Tracking what’s purchased, what’s in stock, and what’s shipped has long been a priority task for the custom software used by recycling facility operators.
This task remains a key priority for recycling software users, but it has been joined by at least two other critics as executives and managers increasingly demand their custom software: 1) recyclers’ ability to quickly share accurate information with sellers and buyers and 2) ensure that their buying and handling operations comply with a number of laws or regulations related to their business.
Software vendors have updated existing features and introduced new ones to meet this growing set of demands in an effort to retain and grow their market share in a competitive field.
Access Abundance
Workplace restrictions caused by efforts to halt the spread of the COVID-19 virus have provided a critical example of why remote access to a company’s stored information can be a huge security factor. and productivity.
Increasingly, according to vendors and recyclers, this flow of information must include not only the employees of a recycling organization, but also suppliers of scrap materials, transport companies and buyers of processed scrap.
Understanding inventory items now goes beyond internal organizational communication, said Jimmy Martin, CEO and co-founder of Irish company AMCS. recycle today for a 2019 article.
“Real-time transparency of what’s in the field and what’s in your overall system can deliver real benefits on the sell side of recycling operations,” Martin said. “It allows you to capitalize on market opportunities.”
Quick access to this information is important, added Martin. “There is also a growing advantage for operators who are digitally enabled. The streamlining of the interaction between you and your customers and you and your consumers is huge. We do this every day. This is a strategic investment area for us.
Shared Logic, based in the United States, claims to have created applications that allow employees of scrap processing customers “to easily import images to justify upgrades or adjustments”.
Shared Logic customers like scrap metal company Padnos say it adds to their transparency with customers, according to a 2020 promotional article for Shared Logic prepared by recycle today.
21st Century Programming, also based in the United States, says its Infinite Dispatch ROM feature enables the management and monitoring of dispatches, drivers, equipment and customer activity, enabling “instantaneous communications between dispatchers, drivers and customers.
As described by the company in a September 2020 announcement, “The underlying hybrid cloud platform [of ROM Infinite Dispatch] requires no customer management and provides instant cloud backup and synchronization, end-to-end encryption, optional on-premises servers that can keep running when the internet goes down and more.
Complicated compliance
As metal prices have skyrocketed through higher cycles over the past 20 years, law enforcement has passed laws designed to identify metal thieves and their stolen goods from the scales.
These laws, along with fraud schemes created to undermine deposit systems for certain recyclable packaging, have created an additional set of responsibilities for software vendors to take on.
Cameras, scanners and data collection processes have joined inventory tracking and accurate pricing as priorities for custom software used by recycling companies.
A session at the ISRI2021 online convention, hosted by the Washington-based Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), focused on responses from law enforcement, recyclers and their suppliers regarding a recent surge theft of catalytic converters.
Anecdotes and statistics on converter theft, along with subsequent news of more states passing converter anti-theft laws, seem to demonstrate that recyclers can expect more anti-theft compliance action in the future. .
US-based ScrapRight claims to have encoded “built-in rules” into its software that “intervene when a material is subject to compliance requirements. Visual cues appear on screen when a ticket is compliant or non-compliant,” according to the company.
In May 2020, as COVID-19 began to affect the workplace, ScrapRight changed its vendor ID system to “promote contactless ID scanning for retail scrap transactions” via a newly available feature through the company’s current app.
As with converter theft, the California Redemption Value (CRV) system for recyclable cans and bottles in that state made headlines for the wrong reasons in 2021, with six people arrested in April of this year for alleged involvement in a fraudulent scheme involving out-of-state containers brought to California for exchange.
A US-based software vendor offered to recycle today in 2020 that improvements to the custom software used by recyclers can help provide a solution.
CEO Stacy Duty of True Cloud ERP said at the time, “Our company is developing a cloud ERP [enterprise resource planning] solution that would allow the entire state to use a cloud-based solution that would allow every California resident who recycles to track their recycling and participate in rewards programs that add to the fun of recycling.
The system envisioned by TrueCloud “enables electronic payments and would allow the state to begin tracking the provenance of containers while helping recycling centers stay in full compliance.” Adds Duty, “Using this solution would drop bags like [neighboring state] Oregon did, so families wouldn’t have to wait in line. It enables electronic payments and would allow the state to begin tracking the provenance of containers while helping recycling centers stay in full compliance.
Whether it’s more effective supply chain communication or deeper compliance, custom recycling software vendors are ready to continue designing solutions to ever-changing industry challenges. .
