt plant at season start-up. You want to define and track waste material at the plant before you can lessen the amount of product you’re wasting. Here’s a 30-second toolbox talk item right here to improve the bottom line when season startup hits.
First, I think we can all agree that the mix you “waste” at the beginning of the run is waste product. It’s the practice load. It gets dumped into the back of a truck and taken directly to the RAP pile. It doesn’t get sold to a customer. It doesn’t go to a project to make a road. It doesn’t add to the bottom line.
Weigh that mix before taking it to the RAP pile. The truck is driving across the scale already; teach plant personnel now to get the actual weight and input the data to the proper field in your software.
Plant personnel must get accurate measurements of what is actually wasted if the bean counters are to account for materials going in, fuel used, utility costs, and so on. You could argue that any mix or material processed or handled at the plant but not sold or used on a project, is “waste material.” What does your company define as waste? Let’s toss around some ideas on the AsphaltPro Magazine Facebook page.
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