How Luck Stone gains advantages through analytics

Luck Stone utilizes VizaLogix’s VantagePoint software at nine of its locations. Photo: VizaLogix

As the push for automation and data-driven decision-making increases throughout the industry, quick access to pertinent, accurate information is more important than ever.

For operations utilizing multiple OEMs on jobsites, accessing information from a variety of equipment can be a hassle. Often, technology for one equipment brand does not work in conjunction with another.

Luck Stone, the largest family-owned and -operated producer of crushed stone, sand and gravel in the U.S., faced this challenge several years ago. Running primarily Caterpillar, John Deere and Komatsu equipment across its operations, Luck Stone sought a solution to gather data from all of its equipment – regardless of the manufacturer. The company aimed to aggregate all of its data in one place.

Adam Schrecongost, technical training coach at Luck Stone, asked himself a key question as the company pursued answers.

“What can we do with this data?” he says. “The equipment is giving it to us. What can we do with it to make ourselves better and use it as a tool?”

The answer to these questions for Luck Stone was VantagePoint.

About this solution

According to VizaLogix, the company that owns VantagePoint, its solution is a software that connects telematics and data streams from machines in fleets to help increase productivity while saving time and money. VantagePoint allows operators to collect information from an entire fleet – including mixed ones – at multiple jobsites in one continuous data stream.

Schrecongost says VantagePoint, which is currently in use at nine Luck Stone sites, made his job as a trainer easier, simplifying the way in which the company collects data.

“It’s enabled me to stay connected to those I’m coaching – even when I’m working with associates at other locations” Schrecongost says. “I can do coaching at one site and then, after I do some coaching with somebody for a day, I can monitor their performance using VantagePoint the rest of the week, month [or] whatever the case may be. I can keep an eye on what their numbers look like and what the data looks like.”

VantagePoint allows operations to gather data from equipment throughout a site, regardless of OEM. Photo: P&Q Staff

Advancing VantagePoint

VantagePoint was born in early 2019 by TADA, a data company. The software was developed through feedback from aggregate industry stakeholders who were eager to better utilize data.

In July 2021, SiteVantage (now VizaLogix) acquired VantagePoint with the aim of scaling and building out the software. In September 2021, SiteVantage merged with TetherIt, an augmented-reality SaaS (software as a service) company, to form VizaLogix and begin ushering in VantagePoint as it operates today.

“The reality is that every single quarry in America, minus the 1 percent, is operating multiple OEMs,” says Shawn Bonnington, CRO and co-owner of VizaLogix. “You can’t go to a Martin [Marietta], a Vulcan [Materials], a Holcim [or] a Luck Stone site and see 100 percent Cat assets. They’re going to have Komatsus, Volvos, Cats and some Deeres. What that provides is a problem that end users can’t solve on their own.”

While Bonnington says OEMs will push their data systems that may solve only a portion of an operation’s problems, VantagePoint focuses on customer needs rather a single brand.

“Every software out there today is built for the OEM,” Bonnington says. “That’s where VantagePoint focused specifically on the voice of the customer, collecting their feedback. The software was built over the last four years to solve that problem. To automate productivity studies for every quarry – regardless of OEM, regardless of their level of sophistication – with the data they already have.”

According to the company, more than 60 sites in the U.S. use VantagePoint – including four of the five largest publicly traded aggregate producers in the U.S. VizaLogix says VantagePoint has reduced cycle counts by 58 seconds and provided a 531 percent ROI.

“New equipment is just not available, and that means you have to find ways to use less fuel while moving the same amount of material and [with] fewer hours on your machines,” Bonnington says. “How do you do that without personally putting supervisors at the top of the rim of every single quarry and watching the operators every day? When we show them the software that allows them to automate the bottlenecks and identify where the inefficiencies exist, it’s a pretty easy decision.”

Software in action

Schrecongost echoes Bonnington’s sentiment regarding VantagePoint.

“We’re pulling feeds from our crusher data,” Schrecongost says. “We’re pulling feeds from our primaries, and we can see numbers of loads, tons per hour, daily tonnages – that all is getting populated on it, as well. Not only do we see what our mobile equipment is doing, we can tie that into how that is affecting the primary’s performance.”

Without VantagePoint, data collection would be more tenuous, he adds.

“Before this, you had to perform a production study,” Schrecongost says. “A thorough production study can easily consume an entire day as it consists of timing  trucks, observing loaders, following equipment around, taking notes, documenting road grades and things like that.”

Schrecongost says there is no limit to the benefits VantagePoint can provide aggregate operations and looks forward to how the technology progresses.

“I’m excited to see where it goes,” he says. “As our equipment becomes more capable and we’re able to pull more information from it, I believe that the sky is the limit as far as the data goes.”