Inventory Visibility Optimized at Agriculture Chemical Company
Sep, 23 2022
Case Studies
Nutrien Ag Solutions of Nebraska
More than 9,000 products are available at Nebraska’s Nutrien Ag Solutions to maintain profitable, healthy, and productive crops. Nutrien Ag Solutions provides tailored advice to optimize crop output in terms of quantity and quality, working with regional agronomists. Products consist of fungicides, insecticides, fertilizers, seeds, and herbicides.
Applications: Bulk Liquid
Market: Agriculture
Challenge
Nutrien Ag Solutions maintains strict environmental standards throughout all aspects of their business, from their goods and services to the guidance it provides to clients. To precisely track the chemical levels in each of their three 5,000-gallon tanks, Nutrien Ag Solutions realized the need to implement a system that would remotely monitor their tank levels and eliminate the need to travel to the site locations. Like many agricultural chemical companies, they would manually verify the inventory levels through antiquated and unreliable visual checks.
“We would have to climb to the top of the tanks and look through a port to check the tank levels.” said Greg, Manager
Solution
In 2022, Nutrien Ag Solutions of Nebraska installed the TankScan TSM1000 tank monitoring system on three 5,000-gallon tanks near Lamar, Nebraska. The remote monitoring system leverages existing wireless cellular infrastructure and a cloud software application to eliminate large startup and setup costs associated with typical SCADA systems. The install requires screwing the monitor into a 2” port on the top of the tank and plugging in the battery. The cloud application is set up remotely and offers unlimited users, historical trending, and email/text notifications.
The tank levels are viewed from a field operator’s cell phone or from a PC at a remote office. The system is cost-effective due to its use of existing infrastructures through internet connectivity, internet browser, email, text message, and cloud computing. The user is provided with accurate readings to devices he already owns, understands, and supports.
Results
Nutrien Ag Solutions of Nebraska has seen numerous benefits from remote level monitoring, including:
• Minimizing trips to the tanks has reduced operational cost
• Remote tank level visibility has increased the reliability of their business
• Automated notification alerts have reduced environmental risks
• Workers are no longer required to climb the tanks to measure chemical levels, creating a safer work environment for employees.
“The install process was easy, and the system helps us monitor the tanks consistently so we know when to reorder on time.”, said Greg.