Siemens keeps remote eye on animal feed stocks
14 Jun 2010
London - An animal feed delivery company that was looking to streamline its operations and allow customers to measure feed levels has turned to a Siemens remote monitoring package. The installation across 250 sites and in 750 silos cost the delivery company £1 million to purchase, install and commission – with the vendor predicting pay back within 12 months.
With customers spread over a large geographical area, the company was struggling to provide an efficient structure to its delivery schedule and was therefore unable to operate in the most efficient manner. Although customers would try to monitor their own usage, they would often run out and need a delivery of animal feed urgently.
As there was usually no prior warning to the need for a delivery, the company found that it would end up servicing customers that were situated in the same town or even on the same road on two separate days within the same week, causing unnecessary costs and logistics issues.
For the delivery company the lack of structure in its schedule led to huge inefficiencies. A large amount of fuel was wasted as drivers were unable to plan their route in the most efficient manner for conserving petrol or diesel.
As well as the financial implications, this also meant that the company’s carbon footprint was larger than necessary. Furthermore, it had to budget for more delivery vans with more drivers on the road at the same time, in order to allow it to maintain a high level of service to all its customers.
As a result the company was keen to investigate ways in which it could make operations more efficient. It picked Siemens RD500 data management collector and ultrasonic level measurement technology. On some sites where no power was available a Siemens solar panel and wireless mod bus radio was used.
Mounted on top of the silos where the animal feed is stored, the ultrasonic level measurement technology can detect the amount of animal feed left within the silo. Information is sent from the ultrasonic transceiver to the RD500 data recorder. Drawing on GPRS technology, the delivery company is able to remotely monitor the data stored on the data recorder, enabling it to see exactly how much animal feed is left and plan for deliveries.
The delivery company has been able to counter the problems it had faced previously. Operations are now more efficient as the company is able to use the data to monitor which customers in one geographical area require a delivery at any one time. This, in turn, has meant that less delivery vans have been needed on the road, reducing staffing, fuel and maintenance costs.
Furthermore, the delivery company has been able to provide a better service to its customers. With the new system, the customer has a continuous supply of animal feed without the need to self-monitor or place an order for the next delivery.
