Sept. 26, 2023

This paid piece is sponsored by Knife River South Dakota.

Sometimes, an outside perspective is what it takes to make a big difference in business.

That’s the premise behind the PIT Crew, an initiative of Knife River that recently brought outside expertise from across the country to Sioux Falls.

“It’s an opportunity for experts from each of our regions to get together and share knowledge in real time,” said Glenn Pladsen, vice president of support services. “It formalizes a practice that was already happening and enhances it by bringing this group together on a regular cadence at plants across our 14 states, including South Dakota.”

“PIT” stands for “performance improvement team,” and just like in racing, it’s there to help optimize operations.

“We understand not every operation is the same, but we want to look at opportunities to standardize best practices where possible,” Pladsen said. “By bringing together our experts on aggregates, ready-mix and asphalt from several different geographies, we’re able to learn from their collective experience and open new discussions on ways to keep improving.”

The 10-person team is led by construction materials industry veteran Hal Fuglevand. Each member is a leader in their respective region and has product-line expertise.

“In addition to having seen a thing or two in his career, Hal is an excellent facilitator,” Pladsen said. “This whole team is great at what they do. They are competitive people, no doubt, but there is no ego in these site visits and meetings. This is all about learning and moving forward together as we visit our various operations.”

A team of nine, representing operations from California, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Texas and Wyoming, visited the Sioux Falls Knife River operations this summer.

“Our main focus was on safety and efficiencies,” aggregate operations manager Pete Richardson said. “We went through each plant, and they watched it run, similar to an inspection but in this case we’re all part of the same company, just looking for ways to ensure we’re optimizing our operations.”

The perspective from other sites “was good to hear,” he said. “We do things different ways for a reason in some cases, but overall it was helpful for us. It was good information-sharing.”

Since the visit, “we’ve made some adjustments to reflect what we learned,” Richardson said. “We’re always trying to be as safe and efficient as we can, so there were things they took away from the Sioux Falls visit we think they’ll be sharing with others too.”

The South Dakota operation stood out for its size and complexity, Fuglevand said.

“It was challenging to review in that regard but also very rewarding,” he said. “The operations team there was very accommodating and gave the team a detailed look at the entire operation.”

The overall approach to the PIT Crew is reflective of broader Knife River goals, Pladsen added.

Knife River Corp. became an independently traded public company earlier this year.

“We’re focused on maintaining our competitive edge and delivering high-quality products for our customers – and this is a tool to help us do that,” Pladsen said. “Focusing on excellent business practices contributes to our customers and our shareholders.”

Since the PIT Crew visited Sioux Falls, the Knife River team has addressed about three-quarters of the team’s recommendations, with the rest as more of a long-term focus.

“This is among the best performance we have seen in all our visits,” Fuglevand said. “These improvements will help optimize their operation and also help the other Knife River operations with information gained in Sioux Falls.”

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