Case Studies: A Sight to Be Seen

By: Roads & Bridges

Ford Construction Co. Inc., Lodi, Calif., is a heavy civil contractor involved in freeways, dams, landfills, subdivisions and large underground and grading operations. With $75 million worth of jobs annually and 775 pieces of equipment to track, Ford was plagued with problems such as misplaced equipment sitting idle, $10,000 buckets and other attachments missing, too much unnecessary rented equipment and no way to verify where equipment had been without looking through reams of paper.

With the Dispatcher from HCSS, Ford has gone from keeping track of the current location of equipment on a whiteboard and equipment moves on pieces of paper to a completely automated system that visually shows where everything is, where it has been and where it is scheduled to be. The Dispatcher has three different views of the same data: a map view integrated with Microsoft MapPoint shows jobs and equipment locations on a map; the magnet board view displays jobs and resources just like the old white board (or magnet boards); and the scheduling view provides bar charts that show how the equipment is scheduled out in the future.

Ford also uses the search ability to find available and under-utilized equipment and print out directions for low-bed drivers. “We’re trying to achieve maximum operational efficiency to give us a competitive advantage,” said Ford Operations Manager Nick Jones. “HCSS software and their top-notch support are really helping us get there.”