The Pinnacle Awards 
competition,sponsored by Spillman Co.,is held annually during The Precast Show to spotlight innovations in production, safety and management/marketing within the precast plant. Pinnacle Awards entrants present their projects in an open forum where representatives from NPCA precast plants serve as the judges. The top-scoring entry earns the Pinnacle Award.
This year, the competition took place Jan. 29 at Charlotte Convention Center, and the winning presentation came from Jeremy Allen, plant manager at U.S. Concrete Precast Group -Northern California. The entry, titled Moose Trowel, describes a time-saving invention that one of the plant’s production workers fashioned from a hydraulic filter, two pipe reducer fittings and a pipe nipple, which was then attached to a drill.
The Moose Trowel is basically a cylinder mounted on a drill that significantly decreases the time needed to finish round channels on manhole bases. By using this simple invention, the plant reduced finishing time by about 10 percent per manhole. And when you’re manufacturing manholes by the hundreds, that adds up to a significant savings in labor.
NPCA and Spillman Co. will host a luncheon for all plant employees later this spring, where the Pinnacle Award traveling trophy will be presented to the company.
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