Grain Journal - July/August 2008 - (Page 62) CASE STUDY Automated Receiving ILLINOIS TERMINAL USES SMARTTRUCK SYSTEM TO UNLOAD OVER 900 TRUCKS PER DAY When Johnson Grain LLC opened a new rail-loading terminal east of Waverly, IL in 2004 (217-435-2361) with a few upright tanks and a 7,800-foot loop track alongside a Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) main line, volume was the name of the game. Four years later, volume is still the name of the game, and if anything, the scale is bigger than it was in 2004. To start with, some of the Prairie State’s best farmland can be found within a 25-mile radius of Johnson Grain. Given decent weather during the growing season, yields of 200 bushels of corn per acre or more are not uncommon. A sizeable percentage of that grain funnels through the Johnson Grain terminal, which has become one of the largest suppliers of corn to the Texas Panhandle, home of vast cattle feedlots. Johnson Grain supplies about 20% of the region’s corn. The facility, in turn, has grown to handle the demand. Today, the site has 8.5 million bushels worth of grain storage, 7 million of which is in one of the largest covered flat storage buildings in the state. In addition, the company added a 2million-bushel temporary storage ring in 2007. During the 2007 harvest, reports President Jay Johnson, the facility at times unloaded more than 900 semi-trucks per day, taking in roughly 850,000 bushels. Workers at Johnson An inbound truck approaches the probe station at the Johnson Grain LLC rail terminal outside Waverly, IL. Here, a CompuWeigh SmartTruck RF reader will provide key data on the specific truck to the scalehouse operator. Photos by Ed Zdrojewski. “ The entire system increases our efficiency, since the driver never has to come into the office to receive the ticket.” -Jay Johnson, Johnson Grain LLC Grain also loaded a pair of back-toback BNSF 110-car shuttle trains in less than 27 hours. Role of Automation Johnson comments that handling this level of volume would not be possible without a high degree of automation throughout the facility. Response No. 621 62 GJ J/A http://www.ceecusout.com http://www.rufco.com http://www.rufco.com
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