The role an agency can play internally to solve information needs was highlighted recently with Faith’s development of a new web-based app for Recycal. Their scrap metal business relies on collecting and recycling of supplied scrap via contractors and merchants. From Recycal’s point of view it’s important to correctly weigh and classify scrap into what can and can’t be recycled. The Recycal weighbridge is a high traffic area with trucks bringing scrap and others leaving the site after processing. Large containers and bins of scrap need to be weighed and classified as to their suitability for recycling. Getting the right quantities of recyclable scrap and paying suppliers correctly is an important issue for the company.

Working with their internal team, Faith developed a web-based app that extended the video camera system to ensure different angles of ‘transported scrap’ could not only be weighed, but could be photographed and recorded to the assigned delivery docket. Faith wrote a program that allowed a ‘grader’ to take receipt of the load and to physically inspect, as well as review the photos, of the types of scrap that had been received to ensure the load was meeting recorded specifications and was in alignment with what Recycal should be buying.

Faith also ensured, by working with MYOB, that the recorded information, and any changes could interface with the accounting system to correctly record weights and quality of loads. The photos taken were also catalogued and retained for later retrieval, should there be any question from the customer on the quality of the scrap supplied. The new system was also integrated with the weighbridge software to complete the audit trail.

The new system was also applied to outgoing deliveries of processed material. The results to date have been encouraging and the system has now been tested across Recycal’s ‘ecocycle’ business.