When your work requires a plentiful flow of liquids stored in tanks, you need to monitor those levels to keep them from getting empty. Here’s how we helped a customer do that across their whole territory.
In Pennsylvania we have a great Customer who provides lubricants such as oils for gear assemblies and other industrial applications. Often, deliveries were initiated by a customer calling in to report an empty tank and requesting an immediate delivery, which could be on a weekend. While happy to oblige, our client needed a more predictable and efficient procedure for planning delivery routes.
Already using Emerson’s RosemountTM system to monitor their own tank levels, they needed to create alarms there—and they were looking to monitor and alarm client tanks as well. We were excited about the opportunity to add Emerson's Zedi Access a cloud-based platform and Alarm Management Services to the mix.
Alarm Management
Alarming customer tanks would eliminate inefficiencies of drop-everything trips to a single client. Instead, they could track tank levels across a route and refill those as the levels dropped, but before they were empty. This also helped customers, because they never had to worry about running out of a lubricant that could, in turn, require shutting off machinery.
All deliveries are still preceded by a phone call alerting the customer of the situation to let them make the final decision.
In addition to efficient scheduling and a never-empty situation, constant monitoring allows closer inspection of usage. A sudden drop in tank levels could give management quick insight into a leak or a change in the machinery that uses the lubricants. This digital transformation strategy gives the end-user a complete picture of their fluid uses, costs and ordering history.
We implemented this solution for our Customer, and they are excited about the results. It’s increased efficiency, and let them track tanks on desktops and mobile devices instead of on whiteboards that were only available in the office.
Digital transformation for your tanks
This digital transformation provides tank monitoring, and also gives this lubricant supplier a sales point with their own Customers because it provides them with several layers of solutions.
Our Customer has five facilities of their own, stretching across Pennsylvania, Indiana, Texas and elsewhere—each with multiple tanks storing a variety of lubricant fluids. Their own tanks number in the hundreds, way beyond what could be efficiently tracked on whiteboards across time zones and state lines.
Zedi Tank Monitoring and alarming has great benefits whether you’re filling tanks with produced oil or storing a sell-able product. Either way, what goes up must come down, and we’re there to help you manage that flow.
