Crawfordsville Plant Receives New Scale House

Plant Inspections have long been a way for US Aggregates to improve both safety and efficiencies at our sites. This fall our plant in Crawfordsville, IN, saw an area of improvement during their inspection. It was decided that the original scale house built in 1992, was not in the best operating condition. With the approval from Director of Operations Kristin Sweeney, Plant Manager Brian Morrison and his team developed a plan to get a new scale house.  

“It’s the first place customers go when they visit your plant. Your scale house represents your site,” Brian said. “The shape the old one was in didn’t represent us well. By getting a new one, we can properly show our customers who we are.” 

The team decided to purchase and remodel a mobile unit to replace the old scale house. The unit is slightly bigger than what they had previously, providing space for a new meeting room, office, kitchen and more. Overseeing this project is Quality Control (QC) Tech Dan Jeffries. Dan has helped with the majority of the remodeling including painting, installing cabinets and trim and updating electrical and plumbing. 

With all the hard work that has gone into the space, the team is continuing to make minor adjustments that will best fit their needs. “We are not done yet,” Dan said. “There is still room for customizing and adding things.”  

One of the biggest changes this new space brings is its ability to contribute to Dan and his team’s QC efforts. The addition of the new offices in the scale house gives Dan more space in the lab. The changes provide Dan with the opportunity to perform a Kaizen Event, a project approach that focuses on efficiency and productivity. The project will analyze QC’s procedures and daily tasks to organize the lab in a way that is most productive. “Added room in the scale house will allow me to implement the lab in a way that flows, so I do not waste time walking back and forth,” Dan said. “It’s all about eliminating waste.”  

The team officially moved into the space in late November and are settling in while finishing touches are being done to the unit. We are proud of the Crawfordsville team for identifying areas of improvement during their plant inspection and taking the initiative to fix them.  View our gallery to see some before and after photos of the project!   

Madeline Freeman, Brian Morrison, and Dan Jeffries contributed to this article.