Discover how Bridgemeter's predictive monitoring revolutionizes gas cylinder management, reducing costs, optimizing routes, and increasing safety.
Imagine a restaurant at the peak of a Saturday night, with customers eagerly awaiting chilled drinks and impeccable dishes. Suddenly, at a critical moment, the CO₂ in the cylinders that carbonate the drinks runs out, compromising the experience and frustrating the customers. Situations like this are not uncommon, and in sectors such as pharmaceuticals and healthcare, the lack of essential gases can cause severe losses, critical interruptions, and even put lives at risk.
These problems affect various sectors, such as bars, restaurants, the food and pharmaceutical industries, laboratories, and even fire suppression systems, where the absence of essential gases compromises vital operations.
It is in this scenario that Above-Net , with its Bridgemeter , positions itself as a strategic ally. Bridgemeter's predictive approach allows for intelligent monitoring and management of gas cylinders, drastically reducing the risk of shortages, lowering logistical costs, increasing safety, and promoting operational and economic efficiency.
Applications of Gas Cylinders in Power Plants
Gas cylinders play an indispensable role in various sectors. In bars and restaurants, CO₂ is essential for carbonated beverages, an element that enhances the customer experience. In the food industry, gases such as nitrogen and carbon dioxide (CO₂) ensure food preservation and aid the refrigeration process. In the hospital and pharmaceutical sectors, oxygen and other gases are vital for both patients and laboratory processes. Finally, in fixed fire suppression systems, CO₂ cylinders provide rapid and efficient fire extinguishing in critical areas.
The absence of these gases, in any application, compromises operations, generates serious risks, increases logistical costs, and causes significant losses, with a direct impact on the end customer and the performance of companies.
The Risks and Problems of Supply Shortages
Operations that rely on gas cylinders face serious consequences in case of interruptions. In bars and restaurants, a lack of CO₂ can result in the interruption of beverage service, harming the customer experience and compromising their trust. In the food industry, the absence of essential gases disrupts production processes, compromising the quality and safety of products. In hospitals, the unavailability of various gases puts lives and procedures at risk, while in fire suppression systems, the absence of CO₂ can lead to failure to control fires in critical areas, with potentially devastating consequences.
Therefore, efficient and precise management of gas levels is crucial to avoid these catastrophic scenarios. However, traditional methods of monitoring and manual recharging have proven ineffective in meeting current demands.
Marina Santos, manager of a large hospital , emphasizes: “In our sector, there is no room for error in supply. A failure puts lives at risk. It is a responsibility we cannot neglect.”
The Ineffectiveness of Traditional Refueling
Conventional gas cylinder refilling, usually based on customer calls or fixed schedules of visits with manual inspections, has significant limitations that compromise the efficiency and reliability of the operation.
- Lack of visibility of actual stock levels: Without continuous monitoring, gas levels are inaccurately assessed, which can lead to waste or, in more serious situations, critical failures due to lack of gas at crucial times.
- Unnecessary visits and inefficient logistics: The absence of predictive monitoring leads to frequent visits based on historical consumption estimates, increasing operational, logistical, and personnel costs, as well as generating avoidable environmental impacts.
- Unnecessary increase in customer inventory: To circumvent logistical failures, many customers resort to increasing the number of cylinders in stock. This stopgap solution demands more space, raises storage costs, and can be dangerous, especially in the case of flammable gases, in addition to frequently violating safety regulations.
- Human error and fluctuations in demand: Recharge forecasting can fail due to oversights or unexpected increases in consumption between inspections.
- Unidentified leaks: Without continuous monitoring, leaks can go unnoticed, resulting in financial losses and operational risks.
João Carvalho, owner of a restaurant chain, shares : “We’ve already lost important clients because we ran out of CO₂. Manual monitoring can’t keep up with the speed and demands of our business.”
These challenges make it clear that, to meet the growing demands for efficiency, reliability, and cost-effectiveness, it is essential to adopt more advanced, automated, and connected monitoring solutions capable of providing a safer, more agile, and sustainable operation.
Bridgemeter: The Most Reliable Solution for Gas Cylinder Management
Aware of the needs and specificities of each sector, Above-Net created Bridgemeter, a predictive and intelligent monitoring solution that redefines the traditional management of gas cylinders. Bridgemeter performs intelligent real-time monitoring of gas levels in cylinders, with the flexibility to adapt to the specific needs of each sector and application, guaranteeing unparalleled efficiency and reliability.
How does Bridgemeter work?
Bridgemeter offers precise measurements of cylinder gas levels, monitoring variations in level, tank pressure, network pressure, and consumption patterns. The data is transmitted in real time to customized dashboards, allowing users to track cylinder status, identify changes in consumption, detect leaks, and dynamically calculate range. Bridgemeter generates a daily or on-demand list of locations, prioritized for refueling.
This information enables intelligent logistics replenishment planning, eliminates waste, optimizes resources, and ensures a faster and more reliable service.
Furthermore, based on the perception of any potential change in operational patterns, the platform generates proactive alerts for the maintenance (or logistics) team about the problem, and how to address it with tasks and documentation for the client's installation.
Benefits of Bridgemeter for Gas Cylinder Management
With cutting-edge Industrial IoT technology, Bridgemeter offers a range of benefits that revolutionize gas cylinder management:
- Reduced Logistics Costs: Bridgemeter can eliminate up to 45% of unnecessary refueling visits, reducing travel, equipment, personnel, and operational expenses. This savings allows gas distributors to reallocate resources to strategic areas, increasing their profit margin and efficiency.
- Predictive and Real-Time Monitoring: Real-time readings and system intelligence ensure precise visibility of cylinder gas levels and dynamic range calculation based on historical consumption and recent pattern changes. This functionality allows for supply adjustments based on actual demand, eliminates the risk of shortages, and increases operational safety, especially in critical sectors such as hospitals, pharmaceuticals, industry, and food processing.
- Increased Safety: Leaks and other problems are detected based on operational behavior at intervals, reducing waste and mitigating risks to employees and the environment. In fire suppression systems, continuous monitoring ensures that cylinders are always ready for emergencies.
- Interoperability and Simplified Installation: Compatible with any sensor on the market, Bridgemeter integrates easily with the customer's existing systems. The quick installation, combined with the SaaS (Solution as a Service) model, eliminates the need for investments in expensive equipment.
- Intelligent Routing and Logistics Optimization: The solution automatically provides the coordinates of locations with prioritized supply provisioning, which, in conjunction with any routing system on the market, generates a periodic optimized route for supplying the points that truly need it.
- Advanced Data Control and Analysis: With comprehensive dashboards and intelligent alerts sent directly to smartphones, Bridgemeter empowers managers to monitor consumption, forecast demand, and make strategic decisions based on predictive analytics. This prevents critical failures and optimizes operations.
The Importance of Bridgemeters for Various Sectors
Bridgemeter transforms gas cylinder management, bringing significant benefits to a variety of applications:
- Bars and Restaurants:
- It ensures that carbonated beverages maintain their quality, preserving the customer experience and avoiding embarrassing situations.
- It eliminates the need for the customer to periodically check the stock levels of gases and beverage kegs.
- It reduces unnecessary distributor visits for restocking and ensures the necessary inventory with minimal space and security.
- Food Industry:
- It continuously monitors the gases used in food preservation.
- It eliminates the need for the customer to periodically check the gas stock level.
- It prevents interruptions in processes and the production line.
- It minimizes losses of perishable products.
- It reduces unnecessary distributor visits for restocking and ensures the necessary inventory with minimal space and security.
- Pharmaceutical and Hospital Sectors:
- It ensures an uninterrupted supply of essential gases.
- It eliminates the need for the customer to periodically check the gas stock level.
- It reduces risks for patients.
- It ensures the continuity of operations in hospitals and laboratories.
- It reduces the storage of spare cylinders above the permitted level, contributing to adherence to safety standards.
- Laboratories:
- It provides precise control over gas consumption.
- It eliminates the need for the customer to periodically check the gas stock level.
- It reduces losses and delays due to unexpected gas shortages.
- Enables planned restocking.
- It provides operational stability in critical procedures.
- Fixed Fire Fighting Systems (SFCI):
- Keeps cylinders always ready for use in emergencies.
- It eliminates the need for periodic checks of gas stock levels by the customer or the fire brigade.
- Ensures compliance with fire safety regulations regarding minimum gas storage levels.
- It increases security.
- It reduces the costs associated with frequent inspections.
“With Bridgemeter, we were able to optimize our supply routes in an amazing way. Before, we wasted resources on unnecessary visits and were slow to respond to emergencies. Now, with intelligent routing, we save about 45% on trips and reduce costs by R$ 5,000 per location annually. This efficiency not only improved our customer service but also had a significant impact on controlling operational costs.” – Carlos Mendes, Operations Manager at a large gas distributor.
Conclusion: The Future of Gas Cylinder Management
In a scenario where efficiency and safety are non-negotiable priorities, intelligent gas cylinder management has ceased to be merely a competitive advantage and has become a strategic necessity. Bridgemeter goes beyond modernization: it completely revolutionizes the process, providing total control, predictability, and a significant reduction in costs.
Want to discover how Bridgemeter can transform gas cylinder management in your operation? Download the free catalog “Intelligent Management of Gas Cylinder Measurement and Supply” and see how our technology can optimize your processes, reduce operating expenses, and raise your company's safety standards.
Application
Want to learn more about how Bridgemeter can revolutionize your company's gas supply management?
Download our free catalog now, “Intelligent Management of Gas Cylinder Measurement and Supply,” and discover how our Industrial IoT technology can optimize your logistics, reduce operating costs, and increase supply security.
Transform your gas cylinder management with cutting-edge solutions from Above-Net. Don't miss this opportunity to take your operation to the next level!
