And that’s a wrap!
March 28, 2025 was the last day precasters participating in The Precast ScrapDown Challenge needed to collect data.
The Precast ScrapDown Challenge, the first competition of its kind, brought precasters head-to-head in a battle to optimize production and reduce waste.
Entry fees collected for participation included each participant donating at least $500 to the National Precast Concrete Association Foundation (NPCAF) with another $500 collected to fund a cash prize pool that would be divided to the winner(s) of the challenge. With the nine total participating precast plant locations, the challenge was able to facilitate a donation of $4,500 to the NPCAF and have a $4,500 cash pool prize.
Why scrap waste?
Every year, precast producers lose nearly $400 million* to scrap waste—that’s like pouring money down the drain! Idencia OneSource helps plants take control of these losses with real-time data and analytics.
Idencia OneSource software helps precasters track and reduce concrete scrap through:
- A tailored NCR configuration for efficient data collection
- Comprehensive dashboards to visualize scrap costs and reduce concrete waste
- Root cause analysis to identify and fix waste issues
The challenge helps precasters maximize their plant’s precast production efficiency while competing for top honors in the precast concrete contest 2025.
Participation
The Precast ScrapDown Challenge attracted nine precast plant locations owned by seven different precast producers:
The competition was tight, with participants staying neck and neck throughout the three-month challenge—demonstrating their dedication to quality and efficiency.
Data participants tracked
Producers were able to monitor their scrap rate, trendlines, counts, defects, and defect root causes directly on the Idencia OneSource web-based portal. Near the end of the challenge, competitors were able to see in real-time the standings of who had the best scrap rates.
Below is a mock-up of what participants saw when they logged into Idencia OneSource.
Key Data Takeaways
Aggregating all data collected during the challenge provided some impactful insights to reveal, here are some of the best insights:
- Total Amount of Concrete Poured During Contest: 40,059.48 cubic yards
- Total Number of Items Repaired: 365
- Total Number of Items Scrapped: 106
- Average Scrap Rate: 0.35%
- Top 3 Defect Types: Honeycombing (55%), Exposed Rebar (17%), Crack (14%)
- Top 3 Root Causes: Equipment (48%), Labor (32%), Other (10%)
Winners
The goal of The Precast ScrapDown Challenge is for participants to have the least amount of concrete waste and also to improve their rate of scrapped concrete. There were two objectives to strive for during The Precast ScrapDown Challenge:
Objective 1: Lowest Percentage of Scrapped Concrete
There was a three-way tie for objective one! Three precast plants had a 0% scrap rate throughout the entire contest. In order to break the tie and determine the winner, we looked at who poured the most amount of concrete during this time. This resulted in Shea Concrete Products being the winner!
Objective 2: Greatest Improvement Over the Quarter
Determining who showed the great improvement over the quarter, we reviewed scrap rates on a weekly basis to calculate how each plant is improving their rate. Lee's Precast Concrete showed the most improvement in the reduction of their scrap rate throughout the quarter resulting as the winner of objective two!
Each winning company receives half of the total prize pool money, fanfare and recognition, badges for their social pages and website, and bragging rights!
Interested in participating?
Sign-ups for the next ScrapDown Challenge will open on April 7, 2025 with a challenge start date of May 19, 2025!
Learn more about The Precast ScrapDown Challenge on our website.
*Idencia’s estimated dollar amount based on average costs and data from the 2023 NPCA Benchmarking Report, where it’s estimated that precast producers lose an average of 1.5% of their products to waste every year.
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