At CR we often have the opportunity to talk with contractors about the real value of the MULE. The MULE can make block weightless, so the immediate and obvious value is health and safety. When a mason is lifting heavy block all day long, this value is very real. We have countless stories about masons who didn't want to try the MULE, but when they did, they would come back to us a day or two later and thank us, telling us how good they felt at the end of the day! Masonry is a tough trade, and masons forget the toll lifting heavy materials takes on their body every day. So, let's break each one down a little further.
- Safety: The MULE adds safety by reducing or eliminating the risk of injury
- Masonry careers end early because of long term damage from lifting heavy materials every day
- An average mason will lift multiple TONS per day, usually 2-3 TONS per day. Incredible when you think about it. Doing this day in and day out will ABSOLUTELY take a toll on your body
- The majority of masons see the value when lifting 50 lb block or heavier, but the reality is that even when lifting 30 lb block, the masons is still lifting 6,000 lbs per day, they are just doing it in smaller amounts. So, even though they don't feel it, the long term impact on joints, muscles, tissue, and their body is still there.
- Workers comp insurance is one of the highest in construction for mason contractors. Masonry is a dangerous job and injuries happen often. Back and shoulder surgeries are unfortunately common in masonry. If MULEs can reduce your insurance claims alone, they are paid for. Unfortunately, this is sometimes hard to quantify because it's a future value.
- Productivity: The MULE doesn't actually make you go faster, but by making block weightless, it allows you go lay more block per day
- Productivity in masonry is a fun conversation. We talk to masons around the world about productivity and can tell you that the numbers vary quite a bit.
- In manufacturing, often times process and manufacturing engineers study a process and optimize motions, times, logistics and material flow to maximize production times and minimize labor cost. The same is true in masonry, but jobs are won and lost in the logistics.
- When you really break it down, there are 2 main factors that prevent a mason from laying 1,000 block in a day, fatigue and logistics.
- Masons get tired! Even at the MCAA's Fastest Trowel on the Block Competition a mason can lay up to 130+ 8x8x16" CMU in 20 minutes! However, that speed is not sustainable over the long term! If it was, that would be about 390 block in an hour, or over 2,000 in 6 hours!
- Logistics slow you down! In order to build a masonry wall there are a lot of other things that happen, block laying is often the easiest part of the job. There are scaffolding, windows, flashing, reinforcing, bond beams, grouting, rebar, etc, etc.
We analyze installation times often on jobs and many times the actual time contractors are installing block whether by hand or with the MULE is less than 50% of the day. One of the first things we do with contractors when they adopt the MULE is discuss logistics and talk about ways to increase the amount of time they are installing block every day. Once the block are weightless, the big opportunity is to work on finding ways to create more laying time in a day. Sometimes this means spreading crews out, sometimes it's making sure you have enough block, mortar and wall available to keep building.
So, what is the real value of the MULE? We built the MULE because it can make people's lives better and improve health and safety of the masons. This technology will help the trade grow and thrive!
We also know that for contractors to adopt the MULE, they need to see productivity gains. When a company adopts the MULE, the sky is the limit to what production is possible if the team focuses on the logistics, we have seen pretty amazing results once they start to think a little differently.