Experiments

Friday I had the opportunity to experiment with some new admixtures in our concrete.  I always love doing this, even though I know I must drive my admix salesman nuts.  But anyway, when you experiment with new things you really get an appreciation for the equipment you have and for the advances in concrete.  As we added the new SCC admix we could actually watch the low-slump concrete turn into liquid.  We turned low slump concrete into 30” spread concrete.  If you have never seen this happen, I would encourage you to try and see this; it’s one of the neatest morphs you will ever see.  Even though we only tested 6 yards it was a lot of fun and kind of recharged the batteries.  I sat in my office that afternoon and thought to myself, “Damn, that was cool!”  I have seen concrete made over and over and over again, but when you actually create concrete it is really a good feeling.  Call me goofy, but you tweak something here, add something there, it is really cool.  It is kind of like building a house.  You have a set blue print, but sometimes you can just tweak something here or there and make what you really want to have.  I can’t wait to see the results tomorrow!

I also really take away an appreciation for our fine mixer from ACT.  When you make concrete day in and day out you don’t get a fond appreciation for how nice your equipment is until an outside set of eyes comes in and tells you this is the nicest equipment I’ve ever seen.  That’s an awesome feeling.  When someone comes in that you know has been to other plants and says you have the nicest equipment it gives you a renewal for what you have.  I know at the time when we purchased our mixer we were deciding on other mixers, but now I am glad we went with who we did because we have the best of the best.

So what I want you take away from this short blog is never stay satisfied with what you have.  You should never settle for what you were told to have.  Make your own way and keep your head looking for the better option.  And realize that things change.  Newer products are being developed everyday and you should never settle for what has been done.  Make your own way! 

Technology

Technology is something we all take for granted.  Technology exists all around us, yet for some technology is ignorance.  Technology can be a machine or a tool, but it also comes in the form of ideas, processes, and innovations.  It tends to be the ideas and processes that people have a hard time adjusting too.  When you see the latest and greatest tool at the hardware store it is easy to make the impulse buy and upgrade.  But when a person develops a new idea, it is hard sometimes to make that “impulse buy”.  Why?  Sometimes its risk, sometimes it’s the fact you can’t see the monetary gain, most of the time it’s the simple fact that it may change the way you have been doing things for years and years.  Is that bad to think that way no, there is the risk it will fail, but the other side of the coin is the technology succeeds and benefits are skyward.  I have found that in this industry some people aren’t investing in the technologies needed to take us as an industry to the next step.  There seems to be this stagnancy that most will blame it on not having the money to take risk.  Others will not want to shake the dice, but it was that dice rolling that built this country from the ground up.  So I really encourage those in the position to listen and “invest” in the new technologies.  They exist every day, but we are muting them out.  Take the time to unplug from the negativity in the news and tune into to something positive…FORWARD THINKING!!!  Everyone has thoughts every once in a while and those are the technologies that need to come out and no one should have fear of bringing these thoughts to the surface.  It is these thoughts that could save your company thousands of dollars or make your company thousands of dollars.  So please for the sake of the industry invest and stay hungry.