Truck driver shortages have been in the international spotlight for decades. Costs and supply impact have been widely publicized: examples include the United Kingdom’s food and fuel shortfalls and the bottleneck of containers at ports in the United States, which now requires freight unloading operations to run 24/7.
Quarries, cement plants, construction suppliers, and building contractors who rely on trucks to move goods have not been immune to the supply chain chaos.
Shortages Hindering Plant Productivity
At cement plants, tight supply chains and driver shortages make real-time inventory management critical to prevent material shortages and downtime. Labor shortages impact staffing in most plant positions; there's no one available to climb silos and take manual measurements.
Instead, both level sensors and CementView® cloud-based software—tailored to the cement industry with a specialized "truckloads" feature—are helping cement plants manage dispatch, drivers, orders, and deliveries.
Dispatchers are overwhelmed managing cement powder, sand, and fly ash inventory, and must coordinate deliveries between locations. When scheduling deliveries, dispatchers need to know current silo levels in order to send deliveries to the plants with the greatest need. If a plant is not automated, dispatchers must work with handwritten manual measurements taken by plant workers who climb silos and drop tape measures. Dispatchers are often unsure if the data provided is current or accurate, but they must rely on these silo-level information reports.
Drivers need to be sure that the entire load will fit within the silo when they arrive at each plant. If there's inadequate space, they risk overfilling the silo, which can create a hazardous situation due to airborne cement or fly ash dust. Plus, a spill can create a mess that needs to be cleaned up—which is made difficult when plants are already short-staffed.
Truckload Management and Software
The "Truckloads" feature in CementView removes the need for complex volumetric calculations and takes the guesswork out of estimating the number of trucks needed to maintain production levels.
Truckload management begins with assigning a unique number to each truck in the fleet. Most fleets already have truck numbers assigned, making it a simple matter of entering each truck’s unique identifier or number.
Users can create trucks as a calculation of mass per compartment or volume per compartment. For trucks with multiple compartments, the mass or volume for each compartment is entered separately. CementView then calculates the truck’s total capacity.
If a fleet has more than one of the same type of truck, once the first truck of a particular model is entered, setting up additional trucks of the same model is as easy as duplicating the first and changing the truck identifier or number.
Users assign primary and secondary trucks for each silo. CementView defaults to the primary truck when calculating "Truckspace" and "Trucks Until Empty" on the main dashboard and in the platform's QuickView. Secondary trucks are only displayed on the dashboard when viewing master details for a particular silo.
Automating Silo Level Measurement and Ensuring Sensor Accuracy
Speed and accuracy of inventory are imperative for cement operations. Thus, 80 GHz non-contact radar level sensors using the Modbus protocol are often recommended for concrete silo level measurements. This technology offers proven performance in dust, with measurements updated in seconds.
Silo pre-wiring for sensor installation is easily carried out by a plant’s maintenance staff. Commissioning is performed using a BinDisc device that can be moved from sensor to sensor for setup. Alternatively, sensor setup can be done using a Bluetooth application on a phone.
Each silo receives a unique name or number and is assigned a location. The dimensions of the silo are entered to enable the calculation of silo mass or volume. The type of material contained in the silo is also recorded. This enables dispatchers and managers to review inventory by material type or silo location.
It's also recommended that silos have rotary-level indicators installed for redundant high-level alerts, which is a best practice for any active silo that gets filled rapidly and frequently. The rotary serves as an extra layer of protection to prevent overfilling the silo or having material rise to the continuously operating radar level sensor, which could potentially damage it.
Cloud-Based Connectivity
A BinCloud® gateway can be used to deliver information to the cloud through an ethernet connection. This must be implemented in order to access data via CementView.
Other devices—such as analog expansion hubs for connecting analog sensors or HART consolidator modules—can help connect existing sensors to the cloud at a minimal cost. At large plants, wireless devices such as 900 MHz or LoRa long-range transceivers provide substantial savings on wiring costs.
With construction booming, concrete companies cannot afford to run out of material or risk messy overfills, as time is limited and workers are running lean. Many construction contracts provide incentives for meeting deadlines. The company could face fines if deadlines are missed.
Real-Time Inventory Management
Keeping watch over inventory levels at multiple plants is essential for dispatchers to maintain adequate material levels. Access to CementView software is provided to dispatchers, plant managers, purchasing, and other production personnel at any plant location or corporate headquarters.
There is no limit to the number of users for the software, which is charged per silo at a flat annual subscription rate. Users may be restricted to limited location data as desired by the administrator. Users can view and sort silos by material, monitor trends, and generate usage reports by selecting report criteria such as date range, location, or material. Each user can create and save a custom view in the software that only includes the information they need. Reports are available as an Excel export or as a PDF.
Plants and central dispatch can receive inventory updates every 10 minutes. Using CementView ensures that everyone has access to the same inventory data at the same time. Out-of-stocks and emergency deliveries can therefore be reduced. Better scheduling results in better profits.
Embracing New Technology
Many workers retired during the pandemic, leaving a tight labor market for plant workers and truck drivers.
Many new employees have never worked in the industry. Younger people recognize the value of technology, and appreciate that there is an easier way to get things done. Plants must try to do more work with fewer people, which is aided by CementView. Customers have added that the visualization into silo levels is helpful.
Local Displays Supplement Drivers’ Needs for Immediate Data
Local displays for each silo may be installed at a central location at each plant. When delivery drivers arrive, they can confirm how much headspace is available in each silo in order to unload their truck and be confident that the entire load will fit.
A Modbus-compatible control console or a DPM digital panel meter with Modbus compatibility can provide headroom readouts for every silo at each batch plant. Using hard-wired local displays saves time and prevents overfilling.
