HeidelbergCement to invest in GIS system

For the past decade, Esri Australia has partnered with Hanson, Hanson, one of Australia’s largest heavy building materials suppliers, to deliver GIS solutions that provide input into their advanced fleet allocation processes, reducing costs and time spent on the road, and increasing fuel efficiencies across the company’s 1000 strong Australian metropolitan fleet.

18 months ago, Hanson Australia was requested by parent company HeidelbergCement to upgrade the system to the latest Esri technology and deliver a GIS solution that could be used as the blueprint for an international roll-out starting with pilot programs in the UK and with a joint venture company in Hong Kong.

 “Developing a single GIS, that can be easily customised for individual country requirements, will potentially save HeidelbergCement hundreds of thousands of dollars on each additional country installation, shortening project delivery periods from 18 months to as little as just three months, ” said Andrew Warde, Project Manager, Hanson.

Esri Australia’s GIS solution is used by Hanson’s order processing and truck allocation teams to coordinate building materials deliveries. It enables staff to select the most efficient dispatch point in relation to the customer’s address. Trucks often need to come from many different depots and the GIS calculates duration and travel time for the most efficient routes, taking into consideration road restrictions, such as no right hand turns or smaller roads that cannot be accessed by large trucks.

A large percentage of Hanson Australia’s deliveries are made to new housing and commercial development sites, where road systems are only just being built. One of the key advantages of Esri Australia’s GIS solution is that it enables Hanson’s staff to edit and update the road network maps, saving processing time for future site deliveries.

Hanson’s CIO, Rob Downing notes, “The Esri GIS system provides time and distance calculations for our truck deliveries. It is essential to get our product to a site on time, given the two-hour shelf life of wet concrete, as well as pay our drivers and charge our customers correctly”.

In the future, Hanson and HeidelbergCement plan to use the technology to analyse delivery locations compared to its existing plant footprint and ensure future expansion is targeted to meet their customers’ needs.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/europe-cis/25052011/heidelbergcement_to_invest_in_gis_system/