Oriel were asked by leading Ink supplier Flint Ink to supply and install a Telemetry system for one of their major customers located in Spain.
The purpose-built printing facility built by Rotocobrhi and located in the industrial area of Tres Cantos is close to Madrid has approximately 350 employees, it specializes in periodic magazines as well as brochures and have 8 presses in total.
It is critical that ink deliveries are planned and delivered in good time as the Ink management contract is managed by Flink Ink NL in the Netherlands whereas the ink isactually manufactured in Wolverhampton UK.
Oriel have supplied and installed an Intelligent Telemetry Outstation on broadband which provides instantaneous tank level readings back at Flint Ink headquarters in Holland. As well as current tank level information the system also provides historical information on ink consumption along with estimates of when the next delivery and of what colour needs to be planned.
Oriel’s intelligent Telemetry outstation connects directly to the on-site Mitsubishi plc using the Modbus communications protocol to obtain all the relevant datapoints from the plant and displays them in real-time on the Master Station PC screen in an easy to use and understand graphical manner.
Text messages were requested to inform the account managers that the ink levels are getting low and they can then check on the Master Station Telemetry PC or laptops to view recent use-age and estimate when the next delivery should be scheduled.
The Oriel systems VMI system is a flexible and cost-effective solution to monitoring customer usage of a product or number of products, bringing together information from customer sites around the globe to provide instant information on potential stock-out situations.
Amidst strong competition, Oriel Systems’ Vendor Managed Inventory solution was chosen by leading ink manufacturer Sun Chemicals to integrate and replace a myriad of different systems inherited from recent acquisitions and new customer contracts
The Oriel systems VMI system is a flexible and cost-effective solution to monitoring customer usage of a product or number of products, bringing together information from customer sites around the globe to provide instant information on potential stock-out situations.
In any mature industry where many suppliers are perceived to be the same, many suppliers have found this to be a significant differentiator as their customers now receive the best possible service 24/7 leading to increased customer loyalty.
There are more benefits for the supplier, this is rapidly turning into a “Win-Win for all” scenario. As the supplier is provided with information on product usage or consumption, this also allows for increases in efficiencies to be made in both the scheduling of production and of deliveries.
The system comprises of software residing on a PC which, in normal operation automatically connects into the customers site at regular intervals to retrieve latest stocking levels. In the case of a potential stock-out situation, the system over-rides and immediately alerts the supplier of the occurrence. Potential stock-out situations are notified audibly and by pop-up “on screen” messages, which must be accepted before they disappear. For out of hours use a “dialling rota” can be configured, which will automatically dial a series of mobile or landline numbers to alert the supplying company or their transportation / logistics department of the occurrence.
Once an alarm is received, it must be acknowledged from the telephone keypad, otherwise the system will continue to dial the next number in series. From the telephone keypad the user can choose to replay the current alarm or replay all alarms or to delete them.
Other options include mobile versions of the VMI software allowing remote interrogation using smartphones. This allows the transport / logistics / customer service departments to connect to the customers site and to view both current and historical information on customer usage, even whilst away from the office
For further information please contact us on 01249 705070 or www.orielsystems.com
Although Telemetry Systems are fairly commonplace these days, they are used in many different industries to give prior warning that an “event” is about to happen
For instance; automatic cash machines will alert the bank’s staff to the fact that the machine is running out of banknotes, petrol filling stations are linked to telemetry to alert the head office that a particular fuel is about to run out. In the shipping industry, engine performance information is relayed back to a central monitoring station to alert the control centre of any required maintenance that may be performed at the next intended port of call so that down time is kept to a minimum. We at Oriel Systems are always pleased to hear of other applications that may be of use to our customers and, in turn are keen to offer a practical solution.
One recent application that Oriel were involved with was for BP at their LPG Tanker filling sites around the country. The problem that BP had was that their LPG filling terminals sites were all 24hour operations and were open 7days a week. The Health and Safety Executive insisted on 2 people being present at all times to oversee the filling operations. Some days there may not be a single tanker pulling in to refuel and yet there would still need to be 2 BP staff on site. Over all of BP’s sites this amounted to many hundreds of staff that would have to be employed and also paid overtime (with unsociable shift allowances) even tough in many cases these staff may not actually be required.
After discussions with the customers engineers, Oriel were able to draft a proposal based on an Oriel Intelligent Telemetry Outstation at each site along with 2 CCTV cameras, one fixed, the other moveable. Security at the entrance gate would also be provided which, upon a tanker arriving out of hours would open up voice communications between the filling site and the Central Control Station, which was to be located in Scotland. As soon as this communications link is opened up, the screen for the individual site becomes active and appears in the foreground of their Monitoring PC at the Control Centre. From the overview screen the Central Control operator grants the tanker driver the required permissions to commence re-fuelling operations and a “time band” is allocated to him. During this “time band” all the critical and emergency systems such as the fire pump and deluge system are running non-stop. Once the “time band” has been exceeded the system will automatically shut down necessitating another “time band” to be allocated and permissions to be repeated.
At all times, two cameras, one fixed the other moveable via on screen controls follow every move the tanker driver makes. If the tanker driver were to fall and injure himself this would immediately be picked up and the necessary action initiated and the operation automatically shut down. The whole system runs over the secure high speed BP network and the information from any of the remote sites can be viewed from any location around the country just by plugging a laptop into the nearest standard telephone connection point and accessing the relevant password protected pages. The system gave BP the flexibility that they needed at this time, with the option to move the Control Centre to another location at a later date without incurring additional expense.
Similar technology can and already has been applied to the other Industries, Oriel Systems has already installed a system able to take video in the event of a problem such as vandalism or theft at a remote site. If the operator is alerted to a “situation” the operator can instruct the remote site to capture video and transmit the pictures to a central location and can then decide what course of action to take. If the situation warrants police involvement the pictures are saved for future use as evidence.
Of course the camera could also be used for much simpler purposes such as a view on the state of the plant and equipment at the remote site to decide the severity of a situation and whether a site visit is really necessary immediately or whether the engineer can wait until the next planned maintenance visit. Overall the system can pay for itself in just a few years, although in a recent vandalism case where a local Drainage Board had all the windows smashed in at a remote Pump Station the system, the cost could be recouped in a matter of months.
For further information please contact us on 01249 705070 or www.orielsystems.com
Oriel Systems have been awarded the contract for the supply and integration of CCTV and Remote Monitoring and Control Systems into BP’s Driver Controlled Delivery system at all the BP LPG sites throughout the UK.
The problem that BP had was that their 13 LPG filling terminals sites were all 24/7 operations and the Health and Safety Executive insisted on 2 people being present at all times to oversee the filling operations. Some days there may not be a single tanker pulling in to refuel and yet there would still need to be 2 BP staff on site. Over all of BP’s sites this amounted to 26 staff that would have to be employed and also paid overtime (with unsociable shift allowances) although in many cases these staff may not actually be required.
Oriel Systems’ PC based Control and Monitoring software system was installed at each site, which, upon a tanker arriving out of hours would open a voice communications channel between the filling site and the Central Control Station located in Scotland. As soon as this communications link is opened up the screen for the individual site automatically appears in the foreground on the PC. From the overview screen the Central Control operator grants the tanker driver the required permissions to commence re-fuelling operations and a “time band” is allocated to him. During this “time band” all the critical and emergency systems such as the fire pump and deluge system are running non-stop. Once the “time band” has been exceeded the system will automatically shut down necessitating another “time band” to be allocated and permissions to be repeated.
At all times, two cameras, one fixed the other moveable via on screen controls follow every move the tanker driver makes. If he were to fall and injure himself this would be picked up immediately and the necessary action initiated and the operation automatically shut down.
Although CCTV is commonplace these days, the difference was that BP wanted a system that allowed their remotely sited operators to view their own sites on their standard office PC’s and also that the filling operations at each of the remote sites could be viewed over BP’s own high speed Wide Area Network from any location around the country just by plugging a laptop into the nearest standard telephone connection point and accessing the relevant password protected pages. This gave BP the flexibility that they needed at this time, with the option to move the Control Centre to another location at a later date without incurring additional expense.
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