THE DEFINITIVE TRUCKING SITE

June 2009

There are few supply chains involving trucks that are as time-critical as those servicing the sugar industry. Southern Africa has some seventeen sugar mills producing over three million tons of sugar every year. Achieving these volumes requires a well coordinated supply of raw sugar cane from farms in KZN, the Eastern Cape and Swaziland by truck to the mills. Historically, this process has been far from efficient, with loaded trucks queuing at respective mills for hours, or mills standing idle because no raw material has been delivered. But times have changed, thanks to FREDD and the FM300 Communicator. 

According to supply chain consultancy, Crickmay and Associates, “sugar cane in southern Africa is delivered from over 10 000 growers to designated sugar mills where it is weighed in the mill yard, offloaded and conveyed into the mill for crushing. The cane is transported by more than 484 different transport companies, operating over 1 492 individual vehicles. These range from large scale commercial operators such as Unitrans and Cargo Carriers to smaller commercial transporters, or even growers who transport their own sugarcane to the mills. 

In recent years, a ‘live’ supply chain management software package called FREDD that monitors suppliers, schedules trucks and provides process control to the sugar mill has effectively turned the local sugar industry around by ensuring every mill gets what it needs when it needs it, and trucks are not kept standing for too long in the mill yard. 

FREDD development began in Australia in the 1990’s and was initially designed to take pressure off sugar mill weighbridge clerks. The software mimics the decision-making processes of the best of the sugar mills’ manual schedulers. 

Introduced into the SA sugar industry by bulk supply chain improvement specialists, Crickmay and Associates, FREDD can run completely on its own or be integrated with FM systems to enhance certain components, for example, enabling real-time checking of the progress of trucks against their instructions and automatically adapting future plans and processes accordingly to deviations. 

“FREDD significantly minimises transport costs through real-time monitoring of vehicle performance and sugar cane stock modules and even a factory process control system to adjust the crush rate according to the actual real-time supply pattern. This increases the supply chain management’s confidence in the whole chain's ability to deliver sugar cane reliably in a just-in-time (JIT) fashion to the mill,” says Ryan Giles, supply chain specialist, Crickmay and Associates. 

According to Jan van Niekerk, Supply Chain Manager, Darnall Sugar Mill: "Prior to FREDD, we used to operate with as many as 23 trucks in the holding yard and seven in the mill. I never thought I would be comfortable with only three trucks in the mill." 

The implementation of FREDD in the Southern African sugar industry has been an unprecedented and massive undertaking. FREDD is currently running in four mills in two countries, operated by three very different milling companies, namely Tongaat Hulett, TSB Sugar and Royal Swaziland Sugar Cooperation. 

A few key people from industry bodies such as the South African Sugar Research Institute (SASRI) and South African Cane Growers’ Association (SACGA) and from the local mill leadership have been intimately involved. However, it is Crickmay which has, in reality, driven this project and in the process, managed to change an entire industry. 

“Since 2006 when the FREDD process began in South Africa, the turnaround times have reduced from around 2 hours to 0.7 hours per delivery, equating to a 67 percent reduction in just two years. The cost savings for growers and hauliers from the FREDD Project in 2008 emanating from the reduced mill turnaround alone are estimated conservatively at over R12.7-million per annum at one mill alone. And that’s just the start of it,” says Giles. 

If that doesn’t help ‘trim the fat’, the mill ‘no-cane-stops’ (crusher downtime due to non delivery of raw sugarcane) have also been significantly reduced thanks to FREDD. 

“The no-cane-stops at one Tongaat Hulett Mill decreased by more than 50 percent from 1 369 hours to 636 hours in the first year of FREDD operation. The savings associated with the reduction in mill stops accruing to the miller are estimated to be in excess of R14.7-million per annum,” states Giles. 

According to Giles, the power of the FREDD system is to ensure all role-players operate as a single unit with a common goal rather than in a fragmented, independent and ultimately wasteful manner. “At the end of the day, a more efficient and profitable industry looks after all those who serve it - not least the haulier.” 

Educating transport controllers on the intricacies of integrated software.  A weighbridge operator at Maidstone Mill checks an incoming truck’s payload.  Crickmay and Associates have adapted the Australian-developed FREDD software to suit local conditions.

A Unitrans rig gets loaded in KZN FREDD determines how much each load is worth at the sugar mill weighbridge.  A mill transport controller tracks the movements of cane trucks using FREDD and FM systems like the Siemens VDO FM300 Communicator.

A flowchart highlights the functionality FREDD delivers.

Ryan Giles (left) and Andrew Crickmay of Crickmay and Associates reflect on the success FREDD has had in the local sugar industry.

A sweeter vehicle

A leading exponent in the rollout of FM systems in the sugar hauliage industry is Compass Fleet Management, a company based in KwaZulu-Natal that supplies and oversees the effective utilisation of the Siemens VDO FM Communicator Fleet Management system, supplied and developed by MiX Telematics (one of the many FM systems FREDD can integrate with). 

“The sugar industry has traditionally been very old school with the ‘I can run my fleet with a two-way radio and tacho’ type of approach. Due to the huge inefficiency we’ve identified, this as a niche market to explore and Compass Fleet Management now has five sugar mills using the FM Communicator on all vehicles,” says Ken Bailey of Compass Fleet Management. “We have even managed to convert Unitrans Sugar with 40 recent installations.” 

Behind this brisk adoption rate lies a sharp focus on driver motivation. With the FM system on-board computer installed in all vehicles, all drivers are informed of the ‘Inkosi yo Mgwaqo’ (King of the Road) driver performance programme in their native language (IsiZulu). Bailey explains. “All drivers sign a code of conduct and are introduced to the incentive scheme - which includes workshop and maintenance staff - and is based on increased tonnage delivery, loading times, revenue generated and fuel consumption reductions.” 

The FM Communicator produces a Scoring Report to measure overspeeding, over-revving, harsh braking, excessive idling, out-of-green-band driving and harsh acceleration, ultimately generating an overall percentage score. Mitigating factors such as mill shutdowns and rainy weather are taken into account to determine the success of individual drivers in meeting monthly targets for tonnage delivery and revenue generated. 

“Measuring our impact on fuel consumption has been a huge issue for Compass Fleet Management. We are always waiting for data from clients. The CANbus technology is not available on all trucks so this hasn’t had the impact we had expected. We have now secured the agency for a Fuel Management system that manages dispensing on the fuel bowser, imports card transactions from the fuel card companies and compares this with FM system data to produce variance reports as well as individual driver consumption figures,” explains Bailey. 

By implementing FM technology systems and incentive schemes, the sugar haulage industry now has a platform to build better cooperation between departments, stronger team spirit and healthy competition between drivers, says Bailey. 

“Drivers become self-regulating, taking ownership of and pride in their performance. Shift changes are more efficient because drivers want to get on the road quicker to achieve an extra load per shift and payloads are consistent with optimum tonnage. There is also a marked decrease in ‘dead’ kilometres and illegal stops. Turn-around times at loading zones are that much faster and there’s a general feeling of positivity within the working environment with everyone committed to achieving the best possible results,” he says. 

It’s a win-win for all.