Interview with Justin Blanton, Reinforced Earth

We spoke with Justin Blanton from Reinforced Earth in Waco, TX, on how choosing EXACT Track has changed day-to-day operations at their precast plant since they became customers in October 2024.

Thanks, Justin, for all the nice things you had to say!

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What was the moment you knew you wanted to try Track?

We stepped in within the first year they launched it. 

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What problems has it solved for your business?

Inventory. We had no inventory system before, with about 43,000 pieces in the yard. We’re working on 50 jobs at a time and each one has 28 - 30 different pieces. We ended up using about 9000 stickers and we’ve been keeping track of it all ever since.

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What kind of savings has it brought to you?

We’re saving at least $20K each year on man hours alone, from all the time spent managing inventory. Tens of thousands not having to recast pieces that were misplaced in the yard. Our savings on back charges? Could be $50 - 100K per project. Really, I don’t think you could put a price on it. That's how much it has helped us to avoid those problems.

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What are the average time completion savings?

I was spending 10 - 12 hours each week tracking projects we were behind on and now it is only two hours. Everything has a GPS location. Now I can drive to the yard and find a piece instantly. Track makes life a lot easier for everyone.

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Can you quantify how it has saved you time? Any specific examples?

Before EXACT and xTrack, we had people come to pick up deliveries and they would be waiting 6 hours for their truck to get loaded. You would know to pre-stage a day or two ahead of time. Now they can be loaded and gone in 15 minutes.

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Can you imagine tracking 43,000 pieces of paper? Now we’re saving time on not going back and forth to the offices.

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Why Track? How did you pitch it to the people who make decisions at Reinforced Earth?

I showed the CEO how it worked online. We went right into the yard to see if the piece was right there where it said it should be. And it was. I told him, “we track for inventory, shipping and QC issues. Tap, scan, and get all the information.”

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I said to the Quality Manager, “if you want your life to be easier all the way around, EXACT will make your life 10 times easier. Get rid of the paper. Get the data you need fast. It’s all in EXACT. If you want your job to be 50 times easier, you should get EXACT.”

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Do you think using Track will help you attract and retain better talent? How?

Yes. Once people hear about how we operate and how much easier their lives are working with us, recruiting people is going to be easier. Now I don’t have to write stuff down. Click, click, click, and I’m done. Organization is everything. I have 100 acres that I store product on. Now I can have anyone come off the street and show them exactly where a job is at, wall by wall by wall.

It took three months to inventory the whole yard with EXACT. Now we know what we have, and what we don’t.

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What has your experience been like working with EXACT?

Any time we’ve asked for help from EXACT. If you ever needed anything, help sorting through any and all operations problems, EXACT is your answer. EXACT is innovation 101. They will customize and solve problems for you. They’ve helped us a tremendous amount customizing our dashboard. If I ever have a question, they pick up the phone at the drop of a hat. They have a vision. I would be lost without EXACT.

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How do you feel about digitization in the precast industry?

It’s hard to get people to change. If you don’t change, you’re going to be left behind. Change is hard. We've rolled out EXACT in our other two facilities in Florida. We love it and it works. Education goes a long way. It’s easier than you think to learn how to use the system. I see what it is now. It’s great.

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You can’t knock it until you try it, until you see it work. You don’t know how good it is. If I wanted to see what we even had on December 30th, I can go back and find out in 5 minutes. If you go and ask a precast contractor, “what does your inventory look like?” - I guarantee they don’t know. They have to look at 43,000 pieces of paper to find it. 

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Did you like what Justin had to say? If you're interested to learn more about how EXACT Track can help your business, get in touch with us for a free trial of EXACT Track today!

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