Dolese Bros. Co. Deploys VERIFI® In-transit Concrete Management System Across 15 Plants

As a trusted ready-mix service provider for more than 100 years, Dolese Bros. Co. in Oklahoma City, OK continually seeks ways to enhance service for its customers. This full-service construction supply and materials business produces crushed stone, sand, concrete, and concrete block products. 

Project
Improving Efficiency and Quality Control Systems
Company
Dolese Bros. Co.
GCP Solutions
VERIFI® In-transit Concrete Management System

Project Profile

The Challenge

“We’re always interested in how technical controls can help us to be more efficient and provide a better quality control system,” said Dolese Vice President, Concrete Division, Scott Brewer. “The VERIFI® in-transit concrete management system from GCP Applied Technologies appealed to us for that reason. Any way we can improve how we provide our products is of great interest.”

"We’re always interested in how technical controls can help us to be more efficient and provide a better quality control system,"
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Dolese Vice President, Concrete Division, Scott Brewer.

The Solution

As a market leader in concrete admixtures, GCP understands the complex challenges of concrete production, such as ensuring the consistency of concrete as it is transported to the jobsite. The VERIFI® system gives ready-mix producers the ability to monitor, measure, and manage concrete in transit from the ready-mix plant to the jobsite. To take the guesswork out of slump measurement, a series of sensors and an onboard computer are installed on each truck to provide real-time measurement of the concrete slump and temperature during transport. If the system finds that the concrete slump needs adjusting, the VERIFI® system automatically adds the precise amount of water or admixtures.

This real-time monitoring and management bring greater consistency across concrete batches. 

The team at Dolese, including members from operations, sales, and quality control, had their eye on the VERIFI® system for several years. “I had spoken with an NRMCA member who was using the system, and received some initial information,” said Brewer. “I followed the evolution of the product over the years and liked the concept of having controls in place. We then took the opportunity to visit two ready-mix plants using the VERIFI® system and saw firsthand how it worked.”

Dolese has since deployed the VERIFI® system on 160 trucks at  15 of their plants.

"I followed the evolution of the product over the years and liked the concept of having controls in place. We then took the opportunity to visit two ready-mix plants using the VERIFI® system and saw firsthand how it worked."
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Dolese Vice President, Concrete Division, Scott Brewer.

The Results

“As an engineer, I want to monitor what goes into a load and how it performs from a production standpoint,” Brewer said. “I’ve been in and around the concrete industry for most of my career. It was pretty basic in the beginning. In years past, you could know the batch weights, but you couldn’t control what happened between the time it was loaded and unloaded. We have always accepted that you’ll lose slump on the way to the job site. It’s an industry wide issue.  Gaining visibility into the concrete parameters as well as having the automatic adjustments of water and admixtures along the way is a big plus. We don’t have to adjust the batch when we get to the jobsite, so we’re ready to pour immediately. Improving this process means we can provide our customers with better service and higher quality product.”

This is especially helpful for projects with higher specs. “This is where the VERIFI® system shines – both with quality improvements as well as time and efficiency of placing concrete,” Brewer said. “We can give our customers a consistent, high quality product along with visibility into how pours went. This helps us both with continuous improvement.” 

Dolese recently received high praise from a contractor working on a large paving project who received concrete from the VERIFI® -enabled trucks. “We rolled out the system at one of our plants, and the contractor onsite was pleased with the consistency of the batches coming out of the VERIFI® -equipped trucks. From then on, he only wanted concrete delivered by trucks using the VERIFI® system.”

“The VERIFI® system is the next step in the evolution for producers. It makes us better able to provide product that consistently meets customer expectations,” Brewer said. “We are able to see how much water is going into the load, and whether we’ve reached the water-cement ratio limit and need to switch to add chemicals. This helps us improve our processes in the long term.”

In addition to measuring and managing concrete consistency, the VERIFI® system also arms Dolese with data to identify and solve productivity issues. The VERIFI® system allows them to monitor metrics, such as how much time it takes each truck in the fleet to get out of the plant and to the job site. Dolese also uses the system to track each truck’s high-speed drum revolutions to find ways to run the trucks more efficiently. “The data insights definitely help our firm identify ways to be more productive across all segments of our business,” said Brewer.

 

"This is where the VERIFI® system shines – both with quality improvements as well as time and efficiency of placing concrete,"
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Dolese Vice President, Concrete Division, Scott Brewer.

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Last Updated: 2023-04-25

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