TRUCK IN, TRUCK OUT - SUSTAINABILITY IN, CARBON FOOTPRINT OUT!

We are in the digital age. Even “analog” businesses such as the oil and gas, chemical, or material industries benefit from the incredible power hidden in the vast quantities of data produced and harvested every single day. 

We have put the wealth of data generated by our business to work through the novel initiative- Truck In, Truck Out (TITO)! 

The Backdrop:  

Historically, all the LPG movements, Inward and Outward, are recorded in a maze of manual registers. Each location of SUPERGAS used to maintain eight logs. We estimated that across our 17 Filling Plants/Terminals, our people manually fill up 30 million fields a year, investing in pen and paper!! Many of the fields are repetitive in nature. For example, the truck’s registration number, name of the driver, phone number and signature are repeated in these registers for the same movement. 

We thought, why not digitize this process? We can solve multiple problems in a jiffy like the below: 

• Huge manual work, 30 million entries are herculean by any standard 

• Tons of paper consumed and its storage as well  

• Compromised social distancing 

• Drivers’ signatures 

• Truck Driver’s mobility in the plants, carrying papers from one counter to the other counter/department 

• Poor trailing and tracking  

• Report generation in the Excel manually each evening 

At the beginning of 2020, we decided “we must change it” and aimed to digitalize this entire process.  

How did we go on with the decision? 

A task force was constituted, the process was chalked out, digital partners were identified with the help of our IT Team, observation visits were made to the filling plants, brainstorming sessions were organized with the stakeholders, and finally, (Phew!), the new process to be followed was rolled out.  

Some challenges were identified. A few of them would be- 

-Flameproof (Intrinsic Safe) computers for the Hazardous Zones.  

-Security guards and LPG operators would be required to operate the IT systems, and most of them have never worked on a computer till then!  

After addressing all the challenges, the pilot was successfully completed on the 12th of August 2020 at a filling plant near Hyderabad. It was heartening to see the Security Guards and LPG Operators using computers with enthusiasm. In fact, they were very appreciative of this process as it eased their work and saved them 90 minutes each day. Implemented at all 16 locations, TITO has helped save 600 KG of papers per annum along with valuable person-hours!  

In addition to getting rid of millions of manually entered repetitive fields, some valuable reports are available with the click of a button, like Truck Servicing Time in the plant, Truck Waiting Time outside the plant and many more.  

These reports help us measure and improve our productivity and enhance Customer Satisfaction Scores. What more does SUPERGAS want than smiles on the faces of our customers?