Access Telematics Implementation Cuts Downtime and Repair Costs in Meat Processing Plant
Increasing safety regulations on major retailers and manufacturing plants are on the rise. It can cost extra time and money to keep fleet operations under code.
Distributors and manufacturing plants need a way to fulfill all safety requirements without wasting time or resources. On top of safety, fleet operations is a significant cost for companies. It takes time for managers to identify opportunities to reduce damage and repair costs. Not only that but if they do not correctly identify when a vehicle is damaged, it can require extra downtime for repairs when the damage worsens. The more time a vehicle needs for repairs, the less productive that vehicle will be. For a busy meat processing plant, that can be a problem.
Today, we are going to show you how a busy meat processing plant implemented Vigilant Systems* to remedy these problems. With 45 forklifts to manage and an outdated impact monitor, this company needed a major upgrade to address these issues.
The Problems
1) Impact monitors didn’t offer a pre-safety checklist which is a major concern due to agency regulation
2) Threshold settings required manual adjustment which takes time
3) No impact data available in the event that an alarm is sounded off
4) Rising repair costs and scheduled labor to make repairs
The Solution
After the meat processing plant evaluated its options through a careful review, they decided to replace their current impact monitors with the Vigilant telematics system.
Access Control Group (ACG) worked closely with 
the meat processing plant to make sure the implementation was smooth and error-free. All stakeholders were trained correctly so they could reap the benefits of the Vigilant system as soon as implementation was complete. For any company that ACG works with, both in-person and remote training is available depending on the company’s needs and preferences.
Here are the myriad of benefits the plant received from the Access telematics implementation:
1 – Safety Checklist Compliance
Operators were required to complete a pre-shift safety checklist before vehicle use. Any failures were reported to the safety supervisor via email. If the failure were critical and required maintenance, the vehicle would be placed in maintenance lockout so injuries and further damage could be prevented. Inspections could not be skipped without a supervisor being notified via email.
Benefit: The company saved time by using Vigilant’s pre-safety check. Any further damages were prevented, and the process made drivers more aware of vehicle impact.
2 – Damage Reduction
Vigilant tracks impact through a digital impact sensor. This sensor can be programmed to communicate with any computer in the network. If the vehicle goes beyond the impact threshold, an alarm will sound off, and an email with be sent to a supervisor with alarm details such as time, date, operator, and truck ID.
Benefit: Change in operator behavior lowered impact and reduced avoidable damage. This resulted in an overall decrease in vehicle downtime, with a typical 20-25% vehicle impact reduction in the first six months of use.
3 – Fleet Utilization
Vigilant monitors usage by login time, occupancy, travel and lift time. Based on this information, idle time is calculated.
Benefit: Managers can reassign tasks based on vehicle productivity and change scheduling needs based on the amount of work that needs to be done.
4 – Preventative Maintenance (PM)
Before the implementation of Vigilant systems, the meat processing plant had to keep track of PM manually. With Access, maintenance technicians could schedule PM based on vehicle usage.
Benefit: Instead of using PM through an arbitrary schedule, Vigilant allowed the plant to schedule PM when it was needed based on vehicle usage. On average, Access clients save 2 PM sessions per year on each vehicle, reducing overall maintenance costs.
Conclusion
Before Vigilant, this meat processing plant had several problems that were costing them time and money. Their impact monitors did not offer any pre-safety features, they could not keep track of vehicle usage and damage, and they were committing extra labor for unnecessary repairs (and missing out on the repairs that were actually needed).
Through Access Control Group’s implementation of Vigilant systems, all of these problems were remedied, and the meat processing plant lowered operational costs and will continue to do so in the future.
*Vigilant is Access’ first digital fleet management system and also the first to be introduced to this industry. Having survived over two life-cycles of equipment, Vigilant continues to serve some of our earliest customers to this day. With innovation at the heart of everything we do, we have since released a newer model known as Advanced.
To learn more about the additional exciting changes coming to Access in the next couple of months check out our blog Meet the New Access!