How Midwest Concrete Materials simplified dispatch efforts

By Karli Langner| April 16, 2019

Midwest Concrete Materials Vice President Chris Eichman, left, and Command Alkon GM Scott Dugan. Photo courtesy of Command Alkon.

Problem solving is the essence of what leaders exist to do.

As leaders, the goal is to minimize the occurrence of problems. This means being courageous enough to tackle problems head on before circumstances force them to be dealt with when it’s too late.

Leaders must be resilient in their quest to create and sustain momentum for their organization and the people they serve.

Leadership is one quality that’s highly valued at Midwest Concrete Materials, which has been standing strong since 1927. A fourth-generation business in Kansas, Midwest Concrete Materials has operations in aggregate, ready-mixed concrete, construction materials, and trucking and excavation services. The company has established itself as an industry leader, and its passion for quality and service are major contributions to its longevity.

One thing separating Midwest Concrete Materials is its embrace of new technology. The company continuously reinvests as a means to solve problems, maintain quality and provide customers with excellent service.

Modern system

With Apex, Midwest Concrete Materials eliminated re-entering tickets for billing, reducing office time and decreasing the chance for errors, the company says. Photo courtesy of Command Alkon.

Like a number of producers, Midwest Concrete Materials faced miscommunication, a lack of visibility in its dispatch operations and work replication that forced personnel to manually enter and re-enter tickets.

“There was a large disconnect for our dispatchers trying to keep track of the orders and the statuses, and what all was going on,” says Mike Sanson, IT manager at Midwest Concrete Materials. “The visibility was just not there.”

To combat these problems, Midwest Concrete Materials adopted Apex, a Command Alkon solution that automates and optimizes truck scale ticketing, transportation and back office processes. The implementation of Apex allowed Midwest Concrete Materials to eliminate re-entering tickets for billing, thus reducing office time and decreasing the chance for errors.

“With Apex, we have instant visibility of our assets, including their location and the progress of each job they’re assigned,” says Chris Eichman, vice president at Midwest Concrete Materials.

Midwest Concrete Materials wants to further increase efficiencies by going paperless, too, and the company is proactively taking steps to accomplish this. For example, implementing MOBILEticket, a paperless ticketing solution, allowed the company to collect signatures electronically and then email tickets directly to customers and the back office.

The implementation also allowed Midwest Concrete Materials to pre-assign orders through dispatch and save on the downtime of its trucks waiting for the next job.

“There are drivers who relayed to me after we went to MOBILEticket that they felt like it saved them about an hour a day each,” Sanson says. “In our small company of 30 trucks, that’s saving 30 hours a day. We’re eliminating basically four trucks.”

Midwest Concrete Materials’ origins

After World War I, veteran Henry Eichman returned to the Wamego, Kansas, area and started a new life building houses. He founded Wamego Sand Co. in 1927, drag-lining sand out of the Kansas River to produce concrete to build what became the first marsh arch bridge built over the Kansas River.

After World War II, Henry’s veteran son, Ike, joined him in the business and, after the Korean War, his youngest son, Al, returned after a stint in the Navy. In 1958, Ike and Al Eichman expanded the business into the production of ready-mixed concrete.

In 1981 they added an excavation division and, through business acquisitions, expanded to St. Mary’s and Manhattan, Kansas. In 1989, Ike’s sons, Rob and John Eichman, took over the operation and management of the company. They were again able to expand, opening a plant in Junction City, Kansas, along with the expansion of Fort Riley, Kansas. In 1997, the company became Midwest Concrete Materials, and it has since expanded to 11 locations from Abilene to Atchison, Kansas. Rob and his son, Chris, manage the company today.

Karli Langner is the marketing content specialist at Command Alkon. She graduated from Jacksonville State University with a bachelor’s degree in communications and a focus in public relations.