Materials, Construction
PR Newswire | January 04, 2024
CemAI, Inc. has teamed up with Continental Cement Company L.L.C.'s (Continental Cement) Hannibal, MO plant to install CemAI's predictive and prescriptive maintenance solution, combining a unique licensed software with a continuous monitoring and incident resolution service to further enhance its cement manufacturing performance."
The CemAI solution uses Continental Cement's existing historical and real-time manufacturing data and applies machine learning, artificial intelligence and remote monitoring by cement experts to complement the expertise of Continental's local plant maintenance and reliability teams. This robust solution brings plant maintenance into the digital age."
"We considered a number of approaches to utilizing our data to improve our maintenance efforts, eliminate downtime and increase equipment reliability," says Timothy J. Noud, Vice President of Manufacturing at Continental Cement. "CemAI offers a cement-centric, end-to-end machine learning/artificial intelligence service solution."
Continental Cement has built its business on consistent quality, superior service, and delivering a safe working environment since they began producing cement at their Hannibal location in 1903. A leader in innovation and sustainable cement production, Continental Cement provides high quality cement for projects along the Mississippi corridor and is a subsidiary of Summit Materials, Inc. "
"CemAI is proud to be collaborating with an industry leader on innovative ways to use data," says Scott Ziegler, Chief Executive Officer for CemAI. "We thank Continental Cement for their confidence in the CemAI solution to provide increased efficiency, improved reliability and optimized operations."
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Materials, Construction
PRnewswire | June 07, 2023
Kojo, the construction industry's leading materials and inventory management platform, today announced it has expanded to serve mechanical contractors.
"At Kojo, our mission has always been to simplify processes for our customers so that they can have more time back to do what's really important – build," said Maria Davidson, Kojo's founder and CEO. "Our mechanical Beta launch has been our most successful to date. We're thrilled that our mechanical customers are already seeing so much value with Kojo and we're excited to continue to onboard many more all over the country."
Since the offering launched in Beta, mechanical contractors have sent over 6,000 field requests to the office and created 17,000 purchase orders worth $50 million in Kojo. "By our calculation that's almost 6,000 times the field and office didn't have to call and email back and forth to figure out what was being ordered," Davidson added.
Alex Eldridge at Tharco, a leading mechanical contractor in Maryland, said, "Kojo has been really smart in the way they've customized this build for mechanical contractors. For example, there are many nicknames for parts out there and this can create confusion for communication between the field and office. Kojo has a preset catalog field users can order from that even supports slang terms for easy field-to-office part name translation. It's details like this that convinced us Kojo was for us."
The mechanical contracting market in the U.S. is huge and rapidly growing. More than $123 billion of mechanical work is done in the U.S. annually. The sector employs nearly 400,000 workers and that number is expected to grow by 5% through 2031.
Kojo's expansion into mechanical follows the launch of its Automated Invoice Matching product, which streamlines the accounting process for commercial trade contractors. This builds on Kojo's purchase order and delivery functionality, making Kojo a true all-in-one platform that allows customers to manage the full end-to-end materials procurement process. Automated Invoice Matching launched in Q2 of 2023 and to date has processed $9.2 million in invoices, catching mistakes on 27% of invoices processed.
Kojo announced their Series C in September of 2022. Kojo has now powered more than 10,000 construction projects across 47 states, saving customers 75% of the manual entry they previously had to do and reducing materials waste on jobsites by up to 90%.
About Kojo
Kojo is the construction industry's leading materials and inventory management platform. Kojo enables trade and self-perform general contractors to streamline every step in the procurement and inventory management process from takeoff to closeout. By connecting field, office, warehouse, accounting, and vendors teams on one software platform, Kojo gives contractors visibility into real-time materials spending and usage, helps them source the best prices and availability across vendors, reduces material waste, and increases labor productivity. To learn more, visit www.usekojo.com.
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Products, Materials, Construction
Colony Hardware | March 06, 2023
Colony Hardware, a leading direct-to-jobsite distributor of jobsite supplies and construction materials, has declared the acquisition of a South Carolina-based entity New South Construction Supplies, LLC (New South). It is a value-added distributor of concrete, rebar, waterproofing products, masonry, and contractor supplies.
Since forming a partnership with Audax Private Equity in November 2018, Colony has made a total of 12 acquisitions, the most recent being this one.
New South is one of the leading suppliers of construction supplies and building materials in the Southeast. The company was established in 1981 and now has locations in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. New South caters to commercial, residential, and industrial construction contractors as well as those working in waterproofing, restoration, and road-and-bridge construction.
Tim Rash, Chief Executive Officer of Colony Hardware said, “Bringing New South Construction Supply and Colony Hardware together is impactful in several ways and represents Colony’s largest partnership to date.” He added, “Earning the trust of Jim Sobeck and the New South team further reinforces the industry view that we are the partner of choice for owners of distribution companies seeking to scale their business, grow their legacy, and help their valued employees prosper. More importantly, New South’s reputation for quality customer service and their dedicated associates mirror Colony’s ‘client-driven’ culture.”
Jim Sobeck, CEO of New South, stated, “We are proud to become part of the Colony Hardware family and especially pleased that our people and locations will remain the same as we add more locations to better service contractors across the South. With Colony's leadership and reputation, I look forward to seeing New South continue on its growth trajectory with Colony’s backing. The future is bright for our business, our associates and the loyal customers of New South and Colony Hardware.”
(Source – BusinessWire)
About Colony Hardware
Colony Hardware, founded in 1988 and headquartered in Orange, CT, has 59 branches across Northeast, Mid-South, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Florida. It provides Equipment & Tools, Safety Products, Supplies, Rental and Repair to construction industry. Their quality and services are unparalleled. Items are carefully chosen based on their value, durability and quality. Colony understands that the public needs goods at the correct place, timing, and price to achieve their rigorous deadlines. They stock more than 25,000 diverse goods from about 750 manufacturers. They aim to finish thousands of orders, so that tradespeople can work safely and efficiently.
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