Waste management company Pikitup was recently awarded a prestigious 2005 innovation award from the Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI).
The information technology firm behind the development and deployment of this award winning solution is Randburg-based Opto Africa (www.optoafrica.co.za), a company that has been in the M2M, remote monitoring and control environment for many years.
With the innovation awards CPSI aims to incentivise companies and organisations to deliver efficient and effective services through innovation.
M2M is an acronym used to define the concept of communications between a device containing some amount of data and another device that requires the use of that data, and is commonly translated as machine-to-machine or man-to-machine. The most common implementation of M2M is through telemetry systems.
Opto Africa's locally developed M2M smart communications device, named an eBox, plays a pivotal role in this solution. The eBox supports various modes of communication including: GPS (satellite positioning); GPRS (General Packet Radio Service - cellular data service); Ethernet; digital I/O; serial RS232.
These protocols facilitate the connection of devices such as RFID (radio frequency identification) readers, serial- and Ethernet-based equipment and instrumentation, and numerous other local and field devices, to the wireless, cellular GPRS data network for purpose of remote monitoring, data collection, and control.
The eBox can further be interfaced to accommodate Bluetooth and wireless Ethernet communications, analog I/O, and various other IT components.
Opto Africa's solution for Pikitup utilises active RFID readers and tags, to automate the weighing transactions at landfill weighbridges, increasing efficiency and reducing human error. The active RFID and reader technology is supplied by Wavetrend (www.wavetrend.net) a leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of RFID technology and solutions. The RFID gathered data is then relayed live over the cellular GPRS data network back to Opto Africa's hosting environment, based in Randburg, Gauteng.
The data is compiled into user-configurable reports and made available immediately on a secure connection over the Internet, simply using a web-browser. The data is also analysed for out of the ordinary operations and issues that might arise, and Pikitup management are immediately notified of these discrepancies via SMS as they occur.
Benefits to Pikitup include a realtime, centralised resource for all their landfill site activity, realtime SMS-based error reporting, and approximately 40% improvement in landfill transaction efficiency.
The Pikitup solution is one of various M2M solutions provided by Opto Africa to customers based in and around South Africa. Other projects include monitoring and management of concrete batching plants for various construction companies, and vehicle and asset tracking and management applications.
Tracking solutions deployed by Opto Africa facilitate far more than simply pin-pointing assets in the field. They include the ability to monitor and manage almost every aspect of the operation of vehicles and assets, including freight in transit, events, and overall operational status and productivity.
A good example of an Opto Africa M2M solution in construction is the management of construction hoists and cranes. Here Opto Africa's eBox unit gathers information including start-up, shut-down, weight lifted and error signals, and relays them back to the Opto Africa Host Management System (HMS). Here, overall production statistics are calculated, preventative maintenance is managed, and over-lift signals generate SMS messages to site foremen and managers, all in realtime.
Another example is Opto Africa's concrete batch monitoring solution. Here, actual batched concrete mixes are relayed back to Opto Africa's HMS where they are compared automatically with pre-defined concrete recipes. Should the actual and recipe not match, the batch manager is notified immediately of the discrepancy before dispatching the concrete to site. This M2M tool is capable of reporting on errors as small as a couple of percent in the mix.
The Opto Africa M2M solution is easily adapted to various environments including the management of IT server rooms, where temperature, humidity and UPS status are vital, cash in transit tracking, and even the relaying of still photographs from remote sites back to the central Opto Africa hosting service.
"Our solution provides companies with the ability to manage their assets remotely, and from anywhere in the world, with ease," says Hennie Visser, a director at Opto Africa. "We expect the demand for M2M-based solutions to continue to grow until they become the norm and not the exception."
In fact, Gartner surmises that by 2007 there will likely be between 100 million and 160 million M2M connections world-wide, communicating over the cellular data networks.
For Pikitup, this award is a symbol of excellence, recognised across South Africa, after having been evaluated according to stringent selection criteria, amongst a large number of nominations for the CPSI award.
For more information contact Opto Africa, +27 (0)11 792 4886, [email protected], www.optoafrica.co.za
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