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TuWay Helps Keystone Cement Open Flow of Information While Reducing Upfront Installation Costs
Keystone Cement
Bath, Pennsylvania (local facilities)
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“Because TuWay understood our physical environment, they possessed the ability to engineer an effective wireless solution that has functioned flawlessly—even under the unusual circumstances present at a cement and stone company.”
Mike Cleveland, Manager of Purchasing and Stores
Keystone Cement |
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Business Problem
Keystone Cement sells cement and stone throughout Eastern Pennsylvania as well as parts of New York, Maryland, and Delaware. The company mines two quarries and distributes the cement and stone at two locations.
As the company began to fully automate its flow of paperwork and information, it needed to determine the most effective and cost-efficient way to transport customer orders, maintenance requests, and other business paperwork among its four locations. It also wanted to connect all of its buildings to the company’s corporate headquarters in South Carolina.
“Our main office at the cement distribution center was already fully automated and connected with South Carolina at the time,” says Mike Cleveland, manager of purchasing and stores at Keystone Cement. “But paperwork to the other buildings had to be transported manually or over modems. The phone lines were installed in 1928 and did not always work speedily, so a lot of paperwork went from site-to-site via a van driver. This delayed the flow of information so that invoices and orders for new parts were often unnecessarily delayed.”
In addition to the main cement distribution center, Keystone also has buildings at its stone distribution center and two quarries. “All the buildings are within about a mile of each other,” Cleveland says. “But the quarries are right between the distribution centers, and we have a state highway that runs right through the middle of our operations.”
This physical arrangement meant that connecting all the buildings with T1 connections would require extra distances to be covered along with special permission and fees to cross the state-owned highway. “Not only would the cost be high, but the time to install would be quite lengthy too,” Cleveland says. “It would have been a complex project.”
Project Solution
After looking at the cost of T1 connections, Keystone realized that a better solution would be to go with wireless, point-to-point connections. Keystone invited three companies to bid on the project but decided on TuWay Communications. “We had used TuWay in the past for radio communications, and we knew their level of service was excellent,” Cleveland says. “But most importantly, they offered state-of-the-art equipment and engineered the solution. TuWay understood our environment and what it takes to make wireless connections work within a cement operation.”
TuWay implemented a point-to-point connection with 45MB bandwidth from the main location to the stone distribution center. “This is where most of the company’s communication occurs and where most of our people are based,” Cleveland says. TuWay also implemented a point-to-multipoint connection from the main office to the two quarry locations—with 11MB bandwidth capabilities. “The lower bandwidth devices at the quarries cut down on our costs,” Cleveland says. “This made sense because not as much communication occurs to and from those buildings.”
To ensure that the communication would work flawlessly, TuWay installed the devices at the main Keystone center at the top of one of the 100-foot cement silo groups. Line-of-site is critical for wireless communication, and the silo presented an excellent location to connect with the other buildings. “TuWay did not have an issue with working at that height,” Cleveland says. “They also knew how to properly protect the wireless devices from all the cement dust that is in the air in heavy quantities.”
Results
The TuWay solution has been in place for about a year, and Keystone now uses e-mail to send customer orders and maintenance information back-and-forth among the four locations. “Communication happens much faster for all of us,” Cleveland says. “Our customer service department, our quarry manager, and our accounting department can all now get the information they need faster. We process orders, cut invoices, and receive replacement parts for equipment faster.”
Keystone personnel who do not work at the main location enjoy the benefits of a direct e-mail link with the corporate office in South Carolina and other locations throughout the country. “The quarry manager and stone manager can directly contact the South Carolina office and the other managers at cement and stone plants,” Cleveland says. “This helps them discuss business and operating issues much more efficiently and is particularly beneficial when we have a breakdown or need a special part. Sometimes we need to track down 30 or 40 different parts.”
The initial cost of the TuWay wireless solution turned out to be a third of what T1 connections would have cost for the initial installation. “We also don’t have the ongoing monthly fees,” Cleveland says. “The wireless solution has saved us considerably over both the short run and long run.”
Looking ahead, Keystone plans to implement a voice component that will link all of the locations and field service personnel to the phone switch at the main office via the wireless connection. “This will allow our field salespeople to talk live online with the customer service center and stone plant at the same time, and if necessary with personnel in South Carolina,” Cleveland says. “The hardware and bandwidth are already in place—TuWay built a system that not only meets our needs today, but also allows us to expand upon it in the future.”
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