Recently, Heritage Construction + Materials operating company, Asphalt Materials, Inc., implemented new automated practices that have resulted in greater efficiency and safety for customers and employees at their Marietta, Ohio, North and South plants. Increased HC+M investment in technology has been a game-changer for these facilities.
The Asphalt Materials engineering team first started investigating utilizing automation in the plants back in 2017. Phillip Fuhs, Director of Engineering, was looking for ways to enable the plants to make a consistent product in the same range and specification each time across the network – something that was challenging to accomplish with manual processes.
Citing innovation as one of the company’s core values, Fuhs tasked Senior Project Engineer Mitchell Kovalsky with helping implement innovation and process improvements across all facilities. Emulsion mill automation and operator-free loading at the Marietta North and South plants proved to be two great examples.
Understanding the unique needs of each plant and optimizing the design for a particular site is critical to implementing improvements. Randy Hicks, Senior Project Engineer, took his team to each plant to better understand their processes. “How can we go there and make their job better? How can we make it safer?”
“Our job as the engineering group is to take all of those inputs each time and then really optimize the design for that site. So, that’s one of the things that gets me really excited – the creativity, the collaboration and the ability to really make an impact to the site”, stated Fuhs.
In 2022, both plants introduced operator-free loading, allowing the drivers to fully control the process. Drivers input the amount of material they need, complete their bill of lading and load their vehicles when they drive up to the scales. The operator-free loading procedure takes 15 – 20 minutes, allowing AMI to regain an hour of an operator’s time for every three trucks loaded. It’s a safer, more accurate and more efficient process for the driver and the plant operator.
Mill automation began at the start of the 2023 shipping season. As with any new technology, it took time to fully embrace the system and move forward with it, making the partnership with the engineering team critical to the plants’ success. The automation process enabled the plants to make a consistent product throughout the season. “We have not made an inconsistent failure of a product since the start of the process season,” stated Bryan Lawrence, Plant Manager, Marietta North and South.
“The benefit of mill automation is the ability to make consistent product within a plant with different operators, and then consistently across the network, in addition to a lot of safety improvements with automated interlocks and alarms – and then also troubleshooting with the data historian”, stated Fuhs.
The engineering team is always on-call and ready to provide support – from program tweaks to addressing potential bugs in the system. HC+M continues to invest in operational efficiencies that create enduring value for its operating companies. To date at AMI, nine sites have been implemented with the emulsion milling automation process, and an additional five sites that manufacture other asphalt products, for a total of 14 projects completed.
Heritage Construction + Materials (HC+M) is part of The Heritage Group, a privately held, family-owned business headquartered in Indianapolis. HC+M has core capabilities in infrastructure building. Its collection of companies provides innovative road construction and materials services across the Midwest. HC+M companies, including Asphalt Materials, Inc., Evergreen Roadworks, Milestone Contractors and US Aggregates, proudly employ 3,000 people at 68 locations across seven states. Learn more at www.heritagebuilds.com.
About Asphalt Materials, Inc.Asphalt Materials is a privately held, family-owned business headquartered in Indianapolis. Over its 66-year history, Asphalt Materials has prioritized safety and created a people-focused culture around asphalt expertise and innovation. Through its commitment to building long-term relationships with employees, customers, and vendors based on trust and confidence, Asphalt Materials creates solutions to issues affecting customers and our communities. Asphalt Materials is a part of The Heritage Group’s family of businesses. Learn more at www.asphalt-materials.com.
ContactKarin Ostrom