Since its full introduction at Heidelberg Materials UK’s Whatley Quarry, CheckProof has made itself integral to the daily operation of the huge limestone aggregate quarry near Frome in Somerset, southwest England. Guy Woodford went to hear about how the Software as a Service (SaaS) solution is used and learn about the site’s impressive rail aggregates freight operation and development plans.
Dave Short, planning maintenance engineer at Heidelberg Materials UK’s (HMUK) Whatley Quarry (Whatley), recounts how CheckProof’s early flagging of a production issue one day last year potentially saved HMUK tens of thousands of pounds in repairs.
“CheckProof identified a shock to a drive-end bearing on our X1 primary crusher’s 1200kW motor – an extremely valuable asset worth up to £200,000. If there had been a delay in flagging it, the fault could have led to serious damage, and production could have been down for a long time. I was able to do an independent vibration analysis that alerted us to do something about the problem in a controlled way. We then constantly monitored the primary crusher until our Christmas shutdown, and then we had the crusher removed, and new drive-end bearings were resealed and realigned.”
Short explains how a third party ran Whatley’s previous maintenance planning and checks system. “We had no access to it, but with CheckProof, after trialling it with some of my maintenance inspections, we built our version of the system how we wanted it to be. We have modified it several times, including on our conveyors, reducing the number of necessary checkpoints. We have set tasks, oil and lubrication checks, non-running checks, and a maintenance diary on the system. If I nominate a team member to do something, they will get a CheckProof alert on their mobile saying this check is due. I have a diary with my team where I can set tasks for our daily full plant checks. I can also create a deviation for additional checks, such as those relating to something supplied by a third party. When a maintenance team member arrives on site that morning, they will know, for example, that they have to do an oil check on asset S20 or a 40-hour oil drop on a new gearbox. We now have 17 mobile plant areas whose maintenance needs we have incorporated into CheckProof.”
“We are a very dynamic site. A key benefit of CheckProof is that any deviation in production generates an alert that goes straight to the maintenance team’s phones so that they can react immediately,” says Shaun Eaton, Whatley engineering manager.
“We have a 24-hour [weekday] operation. Production can deteriorate extremely quickly if things go wrong,” adds Short, who has worked at Whatley for 35 years. “CheckProof is easy to use, and the company has assigned us a dedicated manager who we speak to regularly. We initially had an issue with a lack of site Wi-Fi coverage affecting our CheckProof use for maintenance work, but now we have installed a booster, there is WiFi coverage for the whole mobile plant area.”
CheckProof is a mobile-first platform that simplifies maintenance management and HSEQ (health, safety, environment, and quality) processes. Combining intuitive technology with actionable insights helps companies in the construction materials sector and heavy industries follow routines, mitigate risks, minimise costs, and enhance safety procedures.
The platform connects to telematics systems across various machines and vehicles, regardless of brand. This integration enables seamless access to vital data such as fuel consumption, geographic location, idle time, error codes, and CO₂ emissions.
CheckProof merges this machine data with frontline employee reports. This holistic approach allows businesses to proactively address deviations, monitor performance trends, and ensure compliance with maintenance routines—all from a single platform. Additionally, CheckProof offers integrations with OEM industry leaders and third-party providers offering vibration and temperature sensors and belt-weigher software. Users can harness real-time insights and automate maintenance workflows, bringing the concept of a truly connected plant to life. This innovative approach transforms raw telematics data into actionable insights, driving operational improvements and creating smarter, more connected plants and sites.
CheckProof has been fully used at Whatley since September 2022, with planning for its full introduction starting in 2020 as part of HMUK’s rollout of the SaaS platform across its site network. “Tom O’Boyle, our former engineering manager, was quick to tell us about CheckProof when it was first introduced to help with plant maintenance inspections and planning. He, Dave Short and James Veakins worked to get it up and running at Whatley. He’s now the lead project manager for a new rail aggregate installation at HMUK Horton Quarry in Ribblesdale, Lancashire,” explains Vincent Pitt, HMUK Area General Manager for Mendips and Masters. “The system we used before CheckProof was largely Microsoft Excel spreadsheet-based. It required a lot of manual input before it generated a work order. It did not reduce workflows.”
Daniel Welch, Whatley’s rail logistics manager, is equally effusive in evaluating CheckProof. “There is so much we can do with this system. The potential is huge. Each business area at Whatley that uses it has tailored it to their needs, and the collective way we use it is for inspections.”
Rail shunting, like that done at Whatley, is an essential process that keeps railway networks running efficiently. The shunting process allows individual railcars to be strategically sorted and reassembled into new trains with different cargo and destinations. This manoeuvring of rolling stock is critical for consolidating freight shipments, distributing rail traffic, and enabling flexibility in railway operations.
“From a rail aggregates perspective, a shunter must make sure the rail wagons are safe for loading,” explains Welch. “There is a visual inspection which takes in, for example, whether any wagon doors are open or if a wagon has any holes. This information was not being captured, but with CheckProof, we compiled a checklist showing compliance, including taking and storing time and date-stamped pictures. It means that when a maintenance deviation task is set, it can go to the right people to handle it. We also do locomotive pre-start checks in the same way. Checks done through CheckProof remove what can be a tick-box exercise, create accountability, and give us much more detail. A picture of a bad area speaks a thousand words.
“We also developed in CheckProof a ‘presenting a train’ pre-trip checklist for our shunting team. Freightliner, our rail and freight logistics company, deliver rail aggregate wagons to us. We do the required shunting, take the wagons into the quarry, load them, and then hand them back to Freightliner in a fit and safe manner. The checklist will ask, for example, if the [locomotive] brake pipes have been coupled up. What time was the shunter presented? Are all the wagons in a tidy and safe state? All this is ticked off, and the final check sheet comes through digitally, is stamped, and stored in CheckProof. We also do our rail track inspections to ensure that it is in a usable and safe state. Once a week, a team walks along our entire rail track length, highlighting any defects in CheckProof. This information, including images of any defects, goes instantly via email to our track maintenance partners, Mendip Rail, a joint venture with Aggregate Industries [and its Torr Quarry, near Shepton Mallet, Somerset].”
Whatley is talking to CheckProof and its contractors about how its CheckProof system can communicate with all contractor work systems to enable more efficient collaboration and operational accountability. In addition to having all maintenance data integrated into CheckProof, the Whatley management team is keen to integrate its Hayley Dexis-managed stockpile management data into its CheckProof setup. This will allow quicker and easier access to live stockpile inventory, saving valuable time in fulfilling customer product orders.
Heidelberg Materials’ third biggest quarry globally and the UK’s biggest limestone quarry, covering 120 hectares and equivalent to 168 football pitches, Whatley produces Mendips’ limestone aggregate, with two-thirds of its Type 1 and -100 mm sized product range used internally by different areas of HMUK’s business. Around two-thirds of Whatley’s annual production is transported by rail to 20 depots via its close working partnership with Network Rail, Mendip Rail and Freightliner, with the remainder delivered by lorry. The quarry supplies materials to major projects, including Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, Thames Tideway, and HS2. Regional projects include Frome Medical Centre, Royal United Hospital (RUH) Bath, new housing in Warminster and Frome, A303 improvements, Sainsbury’s Bath, and Selwood School. Other customers include local county and borough councils and highway infrastructure contractors.
Ninety-seven HMUK and 38 contractor employees work at Whatley. There are four aggregate processing stages, with Walters contracted to do the site’s primary loading and hauling work. Whatley’s primary crusher can produce up to 2,200 tonnes per hour. Whatley averages 60-65 train deliveries a week, and each train delivers 1,400-2,300 tonnes to the southeast England market. Whatley also pumps up to 35 million litres of water daily into two local brooks. The quarry excavates at level 9.3 metres above sea level, with permission to excavate to level 11.
Talking Aggregates Business through each step of production at Whatley, quarry manager Kyle Smith says: “We are blasting around three times a week, averaging around 50,000 tonnes of stone per blast. We contract this process out to EPC-UK. We use two to three Epiroc drill rigs, depending on how busy we are. We have mine plans that we work to, and Walters is contracted to do our primary load and haul. They run three teams working between them 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We are crushing five days a week from 6am to 11pm, and then from 11pm to 5am, we are secondary crushing. We do plant and fleet maintenance work at weekends. We also constantly pump water into the two lagoons on-site.”
Whatley’s large capital expenditures in recent years have included £4.6 million on a new mobile plant fleet, £2.2 million on new dewatering pumps, £1.5 million on wash plant modifications, £1.4 million on a new electric-powered switcher locomotive for its aggregate rail operation, and £600,000 on rail track replacement. Whatley has new and long-established equipment supply partnerships with OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), including McLanahan, Metso, Sandvik, Hazemag, Diefenbach, Atlantic Pumps, and Pioneer Pumps.
“We’d love all our rail aggregate operations and mobile plants to be electric at some stage. Our issue is getting enough power to the quarry,” explains Vincent Pitt. “We want to increase our potential electric usage. It does offer a big saving on fuel [cost], but there are challenges with securing increased power supply as the local electric authority says they can’t add to our power supply for at least two years. Anything bigger than that and new connections, like at nearby Westdown Quarry, which will reopen soon, will have to run off power generators, as new connections could take longer. If we want to run any electric dumpers and loading shovels in the future, we need to apply to the local electric authority now.”
In operation since 1937, Whatley has 75 million tonnes of mineral reserves. Meanwhile, HMUK is reopening Westdown Quarry, around a mile from Whatley, after successfully applying to Somerset Council to update existing planning conditions. Production is expected to begin in 2026, with the site earmarked to produce around 2 million tonnes of limestone aggregate a year for local customers. Another eye-catching project is the planned introduction of six autonomous Cat 777 rigid haulers at Whatley from 2027. A similar 100-tonne autonomous RDT pilot project will run at Ketton, another HMUK limestone quarry in Rutland.
Pitt highlights that Whatley is keen to maintain strong relationships with its local community and be a good neighbour. The quarry supports local initiatives through financial donations, material supplies, and voluntary manpower. Projects have included part funding the Whatley field play and picnic area redevelopment and supporting local charity Mates in Mind Santa’s Grotto in Frome, Westfield Football Club, and Community Fridge Frome’s voluntary food collections. Whatley volunteers also repaired and painted fences at Mells Primary School.
Whatley offers great career opportunities. As a member of the 5% club, HMUK is committed to having a minimum of 5% of its UK workforce enrolled in formalised apprenticeship, sponsored student, and/or graduate development schemes. HMUK offers opportunities for craft apprentices, higher apprentices (LEAF), and graduate programmes.
Environmentally conscious, Whatley works closely with the Environment Agency and the National Trout Association. The quarry also collaborates with Frome Angling Club in annual river clean-ups. It participates in Vallis Vale ash dieback felling, performs geological feature maintenance, assists with Railford footpath repairs and Asham Wood deer management, and has installed a public footpath around the quarry.
Asked about Whatley’s site restoration work, Pitt responds: “Each of our final benches is seeded, and we resoil parts of the site that have started to see vegetation grow. We have had a couple of local water authorities approach us about purchasing finished quarry areas to create a reservoir. All the quarries around here will have had similar approaches about their timescale for finishing production.”
Finishing production is not on the agenda at Whatley, a ‘super quarry’ with an ambitious and exciting technology and sustainability-minded future.
HMUK’s Tom O’Boyle, Whatley’s former Engineering Manager, gives his take on CheckProof.
“Our working relationship with CheckProof at Whatley Quarry started in 2019 when we started using the platform across the UK business. I was the project manager responsible for integrating it into the aggregates sector, so I was involved from the start. Initially, we used CheckProof as a tool to digitise our paper-based maintenance systems. However, it quickly evolved into something much more significant, with the successful rollout prompting a comprehensive review of our entire maintenance process, leading to additional use across various departments, including Health, Safety, Environmental, and our technical and quality teams.
“Paper-based systems are challenging to manage for several reasons. First, paper can be easily lost, complicating audits and creating discrepancies between reported activities and actual operations. Secondly, transferring information from paper to digital formats is highly admin-intensive. Lastly, paper systems tend to become mere tick-box exercises, undermining confidence in whether tasks are completed to the right standards. CheckProof has effectively addressed these issues by logging all tasks within the system, eliminating the risk of damaged or lost paperwork. Plus, with control points such as photographs and numerical/odometer data, we can verify that tasks are executed properly.
“From a planning and scheduling perspective, managing over 250 pieces of processing equipment at Whatley involves hundreds of planned preventative maintenance (PPM) tasks. The planning tool has enabled us to visualise and organise these tasks, allowing us to balance production and maintenance requirements more effectively.
“When I took over the role of Engineering Manager at Whatley Quarry I was excited to become a frontline user, eager to explore new ideas to maximise the system’s potential. I envisioned CheckProof serving as a digital standard operating procedure (SOP) for all engineering tasks. We began by uploading our existing inspections into the system and quickly sought to expand its capabilities. The data from CheckProof facilitated our continuous improvement cycle, aiding with tasks such as asset criticality assessments (ACA), failure effects modes analysis (FEMA), and root cause analysis (RCA). We used this information to revise our maintenance strategies to reduce the risk of failures that led to downtime. We did this by including key information such as tolerances. In cases where we couldn’t provide numerical data, we included photographs illustrating good and bad conditions to assist users in performing their tasks. A recent significant advancement that contributed to our success was the integration of condition monitoring systems like the Schaeffler Optime system.
“Throughout this process, I shared my suggestions with Håkan [Holmgren, CheckProof CEO] and his team, who were supportive and receptive to my ideas for enhancing the system to help us achieve our goals. Several of my suggestions were ultimately implemented as improvements to the system. I believe it is advantageous to have industry professionals working at CheckProof, as they can provide insights and understand the challenges we face, as well as how the system can help address them.
“Looking ahead, I would like to see CheckProof further develop the spare parts management feature, which is an area of improvement we are working on at Whatley Quarry. The ability to track the use of spare parts—where, when, how, and why they are being consumed—along with associated costs, whether through CheckProof or integrated with an ERP system, would be transformative for the site, helping us to become more efficient in how we manage spares and our budgeting process.”
Scaling Smarter Maintenance with CheckProof
Joe Cage, CheckProof Head of Customer Success, said: “Heidelberg Materials UK’s Whatley Quarry, one of the largest aggregates sites in the country, required a smart approach to digitalising its maintenance operations. Given its vast scale, traditional unit-based tracking wasn’t practical. Instead, Whatley’s team, led by Tom O’Boyle, implemented an innovative route-based system within CheckProof. Maintenance and issue reporting was structured along predefined routes rather than individual units. This ensured issues were precisely tracked within specific routes and eliminated unnecessary back-and-forth across the expansive site.
“This restructuring improved user experience and optimised back-office data management, making cost centre tracking more efficient. CheckProof’s flexibility was key to this success—adapting to Whatley’s needs rather than forcing a rigid system. Combined with CheckProof’s offline mode, the platform became indispensable in quarry areas that sometimes had network issues, ensuring no data was lost.
“Whatley Quarry’s openness to innovation extended beyond workflows. They actively embraced new technology, trialling RFID tags and telematics integrations, helping push the boundaries of digital efficiency in the aggregates sector.
“By thinking differently and working smarter, Whatley transformed its maintenance processes—demonstrating both the ingenuity of its team and the adaptability of CheckProof’s platform. Whether for small operations or massive industrial sites, CheckProof can scale and optimise workflows for any environment.”
