Novel RFID Application Keeps Water Flowing

"We all deal with the human element," Jones says. "There's the moving of water from a spring site—if that is part of the supply chain—to the bottling operation, then the bottling of the water, then moving the bottles to the customer. At any point, things can go wrong. Our score cards end up being very poor in terms of being able to provide service—having the product there when it should be there, and having it available at all times. Spring Water On Tap is going to overcome the faults in [water] delivery—and technology, that's the way to go."

Percy decided early on that the first order of business would be to eliminate the typical five-gallon jugs used by many water delivery services. The jugs are sterilized and reused numerous times, then end up in landfills. Instead, Spring Water On Tap intends to install 65-gallon tanks at its customer sites, then refill them using a truck that delivers the water when necessary.

Still, Jones knew the human element—deciding when to deliver the water—would affect service. Therefore, he decided to approach AT&T to come up with a plan. "I knew nothing about sensors," he states. "But as we began to examine the possibilities, with the help of AT&T, it all began to make a whole lot of sense."

Not only will the sensors and wireless communications help ensure customers' tanks never run dry, Jones says, the solution will also "play a huge role on our bottom line." Rather than simply dispatching trucks filled with water, he explains, "we'll know the truck is carrying product that will be delivered, because we'll already have all the numbers the data has provided for us. We'll know that Tank #10 is a 65-gallon tank and is down to 20 gallons. We'll know, when we dispatch trucks, exactly the amount of water we need to put on those trucks. And the trucks won't return to our yard with any inventory that we'd have to then dump out. We'll have no waste."

Spring Water On Tap plans to begin beta testing in Atlanta next month, and to employ 1,000 tanks as part of the pilot. "We needed a strong beta program," Jones says. "One thousand units will give us enough data and feedback to build out thousands and thousands of these tanks and sensors." Eventually, the company plans to expand elsewhere in Georgia, as well as Louisiana, Texas and Florida.