The Voice of the Conveyor
Industry of the Americas
Conveyor Equipment
Manufacturers Association
Providing the industry with standards, technical
information, publications, safety labels and
safety information. No other organization has
been more instrumental in the development of
standards and safety practices in the conveyor
industry than CEMA.
2018 ENGINEERING CONFERENCE
June 24-27, 2018
www.cemanet.org/join
5672 Strand Ct., Suite 2 • Naples, Florida 34110 • 239-514-3441
WE ARE CEMA
It’s our technical side that make us strong, but it’s our
members that make us great.
Jerry Heathman,
CEMA Past President
Apply for membership today!
The end result is access to information
that can help reduce costs, improve productivity, maintain or improve quality
levels, and prevent losses, among other
benefits. Consider this: A grocery wholesaler can now track a shipment of lettuce
down to the smallest details of temperature and humidity while en route to
its destination, potentially allowing the
wholesaler to avoid costly problems such
as product spoilage. This can be especially
helpful in the pharmaceutical industry,
where failure to comply with government
tracking and tracing regulations can cost
companies millions in fines and material
losses. Converting cumbersome manual
tracking processes to those that employ
sensors and the cloud not only increases
efficiency, but also improves accuracy and
quality.
“You have to make sure product is
monitored not just for where it is, but
for the condition it’s in,” explains Arora.
“[With Io T and the cloud,] you never lose
visibility of the product. For us, it’s always
on. Our customers don’t have to scramble
to see if they are in compliance.”
IMPROVING MAINTENANCE, SECURI TY
Cloud-based solutions are also making
headway when it comes to better utilizing, maintaining, and securing fleets
of trucks and trailers. Philip Poulidis,
senior vice president and general manager
at Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry
Radar, says these are three key issues
the company’s asset-tracking solution is
designed to address. The solution uses
a sensor-based monitoring and tracking
device, cellular connectivity, and Web-based applications that analyze data and
deliver reports via a map-based interface
that users access in a secure online environment. The small monitoring device is
placed inside the truck or trailer and can
detect load status (including percentage
of load), as well as temperature, humidity,
pressure, motion, and location. Sensor
readings are taken every five minutes and
sent to the cloud, where they are continuously analyzed.
Users can set the system to perform
automated yard checks and to continu-
ously monitor trailer utilization through-
out the day. This helps fleet managers
more effectively maintain usage lev-
els and improve driver productivity.
“Customers tell us they’ve been
able to improve utilization of trailers
by about 10 percent,” says Poulidis.
“[This allows them to] take on more
business and use their existing fleet
more efficiently. In other cases,
customers have sold some trail-
ers [because they found they were
underutilizing them] and put the
money back into their business.”
Such features also help reduce the
time truck drivers spend locating
trailers in the yard and at customer
sites. Poulidis says companies are
