“It’s easy to become reliant on maintenance management software,” says Mike Hartley, fleet maintenance director at IMI of Tennessee. “We have a system in place at 27 plants and four shops, and we use it every day. This technology plays a big role in helping us effectively manage vehicles and maintenance.”

IMI of Tennessee is one of four regional operation centers of Irving Materials Inc., a privately held, employee-owned corporation with company headquarters in Greenfield, Ind. IMI’s four regional operation centers are located in Greenfield and Evansville, Ind., Louisville, Ky. and Nashville, Tenn. Founded over 50 years ago, the company serves customers in six states, supplying building materials and related products for the construction industry, including ready mix concrete, stone, sand and gravel, and is a producer of concrete and aggregate products.

In its Tennessee operation, IMI fields about 150 Terex Advance front discharge mixers. Overall, the company has about 800 of the vehicles. The Tennessee-based fleet also includes light-duty units, medium- and heavy-duty trucks, equipment such as loaders built by Caterpillar and Case, and portable compressors.

Meeting the challenge
“The variety of vehicles and equipment we operate can make monitoring maintenance and tracking usage and costs a challenge,” Hartley says. “In total, we have 225 different units in the Tennessee fleet. Different departments and divisions within our company utilize those vehicles and pieces of equipment and to charge them accordingly we need to know exactly how much each unit costs to acquire, operate and maintain.”

A fleet manager with well over a decade of experience, including the last four years at IMI, Hartley is part of a company committee consisting of fleet managers from each of the four regional operations. That group routinely develops specifications for vehicles and equipment.

“Our ability to track costs per mile, per hour and even per yard of concrete for the mixer fleet is crucial to making effective specification decisions,” Hartley says. “Those vehicles are in service in our fleet for as long as an average 10 years or 150,000 miles, plus many hours of mixer operation time, so it’s important we know what we’re spending and what our costs are covering.”

In place at IMI of Tennessee’s four full service maintenance facilities is TMT Fleet Maintenance, the equipment and shop management software system from TMW Systems. The operation’s eight technicians use the software on a daily basis, including on each facility’s mobile service trucks, which are equipped with laptops and air cards. At all 27 plants in the operation, facility maintenance crews also use the software, which has been adapted to treat each plant as a separate unit.

On the fly
“Part of the real value that the TMT Fleet Maintenance software has for our operation is the ability to update data on the fly,” Hartley states. “Live, accurate and current real-time data is a key factor in our ability to manage labor and vehicle costs effectively and efficiently.”

TMT Fleet Maintenance at IMI of Tennessee is used to manage preventive maintenance schedules, parts inventory, fuel and tire usage, and mechanic productivity. The software also tracks maintenance costs per mile and hour, as well as by other user-defined measures. In addition, it serves as a repository of vehicle and equipment inventories, specification details for units and components. The system is also able to help the fleet’s managers control and monitor tire inventories, tread depth and wear, rotation schedules and tire utilization.

Hartley also notes other features of the TMT software that help streamline maintenance operations at IMI of Tennessee. For example, it simplifies shop management through work pending repair orders and preventive maintenance scheduling. The software also provides a complete bar-coded purchase order system that provides accurate data for parts inventory management, parts usage, purchase orders, re-order reports, price exceptions, backorder status and supplier purchase summaries.

Reinforcing value

Specifications for IMI of Tennessee mixers

Engine: Caterpillar C13 ACERT; rated 335 HP at 2100 RPM, 1150 ft./lb. of torque at 1200 RPM Transmission: Allison RD54500 6-speed Transfer Case: Meritor Driveline: Meritor 1760 Front Axle: Marmon MT 22H Pusher Axle: Hendrickson HLM 20,000-lb. Tandem Axle: Meritor Primax DT-46-160; Driver Controlled Differential lock, 5.38 ratio Front Suspension: two-stage multi leaf springs Rear Suspensions: Hendrickson Primaxx air ride Wheels: aluminum Tires: 445/65R22.5 Goodyear G178L Air Dryer: Chicago Rawhide Turbo 2000 Seat: Bostrom Fuel Tank: 70-gal. aluminum Lighting: LED

“With the software, we also have access to more than 80 reports and no limit on custom and specially configured reporting capabilities,” Hartley relates. “The ability to generate reports reinforces our value to internal customers. With TMT Fleet Maintenance, the information we need is captured at the time that work is performed, and then is available for any number of reports at any time.

“Most importantly,” Hartley adds, “maintenance management software enables equipment cost comparisons, plus maintenance, labor and facility cost trend analysis, that lets us evaluate and manage our fleet and equipment assets and expenses very effectively.”

IMI equipment
IMI of Tennessee’s fleet of Terex Advance 4-axle front-discharge mixers consists of the manufacturer’s FD4000 models. Rated for a permissible gross weight of 73,280 lbs., the mixers have an empty weight of 31,550, enabling them to haul a legal concrete load weighing in at 41,760 lbs. Built on 130,000 PSI tensile-strength steel frame rails with a Huck-Fit fastening system, the mixers carry 11 cubic yards of material in steel drums powered by Eaton drive motors. Standard equipment also includes a 150-gal. water tank.