- Rinker employees give to Tsunami victims.
- Outdoor classes at the 474 sand mine.
- Rinker Materials wins International Habitat Conservation Award.
Rinker Materials wins 2003 Sterling Safety Award
Winning an award from the National Stone,
Sand and Gravel Association (NSSGA) – the
world’s largest mining association by product
volume – is considered a high achievement in
our industry so Rinker Materials is proud to announce
that their Cortaro operations in Arizona,
won the NSSGA 2003 (medium operations
category) Sterling Safety Award for safety performance.
The 2004 contest was based on a tough criterion: total incidence rate, as opposed to losttime.
The Cortaro site has been in operation since 1983 and consists of a quarry, crusher, wash plant, concrete batch plant and an asphalt plant. The quarry operates on a five day, 24 hours a day working week and some weekends depending on demand. The production side of the operation won the NSSGA award for 18 consecutive years without a reportable injury.
“The award given to Cortaro from the NSSGA clearly shows the teamwork and commitment to safety that is part of the work habits of Rinker Materials people – including Cortaro, Southern Arizona and Rinker world-wide,” says Mark Kincade, plant manager – Tucson region.
Arizona tyre savings
When our operations are travelling on time, in budget and sometimes even
performing above expectations, it’s often hard to continue finding ways to improve
them. Or is it? Not so for Rinker Materials West in Arizona. By implementing an
internal benchmarking exercise on the cost of “on the road” tyres, their regional
concrete operations have substantially reduced truck tyre costs.
Since being acquired in September 2002, these operations were already performing above expectations. It was only through internal benchmarking – comparing the performance of the Arizona operations with similar operations in Nevada – that a further substantial cost improvement was found.
Rinker Materials’ existing Nevada mixer truck configuration and ambient operating conditions are similar to Arizona’s. Through this comparison, the team saw that tyre costs per cubic yard of concrete delivered were half the cost in Nevada compared to what they were in Arizona. By replicating Nevada’s tyre management model in Arizona, the cost was halved without compromising safety or service.
Changes included driver standard operating procedures on daily tyre inspections and the introduction of ongoing monitoring and benchmarking. Overall, annual savings are estimated at US$800,000.
Houston, we have no problem!
It may not have been the case for Apollo 13
in 1970, but it certainly is for Rinker
Materials’ Florida Materials Division in
2005. Their success? Delivery of more than
3,000 cubic yards (2,300 cubic metres) of
lightweight concrete to NASA’s operational
support building – without any problems.
This building will house the United Space Alliance, NASA’s prime contractor for the space shuttle program, who is responsible for management of the space shuttle fleet. Over a five-month period, NASA inspectors sampled and photographed each load for unit weight, temperature and slump, to ensure the material was the highest possible quality for the project.
In addition to the operational support building, Rinker Materials also helped build NASA’s Eagle’s Nest radar tower, a tracking station for shuttles. Representatives from the Florida Materials Division, Speegle Construction and MMFX Steel successfully convinced NASA engineers to change a rebar specification. NASA engineers originally specified epoxy coated or galvanized rebar for the Eagle’s Nest tower, but adopted MMFX Steel – a new rust-resistant rebar.
Since using the MMFX steel on the radar tower, NASA engineers have also agreed to continue using this product for future projects. This is another major milestone for Rinker Materials, which is currently one of very few MMFX Steel suppliers in Florida.
