Episode 69: Combatting hidden losses with Astec's Dave McCracken

Dave McCracken, technical sales director at Astec Industries, joined "Drilling Deeper" to offer insights into common – yet often hidden – issues that are costing aggregate operations time and money.

The issues addressed in this episode are bottlenecks and equipment mismatches in production, how maintenance and downtime affect efficiency, how the operator experience impacts safety and performance, and lost value in wastes and fines.

For each hidden loss, McCracken outlines how producers can adjust their operations to prevent these losses and how Astec works with customers to begin solving them.

You won't want to miss this episode. Listen now!

For 108 years, Pit & Quarry magazine has been the premier monthly aggregate processing information source. Through multiple platforms, we deliver the very latest in equipment and technology news and information that is critical for safely achieving the highest level of efficiency and profitability. Editors Kevin Yanik and Jack Kopanski cover the market in print, online and through e-newsletters. As respected industry insiders, they moderate the annual Pit & Quarry Roundtable & Conference and speak at industry conferences and meetings.
 
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. Also, follow us on YouTube to see full-length episodes of the podcast, watch our Road to Prosperity videos and see other clips from our travels and events.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Hi everybody, TechnoPansky with Join Keeper here. On today's episode, I'm joined by Dave McCracken, Technical Sales Director at Aztec Industries. On this episode, we've explored where aggregate operations are losing money today and what my subjects are needed to prevent hidden losses. Among the hidden losses we'll be exploring today are bottlenecks and equipment mismatchments, maintenance and downtime, operator experience when it comes to safety and performance, and lost value and waste design looking specifically at sustainability and profitability. In addition to all that, Dave will be offering insights into how Aztec equipment, technology, and service are helping producers combat these problems. At the end of the episode, he offers a look ahead into what the company has planned for Hillhead next week in Buxton, England. Features the equipment lineup that will be on display at the show, the demo the company has planned, and much more. So without further ado, here is Dave McCracken with Aztec Industries. Dave, thanks so much for making a little time for us today.

SPEAKER_02 1:07

Well, appreciate it. Thanks a lot, Jack. Look forward to this. This is a great opportunity to see if we can uh give some uh um information that can help our customers.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Absolutely, for sure. I know there are several topics we want to touch on specifically for sort of hidden losses, if you will, those being bottlenecks and equipment mismatches, maintenance and downtime, operator experience in the vein safety and performance, and lost value and wastes and fines uh centered around sustainability and profitability. We'll get to all that, uh, a lot to definitely unpack there. But just to kind of start, Dave, before we get into sort of talking about these fit and losses, can you give us a little bit of uh of your background in this industry, how long you've been in the industry with that as tech and some of the stuff you've worked on?

SPEAKER_02 1:52

Yeah, appreciate Gojack. So, right out of uh my engineering degree, went to work for a producer for a number of years. So I got to see that part of the business. Then decided to go work for manufacturers of process equipment that our customers use. Been doing that for almost 40 years, and in the last 30 years of Aztec various roles, both domestically and internationally. And uh most recently, as the technical sheriff's director, as you mentioned, for Aztec, where we have a group of specialists and engineers that support our customers and our distributed partners in these different segments that we have of us.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Excellent. So it sounds like you've sort of sort of been everywhere and done uh done a little bit of everything.

SPEAKER_02 2:42

Yes, have an opportunity to do a little traveling around the world and visit our customer base around them. That's what wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

With with some of that experience and with some of that exposure you've had to operations around the world, different places, different ways things are done. How has that shaped your perspective on sort of being able to understand what's working and what isn't on a unit site?

SPEAKER_02 3:06

Fantastic, uh, because if it's global, well, the footprint is give a little slab of the global seen what works, what doesn't work. And we do know that what works in one region of the world doesn't work in another region. Um, but we also know you are from the common uh factors, common threads in our industry and around the world that point to success for both similar things, whether in New Zealand, Australia, whether in Europe in the region, now states, there are those common factors, which we're going to talk about today, that can improve efficiencies, um, lost downtime uh bottom. So visiting um customers around the world, the cultures change, the traditions change, the workforce control, of course, the languages. But in terms of workforce customers want and need, uh, which we've talked about in terms of productivity, efficiency and self, safety for the workforce, and sustainability for the environment, that is the same ever.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Sure. That that definitely makes sense. How does that big picture view of operations or you know, sort of being able to get uh acknowledge what works and what doesn't, go region to region, job to job? How does that big picture view kind of translate down to the level?

SPEAKER_02 4:35

That global to local, a big part of it is through our distributor network. They're the ones are local. We're the global manufacturers in North America, but we go to the at the local level, we work through a very good distributor network, high training, that has parts that can tell us the issues and the problems or the successes of our customers. So that's that's how we've been able to translate the global to the local, to the distributor partners to our customers. So through that local parts of the interior, that service and then that training, that local training support, we're able to see uh um take that big picture, the small picture, and translating that to high levels of uptime and performance when the customer is.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

For sure. I love hearing manufacturers like yourselves talk about their dealer networks because I feel like dealers are are such a are in such a unique and such an important position where they're you know they're seeing, they're hearing from their customers, they're working with the manufacturers, they're kind of they're kind of getting really getting uh, in some senses, the fullest picture of what's going on in a market in the industry. And I'm thrilled to hear that Aztec has such a strong network of dealers that really work well at the local level with their customers.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

Absolutely, Jack. It's it's uh what it's been decades during the several network uh uh in North America focused on that in now globally, or you say it it's it's part of our uh fabric of Aztec, is having those distributors in our material solutions group that tell us what those customers are doing and what they need.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

For sure. So from the dealer side to the customer side, how does Aztec sort of take in customer feedback? And how do how does the company help use that feedback to influence innovation throughout the company?

SPEAKER_02 6:41

Yeah, that's all actually a question. Um involved in many many factors over the last couple of decades. You know, one of the key things is now later in our industry, uh every industry has a tendency to um be slow to embrace change and new technologies. Well, hey, it's not broke, uh let's not fix it. Well, it's it's producing, you know, we're producing. But so that that that's that's something that uh we do see, but we think if you get customers involved in your products, your services, your parts, your case, being involved right in the beginning. Um, we think that they can then facilitate the implementation implementation of these new products on YouTube in their company because they've been involved. So we need an example like for product development. Uh, we have formed these customer groups, uh we call customer advocacy groups, but we also have a distributor advocacy, the customer group, and we'll say, okay, we're designing this product, and it's a it's global, the global key people, operators of the equipment, and we'll say, what are your pain points? What are your what do you like about these machine bars and others? Um, and they give us a long list, and we we designed it all. We come back to the feedback group and saying, what do you think? Well, made some changes here. We we thought about it, add this here. So we take that that um uh feedback from the customers, and then we design the prototypes and send it to those houses and run it, run it like you usually run it hard, run it hard in applications in the crossword event. That is a process that takes handle. That's a process that we put into uh product development, and then when that process is running, we never product, then basically the customer has designed, they are with us, and we feel that then to implement into their process these new technologies and not just hey, it's we've been running these for years by change. Now they're gonna say, no, I understand what works. It's gonna make our workers safer. Um, it's gonna make us more productive. So that's how we've been able to unwap product sound, um, take customers involved on.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

Yeah, that's incredible. It sounds like it really goes beyond just sort of, I guess, sort of quote words on a page, if you will. You really, you really allow these operators a chance to kind of get their sort sort of get their hands dirty a little bit when it comes to the design conversation, get them really involved, again, give them the opportunity to, like you said, run equipment hard and and really get them involved, sort of on the ground floor with some of these design um conversations.

SPEAKER_02 9:43

Correct. No, that was 100%. Um, I almost like to say, hey, the customer uh are in our basic designing artworks, handleable.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

I love it. That's that's fantastic. So sort of sort of shifting to uh some of these hidden losses that I know you're you're you're sort of passionate about, sort of looking at or uh hoping to help customers work here, um, starting with the first one, um, from a production standpoint, looking at bottlenecks and equipment mismatches, starting from that production standpoint, where do you see operators sort of quietly losing output and what's happening behind the scenes that might not be obvious from a day-to-day standpoint that is causing some of these losses?

SPEAKER_02 10:26

Well, it's um excellent question long, Jack. And what we're seeing for, as you mentioned, first of all, operation, they're wanting to increase their production, uh, be more efficient as high demand in the market. Sometimes you're turbo their plan with hearing that that term of the plane. Uh, and we see that small bottlenecks can cause uh the plant not to operate efficiently. So, one of the things that we're seeing is mismatching between stages of the process, you might have too large of equipment, that can be an issue, too small of an equipment, uh, so improper size or applied equipment. So the application equipment is not optimal. Reduction ratios, free gradation, screen efficiencies, all those things are coming to you, you have the right equipment, but it's not applied properly. That bottleneck affects the entire plane. Um, so we were also seeing maybe one machine outperforming others in the system, and I'm seeing all the systems in the device weakest point. Um, so we knew that these losses uh shows up at most tonnages. You know, you have to operate more hours per day to make up for that. Well, maybe new uh customers both get the aggregates needed for the gel. Well, then you don't have it in the expect out of them yet. So um we see these small losses come up with a major seasonal revenue loss. So for all those reasons I mentioned law, um we're seeing that. Um those those are the those are the factors and the reasons why we're seeing these bottle books, these uh reduction inefficiency.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

Hands up quick, I'm sure. So when when a producer recognizes that they are experiencing some of these issues, the bottlenecks, the mismatch equipment, the machines outperforming others, again, sort of that sort of that weakest link, if you will. What what mindset, what mindset shift needs to happen there? And how can they start sort of implementing, you know, uh addressing these losses?

SPEAKER_02 12:46

You know, we we want to go from individual individual machine thinking, just fixing that machine to a complete system thinking. The system, what are we producing, what product we want to focus on, the quality of the production. As a system, I mean evaluate the entire through the entire circuit. Um, if you know it's production strength, maybe the weakest strength, not the strong. So that's what we wanted to look at, not just saying, yeah, let's focus on this one machine that might not be up in public. Look at the entire process. Well, that therefore that goes to uh things like production audits, and other hospitals do, which include belt cuts, gradations, equipment settings, uh looking at key equipment factors that you can visualize in the operation, or here your client controls. So you can see how you how your uh equipment is running. So we take all that information, being not with a complete system, uh, uh, we're able to um we're able to ask to assist with that evaluation process. Excellent.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

What is that, you know, assisting in that evaluation process when you're working with the customer, what is what does that evaluation kind of look like in practice? And what are you looking at across the system? Again, taking that holistic approach to kind of make sure everything is balanced.

SPEAKER_02 14:11

Well, one of the things is um, most of all, we want to be able to ASTIC has developed this rock the load mentality. And I think he what that means is when you blast here the year you blast your rock, you will take them to your first stage of the plane, start with your upper theater, and then you have a breaker system. So we want to make sure that breaker systems operate properly. Then you go for the rest of the plane, rushing screening, washing fast, bang. So I think the wide range of products with one company in Cascad, one distributed distributive partners, I think that uh it uh enables us to be able to find solutions for we we don't we're not just focusing on one product, we're focusing on the entire system. And uh so we have a diverse product mix with multiple solutions. So let's say we look at um color crushes, all right, which we believe is uh in hardware will be up to 80% of processing all plenty, it can be the most important quality operation. Um key for production, key for quality aggregate, maximizing the sale of the product, minimum of waste product. So we've been able to take like good legacy lines like health around 120 years, pioneer, almost 100 years, a little short of 100 years, on board 75 years, and then other products like of a brand like DTI, cold burn, 50 plus sheet years and cost active, many years. So we've been able to take a proven blaze and then say, okay, what can we design uh for today? You know, not something more 30 years, 40 years, we can exactly today. So we look we look at the cone crusher, we have a rollerbade cone crusher, the podiac, and we have the typo cone from the calcium grain, which is innovative because it uses uh innovative on a bush inside, and it uses oil as an embarrassing. So we believe on like that product, we those products we can apply to the customers and find those ways that we can maybe solve the bottlenecks. Well, when we make the screening, I can move the screening, you know, we have the incline screen, the horizontal screen, which is best, which is perfect by customers, by region, by customer, by application. And then we have a mid-tonal of screen, which are the frequencies for it. High frequency has a decade, modern lens that when we move to the multi-frequency, which we use uh use a special screen for uh fine screen, top application that's that are mobile lighting, the newest one, that would be what we introduced in our next level, borough frequency with a floating bottom deck, that is a revolution string. So the bottom, you know, go to specifics, the bottom deck of a string, a quarter inch, three sixteen to one eighth, that will make your key product. And that that can make you a key chip product. It's a number eight, number eight, nine, the highest paid product in many parts in the high revenue. Um not so high as revenue, but it's only a high price cell price for the customer. Very hard to make, needs to be cubicle, uh, and they want to manufacture a lot. So we can uh put a screen in there that can maximize that file with a costume that can do it. That's involved in coin to the customer. So if wall bottom depth or finishing scale is limited, it's gonna limit the call plate with that product.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

So those are some of the things that's well does. Certainly a lot of options. There's something like Aztecs and you know, kind of a kind of a good position as far as having the options to, again, like you've mentioned a couple times, kind of be able to take that region-to-region, site-to-site, job-to-job approach, where again, one thing that might work well in one spot might not work as well as another, and vice versa. But having those options to kind of say, here's what might work best for you here and these spots, again, putting that option, I'm sure, is invaluable to you and your customers.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

Absolutely. That's uh, yeah, we'll we'll take the uh successes that we have in different regions and apply them to the customers. That's that's what we're doing.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

Absolutely. Fantastic. Shifting to sort of the second loss that that we want to talk about here today, looking at from sort of an efficiency downpoint, talking about maintenance and downtime. Obviously, you know, I'm not sure anyone listening or watching right now knows knows what a pain downtime can be and how maintenance can sort of you know get away from you or lead to sort of some increased downtime, and that's never good for anyone. Where do you see operations losing time or performance when it comes to maintenance?

SPEAKER_02 19:32

And we're seeing um you know, reactive maintenance. So reactive maintenance is versus uh, you know, you run, you pull, you shut down, you take your ring, start. So we're seeing that reactive maintenance a pattern that some of our um some of our producers have. Fragmenting, short-term approach, frequent downtime events, inconsistent performance. Um, it's hard to reach uh 95% uptime on the place. You might be in the 80s or maybe the lower while it was repeated while downtime. Repeating repeating interruptions may seem many ball and around, but over time, they again we added for loss of production. Uh a plant being down for unclean production actually affects your weekly or monthly production more than an average production vegetable. So if you're down for a day because of a non-paying production, that really hurts your weekly or monthly production. So we think going to um we think that this reactive approach is what we've seen, that we need to move to more of a predictive maintenance, approachingistic maintenance. That's kind of what Wall might say we've been looking at.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

Yeah, no, predictive maintenance is certainly something we've been following very closely uh here at Pitten Quarry. And I know obviously, again, like you mentioned, I know Aztec is that's something that uh I know you guys are uh emphasizing as well. I want to hear that. Taking that, taking that into mind, taking that sort of idea of predictive maintenance, incorporating those technologies, using pieces of equipment that utilize predictive maintenance technology, what is sort of the mindset shift that producers have to make to get into that mentality of being proactive and not not letting it get to a point where you have forced downtime as opposed to making the time?

SPEAKER_02 21:26

The mindset to change to being um predicting uh mics is really for us working in partnership with the customer. And I think working closely with them, um, that's where it starts. But working alongside with our customers, uh our call buck working as customer focus and that drives your customer support on the website. So we well just manufacturing quick months, we uh are partners in that customer success on the long term system. So there are things like trying to make The part support engineer, the part support user. So um we're developing things like parts, service kits, or with the new ones borrowed and what uh most popular product, the FD40 to 50 Mobile Impact, where you plan a downtime and you have a single part number, 5,000 hours, you get this hit. We get three bundle parts for 5,000 with our distributed partners that have been trained, and we say, okay, Mr. Custom, let's um go through a step by step. This is what we recommend you change these parts or inspect and change, and this will enable you to have efficiently run plants, not have um things shut down. Um, so those are those are on the on the on the on the part side, we think part building is important. And then the other part that I think that we we we strongly need both uh it's essential to a um efficient operation, safe operation now in education, education training. And there's um so Aztec has developed um training in Aztec University, uh, which is open not just for a distributed partner customers. So we have both at the training session with distributed partner with our customers there. And that is how uh best practice at we have one just on applications for operation, don't complete the plan. Um, what's how do you best apply this product? Um of course, um, best ways to maintain it. So it's in-person factoring scroll with industry experts 34 years in the industry, uh, also learning from other customers. They're customers from not just all over the world it does. So, yeah, I had that problem. This is this is how I solved it. So having those that security, and then we have certification called Techrome, where we do have that for our distributed partners, we want their level of many or the level of of understanding of well of our uh equipment to be at this at the same level as our engineers at the fact that so we think that we think that Aztec training, well that training for the customer is very important.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

100%. So once a once a uh a custom an Aztec customer producer sort of starts taking that that that mindset, um, you know, the the planned shutdowns, you know, maybe maybe takes advantage of some of the Aztec training and education with that you know partnership mindset. You've already touched on it a little bit before, but especially when it comes to the idea of preventive maintenance, uh proactive um proactivity, I should say. Can you talk about how important it is to kind of take that operation-wide approach to maybe address multiple needs at once or manage maintenance at a fleet or system level rather than going machine by machine?

SPEAKER_02 25:14

We think what's important, uh in that mindset influencing technology we'll talk about uh on the complete system operational, and that's having the controls, uh the plant controls, having the telematics that um can give you the information um either remotely. So um ASTIC is then developing uh both the plant controls and the telematics to be uh complete, not just on the plant level, but in any aspect of equipment that you have. Um, and we think that that's very important. The information that you're getting uh back to the on the plant and uh individual pieces of equipment in real time. Um we're also develop we also have um things like uh on our breaker system that are at the primary, where there's dust, there's uh you know this environmental thing, there's vibration where we're moving the operator away from both. We're moving them away from the dust operation, and we're taking them back to the office. It'll be a mile away, two miles. Next to you, we're doing it in mining, we're 300 miles away. We're getting mining in the people in aggregate. We're doing alone one or two miles away, back at the office, big screen television, joysticks, and you're operating within the office primarily. And that's you don't have to deal with silica dust, vibrations, those are some of the things that that um forsake the efficiency uh um that I that we think um helps the operation operate. We think we're focused on the worker. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 26:57

I'll tell you what, I I like the idea of being able to sit in an office in front of a big street TV, you know, play play with the joystick. You know, sound sounds like sounds like I'm at home playing video games. That's that's that's kind of uh that's kind of the dream. I love it. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 27:10

For the new generation um of younger workers, uh, you know, some of them say, hey, you don't have to come in with uh with your our head and yellow vest, you can go into the office and the operating corner cloud.

SPEAKER_01 27:26

You think that's good for the new the new work orpso? Sure, absolutely. Definitely a different mindset there. That kind of perfectly leads into the the third hit of loss we want to talk about, that being operator experience from the from the mindset of safety and performance. Looking at operator experience, how does that connect to safety? And then when addressing it from a safety standpoint, how does that ultimately also lead to um improved performance?

SPEAKER_02 27:53

What we see is operator experience is often treated as secondary to perform. We know that they're linked. Um it's uh operator tools go rec point equal and series sub efficiency. Um difficulty a risky toss or delay. Um small issues get preferred, um, and they can grow into large performance and safety problems. Uh hard to access components, or I you know, much longer maintain, maybe they don't get changed. So that affects production downtime. Um that's what uh that's what we see uh at a high level and what's important now for us.

SPEAKER_01 28:39

Sure, sure. How should producers be thinking about the role of the operator differently? Where, you know, like you mentioned, sometimes many experience can sometimes take a backseat to productivity, but how can producers and operators kind of think about putting the idea of operator experience more front of mind?

SPEAKER_02 29:02

We want to evaluate the equipment, we want to evaluate the equipment on safety, how to run it and how to maintain it. Um we also want them on the mindset to see operating experience or is it performance driver? Not just very comfortable, but it's a performance job, all the operator scale. Um we also bel we also believe that the mindset change shouldn't uh court and capital equipment decisions as operators failing. I believe that mindset is needed also and uh make a safe option for your plan, your equipment, make up an easy aspect. We want that mindset change. And that that can that can come from a manufacturer, making those um maintenance actions easy to do and safety. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

When you're working with customers on sort of implementing some of those mindset shifts or thinking about the role of the operator well differently, how does it start to show up in equipment design?

SPEAKER_02 30:11

So with the some hack-based customer advocacy loop of our e-connect development process, we, as I mentioned earlier, we build an operative set desired philosophy um and focused on reducing risk. Um in simplifying rash uh for the customer. Um great recent example is the ACS jar, which he looks in order to boost that product expo. And that's a multi-year product development process that started with the customers. Uh now we have a finished product. So one of the things that was key to the customers is jaw-dye removal, sidelining removal, full five year jar, and being able to do it all on the outside without arguing to go into the jar or above the jar in unsafe way. And we have designed it. Um that we have designed it in that way. It eliminates that entry to hazardous, meaning returning to operation. You return to operations a lot faster. So that's that's one way we think the telematics which I um telematics aspect digital, getting the information from um uh from your plant is very important of being able to claim that maintenance, claim the safe maintenance, the real visibility, the performance. Uh um, these are marketing adjustments. Uh, so we're integrating that into the product and thing one, we think that's very important. I know mid-frontier low. All of them are coming with uh telematic to give you that information. And doing the breaker system conventionally, uh, that is actually operational polynomials away from the uh actual um crossing back into the office environment, but we're also implementing all those things uh we think are important for our customers.

SPEAKER_01 32:26

Yeah, Dave, so you so you talked a little bit about telematics just now, and I know that's something that Aztec has put a lot of focus and emphasis on. Can you tell me, can you tell me about why telematics is something that Aztec is is really sort of sinking its teeth into, if you will, and really focusing on in its equipment? And similarly, I know one of the one of the pieces or one of the lines from Aztec that uh comes standard with telematics is the frontier line. Can you tell me a little bit about that as well? Um, just in talking about the importance of telematics and Aztec equipment.

SPEAKER_02 32:59

Sure. Um Aztecs is Aztec Telematics and Aztec Digital. We're um developing a uh system and integrating um throughout all the product range that Aztec has uh for visibility. It simplifies operation. Um we have uh a signal platform which offers real-time visibility. Um you can you can have it on your uh in the plan up in the plant uh visual at the control line, you can have it um uh remotely the PC with smartphone. Um it's uh easier to monitor and adjust your plant, adjust your your equipment, your system. Um so the new frontier line that we have developed that we're um introduced to the CronExpo, and now I'm gonna be on Flat Hillhead, uh, it's a line that um uh has telemedic standard, not optional. So it's integrated from day one. So as you uh have the series of equipment from the fonction, then not only will we communicate um individually back to you, but as a system for being able to operate as a system, communicate within each other, and then communicate back to the operators to maximizing efficiency, maintenance, um all the uh information that you need to properly uh run and plan uh service levels and max mouse production.

SPEAKER_01 34:41

Fantastic. I love hearing about it like you said, it comes standard. It's not, you know, it's not an add-on, it's something that everyone's sort of gonna get from the jump with that frontier line. And again, when you talk about providing that value, maximizing out time, maximizing efficiency, being able to provide customers with that sort of invaluable and uh you know, up to the up to the minute, up to the second information of what's going on with their plan, I'm sure is uh is a massive selling point for for customers and for Aztec as well.

SPEAKER_02 35:10

Yes, and it's it's it's a selling point, but we believe that it's gonna make uh the customers more efficient in the law in the ball. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 35:20

Love that. So kind of shifting gears here to to the last hidden loss that we wanted to hit on, that being lost value and wasted funding, kind of looking at it specifically from a sustainability and profitability uh standpoint. Where do you see operators potentially leaving value on the table, maybe in ways that aren't always obvious?

SPEAKER_02 35:42

Well, one of the things that asked the bull with with the find that it needs to be treated um as a problem instead of a waste problem. It can be a problem. Um valuable material while many times it's not just discarded because they don't have the recovery, one of the systems, the processes to recover, for certain just gets wasted. Um, so it's also sustainable because if you can re cost all of your input material, you are uh not having to uh waste that material into selling on waste power. So it's not only stranded revenue, it's also um better for the environment. Um it's also less opportunity for saleable material. Well, um, if you can uh we now recover this material, do properly. Um feel urgent, do it, but uh it can add up over time for having this unrecoverable waste material or having to put cost into uh maintaining something in the semi-palm, it's uh it can add up. That those costs can add up over time. So without the right system, it becomes a cost for thermal balls.

SPEAKER_01 37:06

Yeah, yeah, that that that absolutely makes sense. When producers start to recognize that you know they they have all these, I guess, additional opportunities through fines and what might be you know normally seen as waste material, like you've said, what shift needs to happen and how they think about those materials to recognize or to maybe mitigate some of those losses?

SPEAKER_02 37:30

Well, um, first of all, viewing the fines product stream. And we want to shift the question from how do we manage this to how do we recover it? Not just how are we managing this potential problem to how can we recover this and potentially make it into a saleable revenue product. Um, so we identify with the material else being lost, and then we connect that recovery to both profitability and sustainability goals. We think that's that's the mindset that uh can help in moving that forward with our customers. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 38:13

When it comes to actually capturing that value and sort of shifting that mindset, like you talked about, what does Aztec bring to the table to help customers in that regard?

SPEAKER_02 38:24

Well, Jack, we have uh not the foil of washing and classifying solutions. Um, so this allows customers to often find recovered um water means also. Uh so we want to be able to uh uh in this, I guess um this is something we want to do in all regions of the world. Um we're seeing some areas have that kind of uh need today, stronger than other regions, but we're developing a global perspective, even the mediums are all strong. Um you have a unique product that you'll hold the eco-scrub. Um, and that that module will be able to deliver like 200 tons per hour. It allow you to change waste material by recovering the aggregates, that means the moves or following in pure in the waste and impurity between the aggregates. So we're gonna have a uh a car that if we have a uh uh pit uh in operation that has waste material mixed with good material, we can separate it, give you a good material, uh remove the waste. Well, that was a product. We have the 9405 recovery plant, and that is a plant that covers ultrafines, so you don't have to send them to your selling pond, it have to be big and out of them. And then we go to the last uh complete process of uh of uh managing your um your uh fine, which is water qualification, and that's where your kill you cover up 95% of your water, you know, it's not only sustainable, but it gives you an own product that can be both dry and slope. And that's using products like the uh plate crust that we have. So we also have as an alternative to wet processing, fine processing to recover these fine, Jack. We have dry processing for waste and find recovery. So we have customers that have um where they don't have water available, it can be a sustainable issue, that can be a uh permitting issue. Um and so we have a process with uh technology, we're called a high frequency screen, a multi barrier frequency, where you can make uh a clean product, separate the waste product dry with no water. So we think that is a um very exciting uh opportunity, and we're seeing more and more of our customers saying, let's be sustainable with our water. It's gonna lower our costs, plus so we can make a dry product. Many of our customers want a dry product um for their plants like baseball plants. So we think uh we can we offer those solutions in the UI recovery and once once again, a lot of options.

SPEAKER_01 41:44

Love hearing it. Uh, really, really able to kind of uh it sounds like meet the customers where they're at. So that's that's excellent to hear. Dave, we've obviously covered a lot of ground here. You know, I appreciate you being so generous with your time. Um, sort of bringing all of what we've talked about so far together, all these different ways Aztec is working to help customers maximize efficiency, productivity, profitability. Um, how is Aztec helping producers stay ahead of these challenges going forward?

SPEAKER_02 42:16

Well, we're um the key thing is the integration of equipment, service, digital solution. We believe that we bring that together, um, and we can help producers stay ahead of these challenges. Uh, we are uh we think that the uh four pillars of productivity, efficiency, safety, and sustainability work, we have its important factors um in equipment, solar, and our digital solutions, as it were thinking all the time.

SPEAKER_01 42:53

Dave, for those interested in learning more or seeing some of these solutions in action, what's next for Aztec?

SPEAKER_02 43:01

Yeah, great question, Jack. Uh we have HillKid 2026 coming up in the UK in a couple weeks. And we're bringing a really strong line of new equipment innovation, um, both on the uh Covert side with a wash clean telescope bringing with a material handling loan, or the pioneer with a new modular. And of course, where we have a big splash on is on Frontier Loaning, which we're gonna have um two um two machines working in the uh demo part, you know, which a lot of our a lot of our customers are happy to see that. Uh John is scalper, and then we're gonna have uh eight other pieces of equipment um to showcase at our two booths that we're gonna have, both E11 and J11. Uh, we're also gonna have available uh technical experts um from each of those areas at the uh at the Hill Mit show to be able to uh find out what solutions, what uh how we can help our customers. Um so that's really available. And look, I want to end by um talking about uh a little asshole why we're so well passionate about our customer success. Everything that we've heard today is focused on the customers, their operational success, safety of the workers. So we have a passion bull. So we ASTEC, you know, our our vision statement will be building uh industry-changing solutions, um, creating life-changing opportunities, but goes to um uh what we're seeing today. That passion that we have, the vision that we have, we hope, what we believe that will uh give our customers or that industry will solution to what we need.

SPEAKER_01 45:05

Fantastic. Um, you know, beyond beyond Hillhead, or maybe for those that can't make it, how can they how can they get in touch with Aztec? How can they find out more about what the company has going on? Um, just where where would you direct people if they wanted to learn more about um Aztec's products and services in general?

SPEAKER_02 45:25

Jeff, they can go on to the Aztec industry webpage and we have a Gillhead section, uh, and they can see all the more and exciting products we'll be uh showcasing there. And uh yeah, we uh we look forward to uh seeing.

SPEAKER_01 45:41

Excellent. Yeah, sounds like it's gonna be sounds like it's gonna be a great time. Uh always an exciting show. I unfortunately won't be out there, but I know our uh my my cohort Kevin Yannick will be, and I know he's looking forward to it. So hopefully you're running time out there. Dave, thank you so much for being so generous with your time, a lot of great information you shared, uh, a lot of valuable insight into you know how to kind of maximize productivity and efficiency on job site. Appreciate all you've shared, and uh best of luck to yourself and Aztec at Hellhead the rest of the year and beyond.

SPEAKER_02 46:13

Thank you very much, folks. This has been a pleasure. Thank you for giving us the opportunity.

SPEAKER_00 46:17

Thanks again to Dave McCracken from Aztec Industries for joining us today. Appreciate his insights onto those four hidden losses and how producers can help combat those. A lot of good insights there. Be on the lookout for our next episode coming in two weeks.