M2M = Innovative asset management solution.

Lee Lanucha

Today’s $54 billion waste management industry historically has used a very antiquated, manual, people-dependent system to track its assets. Asset location, misuse prevention and inventory management have been real problems for the industry as a whole and are critical to succeeding in a very large, competitive industry. In any business, knowing where your assets are and what they are doing is paramount to ensuring supply chain fidelity and managing costs. Moreover, the waste management industry continues to experience increased pressure for lower pricing and tightening government regulations.

Asset Tracking vs. Asset Management

Fortunately, machine-to-machine (M2M) technology exists today, which allows companies to know where its assets are and what they are doing at any given point in time. With M2M, we can answer critical questions about the asset, not just “where is it?”, but also managing the asset to know also who has it and where it should be. Using more information than just “dots on a map,” is true asset management, by using smart software applications and tying all of that information back to customer relationship management in a meaningful way. This provides a key logistical advantage. The solution doesn’t take the human element out of the picture, but frees them up to make better decisions. Ultimately, when your logistics are optimized and customers are happy, that’s when you are able to convert assets to cash.

With the implementation of an M2M, end-to-end system, companies can use a two-way communication link to collect and pull data. That data can then be translated into actionable information. With the push of a button you can know where an asset is, if it’s available to move and what the most efficient pick-up/drop-off logistics might be.

Case Study: Roll Off Rental Business

As an example, let’s focus on the roll-off rental part of the business. Roll-offs, which cost anywhere from $2,500 to $10,000 each and can be located at a customer’s construction site for a length of a few days to a month, are constantly moving between customer sites. The success of any rental business depends on the optimal use and allocation of assets. But the roll-off side of the industry has been historically inefficient in managing those assets, not knowing at any given point in time where a portion of the roll-off inventory was located. Outright theft or misuse of stock has been an issue, too, with products being “sub-leased” without knowledge or permission.

This all results in an ongoing loss of potential revenue, as “lost” containers cannot be rented to another customer. It is important for roll-off rental companies to have a complete picture of these assets, which are typically spread across multiple storage, retail and customer locations.

The trucking industry has been through this transition to M2M technology and it’s time the waste management industry adopts a similar technology profile. Fleet managers can now know where a truck is, where the trailer is and what the contents of that trailer are at any given point in time.  Additionally, some companies are already using M2M to monitor the temperature of the truck’s contents and if anything happened to potentially damage the goods being shipped. The advantage of having this level of information allows you to extend customer relationships, reduce overhead and build efficiencies across the entire business model.

The Future of M2M and Asset Management

In the not-too-distant future, M2M technology will enable us to know not only where an asset is, but what is in it and how much material it’s currently holding—true asset management, not just asset tracking. Technology advancements over the next few years will give us sensors that report information regarding a container’s level of fill and its contents.  Take landfill scaling, for example. If a company knows how full a container is before it’s dumped and what was in that container, the data intelligence to better manage the business is multiplied.  This means not only knowing where your asset is, but if it was used for the purpose with which it was intended.

The result is a M2M system that meets the stringent requirements of the solid waste industry and that is capable of transmitting the location of any roll-off container via GPS and cellular technology, providing live geographic visibility, tracking, and insightful asset management.  This can amount to a savings in the tens of thousands of dollars, and for a small to mid-size company these savings can be crucial in maintaining a profit at razor thin margins.

Alerts via SMS text inform of any critical changes to the containers that may require attention. Data collected includes asset location and any exceptions to movement patterns. Customizations of the system included industry-specific needs for alarm timing, geo-fencing, asset movement, dwell times, patterns and cycle loop times, and more.

Smart Solutions

Cloud-based, highly scalable horizontal service delivery platforms can include a flexible, robust application essential to fully leveraging the data generated by remote devices. With this platform, a next-generation solution customized for the waste management business can be created. By understanding the need for scale and reliability enabling high growth of deployed devices across the industry, M2M provides the optimal technologies for network connectivity with cellular and satellite options, allowing customers to create value added services. This is both a revenue generating and cost saving proposition. Companies now have the benefit of real-time monitoring and state-of-the art analytics with alerts and notifications on anomalies or when parameters have been compromised.

Leaders in the industry are beginning to deploy M2M technology. It exists today, it’s easy to implement, it has little impact on the IT infrastructure and it ultimately saves money. These are the benefits that affect the scale and scope of an industry and have the ability to get your company to the next level and realize a distinct cost advantage.

Lee Lanucha is Senior Director of Platform Product Management for Numerex(Atlanta, GA). Leading platform product management for Numerex, she brings more than 15 years of building and delivering enterprise mobility and wireless M2M solutions. Numerex’s M2M platform environment is characterized by a high level of elasticity, scalability and reliability. At the core is NumerexFAST®, the company’s cloud-based, horizontal Service Delivery Platform.Lee can be reached at[email protected].

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Case Study

The problem: A large waste management company was experiencing a real gap in roll-off container asset management intelligence. That meant lost revenue. The misuse of stock and theft needed curbing.

The solution: They turned to a leader in M2M technology: Numerex. Numerex FAST network services and application framework provided a Web-based portal to improve productivity, fidelity, and security of containers. Customization included alarm timing, geo-fencing, asset movement, dwell times and cycle loop times.

The results:The waste management company and otherscurrently using the advanced M2M system are seeing immediate benefits. They are able to sell more products and better position themselves as a leader. Additionally, they experience:

• Better Asset Use/Increased Sales: By monitoring asset use, and comparing inventory to contract conditions, contract terms are better managed and available inventory is promoted and re-rented faster. Detailed information on the travel path, or time spent at different locations allows optimal container usage.
• Reduction in Losses: Container location is critical to maintaining asset security and reducing high replacement costs. If current location of roll-off containers is not known or movement of the container is detected, an alert is generated and containers are pinpointed on a detailed map via GPS.
• Transportation and Labor Savings: Companies are able to plan routes more efficiently.