Recently there was a fascinating... and very encouraging... article posted in the technology website, TechCrunch, that extolled the bright future in manufacturing for those companies that embrace cloud technology and lean manufacturing principles. In fact, the article was so optimistic that it was ...

This past week we took a tour of new customers to introduce the Idencia system and discuss ways we can help them with their precast productivity. We always ask about the things that aggravate them most in managing their operations so that we can continue to improve upon Idencia in ways that solve ...

State departments of transportation are in a tough spot these days. Their operating budgets are getting constricted by a shrinking tax base; their workforce is shrinking as Baby Boomers retire; and they must find a way to build $3.6 trillion of infrastructure by 2020 (as estimated in ASCE's 2013 ...

Why should anyone in precast concrete take precious time to consider what they could learn from the recent Volkswagen scandal? Seems pretty obvious that you don't lie to regulators and customers. And, there is no real parallel technologically since (the last time you checked) there are no emissions ...

Today Bloomberg Business reported the statistics behind a trend already well known to manufacturers and construction contractors: The good times are back! In the second quarter the US economy grew at a very healthy 3.9% annualized rate on the back of exceptional growth in manufacturing and ...

It goes without saying that railroads want their vendors to be as efficient as possible. New industry practices now indicate that vendors may need to engage in lean practices to sustain their customer relationships. As railroads work to improve their own maintenance efficiency and... more ...

The central premise of lean manufacturing is the elimination of waste in all parts of the value chain. Waste comes in many forms, and redundant work is high on the list. One of the most frequent patterns of redundant work occurs in record-keeping. With paper systems, information is collected on a ...

As we meet with manufacturers of precast and pre-stressed concrete we are often asked: "Can we set up a concrete product tracking system without using RFID tags?" The answer is yes. We have a few customers that are doing just that. In fact, they are integrating precast product tracking with their ...

In our work with state Departments of Transportation and a Class 1 railroad we have seen many reasons why infrastructure asset owners want RFID tracking to be included with the precast concrete structures they purchase. Not surprisingly, this is always for want of better information and greater ...