Equipment Report

Taking Tech Further

Wayne Lanham, president of Texas Metals & Recycling (TMR), Abilene, Texas, has no pretensions about the scope of his business. "We’re a real mom and pop shop!" he says.

He also says the company long ago obtained some benefits from the computerization of its accounts. Now, TMR is computerizing its scale operations and the management of the resulting information.

"With the wild swings in today’s markets, we need to know how much material we have, how much money we have in it and where it is at any given time" says Lanham. The company opted for a software package put together by Mayer Information Technology, Toronto. "Mayer has allowed us to micro-manage our yard accurately with a whole lot less effort."

TMR’s priorities for software, Lanham says, included looking for a comprehensive system at a low cost that could be installed quickly and that required minimal training time and disruption.

"In today’s scrap yard, you must have a multitude of information at your fingertips so you can react to market conditions as needed," he says. "[The new system] allows you to allocate all of your costs in a given item that you buy. This gives you the ability to come up with break-even numbers for each item you handle and to adjust the buying price so you can keep a certain profit margin of each item. Mayer did the whole job to get us up and running in five days and within an affordable budget, taking into account that we wanted more than one user on the system."

Texas Shredder Offers Monitor System

Texas Shredder Inc., San Antonio, has announced a new affiliation with two technology companies to produce and market the Hawkeye production management system.

The Hawkeye, designed in cooperation with K.A. Wing, and SRS Ltd., is designed as a management tool to monitor all critical data related to the shredder process.

According to a Texas Shredder news release, "The system will document and analyze pertinent data to better allow the shredder plant to increase production, reduce downtime and overall costs"

The memory can record and display data for up to 15 years, allowing management to review both historic data and current conditions at remote locations. Information can be displayed and kept in various forms, (bar-graph, circular, etc.) for review at any time.

Two Hawkeye systems are scheduled to be operational in the first quarter of 2002, according to Texas Shredder.

GBB Picked by Philadelphia

Gershman, Brickner & Bratton Inc. (GBB), Fairfax, Va., has been retained by the City of Philadelphia to identify and implement changes to its solid waste services.

According to a GBB news release, the company will review the current services being offered, will help create a business plan to implement a fee-for-service structure for non-residential generators served by the City and will oversee the bids for new long-term transfer and disposal contracts.

Philadelphia’s Sanitation Division provides recycling collection and processing services, as well as solid waste services, to more than 500,000 households generating more than 750,000 tons of waste and recyclables per year.