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If ever scale-house automation was welcomed, it was during the hurricane season of 2004, when the likes of Hurricane Charley ripped through Seminole County, FL, creating the ultimate solid waste disposal challenge. By Carol Brzozowski Truck after truck pulled up to the Seminole County Solid Waste Landfill Operations in a nonstop debris-removal effort. What separated the scenario from being untenable was Carolina Software’s WasteWalker system, a union between a desktop and handheld application that draws upon Symbol MC70 Pocket PC computer technology, coupled with an industrial-strength thermal Cameo 3 printer. “These devices allowed us to have one scale operator working the scales coming in, but we also had two handheld devices that allowed the weighmasters to go out and process those vehicles in line without them having to go over the scales, freeing them up and reducing wait time,” notes Richard Meinert, landfill operations manager. “More importantly, it allowed us to use these devices where we were collecting the materials offsite, away from the scales, and allowed us to immediately capture the information as it came through, so later that night we could bring that into our invoicing system and financial package that accompanies WasteWorks [automation].” So pleased were Meinert and his colleagues that the department has written the use of WasteWalkers into the county’s operations and emergency operation plans. An added benefit is the tonnage records paved the way for a better audit rate with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The Seminole County Solid Waste Landfill Operations is a Class 1 landfill and transfer station. The transfer station receives 2,000 tons of material daily that is transported to the landfill, which receives an additional 800 tons directly. Some 80 employees are employed in the operation. Seminole County Solid Waste Landfill Operations is in the design phase of building a new scale house and installing new scales at the landfill. “Part of the vision is also to have the scale automation at the landfill,” says Meinert. The transfer station was updated first, with automation added through two WasteWorks Visions and three WasteWizards. The new WasteWizard system is an automated addition for WasteWorks sites and an upgrade for existing WasteWizard installations. It features an industrial stainless steel enclosure, an electrical and wiring system, and an integrated camera system for use with the WasteWorks Vision System. A keypad device offers flexibility. Drivers select English or Spanish as a preferred language, while WasteWizard asks for information needed to process the load. WasteWizard calculates the amount of the ticket, including special contract pricing and taxes. Accessories allow one to print one or two copies of the ticket, open gates, and operate signal lights. The system can be used with vehicles that do or don’t have stored tare weights. Additionally, WasteWizard can be equipped with a number of other devices, such as RFID readers and barcode scanners. The system can be connected to a network and operated from any location, a plus for facilities with remote scales with no nearby building. WasteWorks Vision provides added security to sites that use WasteWorks and WasteWizard. The technology combines the same ticket information that prints on a ticket with one or more snapshots of the vehicle, driver, or license plate. The image is stored and numbered to match tickets for future viewing. Each system can accommodate up to four scale lanes. “The WasteWorks Vision system allows video and still-picture capturing of customers on the Wizard System,” says Meinert. “The nice thing about that is we’re able to bring up on our computer live video feed from these installed systems, so we can see what’s going on at our scales even though we’re not there.” Since Seminole’s transfer-station upgrades, site time for commercial customers has been reduced by at least 20 minutes. The automation design took one year, notes Meinert. “We were quite concerned with the layout of our scales and the close proximity to each scale for the protection of the equipment once it was installed,” he says. “The actual installation only took us about a month. It’s been up and running now for about a month and a half.” One benefit is the impact on residential solid waste rate when negotiating franchise agreement renewals. An additional benefit of scale-house automation occurs after hours, when the weighmasters clock out and transfer drivers continue to work until all materials are off of the tipping floor. “Previously, they had to keep a manual log on their tonnages and times, and, the following day, technicians would have to enter that information into the scale management system,” says Meinert. “Now the transfer drivers are able to stop on their way out, have the information entered and recorded, and get a printed receipt. “The manual log is replaced and the customer service technicians save at least an hour or more each day from not having to enter those transactions every day.” After-hours transactions can be augmented by means of optional password prompts and gate interface. The scale-house automation frees employees up to do other tasks for enhanced productivity. “We’re bringing them up to oversee the commercial vehicles coming in to ensure proper procedures, because they still see the transactions on the screen,” says Meinert. “We have different charges for different materials, so they still make sure that correct materials are being charged. “It frees them up to give a more personal service to what we call the noncommercial entities, the ‘moms and pops’, which is where the majority of their time is consumed. As I’m sure is the case anywhere else in solid waste, 80% of our tonnage is from the commercial, but 80% of our customers are the moms and pops.” That personal service is key, Meinert says. One of the major problems the Seminole County landfill used to have is customers unhappy with the assessed charges for materials being brought in, Meinert says. “We would be discussing this with them on the phone and not able to see what we were talking about,” he says. “This allows us to bring it up on our computer and we can see the customer and see the material so we know exactly what we are talking about and are able to address it immediately.” Meinhert favors Carolina Software for its product upgrade accommodations. Technical support also is important, he adds. Seminole County had conflicts with previous scale management systems. “Carolina Software’s technical support is awesome,” he says. “When we would incur a problem on the previous scale-management system, the customer support for the scale management system would blame it on the scales.” The scale customer service representatives would in turn blame on the county’s IT staff, “and we would spend several days having different support agencies pointing the finger at who was responsible for the problem to address it,” Meinert adds. “With Carolina Software, anytime we have a problem we give them a call. We have somebody on the line within 15 minutes. There’s no finger-pointing; they just look at what the problem is and address it for us.” For employees, the learning curve on the systems is short and easy, notes Meinert. “On the WasteWorks and WasteWalker systems, my employees were comfortable with using them after the second day,” he says. “The initial training that was provided to them was about three hours long. After using it for two days, they were comfortable and had no problems.” WasteWorks or WasteWizard customers have the choice to incorporate a lane control system that works in conjunction with the scales, signal lights and/or gate, and the software systems for controlling the traffic flow onto and off of the scale after a transaction is completed. While that can be accomplished without the need for attendant interaction, a push button pendant is provided for manually controlling these devices as well. WasteWizard provides express lane capability for manned ticketing sites with multiple scales or provide a fully automated scale house for unmanned facilities. Efficiency the Goal Garaventa Enterprises has franchise agreements for residential and commercial hauling in several cities in Northern California’s East Bay area. The company has 250 employees, including 50 office staff members using the application. Garaventa Enterprises started automating its operations two years ago, opting for a customized software operation for customer service and billing. But the company needed more, seeking an operations package more geared toward the solid waste industry. Sal Coniglio, who manages billing and collections and is the company’s software administrator, heard positive word-of-mouth about Soft-Pak’s products and technical support and made the switch. Garaventa Enterprises automated its operations with Soft-Pak’s Scale-Pak and Dash-Pak, as well as the customer service application, which integrates the hauling company and transfer station system. Scale-Pak is used at Garaventa Enterprise’s transfer station. “With Scale-Pak, we can integrate our disposal company,” says Coniglio. “The primary benefit is we have multiple companies that all link together and multiple facilities all sharing the same customer information.” Previous software was customized for each subsidiary. “Now we have one software application, which gives us the ability to cross-train and move people within different departments,” says Coniglio. “We are able to access information in a more companywide, uniform fashion. “The customer service application is integrated with the scale system, and it’s been very successful where, if we have a rolloff vehicle, we create a work order to dump and return a 40-yard box.” Previously, employees had to gather all of the landfill or transfer-station weight receipts, and once the container came back,the work order would be processed in the disposal company. The company charges by the ton, so employees would have to manually type in the weight and calculate the costs. “If it was over three tons, we’d have to manually key the weight for each container for each job that was dumped,” says Coniglio. “With the Scale-Pak system, when that container hits the scale, each has a work order from the disposal company. That work order number is applied to the scale ticket and that weight information transfers over to our billing side.” The hauling and scale companies are integrated. “Once that truck goes to the scale, the employee identifies the work order number from the hauling company and those weights transfer over and automatically do the billing. We verify it’s correct and that the job was actually completed. It has cut down a lot of manual entry,” says Coniglio. Dash-Pak is a customized reporting program that integrates with the Soft-Pak database. “With Dash-Pak, we’re able to design reports for our transfer station,” Coniglio says. “We see real-time tonnage, incoming tonnage, outbound tonnage. If I want to see the amount of cash being generated or received at the transfer station, it’s in real time. I don’t have to wait for information to be reconciled and then posted for the system. If I want to see right now what’s going on in our operation, Dash-Pak has provided a good tool for our operational report system.” “One of our main goals in implementing the Soft-Pak application was not to decrease employees, but to increase productivity and redeploy our employees to do other tasks,” says Coniglio. Coniglio favors the customer service and technical support he receives from Soft-Pak. “What’s nice about the customer service application is it’s given our customer service rep the ability to have more accurate and real-time information,” he says. “It’s a work-order-driven-based system. That’s where we wanted to go. We wanted to see every extra pickup or when we’re going to pull a 96-gallon container or send a manager out to go visit a customer for whatever reason. “We can see every job. The customer service application is easy to access. It’s easy for us to update billing information, service information, and create work orders. We haven’t had any issues with it.” The automation has freed up employees to increase collections, processing and ensuring the refund process is more accurate. “We are able to spend more time with our customer service instead of dealing with inaccurate information from our previous program or antiquated systems like we had before,” Coniglio says. “Not only can we help the customers more efficiently, but we can move employees from one department to another department and they still understand the basic platform of the system. It’s reduced our training time and increased our efficiency.” Coniglio estimates it takes an average of a week to deal with the system’s learning curve and it will probably take a few years to recoup the return on the investment. “If you look at the increased productivity with the software application, the return comes right away,” he says. “It took us at least a year to get it down to how we want to use the system, so for the first year it was a little hectic because we were used to doing one thing one way because your software application dictates how you are going to run your operation. “We had an older system that helped us work in one operation, but with Soft-Pak, we had to change the way we did things. In a couple of years, I am sure we can see the increase in productivity with our employees to get some kind of return on investment.” Coniglio has praise for Soft-Pak’s willingness to work for customers. “We asked the system to do certain things the system didn’t do, and they were good about making changes for us,” he says. “That says a lot about their organization. If you look at their product, you see they are always willing to change and look further into GPS-tracking, onboard computing, barcode scanning, or whatever is the latest technology. “One of the reasons we wanted to go with Soft-Pak is that we wouldn’t be stuck with having to deal with one application,” Coniglio adds. “When we wanted a customized recording package that would be easy to operate for an executive or manager who wasn’t very computer savvy, they came up with Dash-Pak, and that showed to us that they were willing to make changes and help their customers.” Garaventa Enterprises hasn’t had down time due to automation for more than a few hours, notes Coniglio. “We’ve had more issues with our own tech support with our own infrastructure—our routers for our DSL have been down—than we’ve had problems with Soft-Pak,” he says. “The few times where for whatever reason the system is down, we’re able to contact somebody, either at the office, at their home or on their cell phone and they’ve been good to work with. We are very happy with the system.” Removing the Mystery Two years ago, Cardinal Scale’s WinVRS software was introduced into the landfill operations, with updates within the past year. The software is designed for user-defined configurations, allowing for reports on period histories, material totals and other customer information. The City of Canton Landfill has 11 employees and processes 500 tons of solid waste daily. There is a C&D site and a solid waste site at the landfill. Kent Grady, solid waste director for the City of Canton Landfill, notes that Cardinal Scale’s WinVRS enables his operation to set different prices for different customers. “It gives us the advantage of doing field surcharges and environmental fees,” he says. “We can print out per customer, such as how much he’s routing in, how many tons he’s brought in to date. We can do a week’s worth or a day’s worth. We can do it as a group of customers you have in your system or you can do it as the complete system. It also keeps up with the origination and separates it into different waste streams, such as C&D or solid waste. We can charge by the yard or by the ton.” Grady anticipates Canton will recoup the cost of its investment in automation technology by the end of the year, making it a three-year return on investment. Canton has been able to go from three employees to two as a result of automation. One person monitors the scales, while another does load inspections. Grady also credits the system for enhanced bookkeeping and accountability reports. Initially, those depositing at the landfill were skeptical about the automation and being weighed by ton versus yardage, but Grady points out that the accuracy of the system resolves any disputes. “You don’t have to go out and measure the loads. When they pull up on the scale, it is what it is. It’s stopped any arguing about weight,” he says. And it’s also cut down on wait times, he adds. “We probably do 75 to 100 customers a day and there’s very little wait time,” he says. “It’s helped on the turn-around very well.” When there have been glitches, Cardinal representatives have been helpful in walking Canton employees through the problem; if it can’t be worked out over the phone, someone will come to the site, Grady says. Keeping Things Moving Two years ago, the landfill automated its operations. Walz Scale Weighing Systems in East Peoria, IL, designed for the Peoria Disposal Co. a system built by Rice Lake Weighing Systems. The system consists of a custom-printer kiosk with a custom-engineered enclosure, a weather-resistant ticket printer door, with locked door option, a Swecoin printer, heater and thermostat, thermal media, mounting bracket and mounting pole. Other options not installed but available include wireless communication; built-in intercom system; RFID reader; credit card reader; traffic light control, keyboard, currency accepter and gate control. “We get the empty weight of the truck, average it, people sign off on it and then we enter it in the computer,” says Duckwiler. “They’ll get their ticket on the scale when they weigh in and they weigh out each time.” Duckwiler says the automation not only helps her on the job, but the drivers as well. “They can get their ticket when they weigh in and they don’t have to weigh out and the scale doesn’t get as congested,” she says. “Since we only have the one scale, it’s a ‘take-turn’ process: one truck in and one truck out. If they don’t have to weigh out, they can just leave.” Duckwiler says on the rare occasion she has trouble, she can call Walz Scale Systems and someone comes out to troubleshoot. Carol Brzozowski is based in Coral Springs, FL.
MSW - May/June 2008 |
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