The Project: Perform a Complete Retrofit that Eliminates Errors

A global leader in logistics and courier services located at an airport hub was experiencing routine equipment failure as their SCADA environment would freeze, crash, stall, and disrupt operations on a nightly basis. In some situations, the IT team had to restart the server environment to get the system to function. 

They and the airport sort packages overnight between 11pm – 5am. So as soon as the planes land, the packages need to be taken off the plane, trucked to the facility, sorted, and placed back on another plane. All this needed to be completed before 5am so that planes could take off before 6am.  If the planes didn’t take off before then, it would disrupt commercial operations and they would be fined $100k per plane.

The old system causing delays combined with the large number of packages during peak season would routinely push them past that 6am deadline, resulting in hefty fines. They were hemorrhaging time, money and reputation by the day.

The Solution: Restructure, Update & Support an Aging System

Our team of automation integrators determined an overhaul of their operational infrastructure, and the addition of on-call support would be the best solution.

E Tech Group upgraded the server environment and the software, corrected major programming errors, and supported the SCADA environment.  These combined solutions eliminated the delays and fines. Due to the large scale and volume of the facility, E Tech Group worked in tandem with the client to provide continued support around managing the servers, operation updates, and providing 24/7 on-call support. 

The Results: Exactly Zero Delays Experienced Post-Implementation

Since implementing the 24/7 on-call emergency SCADA support, the client has never been delayed. 

The client was so pleased with the success of this upgrade and support contract that they have asked E Tech Group to tailor and scale this custom process automation solution across multiple US and European sites.