Running a Ready-Mix Concrete Plant: Mixers, Cost and Cash

• 01Cement, aggregate and admixture costs move between quote and pour. Rates are quoted for a period, but the cost is updated only when someone notices the margin has dropped.
• 02The plant is judged by cubic metres on a good day, not by mixer utilisation. Trips per mixer, wait at site and return time are not counted, so one site's delay idles a mixer another site needs.
• 03The delivery cycle, from batching to site, unloading, washing and return, is not timed per site. The dispatcher promises slots the cycle cannot meet, and mixers queue at the plant gate.
• 04Builder and aggregate customer receivables run long and uneven. Supply continues to a builder with old dues because the pour has to happen, and no limit is set for each builder.
• 05Rejected and returned loads go unexplained. Whether it was site not ready, delay in transit or a dispute, the cost is absorbed and nobody owns the cause.

• Trips per mixer per day

  Accepted plus rejected trips for each mixer divided by working days, with wait time at site beside it.

• Cost per m3 against quoted price

  Cement, aggregate, admixture and delivery cost per m3 at today's supplier rates, set against the rate quoted.

• Rejected loads

  Rejected trips divided by total trips, with m3 and cost of each rejected load and the cause.

• Builder receivables in days

  Unpaid invoices divided by average billing per day, with amounts older than 45 days shown by builder.

Illustrative figures, not client data, assuming 6 m3 a load. Mixers 2 and 4 carry all the rejections. Look at the sites and times behind them before looking at the mixers themselves.

• 01Leaving a quote open after cement and aggregate rates change, so cost per m3 rises past the quoted price and each pour loses money.
• 02Judging the plant by m3 on a good day and not by trips per mixer, so waits at site hide in the average.
• 03Absorbing rejected loads without a cause, which leaves the rejected loads figure to climb with nobody owning it.

• 01A daily plant sheet with m3 batched, mixers used, trips per mixer and wait time at site.
• 02A cost sheet per m3 refreshed with each supplier rate for cement, aggregate and admixture, shown against the quoted price.
• 03A delivery cycle log by site: dispatch, arrival, unloading end, return.
• 04A builder ledger with credit limit, ageing and a stop-supply rule agreed in advance.
• 05A rejected load register with cause, m3, cost and who was responsible.
• 06A quote validity rule tied to the date of the last cost update.
• 07A mixer maintenance and idle-day log.
• 08A yard sheet for aggregate sales: tonnes sold, stock on hand and dues by customer, kept beside the builder ledger.

1. Pick yesterday's deliveries and write for each mixer the trips, loads accepted and loads rejected.
2. Hypothetical example: the mix you quote uses 300 kg of cement per m3 (check your own mix design). A rise of ₹20 on a 50 kg bag is ₹400 a tonne, or ₹120 per m3. At 1,500 m3 a month that is ₹1,80,000 a month if the quoted rate stays fixed.
3. Time five deliveries from dispatch to return and list where the time went.
4. List builders with unpaid invoices and the oldest invoice date for each.

1. First call: you describe the business and the numbers you already track.
2. Your first sheet: the one described under What you get, built from your own books.
3. The rhythm: a regular review of trips per mixer per day, cost per m3 against quoted price, rejected loads, builder receivables in days.
4. What you hold at the end: a written sheet and a named owner for each number.

• Financial Health Audit

  A management-level review of margin by product, the cash cycle, receivables and costs, ending in indicators you track monthly. Not a statutory audit.

• Business Audit

  Financial Health Audit is part of Business Audit. See the full service if the problem is wider than one piece.

• Our revenue is growing, but our profit is not

  Sales are up but the money left over is not. Find where margin leaks in pricing, discounts, rework and overheads, and what to check this week.

• Cash is always tight, even when sales look good

  Full order book but an empty account? See how collections, stock, credit terms and timing gaps drain cash, and how a 13-week forecast eases the squeeze.

• How this differs from Building and construction material manufacturers

  A material manufacturer makes blocks, tiles or similar goods in a plant and sells by lot. A ready-mix supplier sells a perishable product by the m3 and watches the delivery cycle and rejected loads.

• How this differs from Building material dealers

  A building material dealer sells many items to many small buyers from a yard or shop; a ready-mix and aggregate supplier sells fewer, larger orders to builders and carries their receivables.