Cemex UK has put 350 of its quarry plant operators and management from across the UK through the Finning Eco-Drive programme. The scale of the programme represents the largest number of operators to date to take part in the training programme. Having collected data from its operations, pre and post training, Eco-Drive project manager and Cemex UK’s national operations project manager, Craig Hooper says he has seen the benefits Eco-Drive has delivered for the business first hand.
Cemex UK has put 350 of its quarry plant operators and management from across the UK through the Finning Eco-Drive programme.
The scale of the programme represents the largest number of operators to date to take part in the training programme.
Having collected data from its operations, pre and post training, Eco-Drive project manager and Cemex UK’s national operations project manager, Craig Hooper says he has seen the benefits Eco-Drive has delivered for the business first hand.
Hooper said: “We have now collected post- training data for a number of months of fully trained operator activity, so are able to understand the impact training has had on our 350 participants from across the UK operations.
“As a business, we therefore know that at every one of our sites across the UK we have benefitted from efficiency savings in both litres per tonne and plant maintenance. From a financial return perspective the time and resources invested in the training has already more than paid for itself.
“The training has instilled a culture shift into the everyday running of the business. Energy, a topic we have talked about for years, is one of the issues at the forefront of everyone’s thinking as they can see the financial and environmental benefits of good practice.
“A great example of this is the competition that has now developed between operators at sites to see who is the most fuel efficient, with the lowest cost per litre.
“It is this legacy that will ultimately keep on rewarding our investment, year-on-year and from the response of operators, the training is something they will come back to time and time again.”
As Finning’s largest Eco-Drive programme user to date Cemex UK has worked with the Finning team to develop the programme delivery across its operations.
Commenting on the training roll-out, Finning strategic account manager Robert Powell said: “We introduced Cemex UK to the Eco-Drive concept at an equipment management seminar following their energy efficiency days in 2009. Craig and his team recognised the potential of rolling out the programme to the Cemex UK quarrying and aggregates plant operators and so worked with us to see how we could best achieve this.
“In order to have a structured roll-out process we initially participated in an event with Cem UK site operators, demonstrating the programme. We then jointly organised five site days at Cemex UK facilities, training operatives on specific techniques relevant to the equipment they were using.
“The remaining operators benefitted from a number of training days at Caterpillar’s Desford visitor and demonstration centre in [the city of] Leicester, [England]. This allowed us to train all 350 participants over a number of months to give Cemex UK the opportunity to involve everyone in the process.”
Following the training days, Finning representatives worked with each operator to put together a personal development programme, Cemex UK also asked for operator input and suggestions for site specific improvements.
