V O L . 4 • N O . 6GASES AND TECHNOLOGY

JANUARY/FEBRUARY • 2003

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RFID For Cylinder ManagementBiomass Gasification PromisesOvercoming Hydrogen-Bonding In FTIR SpectroscopyBulk Gases Offer Solutions

RFID For Cylinder ManagementBiomass Gasification PromisesOvercoming Hydrogen-Bonding In FTIR SpectroscopyBulk Gases Offer Solutions

JANUARY/FEBRUARY • 2006

V O L . 5 • N O . 1GASES AND TECHNOLOGY

We officially support and endorse the following major industry events:

January/February 2006

AbstractThe industrial gas companies use cylinders to deliver

gases to their customers. They make huge investment incylinders. The current process and systems are not ableto meet all the requirements of cylinder management sys-tems. The RFID enabled cylinder management systemswould help improve productivity, as well as improve thequality, reliability and efficiency of the cylinder manage-ment process, thus making an investment in cylinder management worthwhile. This paper described how RFIDtags can be used for various applications in cylindermanagement.

IntroductionIndustrial gases play a vital role in the operations of

manufacturing, electronics and healthcare industries.These gases are delivered to the customers throughpipelines, tankers and cylinders. Gases supplied throughcylinders include oxygen, nitrogen, argon, Ar-CO2 mix,hydrogen, CO2, etc. Gas companies may own up to mil-lions of cylinders that move across the supply chainthrough different channel partners—warehouses, deal-ers, customers and back to facto-ries for refilling. As each regularcylinder costs between $150 and$200, the overall asset value is very high.

Considering the fact that thepackaged gas business consists ofmany different kinds of gases beingsupplied to a large base of frag-mented customers, the product life-cycle of cylinders becomes extreme-ly complex; there are just too manyproducts, partners, assets and vari-ables which are part of running thiskind of business. For example, the company has toensure that the cylinders are correctly tagged and sup-plied to the right customer; empty cylinders must bereturned to the correct company for refilling.

All through this process, the ownership of the cylin-ders still lies with the companies themselves and theyhave to make sure that the cylinder that leaves the plant

comes back to the factory safely and in proper conditionafter passing through different channel partners. Sincethe cylinder supply chain is so complex there are losses;an average company loses 1% of cylinders.

All through the supply chain process, cylinders needto undergo periodic hydrostatic tests, and the mainte-nance schedule and record of each cylinder deliveredneeds to be maintained for safety and regulatory reasons.In the subsequent sections, we will try to examine thecompressed gases business and the importance of cylin-der management in greater detail.

A typical cylinder lifecycle is shown in Figure 1. Thecylinder life cycle includes: new cylinder procurement;cylinder (empty, filled and used) storage; filled cylindertransportation and delivery; used cylinder pick-up; cylin-der maintenance; and cylinder disposal.

Figure 2 shows the cylinder supply chain. The follow-ing is the cylinder movement flow across its supply chain:

1. The empty cylinders from the warehouse are inspect-ed for valve replacement, painting or other routinemaintenance-related work before being sent for filling.

2. Based on the daily order reportgenerated every evening by theCustomer Service Center (CSC),production is planned and thecylinders are filled.3. After filling, the cylinders aresorted manually and sent to thefilled-cylinder yard.4. The dispatch officer receivesthe daily order schedule from CSCin the morning and prepares thedispatch plan for the day.5. As per stock of the filled cylin-der, the dispatch officer arranges

for deliveries to the customer.6. The allocated filled cylinders are loaded onto trucks

for dispatch.7. The driver delivers the filled cylinders, picks up the

empty ones, prints the delivery note and proceeds tothe next customer.

8. After finishing the deliveries, the truck returns to the fac-

Gases&TechnologyFEATURE

RFID for Industrial Gas CylinderManagement

A T U L A G R A W A L A N D Y O G E S H S H E N D E

The benefits and usage of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags can meet allthe requirements for a cylinder management system

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Existing systems cannot accurately trackthe individual cylinder’smovement from the time

it is commissioned,through its lifecycle.

tory, the cylinders are manuallycounted, sorted and stored in anempty cylinder warehouse for thenext filling.

9. The driver gives the cylinder pickup/unload data for each cus-tomer to the warehouse officer.The officer uploads the data tothe system for the individual cus-tomer.

10. Bills are prepared based on thedata uploaded by the warehouseofficer.

Issues and ChallengesThe basic problem with the exist-

ing system lies in the fact that it can-not accurately track the individualcylinder’s movement from the time itis commissioned, through its lifecy-cle. There is no system that tracksthe individual cylinder movement as it flows through the supply chain partners. This inability of current systems can lead to the fol-lowing issues:

1. It is not possible to track an indi-vidual cylinder’s utilizationrecord. A cylinder may keep lyingin the filled cylinder warehousewithout being used.

2. Many times, it is difficult to differ-entiate between customer-owned,dealer-owned and company-owned cylinders.

3. The damage/pilferage of a cylindercannot be identified and attrib-uted to a specific customer ordelivery.

4. It is not possible to locate individ-ual cylinders lying with cus-tomers. The company may realizethat some cylinders are missingbut they cannot track the cylinderlocation.

5. The maintenance/testing record-keeping of cylinders becomesextremely tedious as it requiresmanual inspection and updating.The existing system requires everycylinder to be checked manuallyfor its hydrostatic/corrosion test-

ing due date, which is a time con-suming task.

6. The current system results in dis-crepancies in customer’s andcompany’s cylinder holdingrecords because of manual count-ing and human errors in commu-nication.

7. Cylinder audit or census isextremely difficult as companieshave to dig up records to locatethe company-owned cylinders.

8. Many times the cylinders whichare condemned, or identified aslost or stolen are not reported inthe system, which leads to inaccu-

racy in records.9. Many times the dealers/distribu-

tors indulge in malpractices whichare difficult to track in the presentsystem, as cylinders are notuniquely tagged and their infor-mation can be manipulated.

10. The accounting procedure in thepresent system is time consumingsince the dispatch and warehouseofficers have to upload the recordof each customer manually afterdeliveries. This may also result inerrors that are difficult to track.

11. The present system does notoffer a fool-proof check for pre-

January/February 2006

Gases&TechnologyFEATURE

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Figure 2. Gas Cylinder Business—Process Flow

Figure 1. Cylinder Life Cycle

venting the wrong gas to be filledin the cylinder. This is a majorsafety issue.

Moreover, the information aboutthe cylinders is dispersed in multiplesystems depending on the supplychain step in cylinder movement. Theasset management system might con-tain the information about the cylin-ders owned by a company (as theassets) as well as the maintenancerecords of the cylinders. The informa-tion concerning the filled cylinders inwarehouses might be maintained inthe production and inventory controlsystems. The information related tocylinder delivery, pick-up or transitmay be maintained in the logistics sys-tems.

Thus the current manual or semi-automated systems may result inerrors and have an economic impacton the company operations. A compa-ny may not have accurate visibility ofproductivity per cylinder. Theaccounting discrepancies may resultin dissatisfaction among customers.Overall a company has a huge invest-ment in cylinders but may not haverequisite information to optimize and

utilize that asset.We believe that industrial gas com-

panies would benefit by a cylinder

management system in which RFIDenabled cylinders can be identifiedand tracked during their entire lifecycle.

RFIDRFID is a data collection technol-

ogy that uses electronic tags to storeidentification data along with a wire-less transmitter and/or reader tocapture it. An RFID tag is the size of

a postage stamp and has containedwithin it, a minute microprocessorwith storage capability, as well as anantenna that communicates with thenetwork and ultimately a database.The characteristics of RFID allow itto be easily adopted and integratedwith any object that can be tagged—even living beings.

Production and WarehouseManagement

An RFID read/write tag can beconveniently attached to the cylindercollar or neck. It can hold informa-tion about the cylinder as a uniqueitem: the product code; testing sta-tus; testing schedule; the date of lastfilling; the customer code; and otherrelevant information like what thecylinder contains once it is filled.

A cylinder filling station handles awide range of cylinders having differ-ent product assignments. An RFIDreader attached to a filler point canread the RFID tag on the cylinderand can ensure that a wrong cylinderis not used. The filled cylinders canalso be tracked in the warehouse. Atthe time of dispatch, the filled cylin-ders can be accurately identified anddispatched using RFID tags. The dis-patch information can be updated onthe RFID tags as well as in the cylin-der management system. RFID canhelp in controlling the cylinderinventory, eliminate cylinder losses,reduce rental costs, allocate costs tocost centers and forecast futureneeds—all with minimum effort.

Customer Consumptionand Holding Monitoring

The individual customer’s con-sumption pattern can be convenient-ly monitored by using RFID. SinceRFID can record and store the exacttime of cylinder delivery and pickup, an analysis over a period of timefor an individual customer can helpin generating important reports forthat customer, such as their average

gasesand TECHNOLOGYTECHNOLOGY January/February 2006

The characteristics ofRFID allow it to beeasily adopted andintegrated with anyobject that can be

tagged—even living beings.

Gases&TechnologyFEATURE

Figure 3. Gas Cylinder Business—Process Flow

daily consumption, variations onspecific days, the average cylinderholding of the customer per month,the cylinder turnaround ratio forthat customer, etc. Such informationcan help in managing just-in-timedeliveries and the better utilizationof cylinders. Also, companies wouldknow the exact number of cylindersthe customer would be holding atany instant.

Cylinder RecordsFor safety reasons and regulatory

purposes, all gas companies need tokeep a maintenance record of cylin-ders, since these are high pressurecylinders handling different gases.An RFID tag attached to a cylindercan hold information about itsunique item number, which can becorrelated with cylinder procure-ment, movement, maintenance andtesting records. Thus, before anyprocess with the cylinder, data accu-rately identifying the cylinder andassociate past and present activityrecords can be checked, and eachcylinder life cycle can be accuratelytracked. This would enable one todeduce information like cylinder life,based on maintenance history, idletime, testing history, and corrosionrecords for each individual cylinder.

Cylinder Stock Taking One of the most frequent prob-

lems gas distributors, manufactur-ers and consumers come across arethe discrepancies between them inthe cylinder records, leading to com-mercial issues regarding cylinderholding and cylinder rental charges.Often, such problems arise frommanual errors in counting or recordkeeping while loading/unloading ofcylinders. At times, there may alsobe a mismatch between the numberof filled cylinders delivered andempty cylinders picked up from thecustomer. RFID can improve datareconciliation and result in imp-

roved credibility and customer satis-faction.

RFID Based CylinderTracking

A cylinder tracking system usingRFID will have different elements:

1. RFID read/write tags attached tocylinder collar/neck; these tagscan be attached to every newcylinder being procured. The tagsmay need to be maintained andreplaced a few times during thecylinder life cycle.

2. Tag reader devices that may bemobile or fixed at various loca-tions;

3. The software applications thatinterface with the reader are foritem identification, location iden-tification, movement tracking,information updates, etc. Suchsoftware applications would needto talk to or be part of businessprocess applications like ERP,Asset Management, Supply Chainand Logistics, etc.

There would also be additionalrequirements for networks, mobiledevices, application integration, etc.

Figure 3 illustrates the positionswhere RFID readers can be used tocapture and input the data pertain-ing to a cylinder. In the beginning, allthe cylinders are equipped withRFID tags. These tags may be read-only or read/write tags. The read-only tags have a unique tag code thatcan be linked to a cylinder itemnumber at the beginning of theprocess. The read/write tag will havethe cylinder item number too, andcan include the product code alongwith more dynamic informationsuch as filling pressure, date of fill-ing, etc. Additional data could beproduct properties as well as MSDSinformation.

An RFID tagged cylinder manage-ment application would work as fol-lowing:

1) An empty cylinder from a ware-house is read by a reader before itenters the filling station. The read-er reads the cylinder ID and theRFID supplies the maintenancestatus (for example the due dateof hydrostatic test for that cylin-der). The operator would get analarm if the cylinder is due fortesting and such a cylinder wouldbe sent to the workshop.

2) As the empty cylinder arrives at afilling point, the reader at the fill-ing point reads the tag ID orcylinder item number to ensurethat the correct cylinder is beingfilled.

3) Once the cylinder is filled, itmoves to an RFID writer pointwhere the additional informationlike date and time of filling, cylin-der pressure, etc. can be writtenon the RFID tag. The cylinder canthen move to the warehouse.

4) The inventory control systemwould have accurate informationabout the cylinders in the ware-house based on the filling stationas well as the dispatch data.Additionally, a moving reader canfacilitate periodic stock-taking inthe warehouse.

5) Based on the delivery orders andpriority reports generated by theCSC, the dispatch officer pre-pares a dispatch plan for thesupplies and uses an RFID writerto enter information such as cus-tomer code, date and time of dis-patch, truck number, and cylin-der count in the RFID tag, andinforms the shipping departmentto load the cylinders on the truckThe dispatched cylinder informa-tion can also be loaded onto themobile device carried by thetruck driver. The loaded truckcan proceed for delivery to thecustomers.

6) At a customer location, the driverunloads the cylinders corre-sponding to the delivery order byreading the cylinder tag. While

January/February 2006 gasesand TECHNOLOGYTECHNOLOGY

collecting empty cylinders, thedriver reads the cylinder tagswith his mobile device and cred-its the customer with the cylin-der. The driver makes a deliverynote for the customer and printsit through a portable thermalprinter that can be integratedinto the handheld mobile device.

7) The empty cylinder laden truckcomes back to the factory.During the cylinder unloading,the cylinder data can be read bythe readers and the warehousesystem can update the cylinderinformation by downloading theentire cylinder data captured inthe driver’s mobile device intothe in-house database.

ConclusionImplementing RFID will require an

investment in the tags themselves, inthe readers/writers and the software;additional investment is needed forcarrying out the project and integrat-ing the new system with existing IT systems.

However, in addition to all the ben-efits of using RFID outlined above,there are safety and complianceissues that can be considered in cal-culating a company’s ROI. Unlike barcoded cylinders, the rugged RFIDgives an alarm when maintenanceand testing is due, eliminating theneed to physically examine the cylin-ders. RFID also insures that the

wrong gas is not filled into the wrongcylinder and delivered to the wrongcustomer. This tracking systemenables better compliance with gov-ernment regulations regarding prod-ucts, product packaging and trace-ability and promises greater efficiencyin complying with future governmentregulations.

Atul Agrawal is PrincipalConsultant in the DomainCompetency Group of InfosysTechnology Limited. He can be contacted atAtul_Agrawal@infosys.com. Yogesh Shende is a Consultant in Domain Competency Group of Infosys.

gasesand TECHNOLOGYTECHNOLOGY January/February 2006

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