Late last year the National Precast Concrete Association released its 2018 Precast Industry Benchmarking Report, a report based on a survey of membership that describes the state of the industry and offers performance metrics for precast concrete manufacturers. This is a valuable resource for the ...

When I was taking driving lessons at school (way back when!), my teacher gave me some great advice: Don't just observe what the car in front of you is doing; watch the car in front of him. The same wisdom applies in business. Watch what your customer's customer wants in order to be able to ...

It is the new year, a time that we all take stock about what has been and think about the future. As we gave pause and reflected, a very clear (and, in hindsight, obvious) picture emerged: Before we know it, the manufacturing environment will experience the same relational shifts that we've seen ...

One of the most enjoyable elements of our work is that we get to visit precast plants. It is always enlightening to talk to the principals about how they manage their businesses and learn what they do to continually improve. Most often we hear about time- and cost-saving practices being applied to ...

GS1 is one of the most important underpinnings of commerce that you've likely never heard of. Over 5 billion scans are performed each day using GS1 standards for product tracking. GS1 is an international standards board with over 1 million members in 100 countries. We benefit from its impact with ...

We don't usually promote our products or services in the lede of our blog posts, but we are so excited about our new Idencia 101 program that today is the exception. On January 7, 2019, the first group of precasters will start this guided, self-managed program that will leave them skilled in ...

Sometimes the notion of implementing an RFID tracking system can seem more difficult than it really is. Naturally, anything new and different looms much larger in the mind than in practice. Transitioning from paper to digital records is no exception. We've drawn on our collective experience in ...

If you are not familiar with the term 'reality capture' you are probably not alone. Now is a good time to become so, however, because this will be the core of 'smart infrastructure'. You are probably thinking: "Sure, some day, maybe." (Graphic courtesy of National Geospacial Advisory Committee) Our ...

We really enjoy learning how our customers make best use of concrete product tracking for their plants. Since the practice is relatively new, by definition our customers are forward- thinking. So there is a lot to learn from how they improve their productivity. We learn from them and pass it on to ...