Amerikohl Mining, Inc., is made up of three divisions: Amerikohl Aggregates, Amerikohl Transport, and Patriot Exploration, which develops and produces natural gas wells.
They are one of the top surface mining coal producers in Pennsylvania, producing nearly 1,000,000 tons of coal annually. Amerikohl Aggregates produces in excess of 1.5 million tons per year of premium State Approved Limestone products from two active quarry sites. Their limestone is utilized in the construction of roads, bridges, gas drilling platforms, water, sewer lines, railroads (ballast) anti-skid and many other local infrastructure projects. They have more than 150 customers in in Western Pennsylvania, and more than 130 employees working on projects from heavy highway construction, erosion and sediment control and more.
Problem
Prior to discovering Stockpile Reports, Amerikohl relied on belt scales to measure their inventory and productions levels. However, the scales were notoriously inaccurate, and changes in moisture, precipitation and other factors gave a wide margin of error. They would try to quantify yardage moved with a laser rangefinder measurement, which was also unwieldy and did not produce consistently accurate results. This occasionally resulted in Amerikohl running out of inventory during busy summer months, as their recorded numbers did not match what was actually on the ground. They also tried new methods of measurement, including using their own drone and mapping software, but it was very time intensive. They were often guessing as to efficiencies in expensive operations such as heavy machinery output. Luckily, they heard about Stockpile Reports through the Pennsylvania Aggregate and Concrete Association.