The Wastebroker Blog

P&H Mines Your World

It’s not very often that you get the chance to see some of the largest construction vehicles in the world get made, but a recent tour of Milwaukee’s P&H Mining (www.phmining.com), a subsidiary of Joy Global (www.joyglobal.com), gave me and my partner, Jeff Dean, just that chance.

Mining is the first step in bringing every person around the world many of their day-to-day needs and conveniences; cans, cars, fuel and diamonds for example. It’s essential to our progress and our way of life.

The P&H complex, located at Miller parkway and National Avenue in Milwaukee, dates back to the early 1900s. P&H stands for [Alonzo] Pawling and [Henry] Harnischfeger, the founders of the company. But what you might expect to see in buildings that old, where rolled and cast steel parts are stretched, machined, welded and painted -- that is, a dirty, oil-mist-filled cavern -- is not at all what you experience. In fact, if you didn’t know the building’s age, you’d think you were walking into a brand new facility. The buildings are clean, bright and fresh, the collaborative result of the desire of both management and the work force to create first-class products in a first-class environment.

 

P&H Mining makes huge earth mining equipment, like electric shovels, drag lines and drills used to mine precious metals, minerals, coal and oil sands all over the world. Their largest machine, the 4100 XPC is the size of an office building and designed to run 24/7/365.

Our tour was hosted by my friend, Vice President of Human Resources Andre’ Williams and Pat Bartling, the Vice President of Global Operations. They guided us through the 1 million plus square feet of complex of buildings that house the various operations, like fabrication, machining, heat treat and painting. You won’t see a fully assembled machine at this plant because they’re so huge they’d be impossible to ship. Instead, individual components, like booms, gears, counter weights and spools weighing upwards of hundreds of tons, are shipped by rail, truck and ship to their customer’s locations. There a team of 20 or more workers spend three to six months putting together their giant, earth-gobbling machines.

While P&H Mining has a lot of cool things going for it (like history, people and size), what most impressed Jeff and me was their focus on innovation. Laser this and laser that, cutting tools that reduced gear machining from a 300-hour to a 30-hour process and so much more. They are uniquely old-school, but with a future-focused cutting edge.

 

What Do You Know About Water -- Part 1

It’s amazing how little we seem to know about water.   For all the talk about, and universal acceptance of, the need for clean water, so many, it seems, have only the most basic and conceptual understanding of how much work goes into maintaining clean water and making it available to so many, so cheaply.  And when it comes to how water is used, treated and recycled, the understanding drops nearly to zero.  “It comes out of the tap when I turn it on, what else do I need to know?”  Plenty, it turns out.

But enough about us.  Last week, Charles Fishman, author of “The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water” http://www.thebigthirst.com visited Milwaukee on behalf of The Milwaukee Water Council http://www.thewatercouncil.com to talk about water’s value.  Fishman argues that “cheap water undermines the system but also undermines the psychology.  Resources that are free are always wasted, always undervalued and always poorly managed.”  Amen.  As Americans, though, most of us never witness what life is like without clean water available to us 24/7/365; we have it all the time, and pay very little, if nothing, for it. There are many places in the world where that’s not the case, though, and that is both an unfortunate problem and an outstanding opportunity. 

In my life, I’ve always found that solving a problem almost happens in three steps: Recognition of the Problem Itself, An understanding of the Desired Outcome (the solution) and an Incentive to Develop, Innovate and Solve the Problem.   Thanks to Mr. Fishman and groups like the Milwaukee Water Council, more and more of us are recognizing and understanding the clean water issue better, and not just the way it affects us, but the rest of the world as well.  But most importantly, they’re helping us create an environment of incentives, research, scientific, business and others that will reduce decades and centuries of water mismanagement and lead to the solution -- a clean, reliable, infinitely recyclable and appropriately valued resource! 

 

Alta Rock Energy Mines The Earth for Renewable Hot Water Energy

Most people visiting Yellowstone National Park make a point of seeing the Old Faithful Geyser shoot it's boiling water 150 feet into the air every hour or so.  It's amazing, powerful and, maybe most importantly, predictable.  So predictable, in fact, that some think its source -- water superheated by hot magma deep in the earth -- might just be able to be harnessed (or harvested, as the case may be) as a renewable and infinitely available source of clean energy.  On a small scale, this is already a reality.  More and more homes and buildings now rely on geothermal energy, delivered through a well drilled into the earth, as their primary heat source.  And that may only be the beginning.

Alta Rock Energy, www.altarockenergy.com a Seattle, Washington based alternative energy company, is racing to develop the first power-plant-sized, renewable electric generating system using water, or more accurately steam, super-heated in the earth, to power turbines and create electricity.  Alta Rock's technology piggybacks on, and is similar to, the hydraulic fracturing technology (hydraulic shearing in this case) that's proven to be so successful extracting oil and natural gas that was, until recently, not economically feasible to extract.  They call their process Engineered Geothermal Systems, or EGS.  In a nutshell, the EGS technology pumps millions of gallons of water into the earth under high pressure, shearing the rock and creating fissures into which the water can flow.  They follow that up with directional wells into which they inject water that heats up and recirculates on a loop through the power plant and back into the well on a continuous basis, resulting in a powerful, closed-loop power generation system. 

Emission-free and carbon-neutral, they say.

There's a cool video in the link that explains the process.  It's narrated by Ed Begley Jr., www.edbegley.com, the actor / environmentalist who (personal disclosure) I really like as an actor, but not so much otherwise.  I think they could have chosen a more powerful, less "President-Obama-wants-him" (a complete supposition on my part) narrator, for whatever that might be worth.  Maybe Morgan Freeman or Anderson Cooper.....

Unfortunately, Alta Rock's technology still needs a huge dollop of government funding to make it through the test phase.  And they've had several projects that have simply not worked.  The good news is that they're now attracting funding from the Google's of the world (www.google.com) and others.  Their newest project, a $43MM venture to drill and fracture a well in the side of a volcano in central Oregon is backed by the Department of Energy, www.energy.gov. Learn more about the project at http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2012/01/15/project_to_pour_water_into_volcano_to_make_power/

Will Alta Rock Energy's EGS technology change the game, replacing our much-maligned, but conveniently efficient, coal and natural gas-fueled power plants?  It seems no one knows at this point.  To me, it sounds like a great idea that, economically, might be a bit ahead of its time.  But, then again, that's what the guys with the oars probably said the first time they saw Fulton's (or the guy he's suspected of stealing the idea from) steam engine.  "It'll never work" is, perhaps, the most uninformed (and grammatically incorrect?) sentence in the English language.  This just might.  And, regardless, it's cool to think about.

Take a look at the picture below to get a sense of how EGS is supposed to work.  You can learn more by checking out the video at www.altarockenergy.com as well as several others on the topic of geothermal energy at www.youtube.com. 

 

   

New Rule Requires Truck Drivers to go Hands Free

In a move some might consider overdue, starting January 3, 2012, the US DOT will begin enforcing a rule specifically prohibiting interstate truck and bus drivers from using hand-held cell phones while operating their vehicles.  The rule subjects drivers, and their employers, to stiff monetary penalties and to the possibility of losing their commercial driver’s license if caught using a hand held cell phone.

To comply with this new rule, you must have a “hands free only” policy for your company, even if you only have one commercial vehicle (which is basically any vehicle involved in interstate commerce, like a delivery vehicle).

This rule, like CSA 2010, once again raises the expectations and the consequences for commercial trucking fleets and commercial drivers as well.  Expect Enforcement to be very strict!

To read the entire final rule, visit http://lmstrucking.infinit-i.net/Mobile_phone_NFRM.pdf.

 

 

Cars that Fly......the Terrafugia Way

Planes have wheels, but only for taking off and landing, right?  Not so fast.  For years many have pursued the concept of a car that flies, unsuccessfully.  Fantasy has heretofore, however, been a necessary part of the deal.  You had to imagine either the flying part or the driving part as one or the other always seemed impossible to meld together in unison.  Well, you need to imagine no more. 

Terrafugia (ter-ra-FOO-gee-ah) www.terrafugia.com , a MA-based “Dreamworks” type company started by a group of smart and clever MIT-educated aeronautical engineers (for the technically wowing stuff) and some MBAs (for the funding and scalability stuff) has developed what they call the Transition® Roadable Aircraft (TRA).  The TRA is, with wings retracted, a strange looking, but sporty, two-passenger vehicle powered by a 100 hp motor that runs on Super Unleaded Fuel.  And it fits in your garage!  Push a couple of buttons to expand the wings and you're ready to take off and fly to destinations up to 450 miles away.   It’s that easy – or at least it seems easy.

I’m afraid of flying in small planes because they seem to crash a lot.  The folks at Terrafugia are sensitive to that fear and it shows up in their marketing of the TRA.  As you might expect, they go to great lengths to promote the vehicle / plane's safety features (they don’t have enough history to promote its safety record), even enlisting the endorsement of a veteran test pilot to claim that it’s “by far” the easiest plane to land that he’s ever flown and, presumably, landed as well.  For me, that’s comforting, but it doesn’t quite get me over the hurdle of my recollection that nearly ever article about a small plane crash includes two things:  First, a comment about the great safety record of the plane that just crashed and, second, a comment about the pilot that suggests how careful and safe he was when it came to flying….until, of course, he crashed his plane and died.   But Terrafugia anticipated my fear (perhaps I’m not the only one similarly fearful) and added this ingenious bit of bonus: ‘and if all else fails, the TRA is equipped with an emergency parachute that, when deployed, will guide the TRA to a soft landing.’   Now that’s comforting!

Cars that park themselves, remote, automated heavy vehicle operation and now, cars that fly (or planes that drive).  What a world, and what’s next??  Well. For $250k and a pilot’s license, you can be the first one in your neighborhood with the TRA.  Beats the heck out of an electric car until, of course, one of those can fly as well.    

US Landfill & Petroleum Supply Shortage Is So Yesterday's Hysteria

It’s been almost universally predicted that the United States will, within my lifetime, run out of two things.  First, room to put the ever-expanding tons and tons of garbage produced by our nonstop desire for what we want, when we want it – the kind of compulsive consumerism with which we are often said to be addicted.  Second, our supply of the fossil fuels that power our automobiles, boats, airplanes and homes, particularly oil and natural gas.  The arguments, as I recall, have never been based on “whether or not” this will happen but, rather, only when.  For decades we’ve been alarming ourselves about these “inevitables,” doomsday-thinking ourselves into scenarios requiring us to ship our garbage on rocket ships into outer space, or the necessity to take over the Middle East to satisfy our desperate yet insatiable need for oil. 

Turns out, though, that much of the hysteria around these two inevitables has been just that.  Fortunately, there are those among us who choose to focus on finding solutions, rather than simply feeding the hysteria.  And those solutions are working.  Today, in many marketplaces across the country, the US has more landfill disposal capacity than trash to fill it.  The development of recycling technologies and re-use markets, and the collaboration between packagers, retailers and recyclers have made much of our already existing landfill space, once coveted like the gold at the end of a rainbow, now a challenge to fill.  For proof, you need look no further than what’s happening at Waste Management www.wm.com, the largest garbage company in the world.  For most of its history, WM’s strategy has focused, laser like, on building landfills and filling them with as much garbage as possible.  Their landfills converted low-value farmland to huge-dollar garbage repositories, often with gross margins that likely rivaled Microsoft’s www.microsoft.com (at least in the good old days).   Today, you won’t find WM’s CEO, David Steiner http://investors.wm.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=119743&p=irol-govBio&ID=205216  describing his company in terms normally associated with “garbage.”  Instead, he will tell you that Waste Management plays a  critical role in the product supply chain; that the company’s mission, and future success, is predicated on its ability to create value out of every ton of “garbage” they handle.  And he actually means it.

And, in a hysteria turnaround of generational proportions, in 2011, the United States, for the first time in 62 years will be a net exporter (you read that right) of petroleum products http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203441704577068670488306242.html.  Largely due to the development of hydraulic fracturing technology, http://www.energyfromshale.org/shale-extraction-process?gclid=CNfgm4Tz6KwCFQyFQAodz3TlKw  oil and natural gas production in the US is soaring.  “Proven” fossil fuel reserves have exploded and new discoveries, not only in the US but around the globe as well, are announced with increasing frequency.  These discoveries have, in an amazingly short period of time, made the long-standing, gloomy predictions and accompanying hysteria about the inevitable and shocking speed with which the US would run out of petroleum look, today, almost silly and uninformed. 

What’s caused us to accomplish these amazing and, until very recently, seemingly impossible supply turn-arounds?  Human Innovation.  Hysteria often stems from a misguided worry about what the future will bring.  It worries about the complexity of solving a future problem and presumes, based apparently on the notion that present-day thinking won’t continue to evolve, that a solution is impossible.  What it fails to consider, though, is that the present day thinking about solving a problem evolves as the urgency and incentive to solve the problem increases.  While hysteria seeks an immediate solution, innovation weighs the need for a solution against both the realities and the possibilities.  When the realities and the possibilities converge, that is when the time, resource, economic and innovation axis’ cross, as they have today in the US with landfill and petroleum supply, it’s amazing how the solutions that seemed so difficult to conceive not so long ago, seem so, well, timely today.

So what’s next?  What are we hysterical about at the moment?  Global Warming (aka Climate Change), Increasing CO2 in the Atmosphere, Our Supply of Clean Water, Feeding 7 Billion and quickly on our way to 10 Billion People, Coal-Fired Power Plants.  The axis’ crossing for these problems will likely happen in my lifetime and Human Innovation will, I believe, come to the rescue over and over again!

Business as Usual.....a Hugh McLeod Perspective

I received this in an email from Hugh McLeod, @gapingvoid, www.gapingvoidgallery.com and thought his perspective on 'Business as Usual' was worthy of sharing with you. We were recently legislated out of a significant piece of business, so this hit home - nothing is guaranteed, nothing is entitled, the future can always be better.....or worse. If you think you've got it figured out, you might not be as smart as you think you are.....and you might just be getting lazy.

"The phrase “Business as usual” is funny to me, and as you can see in today’s cartoon http://www.gapingvoidgallery.com/gallerycubegrenades-oxymoron-p-2021.html?utm_source=Gapingvoid+Daily+Cartoon&utm_campaign=b8cd9a8c34-%23446+%22Oxymoron%22+November+25%2C+2011&utm_medium=email , I think it’s overplayed. Business as usual may not be a classic oxymoron in literary terms, but the idea that business is usual in any sense is laughable.

Businesses today don’t prosper on operating “as usual”. Industries are being destroyed and rebuilt in the blink of an eye. Old, reliable income streams are being legislated out of business or have been marginalized by markets that have new access to information. There is nothing usual about business today. Today, business is about reinvention, turning heads, making waves, stirring the pot and, most importantly, CREATING. Maybe what’s more unusual, perhaps, are the people who still think in terms of “business as usual”."   

Copyright 2010 gapingvoid gallery | creative commons terms apply.

Trust - Easy to Give, Harder to Maintain

Reading from my “Great Quotes from Great Leaders” book today and had cause to pause when I read this quote attributed to Booker T. Washington http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booker_T._Washington, “Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him.”  It made me think, do I always give responsibility and trust to my team?  I’d like to swear that I do, but I’m not sure I can, unfortunately. 

It’s not as though I don’t want to trust, I do, eh, trust me.  Most of the time, my trust is rewarded.  But trust hasn’t always worked out for me.  Over the years, people I’ve trusted have lied to me, stolen from me and taken advantage of my trust in various other ways.  It was never my fault…….I’m quite sure?  

When my trust is abused, I try to bounce back, reaffirm my belief that all human beings are essentially good and trustworthy, and give it another go.  Trust is necessary.  After all, the option – to trust no one - isn’t very appealing….and it makes for a long, miserable day as well.

Truth is that I love placing responsibility and trust with others, but I’m quicker to lose trust than I am take away the responsibility – which makes no sense.  I need to work on that.  I’m glad I had the chance to read Booker’s quote today.  It made me to take a close look at myself and my leadership.  I still have room to improve.  Do you?

We Energies Coal Pile Slides Into Lake Michigan

I'm used to seeing pictures and videos of tornados, mud slides, tsunamis and other unforeseen tragedies that make me marvel at Mother Nature's power.  Normally, they don't seem as real because they happen far from home.  Not yesterday.  Around 11AM Monday, a large portion of Lake Michigan bluff on the We Energies www.we-energies.com Oak Creek, WI Power Plant site slid into the lake.  Miraculously, no one was injured.  That's the good news.  The bad news is that coal and coal ash, and who knows what else, made their way into the water, creating a potential environmental mess.  I have no doubt this will be cleaned up properly and that the cause will be studied, blame will be assessed and endless debate will ensue.  To read more, click the link to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for the rest of the story and some cool photo's of the devastation.

 http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/authorities-investigate-bluff-collapse-at-we-energies-plant-132929538.html

 

 

Automating Truck Movement the Next Big Technology & Productivity Breakthrough

I remember when Lexus introduced a car a couple of years ago that would parallel park itself.  A high-end feature for a high-end car.  But like most technology, what starts at the high end almost always just begins the race to replicating that technology throughout the industry, and “parking assist,” as it is now referred, has been no exception. 

 

Tonight I saw an ad during the trailer for the movie Horrible Bosses (http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/wb/horriblebosses/) for, get this, a Ford Focus (http://money.cnn.com/video/luxury/2011/05/04/lux_ford_focus.cnnmoney/) that now parks itself.  Man that was fast.  In a period of just a couple of years, the automotive industry found a way to drive the price of that super cool technology down so far as to make it available on the plainest of the plainest vehicles, one that is affordable for almost anyone.  Now that’s what I call a success!

 

But wait a minute.  That may be only the beginning.  While Tata Motors (http://www.tatamotors.com/) works on getting the “parking assist” technology in their $2500 lawn mower engine-driven car, there is another race going on, one that intends to make fully automated vehicles the next revolutionary productivity breakthrough.  Turns out that Rio Tinto (http://www.riotinto.com/), the giant global mining company was having trouble finding drivers for its massive mining dump trucks, the ones that haul all the loot from the mine to the processing plant.  No drivers (for whatever reason – no qualified candidates, labor disruption, etc.) means no product movement, a big expensive problem.  Hmm….they thought, how can we solve that problem?  Technology to the rescue.  Rio Tinto decided to experiment with automating the operation of these giant trucks.  They equipped 10 of them with automation technology and intend to operate all 10 simultaneously, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with only 1 operator per shift.   If it works, and my guess is it will work – if not at first, then soon - that’s a ten-to-one workforce reduction, salary, benefits, sick days, vacations and all.

 

For the full story, check out this link http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB10001424052702304259304576372892652648426,00.html

 

What are the ramifications if Rio Tinto is successful with their automated Dump Trucks?  Huge!  Think about all the trucking, earth moving, garbage compacting, road building and excavating that goes on around the world every day relying on high-paid skilled employees, and everything that comes along with that.  Now think about all of that happening in a controlled, air-conditioned command center, staffed by 1/10^th (or less) of the people, and it doesn’t take long to see how powerful, and profitable, the possibilities could be. 

 

Having a car park itself, the height of WOW just a couple of years ago, suddenly somehow seems so, well, yesterday.