When FFS Refiners (FFS) were looking to improve fuel delivery logistics to improve transport efficiency and improve customer service, they chose the web based Data2Desktop remote monitoring service from Omniflex.
FFS Refiners is a large supplier of industrial heating fuels in South Africa and has interests in the UK and Australia. The company markets products for a wide variety of uses, including glass making, brick making, steam raising in boilers, billet re-heating, baking, incineration, road-mix heating, lime kilns and sand drying. It has six processing plants, seven storage depots and over 50 trucks servicing 250 customers who collectively consume more than 500 000 tons of fuel oil per year.
The challenge
When fuel consumption is high, storage capacity is low and the supply chain is long. The nightmare scenario of running out of fuel can become a reality unless a proactive management system is entrenched. Fuel management and logistics is often an underestimated activity that can reveal a company’s Achilles heel. This is the reason that FFS introduced remote tank level telemetry on their customers’ storage facilities.
The solution
The FFS telemetry system utilising Data2Desktop technology from Omniflex addresses this problem. This web-based system allows selected personnel access to tank levels via the Internet and shows a graphic history of tank level movements and alarms. The powerful alarm function will alert specified personnel by SMS or e-mail of any change, rate of change, maximum and/or minimum, ensuring that there is no time lost in ordering and prioritising new loads of fuel.
The result
Carl Frankenfeld, general manager sales, says that FFS partnered with Omniflex because they are leaders in remote monitoring applications. The result of this partnership produced a state-of-the-art GSM-GPRS telemetry based solution that allows for reliable, fast and cost effective transmission of data using cellular phone networks. FFS has a dedicated logistics department that monitors in real-time the rate of usage and tank levels of major customers, and manage the ordering and transport function, ensuring that priority loads arrive on time.
The telemetry units are also being used to monitor FFS Refiners’ own steam boilers. A unit monitors the operating conditions including steam pressures, stack emissions, TDS, blow-down intervals, feed water temperature, etc. If, for example, the steam pressure drops, or a low water condition is detected, an SMS text message is immediately sent to the maintenance department so that corrective action can be taken. If the condition continues, then the alarm is escalated and sent out to the next senior level prompting further action.
“Both FFS and our clients having access to the data has dramatically improved service delivery and organisational efficiency adding value to both parties,” says Mark Butterfield, FFS national customer service manager. “We can see what is happening with customer inventory usage even before they are aware of it; this keeps us ahead of the game.”
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