Total Site Visibility to Mitigate Security Threats

May 13, 2020 Karli Langner

The ability to account for your assets and equipment in your quarry is crucial to productivity, efficiency, and cost control.

Efficiency is a critical competitive advantage for a small profit industry like the aggregate industry, and accounting for assets saves time and makes many processes streamlined and faster.

It also helps to reduce instances of stolen materials, inventory shrinkage, and other instances that lead to higher costs. The Scale Watcher module provides total site visibility; various triggers help to ensure that your business doesn’t become a victim of theft. Camera/video footage can identify when loads go out the door that were not being ticketed and can send an alert when scale weights change without a ticket going out.

Another key value point of the camera is customer service. Customers are able to understand the location of the materials that they have purchased and the approximate time of when those materials will be on the road.

How does Scale Watcher work?

Quarry sites house many extremely valuable and expensive assets. Criminals see these materials as prime targets to take and resell, and during these uncertain times while your operation might be running with minimum personnel, your business might be more prone to occurrences like this.

Not only does theft cost you money and take a huge chunk out of your bottom line, but it also halts production for significant periods of time. With Scale Watcher, an optional Gate/Valve anti-theft module alerts authorized personnel of potential theft of materials. The anti-theft module sends an email alert to one or more designated addresses whenever the gate/valve is opened and closed on a loading system and a ticket is not printed. The gate/valve anti-theft module is not reliant upon the scale or software to function and will work after hours when the plant is shut down.

The following reports are taken from the scales in real time:

  • Valve Alerts – this actually comes from the load out as we interface with the PLCs. A timer begins when the valve closes after we releasing product. If a ticket isn’t generated within a designated time frame (two minutes by default), a report is sent out.
  • Connection Lost – if a scale disappears, a report is sent out. The same report is generated when the connection is restored.
  • No Ticket – a report is sent out when a truck is detected on the scale and no ticket is generated.
  • Gross Weight Mismatch – when the finish weight on the scale doesn’t match the weight on the ticket, a report is generated. Over time, this can add up to substantial losses.
  • Tare Weight Contamination – we compare the average maximum weight on an empty truck to verify possible contamination.
  • Overweight – due to DOT regulations and company reliability, a report is generated when the weight threshold is exceeded.

Get in touch with us to learn how you can safeguard your aggregate operation from theft with Scale Watcher!

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