RFID ENABLED WEIGHBRIDGE

AUTOMATION IN BSPL

BHUSHAN POWER AND STEEL LTD:

BSPL was founded in 1970, incorporated in 1999 in Delhi. It has 7 manufacturing facilities in India. It was
acquired by JSW Steel in 2019.

Information system and technologies used:

 SAP based information system
 RFID- Radio Frequency Identification Device
 AVIS- Automated Vehicle Identification System
 WASS- Weighbridge Automation and Security Solution

Operational Excellency:
Operational excellency is the execution of Business strategy more consistently and reliably than the
competition.

Earlier, manual weighing was used for measuring the weight of trucks. For that, four to five people may
be involved at one scale- one for tracking the details of the truck, one for generating receipts of the
weight, truck driver, and one individual who ensures that the truck is in proper place for weight
calculation. In this system, the trucks used to get in que for their turn, then they needed to register
themselves manually after which load computation is done. Afterwards, the gate slip with all details was
also generated manually.

This system faced many problems like:

 As the process was manual it was prone to errors

 It also opened avenues for fraudulent activities
 As log size was rapidly falling per truck, the number of trucks to be measured increased
burdening the manual workers
 Time taken to weigh the truck was more
 It was also costly as it had to employ 4-5 workers

But with installation of RFID system with AVIS and WASS integrated with the use of SAP based software
led to automation of the process. For this, the BSPL plant was equipped with eight weighbridges, each of
which having RFID reader and 3 cameras, totaling to eight RFID readers and 24 cameras at a plant.

Individual identification cards with passive RFID tag were given to truck drivers. Driver now pass the card
to guard who scans the card with the RFID reader. RFID use SAP based software which uses the details
captured from RFID system to generate the bills, reports, and revenue information, providing higher cost
and time efficiency to BSPL. Once the images are captured, gate number and the weight computed are
automatically entered in the SAP system along with the vehicle and the driver details. By this way, the
entry and exit pass was generated for the incoming and the outgoing material. The net weight and the
gross weight were cross-checked and any residual error was automatically adjusted by SAP system. AVIS
monitors the entry and exit of the vehicle movement at BSPL plants through RFID- based system.

This is how BSPL improved its operational excellency.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE:
 Increase in the truck transportation; it led to increase in 500 trucks per day than earlier. This
lead to better transportation and thus material will be available in the market to the full
requirement and in time.
 Cost reduction: Earlier there were 8 people required to compute the weight and to do all type of
activities related to the entry and weighing of the truck. Now only 2 persons are required for
these activities, with the installment of the RFID based system. The amount of wages was also
saved and the manual recording is must costlier and time consuming than the automatic
recording. Hence, it saved the cost of the company.
 Fast processing: As the process became fully automated, the processing was done more quickly.
There was no manual entry of the trucks, their weights, driver details etc. as all the process was
done with the help of tags backed by RFID system.

NEW PRODUCT AND SERVICES:

 Automated load reduction: By the way of automated load reduction, we can reduce the weight
of material if in case any of the truck is overweighed. As, the whole system is automated, there
is no chance of errors and thus the laws related to the trucks weight are also followed. Thus, no
chance that the truck can be fined for breaking the weight laws.
 Automated tax and tariff payment: In this system when as and when the truck enters in a
particular area the tax and tariffs related to it can be paid directly by the bank. So, the tags and
scanners are the main elements for it.

DECISION MAKING:
As there is an automatic system, the human involvement is very less. So, the fraudulent activities or the
human error chance are very low. So the decision related to giving any truck green or red signal is more
accurate.

CUSTOMER AND SUPPLIER INTIMACY:

Due to better transportation, customer supplier intimacy will increase to a greater extent, as there is fast
transfer of products and also tracking system is also developed and any chance of error or the
fraudulent activities are eliminated.