Automation of elevators and grain terminals

Manual maintenance of the grain terminal requires dozens of professional employees who must control the access of transport, the processes of arrival, loading and unloading, temperature conditions, product weight and many other parameters. All this creates a huge financial and personnel burden on the company, and therefore leads to an increase in prices for its services and a decrease in competitiveness.

Grain elevator automation software integrates with all terminal systems and performs tasks automatically, in real time. This helps optimize most of the company’s internal processes and reduce the number of employees to a few operators.

The elevator automation system can be represented as a single information space that serves all the company’s facilities, regardless of how far they are geographically distant from each other. It can consist of one or more software solutions that are seamlessly linked and act as a single engine, thanks to a single cloud data center and the use of a centralized database.

For example, the software package may include separate applications for inspection personnel, logisticians, drivers, systems for weight and size control, access control systems and others, depending on the needs of the business.

Consider the main functions that automation systems can perform:

• Collection and processing of data on various events in real time.

• Photo and video recording of plying vehicles on the territory of the enterprise, with reference to an electronic document.
• Automatic generation of weighing coupons.
• Direct printing of payment documents and protocols.
• Event identification and automatic reaction to various equipment failures.
• Formation of a flexible reporting system, with the possibility of further data export.
• Remote control and management of system components through a user-friendly interface.

Automation of the elevator operation is carried out in accordance with the technological routes and business processes of each individual company, so the functionality and capabilities of different software systems may differ.

As mentioned above, automation of the logistics of elevators and grain terminals can include a whole range of software solutions. Therefore, the choice of technology stack depends not only on the tasks that the software will perform, but also on the deployment platform:

• Web platform. To develop the frontend part, static technologies – HTML, CSS and JavaScript, or reactive – Vue.js and React.js frameworks can be used. The advantage of reactive technologies is that they are able to process part of the data on their own, without sending it to the server, which significantly speeds up the work of the software.

The implementation of the backend part can be built in different programming languages ​​and their frameworks: PHP and Yii2/Laravel, Python and Django/Flask, Java or the Node.js platform.

• Mobile applications. Such software solutions are installed directly on the user’s smartphone and work without using a browser. Native technologies can be involved in their production: for IOS – the Swift language, and for Android – Java / Kotlin. However, the Flutter framework and the Dart language are often the most preferred, with which you can create cross-platform applications that run on both operating systems.
• Desktop. Desktop software development is carried out in PHP and its Yii2/Laravel frameworks, as well as in Python and Django/Flask frameworks.

Software complexes for automating the operation of terminals are complex and highly loaded projects. The process of their development consists of several successive stages.

Stage 1. Gathering information

Before starting to develop a project, specialists perform an internal audit of the company, study its technological and business processes, and also hold discussions with the customer to determine his needs and expectations from future software.

Stage 2. Technical documentation and design

Technical documentation is the foundation that helps to create user-friendly and productive software.

At this stage, the strategic planning of the project is carried out: the technological stack is determined, the interface architecture is developed, and prototypes of individual software pages are created, with a description of the functionality placed on them.

Professional design helps make complex things simple and understandable for end users. This means that in the future the company will be able to significantly reduce the time for training and adaptation of personnel, as well as increase the productivity of their work.

After the formation of technical documentation, specialists calculate the time required for the implementation of such a project and determine the cost of work, which is subsequently agreed with the customer.

Stage 3. Design development

UI designers design the look and feel of software and are responsible for displaying it on different devices. A design can be created completely from scratch, but this is not always advisable, since there are many ready-made patterns and templates on the market that help to significantly speed up production without affecting the quality of the final result.

Stage 4. Implementation of the frontend part

The frontend is an external piece of software that acts as a link between the user and the backend. It receives requests from the client, partially processes them and sends them to the server, after which it displays the result in a readable format.

In the process of implementing the front-end, specialists use a design layout and transform it into a program code that is understandable for different operating systems and platforms.

Step 5. Implementing the backend part

Backend is hosted on a remote server and is responsible for all internal processes of the terminal automation system. At the production stage of this part, developers write the program code that determines the logic of the functionality, create databases and perform all the necessary integrations with third-party services through APIs.

Step 6. Testing

When the technical development is completed, the specialists need to make sure that the software works without errors and in the way it was intended at the planning stage. To do this, the project is transferred to the QA department, where it undergoes thorough testing.

If problems are found, a bug report is generated, after which the software is returned for revision. After corrections are made, retesting is performed to make sure that the error has indeed been fixed.

Step 7. Maintenance and development

After putting the automation system into operation, work on its development does not stop.

This is due to the fact that after the start of the practical application of the software, users can discover hidden errors that were not noticed at the verification stage. In the event of such situations, developers quickly identify and eliminate the cause of the problem.

In addition, the business is constantly evolving and over time it may need to develop new functionality or improve existing ones. The important thing is that for this the company will not have to order the creation of new software. In this case, developers can implement a separate patch with the necessary updates, which will be quite easy to install into the current system without interrupting its work for a long time.

Creating effective software solutions for automation of elevators requires not only high expertise of developers, but also an understanding of the internal processes of this business. AVADA MEDIA specialists have all the necessary skills and are ready to apply their experience to implement your project.

By ordering the development of a software package in our company, you can automate most of the technological processes, including transport access control, temperature monitoring, the creation of an electronic queue for loading and unloading products, and document management. This will help increase the economic efficiency of your business and reduce the costs associated with organizing the work of a large number of staff.