PRECIA-MOLEN (UK) - What does a coal-fired power station in North Yorkshire, a weald granary in Kent or a commercial Port facility in Suffolk have in Common? A brand new Precia Molen weighing and traffic management architecture offering a flexible and innovative on-site weighing & load management system for better efficiency and productivity.

Achieving controlled and orderly traffic within a site, optimising order handling & delivery tracking, and automating the loading of trucks with a system fully integrated into the operation of an existing management system is key to the efficiency and productivity of companies around the world as well as the security of their operations.

Now operating a subsidiary in Australia, world famous weighing specialist Precia Molen, is offering a weighing and loading management system helping to move materials delivered and collected by road and rail from a large variety of sites. Many of its clients now benefit from Precia Molen market-leading PCS software based solution: fully integrated with existing systems, this solution offers reliability and creates a stable and expandable platform supporting user’s objective to improve the weighing interface between their systems, the traffic management of their sites, their KPI and ultimately the profitability of their business.

Flexibility, stock control, traceability and site security:
When Clarkson Port Services (CPS) opened its new £1.5 million grain terminal back in 1997 at the Port of Ipswich in the UK it was among one of the first installations of its type to achieve cost effective driver operation. But the system's lack of flexibility was holding up the expansion of the business. The first step towards remedying the problem was to replace the existing driver operated consoles (which had managed up to 150 trucks a day since 1998) with the latest generation of Precia Molen driver console, the BI300, on all four weighbridges on site.

Each weighbridge has been integrated into the new upgraded Precia Molen central administration PCS Software, which includes new modules allowing features such as stock control and traceability from ship to shore, and store to customer. The PCS Software system - linked to the client’s ERP - now allows simultaneous operation of all four weighbridges with the entire vehicle processing system ensuring vehicle drivers remain in their cabs throughout most of the cargo loading and unloading routine.

RFID reader, ticket printer and user friendly interface display and control for additional efficiency:
Kent based co-operative Weald Granary in the UK has recently made a further investment which has provided a significant increase in storage capacity up to 80,000 tonnes. Handling approximately 100,000 tonnes per annum from 192 farmers, alongside an annual projected growth of 4-5,000 tonnes, the co-operative has installed a similar Precia Molen PCS software system as part of an ongoing development programme.

The installation has proved to be an important part of the client’s ongoing site expansion & development programme, with an increased on site storage capacity of 26% with no additional staffing requirement. The new system has brought the entire vehicle unloading operation - including contract validation, sampling, laboratory testing, weighing and discharge - on two Precia Molen weighbridges under the control of a single PC network.

Fast and flexible, the new system provides members with easy access to their data through the web portal and maintains the traceability of assured combinable crops after they have left the farm. A comprehensive site management system allows drivers to gain access by receiving a card from the automatic card dispenser. On entering the relevant information, which is then retrieved from the database and checked, any queries on a load are quickly interrogated by the database ensuring minimal time delays. A unique feature of the system effectively deals with any incoming load, whether dry or wet, calculating it as a dry net weight through weight loss calculations within the PCS Software system (through algorithms). For the project Precia Molen installed a 50,000kg capacity ROC surface mounted weighbridge, an RFID reader, ticket printer and dialogue display.

Unique features for optimum Weighing & Traffic Management and increased productivity:
A new Precia Molen system was also implemented at Drax Power Station, North Yorkshire, to improve movement of materials used and produced in the electricity generation process. Every day materials are delivered and collected from this site by road and the new system has greatly improved the efficiency of the operation. Following a vendor assessment programme, Precia Molen was awarded the contract to install a system based on the new Precia Molen on-site weighing and load-management system. It had to seamlessly integrate with several existing systems and provide a number of fixed criteria like printing of tickets at the driver consoles (eliminating driver dismount), Automatic and secure process and full in-house technical support.

With the main materials handling gatehouse processing vehicles across four weighbridges, the new system has increased the speed of vehicle throughput. The PCS software has enabled Drax to optimise the existing process, ensuring secure entry of all vehicles to the site, track deliveries on site and interface weighbridge operations with existing logistics processes. The software installation was fully supported by Precia Molen technicians with on-site assistance when required, ensuring a quick turnaround on changes and configurations.