Choctaw Renewable Services, a start-up based in Midland, Texas, plans to release a new solution next month for tracking tools on job sites, that provides wind farms, construction firms, oil and gas companies and other users with a truck to store tools, as well as the tools themselves, calibration services and an RFID system to provide visibility into where those tools are located—and when and how frequently they were used. The solution, known as the WindBed, and initially designed for the wind power-generation industry, will be available for leasing for three-, four- or five-year terms, according to Tony B. Sam, the company’s owner.
The RFID portion of the system—designed by WinWare and known as CribMaster—includes a handheld reader, a laptop computer stored in the cab of the WindBed, and ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) tags attached to each tool included in the vehicle’s storage area. Data regarding the tools, as well as each reading of the tags on those tools, is stored on software accessible to an end user via a password-protected Web site.
Sam, a Choctaw Indian with a long career in the oil industry, launched his company to provide a tool-storage solution for the oil and gas sector, as well as wind-energy job sites at remote locations. He is presently the VP of operations at Caza Petroleum and was previously a petroleum engineer at Chevron.
Sam says he was seeking a solution to the problem of tool loss at job sites, which can cost companies hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. For example, he says, wind farms—for which he initially developed the system—require maintenance crews to arrive at a farm and work several months at a time, testing and servicing equipment, using leased or company-owned tools. Tools invariably disappear, he explains, and by the time a project is over, there is no easy way to trace where or when they went missing. Individual tools can cost $6,000 apiece or more, he notes.
Several on-site tool-tracking solutions exist with regard to RFID technology, typically including a trailer loaded with tools, along with an RFID-enabled portal at the trailer’s door (see Tool Tracking Goes Mobile and Grunnarbeid Manages Tools With RFID). Choctaw sought an affordable, more nimble solution, however, in the form of a pickup truck or a similarly sized vehicle loaded with tools and parked at a construction or oil and gas site, or at a wind farm.
Choctaw researched one solution already on the market: Ford‘s Work Solution system, which includes a built-in RFID reader in the truck bed (see Ford Thinks It Has the Right Tool for the Job: RFID). However, Sam found that the solution would not read tags located in an enclosed truck bed. “It was only good for open bed trucks,” he states, which would not provide the tool security that users would require on a job site. Choctaw then met with WinWare, which manufactures the CribMaster RFID-enabled tool-management system. The two companies began developing a system earlier this year, utilizing a Motorola Solutions MC9090-G RFID handheld computer, a Panasonic Toughbook laptop and passive EPC Gen 2 UHF RFID tags from a variety of vendors.
With the WindBed system, users can select the specific make of vehicle that they need—a Dodge Ram, for example, or one of several similar vehicles made by Ford or General Motors—as well as the tools that will be required on a work site. In some cases, a user may need multiple trucks for a single site. The bed of the vehicle contains enclosed storage areas, including drawers and cabinets in which tools, such as wrenches, helmets, gloves, measuring devices and pumps, are stored. Each tool comes with an EPC Gen 2 tag glued or screwed onto it, and encoded with a unique ID number that is also stored in Choctaw’s Tool Tracker tool-management software—a version of CribMaster software. Linked to that RFID number is the tool’s serial number, as well as its description. A Toughbook computer is stored in the truck’s cab.
Upon arriving at a job site, a tool manager sweeps the handheld reader over every drawer or cabinet while opening it, in order to confirm which tools are present. The device captures each tool’s ID number and stores that information, along with the date and time. After completing this task, the manager plugs the handheld into the Toughbook and uploads that data to the Tool Tracker application running on the PC. If there is a Wi-Fi Internet connection, the Toughbook then transmits that information to the Tool Tracker software running on a server hosted by WinWare server.
When borrowing tools, an employee provides his or her own ID number or name, which can be input into the handheld. That tool manager then reads the ID number on the RFID tag of each tool being borrowed. That read event is also stored in the CribMaster software running on the server, as well as on the laptop.
Based on the amount of time that it has been checked out, a tool must be recalibrated, which requires sending it to a location where the service is provided. The CribMaster software tracks each tool’s usage, calculates when it will need to be recalibrated, and then sends a notice to the software user, indicating which tools need to be serviced, and by what date. The operator can then locate those particular tools using the handheld reader, remove them from the WindBed, and send them to Choctaw, which will replace each tool within 24 hours while the old one is being recalibrated.
The system offers other alerting options as well, Sam notes. For example, if an individual fails to return a tool at the end of the day, a notice will appear on the software running on the laptop once the truck’s operator accesses the software. If an inventory sweep of all returned tools is performed and specific items are found not to be present, the Tool Tracker software can issue an alert to e-mail addresses or cell phones of authorized personnel, thereby ensuring that a worker does not inadvertently leave some tools on the worksite due to not having realized they were unreturned.
“We’re offering WindBed as a turnkey solution,” Sam says. Choctaw Renewable Services will provide training courses for technicians to assist them in using the hardware and software. If companies prefer to utilize the software on their own database rather than access a WinWare-hosted server, that is possible as well, he says.
In the future, Sam predicts the system will be able to be used not only for inventory management, but also for maintaining a record of services provided at, for example, oil-well inspections that would require that specific tools be used, and that those tools, therefore, be checked out using the WindBed system. If specific tools are borrowed at particular times and dates, an electronic record could indicate whether a safety procedure was followed.
According to Sam, the WindBed will be leased for between $4,000 and $6,000 a month—depending on the vehicle used, as well as the tools chosen—including the truck, tools, RFID hardware and server access. The solution, he says, is expected to be made available for leasing within the next 30 days or so.