47. Filling Gaps with Technology featuring XBE's Chris Wurtz

Andrea and Griff are joined by Chris Wurtz, President of Ready Mix at XBE, a leading software supplier for the ready mix concrete and aggregate industries. We talk about the role of software and technology in today's ready mix operation and what's coming in the future.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Welcome to Load It, the Hahn Ready Mix Podcast with Andrea Meyer, Griffin Hahn, and producer Lex.

SPEAKER_02 0:15

Hi.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Hey.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

And we have a special guest today, Chris Wirtz from XVE. How are you? Great. How are you guys? Doing good. Doing good. Yeah, thanks for having me. Excellent. Well, let's do some announcements first and then we'll we'll jump in.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Absolutely. I am surprising you with this. This is a uh what is this? This is uh this is a test. I'm gonna say a word and I need you to react to it in a way that's going to convey our concerns about this particular topic.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

You do know that this is a podcast and we don't video it, right?

SPEAKER_00 0:44

So is this gonna be you have to audibly react to it?

SPEAKER_02 0:47

I have to audibly react. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Okay, here's the phrase Bridge Avenue.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

Oh, uh no mixers is the that should be automatic.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

That should be an automatic response for everyone, right?

SPEAKER_02 0:58

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

Absolutely not, unless there's no other way.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

Yeah, it's too steep. It's too steep.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

It's a disaster. We cleaned up a huge concrete spill on Bridge Ave this week, and I I don't know how we can make it more clear. Like it's almost like right after the don't go under a low bridge no matter what. Yeah. Don't go up bridge Ave.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

Yeah. Yeah. It's uh yeah, and and if you have to go up, have that thing in full charge trying to keep the concrete back in the truck because yeah, that's a steep.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

I wonder if I could put a sign up. Like is it is it illegal? The stop sign at the hot logo with a red X through it on the street sign? Like, don't do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Yeah. I'm sure if we did it enough, they would.

unknown 1:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

All the streets around town.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

The city might actually support us in this endeavor. Oh, yeah, they don't love it when we do that either. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Okay. Good job. You had you had a good reaction to that one.

SPEAKER_02 1:53

Great.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Um, a couple other reminders that I have for everyone. Um, even though we are slow this winter, we have days pop up where we are very busy, which is which is great. Um, but we need everybody to keep their availability up to date in Pailo City. So if you are going out of town or you have a doctor's appointment and you can't come to work, don't just count on us not scheduling you. Please make sure you request the time off in Paylocity and then we won't schedule.

SPEAKER_03 2:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

Ran into a couple issues with that this week. And then the last thing that I had was uh kind of cool that we have extra time for some of our managers right now. And Sheldon and Sam and Zach are all, you know, taking on cleanup projects with some trucks. So I think just for anybody who's not in here and seeing that happen, it's like I think it's maybe something to look forward to that year.

SPEAKER_02 2:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

Trucks gonna be in better condition than you left it, probably.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

Yeah, that's especially the tankers. Well, I appreciate those guys taking that on. And uh I know Sheldon and Sam, uh I was talking to them about it and the putting the mudslinger and everything on, and it and they were they're working. They were working hard.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

Yeah, they've burned through a couple pressure washers, I know.

SPEAKER_02 3:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Uh but I I love to see it. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 3:06

And I yeah. I I had one more um reminder. We talk about often that the importance of reading our ticket, and there was a good example that came up, and I wanted to explain the why of why we read our ticket. Um, because sometimes I think people think we put information on there just to put it on there, and and there's always a reason. So we were pouring up at Smart Hyundai for Centennial, and the ticket said leave to the east. And uh there was a lot of people that said, Well, I'm not headed back to the east to the plant, so that doesn't make sense to me. I'm gonna I'm gonna try to turn left out of there. Well, all of our trucks, if anybody's been out to that job site, were tracking so much mud out of that job site, and the contractor and the city and everybody were anticipating that, but they want all the mud to be in the same place so it's easy to clean up. So they wanted us all to take a right out of that job site so that we basically concentrated the mud that they had to clean up in one place. And so uh sometimes when we put stuff on a ticket that seems like it's not relevant because it's after the delivery or whatever, um, there's always a reason why we're doing it. So just do us a favor, follow what your ticket says. Um if there's if there's a reason that it's unsafe or whatever, then obviously reach out. Um, but they're on there for a reason.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

I have to admit that if my ticket said go east, I would have more questions. Well, then maybe you would have wouldn't this be towards Taco John's or away from Taco John's? That's what I need it to say on the ticket.

unknown 4:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

Well, for the rest of us that aren't directionally challenged, follow the directions on your ticket.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

That's fair.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

All right. Chris, are you ready to jump into this? I am. I I mean I got a lot of opinions on the Taco Johns piece of this.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

I like that as like a marker for where there's only one Taco Johns in the in the area, so you know that's like where you are relative to Taco Johns. It's like a water tower. It's not even that close to that. Perfect. Like, no, but it's just a it's just a reference point.

SPEAKER_02 5:17

Okay, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

All right. Well, Chris, uh, why don't you introduce yourself to uh everybody and who you are and what you do?

SPEAKER_01 5:27

Sure. Yeah. Again, thanks for having me. I'm really excited to be here. Uh my name's Chris Wirtz. My uh current title with the company XBE, my my title is president of ReadyMix. Um, I've been in the ReadyMix space. I should have written this down. I think it's in since 2011. Um, and I've been on all sorts of different sides, never on the producer side, though. I've always been on an OEM, whether that was a truck um or a logistics platform or a telemedics platform, but always concentrated on the ReadyMix side of the business.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

Cool. Cool. So uh talk a little bit about XPE and some of our people might be more familiar with BCMI, right? Which is a uh a division, I guess you would call it, or I don't, I don't know how you describe it, but of XPE. So tell us a little bit about the company you work for.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Yeah, great. Thank you. Um so XPE has been around for a while. Um, it's been in the ReadyMix space now. Uh I would say going on like 10 years at this point. Um, so there's a lot of producers that are using it, but it's primarily on the aggregate side, the cement hauling, uh, the heavy materials side of the business. Earlier this year, sorry, last year now at this point, we acquired BCMI.

SPEAKER_02 6:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

And um to get really, really honed in on the dispatch side of ReadyMix. So ultimately, at the end of the day, XPE is trying to connect all things heavy materials, construction, logistics from quoting all the way down to invoice to cash.

SPEAKER_02 6:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

We really see ourselves and our positioning ourselves to connect everything that you would need.

SPEAKER_02 6:59

Yeah. Just to like explain a little bit for some of our people that it's a lot of the things that we'd use command outcon for are correct. And not the batching necessarily, but the um a lot of those other solutions we use. That's the kind of thing you guys are doing. So yeah, good point. We're a software company. Yeah, maybe should have defined that some uh depends on the software technology for solutions for uh for the ready mix industry. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

And we're, you know, we've got uh a host of products that we have. We have maintenance software, engage. You'll hear me hear me refer to that. We have a pricing software and price be, uh, we have giant anchors. So there's all sorts of things, and we're really positioning ourselves on being the full service suite for for any ReadyMix producer or honestly any heavy materials uh hauler.

SPEAKER_02 7:41

Cool. So you mentioned that you have a lot of experience in the ReadyMix industry from all these different vendor angles, right? Yep. What have you learned about ReadyMix? You know, what do you bring to your position now uh through from all those experiences? What makes this industry kind of unique or special? Uh why do you stay with the ReadyMix industry? I guess maybe why I'm at the That's a really good question.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

There's a great question. I at one point, at one point when I so my my initial, I guess, uh start in the ReadyMix industry was with McNeilis on the truck side. And uh I remember when I first started there, I think I told my wife at the time, I'm like, man, if I ever change jobs, I got to get out of this ready mix industry. It's pure chaos. And now, like, I have no other skills besides the ready mix industry. So I'm here to stay. I'm not going anywhere.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

That's a common refrain all through the industry. Everybody's like, well, I've just been here my whole life. That's all I know.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

So I wouldn't do anything else. I completely stumbled into it. So I come from a family of small business owners and they're all pharmacists. So everybody in my family is a pharmacist, including my two sisters. I guess my brother's not, but my dad and my uncles, even my grandpa was. I ended up stumbling into it and getting a job at McNeilis. And honestly, the thing that I think I can draw from all the different things, I've been on the paving side of the business, I've been on the truck side of the business, the telematics side of the business. Now learning something new on the dispatch side. And at every company I went to, I always thought, man, I know everything there is to know about ReadyMix. And then now I'm in dispatch and I turns out I didn't know a thing. Um, but I honestly find the ReadyMix industry to be like the most fascinating puzzle, as opposed to any other type of delivery. You essentially have 90 minutes until you have a 40,000 pound paperweight on the back of the truck, right? And that drives all decisions. You know, at the end of the day, that truck has got to go out, it's got to deliver it, or you got to at least get it off or out of the barrel, right? Yeah. And uh, if you don't, you have a massive problem on your hand. So it's just such a fascinating puzzle that one little thing can completely throw your day off, as opposed to let's say, like a refuse truck where that's going, you know, similar routes. Yeah. Monday does the same thing. You go through this neighborhood that you pick up, you pick up, and you may have a trash can that somebody missed, you may have somebody who had overloaded, but in ReadyMix, like that truck comes back, you may have no idea where it's going. And so it's always just fun to go to different producers and learn how they do it because everybody's trying to solve the same thing, which is be like as optimized as possible.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

And, you know, get delivery, you know, as fast and as uh efficient as possible, but everybody has a different way that they go about it. That's really cool.

SPEAKER_02 10:28

That's really cool. Well, nobody has ever accused this industry of being boring, that's for sure. And that's definitely one of my favorite things about it is every single day is different and provides new challenges. Um, I have a lot of friends that are in manufacturing, and you know, they they're they're just about how can they make the same amount of widgets as cheaply as possible, or how can they make more widgets with the same amount of you know resources. And it's like, oh, that that would be great to be able to plan like that. Yeah, but that sounds terrible. We we have a lot more variability for sure.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

Well, you know, the interesting thing about bringing up a factory. So prior to uh my time where I got more on the commercial side of ReadyMix, like I'm an engineer by degree, and you know, I was involved in a lot of that factory processing. I I worked in motorcycles for a while prior to the the ReadyMix side. And, you know, you go in and you go into a factory, and whether it's a Toyota Six Sigma factory or whatever factory you're in, it's always about eliminating waste and variability out of that operation. And one of the things that I find so fascinating about ReadyMix, and I didn't realize this until I got into it, is that you're actually producing the material on the way to the job site, right?

SPEAKER_02 11:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

And that like idea and concept of I've got a factory on wheels driving down the road is really interesting. And if you can start looking at your operation and say, hey, where can I reduce variability? Where can I reduce waste? Um, and look at it from a factory perspective. Yeah. But knowing that, like what you just said, like you go to work in a normal factory and you kind of know what you're gonna do. Maybe you have a stock out or something doesn't fit right. In this case, a truck breaks down and now everything goes, everything goes crazy, but you still have to maintain those manufacturing principles. It's just, it's super interesting at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_02 12:16

Well, that's a great segue to my next question, which is gonna be how do you view the role of a technology company like yours in the road image industry? Like, how do you guys support us fill the gaps that we have? What do you what do you view as your role there?

SPEAKER_01 12:32

Yeah, I mean, honestly, gap filler is I think the best explanation of it. And we really want to work with our with our customers and enable your ability to succeed. And I know that kind of sounds like uh maybe a marketing slogan, if you will, but I think that's really where technology comes into play. Like, how can we work with you to connect your systems, connect your people, connect you to your customers and really eliminate any barriers to succeeding with what you're all trying to do, right? Like at the end of the day, your customers are trying to build something, you know, build it in the most efficient way possible. You're trying to deliver it.

SPEAKER_02 13:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

And I really see that's where technology, especially nowadays with all the different software that's out there and all the different technologies, that's where I see really filling in the gap.

SPEAKER_03 13:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

And, you know, we're at this point in time where traditionally ready mixed companies were very siloed. You may have on-prem servers, you may have different systems that don't talk well.

SPEAKER_02 13:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

And that whole silo, if you will, or wall, they're really starting to crumble down. Yeah. And like connecting everything and everybody is really the purpose.

SPEAKER_02 13:36

Yeah, that makes sense. We talk a ton about cultural alignment, right? And and and being on the same page on how we do things, but then we use technology platforms to make sure we're operationally aligned. So not only are we doing things the same way, we're doing them in concert with each other, right? So we're all all um working together and we don't have overlap. And you know, there's there's such a without technology, there's such a huge fog of war in our industry. You you don't know where your truck is. Even with technology. Yeah, yeah, for sure. But I I can't even imagine you know, I think about that all the time.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

Like, how did they ever do this when they didn't have a tablet with a map right there?

SPEAKER_02 14:20

Like we I remember when we um when I started, it was right when we were installing track at our first telematics offering, right? And so I never lived in the situation where you didn't know when the truck was where it was or when it might be back. And I just can't I can't imagine how I've never seen one in operation, but I have seen one.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

The what do they call them? The springboards in the old dispatch office where they were all mechanical timers and they would be move sliding things around where they thought the truck was gonna be, whether it was pouring or not. Yeah. I've never actually seen one, you know, in operation, but I I can't imagine. It's a lot of guessing, right?

SPEAKER_02 14:57

Yes, yeah. Crazy. So, okay, so we've you know, we talked about some of those gaps that we can't imagine. What which ones are still out there, right? What what what is needs to be filled that technology is gonna help us do?

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Yeah, I mean, I I'll say it like there's still a lot of, and I'll just I'll label it as like on-prem or closed-off software systems that still to this day still exist, right? And it's systems that don't talk to each other, they don't work with each other very well. Um, you're starting to see a lot more, let's say, cloud technology like ours, which is interconnected, you know, and is integrated into other software. That's really becoming the norm, but you still have a lot of systems that just are disconnected from each other. And I think, you know, one of the challenges we're trying to solve is that holistically things are still disconnected too. So think of like your maintenance software and you mark a truck down. And does that change the available availability in your dispatch system?

SPEAKER_00 15:56

No, the answer is no. No, and the answer is absolutely right.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

So you're starting to see now where those um those older systems are starting to be replaced out with a lot of the different, you know, vendors that are out there, but holistically things still are are very disconnected. So I mean, that's that's probably the biggest gap that we still see, and we're actively every day trying to fill that void.

SPEAKER_02 16:19

Sure. Yeah, that makes sense. You know, we think about um getting that information to dispatch, right? The example you gave on if a truck's down, because it's kind of the central nervous system, right, of the whole organization. And that's where uh platforms like yours where it really has the most impact or where we the the functionality is is used the most, right? So what I mean, what do you see as your role in a dispatch operation? How do you change how dispatch operates by having a dispatch platform like yours?

SPEAKER_01 16:51

Yeah, I mean that's a there's a lot to talk about there. Ultimately, visibility to the rest of the organization, I think, is is is like one of the first things that we can really provide and really start exploiting that people maybe have never had before, right? Um, and connecting different systems. The I think ultimately um for us with dispatch, I personally feel this way. Maybe you guys feel a little bit differently, but uh dispatch in any ReadyMix producer really is the core of it. And it feels like all things flow through dispatch. That could be drivers coming in and knowing what their schedule is in the morning, and then you know, they they go out and deliver, you know, you think of all that workflow where it goes to, and talking to the back office and payments and e-tickets and everything kind of flows like ultimately, it really is. And I mean, so we just feel like for our role in that is making sure that we are connecting dispatch to the rest of the organization. And I mean, I think in in our view, it really goes even out to the customers. Like one of the big things we have is a customer-facing app and portal, and like how can we make dispatchers' lives easier, more efficient, and better by connecting you to your customers as well. So, yeah, again, with with dispatch itself, there's the obvious portion of it, which is you're dispatching trucks and you're making sure that everything's is getting out effectively and in a time-effective manner. But um, you know, it just looking at it, you're really starting to see everything expand out more and be inform the dispatcher now at this point. I think so many systems in the past are reactive, and I think we're starting to shift into more proactive systems that are informing them, you know, giving them uh, let's say a customer scorecard so they can make a decision and say, you know what, they they're telling me that I have normally have a 20-minute waiting time. Well, history shows it's 30. Sure. Right. And it's like informing them and helping and enhancing dispatchers so they can get another truck out out of the day.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

Or, you know, get to uh get to a job done and get it quicker than what they were before.

SPEAKER_02 18:53

No, that makes a ton of sense. So, with with that kind of connection and data visibility come a lot of metrics or you know, KPIs, people call it key performance indicators. What what do you think are the most important metrics that I mean you have so much exposure to all these different producers, right? That everybody looks at different things. What's most important to you? What do you think that we should be tracking?

SPEAKER_01 19:15

You know, I know everybody always goes cubic yards per hour, right? On time delivery, and then um, you know, productive time, right? And those really seem to be no matter where you go, those are the three key pillars that everybody, everybody looks at. Um, and honestly, uh I found every producer looks at something a little bit different, and it's generally where you are and what you're doing, right? And some companies get really, really focused in on deadhead time. Some companies get focused on, you know, specifically on-time delivery and don't care about anything else or whatever it is. Um, but it really matters where you are and what you're doing. And we just talked about this today, right? Yeah. Like having a rural versus urban area. Yeah. What you care about in the urban area is going to be very different than what you care about in the rural area. So again, I would always, it seems like no matter where I go, those three pillars are what everybody cares about. And then there's certain things after that that that that matter.

SPEAKER_02 20:15

Yeah. So you talked a lot about connection. So but aside that, aside from that, what do you think is coming for technology in the radio mixed space over the next five to 10 years? Obviously, AI is the is the big buzzword across all industries. But so if that's the answer, what um what does that look like for us?

SPEAKER_01 20:37

Yeah, I mean, I'll say it, just AI. If if you go to any panel and listen to anybody right now, everybody's gonna say AI, right? Um maybe it'd take a little bit of a different approach to it. Like I don't personally know exactly where AI is gonna be. And you know, obviously there's lots of discussion about it, and it's a really heavy thing that we're invested, you know, big time in. Not not only from uh utilizing AI and our software to make it easier for people to use and make the learning curve a lot easier, but even developing our software.

SPEAKER_02 21:06

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:07

So we see like, I'll say from our internal side of it, the speed of development is going to increase substantially. That's a great point. Yeah. Yeah. And so I think you'll see like from a traditional software perspective and how you develop in it, like that speed to market is going to change drastically and rapidly. So that side of it, I think, is going to be really important to get products out faster.

SPEAKER_00 21:29

Andrea, what I hear you saying with that is more of the things I want are possible.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

More yeses and less noes to Andrea's product enhancement requests.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

I I mean, yes, like the short answer to that is yes. Like if there's things that are coming out, like the overhead with developing things quickly, or maybe maybe to say it in another way, the risk of developing things quickly, like you swing and miss is a lot lower. I mean, you think of uh any product development, you may whether You know, it's John Deere or a manufacturer, they spend years developing and hoping that the market accepts it or hoping that the testing proved that it was going to be good. And with some of these tools now, you can just rapidly just try it. And if it works, it works. If it doesn't work, yeah. Do you like this design? Cool. I'll I'll whip it up. And do you like it? Does it make sense? Okay, cool. Let's let's go with that then and build the underbelly of it. So I think that's a big piece of it. I think the intelligence side of AI and being able to just, you know, process data rapidly and making quicker decisions and getting things that are easier for a human to read, if you will, is gonna be a big um, you know, big change, and that's gonna come out right away. I think um, you know, uh on the even on the equipment side, I think you'll see, you know, like anything, you're gonna haul more, hopefully get more efficient vehicles, you know, lighter materials and stuff like that. Um, but again, I think the AI piece of it is who knows where it's gonna all, you know, where the dust is gonna settle. Um but I you know, I think that's gonna be the the biggest changes that you see. And I'll say one other thing too. I think you're gonna see the whole um, you know, we talked about the gaps and everything. I think you're just gonna see a lot more connected platforms. Like you're gonna see a lot more things that are open. I mean, if you don't at this point have an open API as a software company, dead in the water, yeah. And easily integrate into it. And you know, then what ultimately allows like uh workflow optimization and workflow automation, yeah, that piece of it, I think, is really gonna be the big focus for the next few years.

SPEAKER_02 23:38

I don't want to uh toot my own horn too much, but I'm gonna go ahead and do it. Uh we actually toot it when when you were talking about uh speed of of development. Uh so we we actually have done a little bit of that internally. Like we made um uh evaporation rate calculator on our website, and we coded a widget for our website in a day that was never and I I have no idea how to code. I don't know anything about coding, uh, but ChatGPT does, and it did it for me when I just told it in plain language when what I wanted it to do. We talked about that a little bit on our AI. Uh we did an episode on AI here on the podcast. But um yeah, so I definitely I but I never translated that to like you guys as professionals can leverage that even to the nth degree more than than we could. So that's cool.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

Yeah, I mean, you think of just whipping up a concept to see what it does and what it looks like. You know, in the past you'd make product specifications, you'd test the market, you'd do all this stuff, and now all of a sudden you can come up with these ideas and test them out and see how they go. And um, if it if it looks great, implement it.

SPEAKER_02 24:46

So here's maybe a tough question for a technology guy with the oncoming AI and and all the changes that may come with how we work. Obviously, there's a lot of things in our industry that can't be automated, but what do you think? Is there anything that shouldn't be that should remain manual or human or yeah?

SPEAKER_01 25:06

So the human aspect, I think, of all things, right? Like uh this would be my own personal opinion, you know. I think with AI and the ability to automate things, like these types of relationships are gonna be more important than ever.

SPEAKER_02 25:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

And I think they'll actually become a significant part of what you do.

SPEAKER_02 25:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

Um, yeah at the end of the day, you know, like I said, I it'll be interesting to see where the dust settles for for you guys. You have to deliver concrete, right? So there's gonna be certain things that AI can and can't do. Um, one thing I probably should have mentioned too, what I see as the future is with all the slump management technology, whether it's air entrainment, I think smarter and smarter equipment is gonna become a thing. Yeah. And um, you know, it'll be interesting to see how that impacts, let's say, a driver and what they're responsible for. I think in some ways it's gonna alleviate it and make it easier for them, in some ways it might make it a little bit more challenging too. Where I still maybe am a little foggy on the AI and application and ready mix specifically, would be on that driver and truck. And I mean, you still have to drive a truck, you still have to deliver, you still have to meet your customers and talk to them and have that human interaction when you go to the job site, deliver it and be professional and that whole piece of it. Like, I don't see that changing.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

No, for sure. That's you know, I think the same thing taking orders in dispatch. It's gonna be, I can't see us ever going to, you know, I think we'll have an option for some people to put in, like an online order. Make it easier, but we're never gonna have like if you ever try to call an airline and try to get something done and you gotta talk to AI for 45 minutes, like no way. We're not going there. Um Yeah, I don't I don't want to disclose some of the things I said to airline. So yeah. Well, I you know, the the truck monitoring stuff, uh the of of the mixes and in the actual product is really interesting. And you know, we've looked at technologies that it'll tell the driver on the tablet in the truck what the slump is, which is crazy. It's uh it's awesome. You know, and that and that does change how they work because we we require all of our drivers to look at every load before it leaves. And I I don't know that it exempts it from that, but if you had another tool to say, hey, you have a five-inch slump, you know, the the customer asks for a five-inch something, it's it's an objective standard. I think it's really interesting. I'm I'm excited for that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 27:29

You know, I there's been some tried and trued products that have been out there for a long time that really do work well. And you know, from your perspective with training employees, I mean, even that piece of it, sometimes I don't think people always necessarily think about like if you don't have to teach a guy or guy or gal on you know how to manage slump. I shouldn't say not how to manage slump, but you have tools that allow it to be easier. You know, you think training's easier, yeah, like getting them up to speed faster is a better thing. And you know, that equipment can really, really pay for itself and just be a great asset to the entire organization.

SPEAKER_02 28:06

Yeah, for sure. We've talked a lot about how technology companies work on ReadyMix, right? But what should we know? Because we have a lot of interaction with technology companies. What should we know about how a technology company operates that maybe we don't, right? Right. So what's important for us to understand about that software development or anything like that that would be useful for us when we're giving feedback or ideas or whatever. This is a therapy session.

SPEAKER_01 28:37

Can we bring that couch in for dispatch so I can lay down and talk? Yeah. I, you know, I always think the funny thing for me coming from so I was a hardware engineer for a long time on the as an electrical engineer, and we were a lot like we were very rigid on our process, right? Because you're developing a vehicle that's got to be on the road for 20 years, and there's all standards and all sorts of things that you uh have to deal with. On the software side, you come over and it's I always make this joke to my developers that it's just typing. Um and so, but you come over and now all of a sudden things process and change a lot quicker. Um, and kind of anybody can be an expert on it, or anybody have an opinion on it. Where, like, if you're designing, let's say, a truck, there's certain things that an engineer will know at like how physically that uh vehicle is going to operate, how you flip a switch, what happens, the electricity draw, the current, whatever it is. Now all of a sudden on software, it's a lot of user interface. And so there's a lot of opinions. And I think the thing, you know, that was it's not shocking to me, but I think the thing that's like always interesting for a software company to balance is Andrew, you mentioned this earlier, um, is just request and changes. And everybody, especially in this space, has a unique idea, unique thought, and a unique way of using things. So probably the biggest thing I would say to anybody who hasn't interacted with a lot of software companies, which you guys have, so I'm not saying that, but it's like just knowing there's a balance of like we're trying to balance out resources and making sure that we're doing everything for the product and building it in the correct way that you want and making it flexible and stable enough that like you can run your business off it ultimately.

SPEAKER_02 30:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:21

So I think that's you know, in on the user interface side, you know, a lot of times um the users are really the ones who can provide the most valuable input because you know, you're not going in and clicking it. Like I've I've worked in software now and ready mix for I think this would be year eight for me. And you know, I've never actually dispatched a truck with it before, right? So I know how it should work, and I know how I think it should work. But, you know, like as opposed to Chris, I've never hit ticket a truck and then it goes out and he won, you know, watching it. So, you know, it's it's just that balance of user interface, usability, stability, and that piece of it that I think a lot of people who aren't um directly involved in development don't always realize how that balance is out.

SPEAKER_02 31:05

Yeah. Cool. You've worked with us directly before in your previous roles. Yeah. What feedback do you have for us? Like what, you know, how do what are we strong in? What are we weak in? How do we differentiate or how are we different from other uh producers you've worked with?

SPEAKER_01 31:21

So I think like what you guys are really strong in, I think is the people. Like that's how I would label it. Like uh I always enjoy coming down here. And there is something to be said about a vendor coming down and enjoying being with their customer, right? Yeah. So um I and you can just see the interaction. You're not afraid to be honest with each other. And I see it through all your employees. You know, whether I was installing something on a truck in the shop, yeah, people seem very committed here.

SPEAKER_02 31:51

Yeah. And I think that's enjoyed Jeff uh clipping his fingernails in our moon.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

That was a new, that was a new experience. I've had some unique customer experiences before, but the uh fingernail clipping was uh was a new one, new one today. So I think that just shows that you got a strong management team. If you say so, okay. So no, I think like uh Han in my mind has always been an adopter of technology and new processes and trying to do new things. Um and so I think that's where you guys are really strong. And you can just see it in, you know, wanting to take and try to get better.

SPEAKER_02 32:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:28

And treating people. And I think that really starts with treating people, right?

SPEAKER_02 32:31

Yeah. Well, great. I appreciate that. And those are you know, definitely on our values on the wall behind you there, embrace innovation and push boundaries, right? So we we want to be that. We want to be on the on the cutting edge of of what new technology is out there. And you know, frankly, sometimes that leaves us on the bleeding edge. You know, or we've we've been um there's been pain through that, but I think in the long term it's worth it. Absolutely. Andrew, do you have any other questions? Thanks.

SPEAKER_00 32:59

You did a very thorough interview. I'm impressed. I didn't I didn't have to jump in or redirect you at all. Yeah, you were getting better.

SPEAKER_01 33:06

I thought there would be a lot more hard-hitting questions here.

SPEAKER_00 33:10

This just shows how much I like you, Chris.

SPEAKER_01 33:12

Okay, good.

SPEAKER_00 33:13

It doesn't always go this way.

SPEAKER_02 33:16

Excellent. Well, we really appreciate you coming down to visit us and appreciate you coming on the the podcast. And I think it'll be uh a good listen for all of our folks to to kind of get a you know introspection into uh what this the technology and software side. So yeah, thanks for having me. This is awesome. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 33:32

Thanks for listening, everyone. Remember to share this podcast with your friends, and we'll talk to you again next week.

SPEAKER_02 33:38

Thanks so much.