Driving efficiency and resilience in the aggregates industry

The aggregates sector plays a crucial role in the UK economy, supplying around 270 million tonnes of materials every year for use in processes such as the manufacture of fertiliser and as products in industries such construction.  

The latter is especially important, accounting for around 90 per cent of demand. The requirements of the construction industry do, however, fluctuate. Here we consider the effects of this before exploring how businesses in the aggregates sector can become more resilient by developing strategic partnerships.  

(Sources of image: MPA, Industry Overview and Regional overview of construction and mineral products markets in Great Britain)

While construction relies on aggregates and its associated materials, the industry also depends on construction for demand – and this dependence can be problematic. In 2024, mineral product sales declined for the third year in a row, says trade organisation the Mineral Products Association (MPA), who attributed the fall to “broad-based construction weakness” and noted both a slowdown in new housing development and a scaling back of HS2 as factors.  

The symbiotic relationship between aggregates and construction, especially large infrastructure developments, is such that the MPA is calling on the Government and the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) to create an infrastructure pipeline and institute construction material supply audits to enable better planning of future needs.  

“The sector relies on government policy for market confidence,” says Richard Graham, Industry Sector Manager for Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) and heavy manufacturing at RS. “Government policy and investment drive the attractiveness of the market and changes can quickly impact company confidence and customer bases.”  

Government policy may be beyond the control of those working within the aggregates industry but there are steps that businesses can take to become more resilient. One is to develop strategic partnerships that enable more efficient and effective management of resources.  

At the moment, overstretched engineering teams are responsible for ageing equipment with limited visibility of what’s about to fail or what parts are in stock and available for use in repairs. They typically cover multiple sites and have little time to plan ahead so are only ordering parts when assets break.  

The results include increased costs, delays and disruption. According to the Maintenance Engineering Report, produced by RS and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), unscheduled maintenance takes up an average of 15 hours per week at a cost of almost £5,500 per hour.  

A strategic partnership, on the other hand, can provide access to value-added services and solutions that reduce downtime by ensuring vital parts are always on hand. This frees up time and resources to be deployed elsewhere.  

Graham has witnessed enormous changes at a cement plant that partnered with RS to introduce the vendor-managed inventory service RS ScanStock® . “All of the consumables and inventory had been managed within the engineering function,” he says. “For one person, a day each week was allocated to checking stock and putting it away when it arrived. With RS ScanStock® ^ ^in place, now we visit that site once a week to manage the consumables on their behalf. We carry that burden for them. 

“It makes a big difference. It’s creating efficiencies that have a direct and quantifiable impact. We’ve been able to give that team 20 per cent of that person’s time back each week to do tasks that are more value adding.  

“There are also the knock-on effects like the cost avoidance factor of having that engineer on the plant managing assets rather than managing stock in the store. This could bring untold benefits in terms of what they can spot or fix more quickly to prevent downtime. 

“Having an engineer with the parts and equipment they need working on priority assets at the right time reduces the mean time to repair, which ultimately makes you more efficient as a business.”