Andy Bright put this fantastic story together demonstrating the impressive power of team CEMEX.
Back in the beginning of 2019 CEMEX Dry Mortar were awarded the contract to supply the Murphy Group with sprayed concrete for their contract to supply essential maintenance works at the railways Whiteball Tunnel in Somerset. From bespoke product testing, night deliveries, a crack engineering team, highest safety standards, meticulous planning, fantastic communication, to lightening quick order fulfilment; this job really demonstrates how different teams come together to be the best for our customers.
Andy continues: “We carried out trials during August 2018 to prove the performance of the product as this material was designed with the added complication of 54mm macro poly fibres which had the tendency to mesh together and stop the flow of product from the silo. Other suppliers were reluctant to assist with the problem solving, but the team at Dove Holes refurbishment base came up with the idea of using a different type of butterfly valve to aid the flow. The customer was very happy with our willingness to try to help, and the trials were very successful.
In February/March 2019 we supplied over 1,800 tonnes of a 3,000 tonne order but due to various issues on site (nothing to do with our supply) the contract over ran. The railway track blockade and the remainder of the works were delayed until November 2019. Murphy’s were so happy with the CEMEX supply that we were asked to form part of the team to identify the root causes for the delays and how to improve the process for the November restart.
So now to November – Murphy’s had obtained a new blockade from Saturday 9th to Friday 15th November, but in effect our supply window was from Saturday to Wednesday as everything had to be cleaned away from trackside before the line could be reopened. The remaining volume was calculated to be 1,260 tonnes and additional fibres were ordered to cover the shortfall. The contractor told us that they would be working over the weekend and at night to deliver the contract in time. Murphy’s wanted CEMEX to supervise the Concrete supplies during this period (even at night), so a team of dedicated Engineers was relocated to Somerset – some of them up to two weeks to initially set up the site and ensure that the equipment was fully operational and then to deliver the Concrete over the period. The team sent to site were: Bill Buckley, Paul Hickinbottom and our trusted contractor, Neil Wagner.
As the quarry would not be open over the weekend a tremendous amount of pre-planning took place to ensure that the customer did not run out of material. We delivered eight silos to site (four located at one end of the tunnel in Somerset and the other four located in Devon) and filled them with material. An additional 20 Cement Tankers were hired. In addition, the team loaded seven tankers for the weekend and Monday morning deliveries. The task was carried out safely by the team at Dove Holes via Nova plant (Specialist Solutions) headed up by Roger Taylor, supported by Dan Ball, Mark Voigt, Harry Gould and fitter staff particularly, Ted Hullock from Cavendish Engineering.
We had to use our Dry Mortar plant at Braintree in Essex which meant that the team, headed by Lee Liggan at Braintree, had to keep the Specialist Solutions plant plus the Mortar business supplied over this period. The total supply task was given to NJ Docksey who hired the tanks and collected the dried sand and this was co-ordinated by the office at Rugby under the guidance of Ginnie Spencer and Briony Potter.
The communication between the various team members worked so well. The customer informed us on Monday that they would be reducing the order and the final loads would be delivered Tuesday morning.
I was scheduled to do a Customer Journey Experience visit that afternoon to see what Murphy’s thought about our service, only to be notified on route that they had ordered another two loads that morning. As you would expect the team loaded the product in the morning and the loads were to be delivered late that afternoon. I arrived on site around 2pm to find a number of unhappy Murphy people wanting to know what I could do to help – they had under-estimated the quantity required to finish the contract in time and another nine loads were required. They were at tremendous risk of not completing the project if we could not help them with their problem.
After a flurry of phone calls from the various teams the Production team stayed to load two tankers that evening, but because the drivers had already completed their days work only one could be delivered to site by NJ Docksey Drivers, however, Murphy’s had a driver to haul the other loaded tank to site and the Driver of the first load discharged both. So now they had enough material to start spraying again on Wednesday morning at 1am on the basis that the other seven loads would come in throughout the day.
Up stepped the teams again. Sand was dried and moved, vehicles were organised, raw materials were ordered and the Production team came in at 1am to start loading vehicles, bearing in mind we were also supplying materials to the Thames Tideway contract at this time. This effort was above and beyond in so many places.
At 10am I received a call from Bill Buckley to say that they had finished spraying and everything had gone very well. The customer, once they started spraying at 1am that morning, had not run out of product until the end, in fact some came back!
I would like to thank the massive efforts from the whole supply chain to deliver this project on time and safely – WELL DONE!”