Author: yinghui

The paradox of India’s infrastructure – Is a lack of physical infrastructure holding India back?

Is a lack of physical infrastructure holding India back? Yes – and no.

 

While the physical amount of key elements of infrastructure in India benchmark well internationally, the on-the-ground perception for many is that its infrastructure is vastly deficient.

 

To see if this paradox could be resolved, we studied both the quantity of infrastructure in place and the quality of that stock.

 

The answer is nuanced.

India needs more infrastructure in some key sectors and better quality in others. Either way, the demand on public and private sector balance sheets to finance the required investments in greenfield projects and upgrading activities will be considerable. So too will be the associated demand for steel – with infrastructure demand expected to increase at an approximate rate of 8%, compound, between 2016 and 2025.

Does India just need more infrastructure?

India’s infrastructure has been much maligned, with descriptions such as ‘insufficient’ freely dispersed by both local experts and international observers. Popular consensus would imply that what the nation has achieved to date, such as halving the country’s poverty rate since the early 1990s1, has been achieved despite its infrastructure.

On a per-unit land area basis, the volume of India’s transport infrastructure looks respectable. So why is the positive impact of these apparently expansive networks not being felt?

Our research brings a new perspective to the discussion. It is true, India’s infrastructure stock has many gaps.  But to fully comprehend the challenge, we must differentiate between quantity shortfalls (i.e. simply not enough stock in place for efficiency’s sake) and lack of quality (i.e. simply not good enough to be internationally competitive).

India’s cumulative road network is 5.5 million kms long, the second largest in the world. That is despite having only the 8th largest land area. The nearest comparable networks are that of the US (6.7 million kms) and China (4.6 million kms).  Note that both countries are approximately three times larger than India in terms of land area and have much higher rates of auto penetration. Similarly, India’s railway network is the 4th largest in the world at over 67,000 kms long, with only the US, China, and Russia (five times larger than India in land area) standing ahead of it.

On a per-unit land area basis, the volume of India’s transport infrastructure looks respectable. So why is the positive impact of these apparently expansive networks not being felt?

Why quality counts

The benefits of having an internationally competitive infrastructure base are self-evident. For India, increasing the quality of the integrated international logistics chain, and the quality of the integrated domestic logistics chain, would have two profound benefits. On the domestic chain, an enormous prize awaits in terms of reducing ‘needless’ food waste2. This would be of tremendous benefit to the entire population, particularly its economically insecure rural population.   Increasing the quality of integrated inward logistics will also support India’s ability to leverage its comparative advantages, allowing domestic resources to flow to their most productive uses. In the specific case of commodities, such as those produced by BHP, India lacks a large, high quality metallurgical coal endowment. Slow and costly logistics from port to mill though act as a constraint on some elements of India’s blast furnace fleet from accessing the best quality raw materials at an internationally competitive delivered price. For India’s steel industry to reach its true potential, competitive access to the best quality seaborne raw materials should play a major part – just as it has done in Japan, South Korea and China.

With that in mind, let’s turn to the quality discussion.

Of India’s total road network is 40% unpaved. The share of expressways in the overall road network is negligible, while national highways are less than 3%. That compares to around 40% in China. Of the highways that do exist, almost 75% are two-lanes wide or less (considering both sides of traffic flow). This drastically reduces not only the amount of traffic the network can handle, but also the ease of traffic movement. The nation’s road network, for its impressive length, is not presently capable of serving as the commercial logistics backbone of the continent-sized mega-market India aspires to be.

We anticipate an approximate 8% per annum compound growth rate for steel use in Indian infrastructure out to 2025.

In railways, the transition from narrow to broad gauge is only just being completed. Almost two thirds of the overall route length consists of single-lines. Less than half of the network is electrified, while large sections of tracks are near end-of-life and require significant maintenance. These factors remain a major drag on the efficiency of the network. The average speed of passenger and goods trains is constrained to 60 kmph and 25 kmph respectively. With the interaction between quality gaps in the road network, and quantity and quality gaps at sea ports, you have a logistics system that is not internationally competitive in terms of domestic commerce, imports or exports.

Once the quality of transport infrastructure is considered, the paradox of globally competitive size of networks coupled with to perceptions of inadequacy, is effectively resolved.

The graphic below details our estimates of the size and distribution of the quality and quantity gaps across the major infrastructure segments, alongside our mid-case view on the development of steel demand across all end-use sector.

We anticipate an approximate 8% per annum compound growth rate for steel use in Indian infrastructure out to 2025.

India’s infrastructure gaps and steel demand

Indian Infrastructure

Infrastructure development: from historical dissonance to contemporary coherence

The contradictions observed in Indian infrastructure are not a coincidence. They are the result of decades of political and bureaucratic incongruence in terms of infrastructure planning and development. A lack of coordination across levels of government allowed for an inefficient combination of project specific planning approaches, isolated project evaluation and top-down execution systems to co-exist.  In addition, the complexities of land acquisition, clearances and approvals, project funding, state-federal grey areas, and a politicised infrastructure construction process resulted in significant inflation of cost and timelines. This has created a geographic and industrial distribution of infrastructure that produced pockets of progress (such as the heavy industrial cluster that rose up in Gujarat under then-Chief Minister Modi) sitting side by side with pronounced gaps across other regions, states and sectors.

Reforms to address the underlying causes of these historical issues have been initiated. The Modi-led government, with its pro-development agenda, has sought a more direct approach to planning and development. With planning more centralised, it complements the development of a strategic long-term national vision, taking into account an integrated view across sectors. The ‘Bharatmala’ program for highways and roads, ‘Sagarmala’ for ports and the ‘National Rail Plan 2030’ are three concrete examples.

In parallel, there are efforts to decentralise project execution to improve efficiency. This will include increased outsourcing and greater private sector participation.

These encouraging signs are an excellent start on the path to realising India’s long run economic potential. Realistically of course, it will take some time for these changes in planning and execution methodology to trickle down through India’s elaborate bureaucratic machinery and translate to discernible impacts on the ground. Count us as cautiously optimistic.

1 Based on World Bank data, India’s headcount poverty ratio has declined from 45.3% in 1993 to 21.9% in 2011 (the last available data).
2 http://www.fao.org/save-food/projects/study-fl-india/en/

(https://www.bhp.com/media-and-insights/prospects/2018/07/the-paradox-of-indias-infrastructure)

Report highlights role of advanced manufacturing, services for export

The Department of Industry, Innovation and Science’s Office of the Chief Economist yesterday released the Industry Insights — Globalising Australia report, showing that future growth opportunities will come from Australia’s manufacturing industry moving towards higher-value processes like research and development, and product design and marketing.

The report shows that as production processes become increasingly interconnected globally, Australian firms must move towards these higher value activities and capitalise on new market opportunities to remain competitive.

The report also reveals that Australia’s professional and finance industry services, often embedded in the commodities and advanced manufacturing exports, make up almost half the value of all Australian exports.

This, according to the report, is because conventional statistics often understate the economic contribution of services like value chain logistics and coordination, accounting advice to exporters or other business services.

Increasing demand for these services from China and elsewhere in Asia is likely to present significant growth opportunities and high-skilled jobs into the future.

Acting Chief Economist David Turvey said the report confirmed the importance of supporting industry transition, removing trade barriers, and encouraging innovation to ensuring Australia’s place in the global trade environment.

“Australia is an outlier amongst developed nations when it comes to global trade, mainly supplying raw materials with limited participation in the production of final goods,” Turvey said.

“This is partly due to geography. Australia is on the periphery of trading blocs, while an economy like Taiwan is in the middle of a manufacturing hub surrounded by China, Japan and Korea. But it also reflects our competitive advantages and resource endowments,” he said.

Turvey said the report shows the Australian economy is adapting to global trade patterns.

“Australian manufacturing is restructuring to focus on the high value-add processes like R&D, design and marketing, while lower value-add production activities are offshored to lower wage countries.

“In addition, the conventional trade statistics understate the importance of services to Australian exports. The statistics show that products exported across Australia’s border are mostly commodities like iron ore or manufacturing products. Yet services make up nearly half of value added in all Australian exports. Put another way, the contributions of Australia’s highly-skilled professional services and finance industries are embedded in the lumps of rock that we export,” Turvey said.

The next edition of Industry Insights, a three-part publication by the Office of the Chief Economist in the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, will examine how Australia can capitalise on new technologies to improve productivity into the future.

Drones on Demand: Should You Outsource?

Drone usage on construction jobsites is growing—as is another trend related to drones. Many construction companies are foregoing training their workers on how to operate drones, and as a result, they are outsourcing the task.

DRONE OUTSOURCING OPTIONS

One new example of this comes from DroneDeploy, which recently announced its Drone on Demand solution, which lets customers plan a flight mission using DroneDeploy’s cloud platform and then request a certified professional pilot from DroneBase.

The company will then go to the site, perform the flight, and collect aerial data. After planning a flight and requesting a pilot, photos, maps, and 3D models appear within 72 hours. This enables construction companies to make informed decisions based on the data—without actually having to fly the drone themselves.

As another example, Measure, a drone-as-a-service company, is providing turnkey and toolkit commercial drone solutions to acquire, process, and deliver actionable aerial data to enterprise customers.

Looking even further down the road, perhaps construction companies won’t need to outsource this area of the business at all, rather the drones will fly themselves autonomously. Skydio recently announced a self-flying camera for consumers. A service like this just might be invaluable to the construction industry as well.

Until that time, there are a number of services available for construction companies that want to outsource flying drones on projects.

7 Must-Have Productivity Apps for 2018

construction productivity appsIn the face of progressing technology, it can be easy to become cluttered and confused when trying to communicate. A phone full of confusing or only partially understood apps can seriously slow down productivity and overall workflow.

Tess Vismale of DAHLIA+ agency spoke at CONEXPO/CON-AGG 2017 on some of the most helpful productivity apps to keep the workday on schedule and even keep personal habits healthy.

Here are the top seven mobile apps for taking control of workflow:

  1. Productive tops Vismale’s list as a brilliant tool for forming good-habits and prompting the completion of tasks. By inputting desired tasks and goals, Productive reminds the user at convenient times of their habits, whether they be professional, personal or even medical.
  1. Slack combines the convenience of email with the flexibility of social media to create a powerful, all-in-one messaging service. Users can organize their conversations by project, department, or simply by individual, allowing for individuals to be easily added and dropped from different threads. Slack additionally provides a subscription service, in which one user can allow other users to ask common questions.
  1. MobileDay is a conference call app that combines a user’s schedule with call functionality, allowing them to connect to everyone in the call with one button. Additionally, MobileDay can send alerts for upcoming conferences calls and allows users to notify other members of the call if they are running late.
  1. Clarke.ai is a text-to-speech app that can be invited to conference calls or meetings to take notes and record all conversations for later use.
  1. Outlook is an email app designed for efficiency on mobile phones; for example, a user can schedule the appearance and disappearance of emails in their inbox to allow them to focus on the most important ones when necessary. It also includes features that used to be limited to desktop computer, like integrating with Dropbox and Google Drive.
  1. Unroll.me can organize an email inbox based upon a user’s subscriptions, sending updates on received emails either daily or weekly to cut down on distraction and wasted time. For example, a user could opt to not read their Instagram email until Friday at noon every week, to condense the amount of time spent.
  1. Evernote creates notes with a myriad of extra features, such as stylus compatibility, document scanning and an image search engine. This means that any scanned or photographed document can be searched by the text printed on it, effectively digitizing printed business cards and spreadsheets.

The sheer volume of available apps and their many functions can seem overwhelming, but these tools can provide the edge and make the difference between a productive work week and an exhausting one.

Craving More Information?

CONEXPO-CON/AGG’s comprehensive Education Program is the leading source for contractors, business owners, construction material producers and end users to obtain cutting-edge information for today’s challenging economy and business model.

For those unable to attend the education sessions or who would like a copy of what was presented, recordings are available for purchase on a USB drive. There are over 130+ unique sessions from all ten education tracks: Aggregates, Asphalt, Concrete, Earthmoving & Site Development, Cranes, Rigging & Aerial Lift, Safety & Regulation, Technology, Equipment Management & Maintenance, Management: Business Best Practices and Management: Workforce Development.

For more information and to purchase education program recordings, visit http://www.conexpoconagg.com/visit/education/.

Six government grants for businesses that you might not know about

For business owners and entrepreneurs, grants and investment from the Australian government can be a godsend, and popular local grants such as the Entrepreneurs’ Programme and CSIRO’s KickStart are likely already familiar to company founders.

But beyond the five most common startup grants exists a world of grant programs, with millions on offer for companies working in narrow fields or those working on building a better future for all Australians.

While not every SME and startup founder can apply for these grants, the federal government has a significant amount of capital ready to provide to those who fit the bill, with some grants even reaching into the multiple millions. If you’re looking to start a company, knowing these grants are potentially available to you could influence how you set yourself up.

Continuing on from our popular list of the top five government grants for Australian startups, here are six grants or programs you might not have heard of.

1. The Advancing Renewables Program

As the name suggests, this grant is open to any business or startup looking to help develop renewable energy technologies, be that reducing the cost of renewables, improving commercial viability of renewables, or increasing skills and knowledge in relation to renewables.

Australian incorporated companies can receive matched funding of between $100,000 and $50 million per project through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).

Companies can apply for the grant here.

2. Business Development and Assistance Program

The Business Development and Assistance Program is run by the government’s Indigenous Business Australia (IBA) program and is targeted at Australian SMEs or startups owned or operated by Australians of indigenous descent.

If you are over 18 and of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander descent and you own at least 50% of a solvent business, or you are not of indigenous descent but at least 50% of your business is owned by people of indigenous descent, you are eligible for the program.

Through the program, the IBA provides indigenous business owners with training, advice, workshops, and finance to help them grow their businesses.

Loans from $10,000 are available to eligible businesses, and the IBA also offers a specialised Start-Up Finance Package where 30% of the loan is awarded as a grant. To be eligible for that package, your business has to have been trading for less than one year and have less than $400,000 in annual revenue.

Apply for this program here.

3. Space Concession

While not strictly a grant, the Space Concession is a moderately new program for startups and small businesses focused on bolstering the competitiveness of Australia’s space industry.

Businesses with an authorised space project that have activities with international parties, and which also complete an Australian Industry Participation Plan, can be rewarded with a duty-free tariff concession to import eligible goods.

This means businesses operating in areas such as space exploration, remote sensing, satellite navigation systems, or space medicine and biology can access a significant tax write-off for importing eligible space-related goods.

Find more information about the concession here.

4. Automotive Transformation Scheme

A long-running program, the Automotive Transformation Scheme (ATS) was designed by the federal government to encourage further investment in the Australian automotive industry in the wake of numerous manufacturers moving their plants offshore.

Businesses that operate across the spectrum of all things automotive are eligible to apply for the scheme, which is available to motor vehicle producers, component producers, automotive tool producers, or automotive service providers.

What is available to businesses under one or more of those eligibility requirements varies, but businesses can receive payments to cover up to 15% of the cost of investing in plant and equipment, and up to 50% of R&D investment. Overall assistance is capped at $1 billion from 2016 to 2020.

The majority of assistance (55%) is directed at motor vehicle producers, but check out the various eligibility requirements here.

5. Industry Capability Network

The Industry Capability Network runs across all Australian states and territories and in New Zealand, acting as a way for businesses to connect with other suppliers, project managers and business opportunities across the two countries.

While the network doesn’t provide businesses with a direct line to funding, the eligibility requirements are simple: you just need to be a business in either Australia or New Zealand.

The ICN Gateway on the organisation’s website connects businesses to projects and says it has billions of dollars in projects listed. Over $30 billion worth of contracts have been completed since the program started 30 years ago.

6. Indigenous Advancement Strategy

Finally, registered Australian businesses with a capacity to enter a project agreement with the Commonwealth can find themselves eligible for the government’s Indigenous Advancement Strategy (IAS).

The funding, which was implemented in the 2015-16 budget and runs until next year, aims to encourage Australian businesses to commence projects that promote equal opportunities for indigenous Australians.

This revolves around improving the opportunities for indigenous Australians in the areas of jobs, schooling, safety, and culture.

The government has committed $4.8 billion to the IAS for the four years of its operation, which is being dished out in the form of grants to eligible businesses.

For more information, and to submit a proposal, go here.

Top five government grants for startups

The government support offered to startups across Australia is the envy of many entrepreneurs around the world, but these grants can be a tough nut to crack.

The lengthy applications, process times and chance of rejection are enough to put most off, but for those who win it can be a game changer for their venture.

Here are five grants for the startup sector that may be well worth your time.

1. Entrepreneurs’ Programme

The Entrepreneurs’ Programme, which replaced Commercialisation Australia and the Innovation and Investment Fund in 2014, aims to help businesses increase productivity and competitiveness with funding and access to a national network of private sector advisers and facilitators.

The programme offers entrepreneurs grants through the Accelerating Commercialisation fund and Business Growth Grants.

Accelerating Commercialisation Grants offer ventures up to 50% of expenditure on a project, which is capped at $250,000 for commercialisation offices and eligible partner entities, and $1 million for other applicants.

Entrepreneurs can also apply to get free expert advice on their ventures to address knowledge gaps and accelerate growth via Innovation Connections.

Additionally, the Entrepreneurs’ Programme offers funding support for incubatorshelping startups enter global markets.

New and existing incubators can apply for grants equalling 50% of the project value capped at $500,000, and entrepreneur or expert-in-residence projects can gain up to $25,000.

Applications are ongoing. To apply now, click here.

2. CSIRO Kick-Start

Startups and SMEs keen to partner with Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in research activities can get up to $50,000 in matched funding to help them further develop and grow their business.

Kick-Start is a relatively new initiative, which started in early 2017. It aims to further drive Australia’s innovation output by supporting local startups “on their way to becoming Australian success stories”. Aimed at the research and testing stage of companies, the grant is for companies researching a new idea, or testing or developing a “novel” product or service.

To be eligible, companies have to be registered in Australia for GST, have an annual turnover of $1.5 million or less in the current and past two previous financial years, and have been registered as a company for less than three years.

If you meet those eligibility criteria, you could receive between $10,000 and $50,000 in matched funding. The funding can then be used to cover the costs of undertaking the project — such as salaries for researchers or travel and accommodation — but it may not be used for capital works, expenditure, or infrastructure costs.

3. Biomedical Translation Fund (BTF)

If you’re a startup operating in the space of health and wellbeing, there’s a chance you could go one better than a grant and instead receive a line of venture capital straight from the government.

The Biomedical Translation Fund (BTF) was established by the federal government as part of  the National Innovation and Science Agenda in December 2016, and was fuelled with $250 million of Commonwealth capital and an additional $250 million of private sector capital. Currently, the fund is managed by three fund managers, including one from startup VC fund OneVentures.

So far, 10 investments have been made through the BTF, including a $7.5 million investment in medtech startup Global Kinetics in April this year. The largest, and most recent, investment was $22 million in Certa Therapeutics on June 5.

To be eligible, your company must be “developing and commercialising biomedical discoveries” and have the majority of your employees and assets in Australia, along with a revenue of less than $25 million over the past two financial years.

‘Biomedical discoveries’ are classified as “therapeutic, medical or pharmaceutical products, processes, services (including digital health services), technologies or procedures that represent the application and commercialisation of the outcomes of research that serve to improve health and wellbeing”.

Alternative, traditional, or complementary medicine developments are not supported. Startups are also not guaranteed an investment just for meeting the criteria, with the investments made at the discretion of the fund managers.

4. Export Market Development Grant (EMDG)

The EMDG has been set up for aspiring and current exporters across a wide range of industries and products to help drive new outbound markets from Australia and encourage inbound tourism.

For businesses that have spent $15,000 or more on export promotion, they can be reimbursed up to 50% of costs exceeding $5000.

To be eligible, businesses must have promoted either the export of goods and services, inbound tourism, export of IP and “know-how” or Australian events and conferences.

Eligible businesses will have an income under $50 million in the grant year.

Applications lodged by approved consultants are open till midnight, 28 February 2017 and self-lodged applications close on 30 November 2016.

To apply now click here.

5. Research and Development Tax Incentive

The R&D tax incentive aims to help all businesses stay ahead of the curve through a tax offset that encourages innovation in even the smallest ventures.

From July 1 2016, companies with an annual turnover under $20 million can claim a 43.5% refundable tax offset against R&D expenditure that amounts to $100 million or less.

All other eligible companies can claim a 38.5% non-refundable tax offset.

Non-refundable offset amounts that go unused can be carried on to future income years.

For R&D expenditure under $20,000, companies can only make a claim if it was undertaken with a research service provider or co-operative research centre.

Applications are ongoing but companies must register for R&D activities within 10 months of their income year first.

To apply now click here.

Other programs to help your startup grow.

While not necessarily grants, there are a number of other programs ran by the government that can provide incentives, financial or otherwise, that can help young companies get off the ground.

We’ve listed a couple below.

Venture Capital Limited Partnerships (VCLP)

The VCLP programme aims to draw in foreign investors to Australia and boost the local VC market with tax benefits.

To be eligible, funds must register as a VCLP under the Venture Capital Act 2002 and make high risk investments that hold for at least 12 months.

The investments must be in ventures where total assets are valued under $250 million, 50% of assets are located in Australia and 50% of employees are also located here.

Tax benefits for VCLPs include flow-through taxation treatment, exemption from capital gains tax on their share of profits made by the partnership and the ability to claim carried interest on the capital account instead of revenue.

Fund managers are encouraged to get professional tax advice before registering.

To apply now click here.

Austrade Landing Pad

This initiative aims to give Australian startups a leg-up in the global market by immersing them in one of five world-class innovation hubs.

Startups accepted into Landing Pads in Singapore, Berlin, Shanghai, Tel Aviv or San Francisco benefit from on-the-ground presence in these markets plus access to their networks, talent, mentors and investors.

To be eligible, startups must demonstrate strong vision, scalability, traction and differentiation, and explain how 90 days in a Landing Pad could help their venture.

Austrade provides workspace in an accelerator and free services but participants must fund their own travel, accommodation, living costs, visas and insurance.

Austrade does providing funding for global startups in Australia through the Export Market Development Grant.

To apply now click here.

Have you seen any other exciting government grants or support programs for our startup community? Tell us in the comments.

A REINVENTION OF SALES, PRODUCTION, INVENTORY FORECASTS

A REINVENTION OF SALES, PRODUCTION, INVENTORY FORECASTS

Posted May 11, 2018 |
Quarry operations are moving away from messy spreadsheets and rethinking communication, production planning and sales forecasting to save time and improve productivity. One such medium that quarries worldwide are utilising is PlantDemand, a business intelligence tool.

The importance of collaboration and real time information sharing in today’s business climate cannot be overstated. It is even more important for quarry operations that are constantly trying to plan and match production levels to sales volumes.

Plant managers are challenged to maintain optimal quarry cash flow and inventory while preventing plant overbooking and co-ordinating with multiple suppliers for raw materials − all to schedule on-time deliveries that meet customers’ changing orders.

This is especially difficult because sales teams don’t often have insight into what materials are available to be produced and sold, and how a new order will affect production. It’s also challenging managers to produce accurate forecasts and get up-to-date information about the plant capacity and actual sales versus forecast sales.

The PlantDemand app allows plant managers to create summaries and run default and custom reports against actual sales or forecasts.

The PlantDemand app allows plant managers to create summaries and run default and custom reports against actual sales or forecasts.

Modern business intelligence

The latest report by US Market research company Forrester Research predicts that 2018 will see enterprises refocus on leveraging advanced collaboration and communication tools across the enterprise.

It also predicts that in the coming years everyone within an organisation will become a data analyst, with the ability to leverage modern business intelligence (BI) tools to quickly sort, prioritise and visualise targeted information that is directly relevant to that individual’s line of responsibility. The hope is that better visual interfaces and real time reporting will actively support collaboration across operational teams and drive better decision-making at every level inside an organisation.

Not only that, the Millennial generation is expected to represent 50 per cent or more of the overall workforce by the year 2020.2 And collectively, not only are younger generations “digital natives”, meaning they grew up with technology, but they also value it greatly and see it as a differentiator and a “must have” for employers.

Each morning, it is easy to log into PlantDemand – from the office or remotely – to be appraised of the day’s deliveries.

Each morning, it is easy to log into PlantDemand – from the office or remotely – to be appraised of the day’s deliveries.

If companies want to hire and retain top talent, they will need to continue to shift towards easy to use cloud-based tools and applications that support productivity and a collaborative environment.

It is out of this BI-focused landscape that Daniel Mekis began to unravel the communication, production and scheduling problems facing many quarries today. As an assistant plant manager in California, he struggled first hand with planning and scheduling of materials at various quarries, and he felt a lack of collaboration was a major part of the problem.

His team tried Outlook, Excel and even Microsoft Access and SharePoint solutions to compile sales information and plan and co-ordinate production.

“Back when I worked as a plant engineer, it was our job to know if we were going to make enough material to meet the demands of our customers,” Mekis said. “Even if you know you’re producing 250,000 tonnes of material throughout the year, the sales quantities change daily, with many orders changing multiple times before they actually ship.

“Other problems we ran into were plant overbooking, the quarry running out of materials, sourcing materials from multiple suppliers, or using incorrect materials. I used to spend at least three hours for each plant per week compiling sales information to build a forecast report – which would show materials demand in different time intervals.”

Real time planning

PlantDemand can colour-code by material in the sales calendar for better organisation and simplified viewing.

PlantDemand can colour-code by material in the sales calendar for better organisation and simplified viewing.

Quarries are beginning to take advantage of new collaborative tools that enable teams to move away from solving a problem on an individual island and move towards initiating well informed discussions between the various branches of an operational team.

One new approach that stands out is PlantDemand, an online quarry scheduling tool3, not just for planning and forecasting orders and production, but also for identifying issues and solving them before they come up.

“PlantDemand is a new concept for aggregate operations because it uses collaboration and real time information sharing,” Dennis Schaaf, the director of PlantDemand, said. “It provides a single source of truth to plan sales, production, material needs and inventory forecasts.

PlantDemand’s online calendar is described as:

  • A scheduler that lets plant managers drill down into scheduling plans.
  • A “single source of truth” that provides plant foremen, superintendents, engineers, sales and the back office with data on aggregate production, inventory planning and forecasting.
  • A “live sales calendar” that allows teams to adjust the plant, hours, modes and sales. As changes are reflected immediately, users can see how current production and future orders will be affected and how plant operations teams can solve inventory issues before they occur.

PlantDemand allows plant managers to create summaries and quickly run default and custom pivot-style reports against actual sales or forecasts. Automatic reporting features make it easy for the sales team to quickly enter orders and see exactly how much can be sold on any given day. Plant operators receive reports from inside sales or generate their own reports to see exactly what they need to produce, and how much raw material they need to order from suppliers.

“Most importantly for quarries, they can now forecast exactly what their customers want today and down the line, and they now have a big picture view to help them balance production, inventory and cash flow,” Mekis said. “That just wasn’t possible before because everyone was bogged down with getting the day’s orders out the door and keeping up with changes.”

Smarter scheduling

Ashlee Avila, the inside material sales representative for US aggregate company Granite Construction, was one of the first PlantDemand subscribers. Her department introduced strategic material purchasing by using the app to track how oil is billed for each product, allowing it to save time and vast amounts of money.

When out in the field or talking with customers, she can quickly log into PlantDemand and add notes to each order. This leaves a historical record of changes made, which might include noting last minute cancellations, indicating customers who left mix, changed the ordered tonnage or other variables. She also likes that she can see the sales calendar for the whole month in PlantDemand every morning, and it’s all colour-coded by material for better organisation and simplified viewing.

“Before PlantDemand we used spreadsheets, but they didn’t scale to the level we needed,” Avila said. “We didn’t have a good way to forecast for the month or week and tell our guys what orders were coming.

“Now, I can log in and within a few clicks I can see our sales calendar for the whole month, week or day. I also create a daily dispatch report every afternoon for our plant foreman, as well as a quality control report that tallies all our orders for the next day.

“We save it as a PDF and it’s in a very easy to use format, so we’re all working from the same schedule.”

Avila said PlantDemand’s mobile app is also extremely useful and she likes that she, the sales team and the plant manager can access it anywhere and at any time, with no software or hardware to install.

In fact, she can use her iPhone to make changes to order dates or tonnage needed while she’s in the field talking with customers. Sales also uses the mobile app when they’re with customers, to quickly see if the plant is running the next day and if so, what mix. This saves time calling the office each time a customer has a question.

A balanced cash flow

Using PlantDemand, plant personnel can also create a production schedule, production report and inventory forecast by tying in the live sales calendar with the plant’s production plan.

Users start by entering minimum and maximum desired inventories of each product, taking into account historical data, upcoming sales, volumes and demand.

April Scott, the material inside sales/materials dispatcher for Granite Construction’s Sacramento office, believes PlantDemand’s inventory planning and forecasting tools helps prevent stock run-out, keeps customers happy and maximises cash flow.

Scott said PlantDemand provides added visibility of the schedule and helps keep track of customers and orders. With more than 15 customer orders daily and thousands of tonnes of material in sales, her calendar is very fluid. Previously she had to manage changes manually by hand using an Excel report each day before sending out the daily schedule to the team.

Now she uses PlantDemand’s shared calendar to send out a daily schedule to the sales team, the construction department and billing department. PlantDemand also helps monitor materials inventories and identify issues before they happen.

“Before I’d find potential problems, but it was much harder because my schedule was on a clipboard or in a long-term schedule in Excel, not all in the same place,” Scott said.

“Now PlantDemand looks at how much oil and aggregates are needed for upcoming orders, which helps the plant and oil suppliers prepare. The app also highlights where we’re over our daily tonnages, and helps us prepare for potential overbooked days. That’s huge because we can fix these problems early before our customers even know there would have been an issue.”

Most successful quarries are taking steps to improve how they track and manage sales planning, production, material needs and inventory forecasts. At the crux of more efficient operations is a commitment to expanding visibility across the plant and empowering the entire team with online tools that support information sharing and collaboration.

When teams have the right technology and real time data at their fingertips, quarries can become more competitive and more responsive to customer needs.

Trimble is a software referral program approved member of PlantDemand.

Source: Trimble/PlantDemand

References & further reading

1. Press G. Ten predictions for AI, big data, and analytics in 2018. Forbes, 9 November 2017. forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2017/11/09/10-predictions-for-ai-big-data-and-analytics-in-2018/

2. PwC Global. Workforce of the future: The competing forces shaping 2030. pwc.com/gx/en/services/people-organisation/publications/workforce-of-the-future.html

3. PlantDemand. plantdemand.com/aggregate

This Steel Producer Is Building a $240m Plant

Nucor Corp. will build a $240 million galvanizing line at the company’s sheet mill in Arkansas. The new line will have an annual capacity of approximately 500,000 tons and is expected to be operational in the first half of 2021.

The project is in addition to a $230 million investment currently underway to build a specialty cold mill complex at Nucor Steel Arkansas. These projects are part of Nucor’s strategy to increase its automotive market share.

Galvanizing is the process of applying a protective zinc coating to steel or iron, to prevent rusting. The most common method is hot-dip galvanizing, in which parts are submerged in a bath of molten zinc.

Cold rolled steel is processed in cold reduction mills, where the material is cooled at room temperature followed by annealing or rolling. The process produces steel with closer dimensional tolerances and a wider range of surface finishes.

Nucor says it is also evaluating building additional galvanizing lines at its other sheet mills as part of efforts to further expand its sheet business.

Nucor and its affiliates manufacture steel products, with operating facilities primarily in the U.S. and Canada.

Biggest wind farm in the southern hemisphere proposed for Victoria

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In development since 2006, the proposed $1.7 billion Golden Plains Wind Farm would sprawl across 167 square kilometres of farmland near the small town of Rokewood in southwest Victoria, about 40km south of Ballarat.

The wind farm would consist of 228 turbines – each standing 230m tall at their highest point, and will have an energy generation capacity of between 800MW and 1000MW.

According to planning documents, the wind farm would produce up to 3500 gigawatt-hours of energy a year – equal to the average annual energy consumption of at least 450,000 homes.

The project’s proponents, the German-backed, Gisborne-based company West Wind Energy says it hopes to begin construction sometime next year, but the project still requires planning approval from the Andrews state government. A planning panel will consider the proposal at a hearing due to begin on July 30.

The planning documents state that if the project gets the green light, the wind farm would begin to operate by 2021 and be in full flight by 2025. It would then be decommissioned and pulled down sometime after 2050.

 

Federal budget 2018: $24B for new infrastructure projects

The federal government handed down its 2018-19 budget this week and $24 billion has been earmarked for infrastructure projects.
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The big spend on infrastructure is forecasted provide four-fold benefit to the economy, i.e.   every dollar the government invests will deliver a $4 return to the economy.

This $24 billion allocation puts total federal government investment in infrastructure projects over the next decade at $75 billion.

The 2018-19 package

Rail and road infrastructure is the major focus of this year’s budget and new national initiatives include $3.5 billion on roads of strategic importance – $1.5 billion for the Northern Australia Package, $400 million for the Tasmanian Roads Package, $100 million for the NSW and ACT Barton Highway Corridor Package and $1.5 billion for future national priorities – $1 billion Urban Congestion Fund, and $250 million for Major Project Business Case Fund.

Turning to the states and territories, the biggest winner this year is Victoria which was allocated $7.8 billion. This includes $5 billion for the Melbourne airport rail project, $175 billion for the North East Link, and $475 million for Monash Rail.

The $24 billion in new infrastructure investment also includes:

  • $5.2 billion for Queensland including $3.3 billion for the Bruce Highway extension, $1 billion for the M1 expansion, and $390 million for Brisbane Metro.
  • $2.8 billion for WA of which $1.05 billion will go towards Metronet Rail, $944 million to Perth’s congestion package, and $560 million for the Bunbury Outer Ring Road.
  • $1.8 billion for South Australia. $1.2 billion will be spent on the North-South Corridor and $220 million on the Gawler Rail Line electrification.
  • $1.25 billion for NSW including $971 million for the Pacific Highway Coffs Harbour Bypass and $400 million for the Port Botany Rail Duplication.
  • $921 million for Tasmania of which $461 million will go towards replacing the Bridgewater Bridge. $400 million will be allocated to a Tasmanian road package.
  • $259.6 million for the NT, including $180 million for the Central Arnhem Road upgrade and $100 million for the Buntine Highway upgrade.

2018-19 budget papers can be found here.