How BARD Materials uses interoperability to reduce waste
BCMI Vice President of Product Adam Gardner and Vice President of Business Development and Outreach Shelby Mitchell participated in a panel discussion, “The No Unmetered Water Initiative – How Interoperability Reduces Waste,” along with Giatec, Digital Fleet and BARD Materials at the Net Zero Construction Conference. In this panel discussion, industry experts highlighted how BARD Materials is combining Giatec’s SmartMix predictive optimization, Digital Fleet’s real-time truck and concrete monitoring, and BCMI’s cloud-based dispatch and ticketing platform to manage every step of the delivery cycle with sustainability in mind. These integrated solutions will help limit unnecessary water addition, optimize cement usage, and reduce variability in mix performance, allowing BARD to reduce carbon emissions, limit material waste, and produce higher durability concrete with fewer resources.
“The No Unmetered Water Initiative really was born out of the need for greater precision and consistency in ready mixed concrete production,” says BARD Materials Technical Services Director Eric Glendenning. “Water is well known to be one of the most critical variables in concrete, influencing workability, set times, strength development, and overall durability. Yet historically, water additions, whether at the plant or in transit or on the job site, have gone unrecorded or at best recorded without precision on the job.”
The initiative focuses on several key areas. The first is precision water tracking with the use of Digital Fleet’s water ad sensors to capture every single gallon of water that is being added to the batch. The second is data centralization and analytics using BCMI’s cloud-based dispatch system to ensure real-time tracking of every load, along with electronic ticket records that include live delivery statuses. The third is performance driven optimization utilizing Giatec SmartMix software, which relies on timely and accurate data from trucks and dispatch. The collective information feeds into Giatec’s AI-powered solution, which allows continuous improvement in mix designs.
“In general, the result will be a fully digitized interoperable system where water usage is no longer an uncontrolled variable, but a significant piece of data that we need to utilize in mix optimization and other business practices,” Glendenning says.
BCMI serves as the hub between each of the other systems, Gardner says. “The BCMI platform is accessible from a mobile app and a web-based portal, and[SM1] [FP2] it supports almost every part of a producer’s process,” Gardner says. “Along with our cloud-based dispatch, we’re pulling information in from other technology providers with expertise in different areas. Being the platform that manages all that information and delivers it to the right person is the end goal. Producers like BARD are getting to the point that, almost in real time, we can alert people and be proactive rather than reactive.”
Traditionally, information about concrete quality while in transit has been a blind spot for producers. To address this, BARD is using Digital Fleet’s real-time data and sensors to support their No Unmetered Water [SM3] [FP4] Initiative.
BARD wanted to capture water coming from the washout hose as well. The producer worked with Digital Fleet to come up with a process. BARD made some adjustments to the way trucks were plumbed, and Digital Fleet made adjustments to their equipment and hardware that went on the truck. BARD decided where and how they wanted the water to be captured with a unique sensor configuration, according to Digital Fleet Division President Chris Wurtz.
“I think that attitude and mindset of saying we are going to have a process, we’re going to have an answer for the unpredictability of some of our equipment and how it’s used, really helps define the success of this project,” Wurtz says.
BARD also needed to decide where they wanted this information to go on the ticket.
“The ticket is the center of truth about the delivery, so when and how you capture water on a ticket really matters,” Wurtz says.
At the end of the day, companies have to apply that data to their operations, Wurtz adds.
“At BARD, we believe quality and sustainability are closely linked,” Glendenning says. “The new initiative really contributes to sustainability in a lot of different ways. By eliminating unmetered water additions, we can truly optimize for minimal cement usage without compromising strength and durability performance.”
Inconsistent water content can also result in rejection, unnecessary rework, tear out, remove-and-replace situations and waste, Glendenning says.
“With real-time water tracking and digital QC, we can reduce that variability and optimize our mixes to hopefully eliminate those situations and optimize our transportation efficiency,” he adds.
BARD expects the new initiative will improve logistics sustainability by ensuring that every truck is within the optimal water-cementitious ratio upon departure from the plant, and measuring and managing that on the way to the job and throughout the whole process will minimize on-site adjustments in water tempering, which reduces idle times and fuel consumption, leading to a lower carbon footprint for each delivery.
Another added benefit is enhanced durability. “If we can be optimize mixes and make concrete last longer, which requires less repair, this ultimately reduces the need for replacement materials in the future,” Glendenning says.
Another added benefit, not to be overlooked, is improving the customer’s experience.
“It really allows us to guide and communicate with our customers, so we deliver what they actually want, make sure they’re happy with our service and confirm the mix we send them is designed specifically to meet their performance needs,” Glendenning says.
Sustainability and concrete are about making the best use of the resources BARD has and making good, data-driven decisions, he adds.
One way is through BARD’s partnership with Giatec and SmartMix, and cloud-based dispatch through BCMI and cloud batching. The interoperability of these systems supports ease of communication and flow of data between all parts of the business.
“With SmartMix, we are building something completely new and trying to integrate into older systems that were not built with the intention of supporting a mixed optimization system,” McGuire says. “The data flow between different technologies is really important in order to bring it to life.”
Giatec worked with BARD and four other companies to gather data and pilot the system.
“The sensor goes on the mixer drum and sends data through Digital Fleet’s tablet in the truck, then through BCMI’s cloud-based dispatch system. Everything comes together in one place, so the producer has accurate slump readings in real time, every minute, within half an inch accuracy,” McGuire says. “And because of the work we’ve done with BCMI and Digital Fleet, all that data is flowing to the right people at the right time. More specifically, it is delivered into the Quality Control teams’ hands so they can see the trends of what’s happening with their mixes and make better decisions.”
Over time, BARD will be able to track what this initiative does to reduce its waste, other KPIs and environmental aspects, McGuire adds.
When considering sustainability, moving to a cloud-based system and e-ticketing saves a lot of paper and requires less hardware. And with the emergence of AI, there is also an energy cost savings as well, allowing it to do the easy, mundane tasks in the background.
So where can producers start if they’re interested in using technology to support or inform their sustainable decision making?
Glendenning says companies need to select someone who is well organized and understands the business and technical aspects, and task them with pursuing the initiative as a primary goal. Part of the process should be aligning data across systems operationally and historically.
Wurtz suggested leaning on resources available from the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, regional associations and tech providers. “I think the industry itself is well supported,” Wurtz says. “The associations are great places to start if you want to start some of these initiatives or start improving your own operation.”
Gardner says companies need to rally for top down support. “If you don’t have top down support to drive any initiative in your business, it’s not going to go anywhere,” he adds. “It’s critical to get support from the right people in your organization.”
McGuire emphasizes the economic impact of sustainability, which can be a deciding factor for company leadership.
“Anything in your organization that can reduce waste can also reduce cost,” she says.