Challenges
In 2005, Lakeside Sand & Gravel was poised to expand — and knew it needed to prepare quickly. The then-current manual ticketing system would not support the anticipated business growth.

Moreover, because of the manual ticketing, data collection or reporting wasn’t possible, so Lakeside management was unable to run the business as efficiently as it knew it would need.

Finally, Lakeside was inundated by paper tickets, wasting time in the back office when a customer would call for a copy of a ticket. Hundreds of paper tickets would have to be searched to find just one.

Solutions
Today, Lakeside is an around-the-clock operation with a significant nighttime operation and bread and butter business with Ohio DOT. In summer, Lakeside will process 100 to 150 trucks a day. Handling the busy yard is a challenge fully met by Interface Logic Systems’ customizable ScaleQ Exclusive.

“Since 2005, when we upgraded from our previous ticketing system to the ILS system, we have had nothing but good to say,” declares Joe Kotkowski, who manages sales, quality control and IT for Lakeside. “In early 2005 when we were looking at replacing our previous system, I approached my boss about ScaleQ. He asked if I was confident ILS was the system to use. All I could say was ‘yes.’

“Four years later, my boss has got so used to being able to get information at a moment’s notice that sometimes I wonder how he did without it,” Kotkowski chuckles.

As part of the original implementation, ScaleQ Exclusive was supplemented with ScaleQ Office Administration software, Digital Signature Capture and a QuickBooks interface for efficient automated data transfer for accounting.

“The immediate benefit we experienced was we eliminated a great cabinet of paper,” Kotkowski says. “We digitized it all.”

To improve efficiency even more, Digital Signature Capture functionality was customized to permit drivers to batch-sign tickets after the fact, rather than with each transaction. The scale operator accepts appropriate transactions without a signature. Later, the driver comes to the office to sign for all transactions at once. The operator enters the ScaleQ Ticket menu and selects the “Sign” option. One or more tickets are selected from the list and the operator clicks on “Sign” or “Sign and Print.” ScaleQ then presents a signature window, and creates a separate signature record for each selected ticket, although the driver signs only one time.

“Our customers really like Digital Signature Capture when they call for a copy of a ticket,” Kotkowski says. “All our office personnel do is look up the ticket number and fax a copy. No has to look through hundreds of paper tickets for that one ticket. Everything is saved on hard drives in our office. No more cabinets full of paper.”

To improve scale house efficiency as the business grew, Lakeside suggested three major enhancements that were easily implemented. These subsequent customizations included:

• Implementation of a Fuel Surcharge field to facilitate managing fluctuating fuel costs without having to continually change Freight costs. Fuel Surcharge can be selectively applied.

• Addition of a Purchase Order field to the Transaction file to allow operators to enter the P.O. number as necessary and to support reporting by P.O. number.

• Addition of Payment Type to permit operators to select Cash, Credit Card or Check from a drop-down list. Reports may be run using this data, making close-out and verification simpler.

“We’ve benefitted from quite a few customizations from ILS,” says Kotkowski. “The latest is that we now have a minimum tonnage of material for trucks. If the tonnage is less than specified, a reason has to be given — for example, the truck might be going to a residential neighborhood. It’s eliminated drivers’ complaints, and the scale people know how much the trucks are hauling.”

One clever innovation Kotkowski developed himself. It allows scale monitoring from the cab of a front-end loader. Using wireless technology and Windows™ Remote Desktop Connection, a laptop in the cab logs into the ticket computer in the office. The operator in the loader can watch the scale number as the truck is loaded. When the weight is right, the driver goes to the outer office, signs on a signature pad and the ticket is printed.

“The benefit,” Kotkowski says, “is that we don’t need to have a nighttime scale person. That saves us a lot of money every year.”

In the years since the original installation, Lakeside has been delighted with ILS’s technical support.

“When we have had an issue, the turnaround time has been great,” Kotkowski says. “I really like that it's an easy system to work on, and when things need to be changed ILS is right on it.

“With the ability to download updates from ILS’s customer service Web site, it has eliminated waiting on someone to come to our location to troubleshoot. In fact,

since 2005, no member of the ILS team has ever had to come to our location.” What’s in the future for Lakeside? Another business expansion.

“We plan on setting up another plant at a different location,” says Kotkowski. “We know ILS will be there to help set up a remote office that will interact with our home office. We look forward to many more years of working with ILS — we’re happier than heck.”

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Challenges
Interface Logic Systems was approached by a Grain Terminal that was preparing to receive, stockpile and distribute road salt for three different suppliers. Salt would be delivered to the terminal via river barge, unloaded and stockpiled pending shipment to customers. The terminal company wanted to install an unattended scale management and control system to weigh and collect data on all shipments.

The project presented three significant challenges:

• Due to the highly competitive nature of the industry, each salt company (the supplier) wanted all transactions to be processed on a computer that each salt company would provide. All information on orders to be shipped to or picked up by customers would reside on each supplier’s computer.

• Since most shipments were pick-ups by carriers contracted by the customer, and not by either the terminal or the salt company, no way existed to know what vehicle would be arriving for which order. This seemed to make the assignment of default data entry impossible, requiring drivers to enter data via a scale-side terminal. This was not considered feasible.

• Each salt company wanted tickets printed on its pre-printed scale ticket form.

Solutions
After consultation with the terminal and the suppliers, ILS proposed installing ILS ScaleQ, customized to meet the unique requirements. The suppliers (salt companies) agreed to provide data files in a format that could be imported into ScaleQ containing the minimum amount of order information required to process scale transactions. This allowed consolidation of all scale management and ticketing into a single PC.

ILS developers designed a system that generates a single-use Truck Code for each two-pass transaction. Trucks would no longer have to be included in the ScaleQ database to weigh in unattended mode. ILS also configured the software to support multiple ticket printers and to permit assignment of a printer to a specific supplier. A specific ticket format would be designated for each supplier, enabling use of their preferred pre-printed ticket form.

A typical transaction begins when a truck boards the scale. The driver is prompted via the LCD display on the Remote Data Terminal (RDT) to enter the order number being picking up. ScaleQ assigns the transaction a single-use ID code and prints an inbound ticket showing the ID code, supplier code, order number, time in and tare weight. The ID code is also printed as a barcode at the top of the ticket. The ticket also advises the driver at which stockpile the truck will be loaded. After loading, the truck returns to the scale for outbound weighing. On boarding the scale, the driver is prompted to insert the inbound ticket into the barcode scanner of the RDT. ScaleQ retrieves the inbound record from the database, captures the outbound weight, and posts the transaction to the yard file pending signature and acceptance. The driver leaves the scale and enters the scale house, where the inbound ticket is scanned again, retrieving the transaction for signature using the digital signature capture pad. ScaleQ is configured to direct the ticket/bill of lading to the appropriate printer, as determined by the supplier code. A comma-delimited file providing transaction details is generated for export to each supplier. Export files are configured to meet the individual requirements of each supplier.

Infrastructure
The scale plaza consists of a single, bi-directional truck scale approximately 200 feet from the scale house. The scale features two ILS Remote Data Terminals and two Remote Ticket Printers (inbound and outbound). The ScaleQ computer is located in the scale house, along with a customized kiosk featuring a LCD display, barcode scanner and digital signature pad, as well as three dot-matrix ticket printers.

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Challenge
The City of Little Rock operates a busy municipal solid waste facility that processes transactions for municipal collection vehicles, commercial customers and residential customers. Both cash and charge transactions are processed daily. The City required that three different attendants, any of whom could process a transaction throughout the course of the day, could maintain secure, independent cash drawers, thereby tightening fraud protection for both attendant and the City.

In addition, through the use of truck RFID tags, the City wanted the landfill to operate under extended hours without incurring the burden of overtime labor or additional, part- or full-time scale operators. Extended hours also would help spread out the traffic burden, decreasing traffic density during the day.

Solutions
With a 20-year history of partnership between Little Rock and ILS, the City was using ILS’s most recent scale management and control system, ScaleQ. ILS provided a Cash Drawer Interface with three separate drawers, providing each operator with an individual till. When a cash transaction is completed, ScaleQ verifies the Attendant of Record and opens the drawer that has been assigned to that attendant, providing security and accountability for the city and the individual attendants.

The City also introduced Radio Frequency Vehicle Identification, Unattended Weighing and Automated Traffic Light Control. This allowed municipal trucks to be processed before and after normal scale house hours of operation. The vehicles were equipped with Radio Frequency Transponders (or Tags), which can be read by the RF Tag Readers mounted adjacent to each scale. Each Tag is assigned within a truck record in the ScaleQ database. As the truck boards the scale, the Reader identifies the Tag code and searches the ScaleQ database for a corresponding Truck Record. ScaleQ retrieves all data necessary to process the transaction, captures the truck weight, posts the data to the transaction file and prints a ticket, all without the participation of, or presence of, a scale attendant.

In addition to accepting and landfilling municipal solid waste, the City accepts biomass such as yard waste, timber, etc. for composting. The resultant mulch is then sold, providing an additional revenue stream for the city. This material is also weighed using ILS ScaleQ, providing receipts for customers and creating a transaction history for the City.

Infrastructure
The scale plaza consists of two truck scales (inbound & outbound) on either side of a large, freestanding scale office. There are two scale operators on duty during peak hours, and each operator can process transactions from either scale. There is also a Scale House supervisor who can perform database maintenance, design and print reports, and process manual tickets from the PC in her office. All PCs in the scale house are on a local area network and share a common database.

The City of Little Rock utilizes Interface Logic Systems’ QRep Report Generator to design and print a variety of reports to meet operational, administrative and regulatory obligations. Reports are printed, e-mailed and exported for use by third-party software, as necessary.

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