Transloading Nightmare -> Improved Productivity

American Crystal Sugar

American Crystal Sugar had five plants scattered about North Dakota and Minnesota. Each plant was receiving coal via split unit trains. Dealing with delivery delays and planning for future needs became a logistical nighmare. Plants had to reduce production when they were running low on coal. ACS would try shifting coal from one location to another but they were wasting too much time and effort managing coal instead of running their plants.

Holland's M-BAR-D division and ACS worked together to design, build and manage a centralized coal repository. Through planning and research they chose a location at the intersection of two class 1 rail lines in Ardoch, ND.

The facility is designed so that the coal train never needs to stop moving as it unloads. Coal is unloaded into a pit and conveyed to a stock pile. The coal is stored at the facility and loaded into trucks for delivery to the five surrounding ACS plants as needed.

ACS doesn't waste their time now with trying to coordinate the coal trains to five locations. ACS now has the flexibilty to ramp up or slow down production on short notice, and focus their efforts on production in the plant, not coal inventory levels.