Morral Companies Chose Murray Equipment, Inc. to Automate New Chemical Loadout Facility
THE PROBLEM
Morral Companies COO, Dan HempyMorral Companies, one of America’s largest fertilizer companies, located in Morral, OH was experiencing an increase in demand for its chemical products. This new growth was causing logistical concerns which prompted the building of a new chemical loadout facility.
During growing season, time is limited. COO of Morral Companies, Dan Hempy explained, “We needed to get drivers in and out as efficiently as possible. We had a lot of vehicles sitting around waiting to get product, and a lot of unnecessary overtime as a result.” They needed a new facility to improve productivity. Ultimately, they simply wanted to better service their customers.
This wasn’t the only issue that Morral Companies faced. “It just wasn’t safe,” Hempy recalled. “The increased traffic not only equated to long waiting times, the added congestion meant an accident was waiting to happen.” They needed to move the crop protection equipment to its own area. Fortunately, they had the land onsite to do so.
Morral Companies is located near the community of Morral, OH. They wanted to ensure that by building this new facility, they could uphold their policy of maintaining community and customer trust through the responsible handling of chemicals. To do this they planned to leverage the latest technology.
THE SOLUTION
Morral Companies contacted Murray Equipment, Inc. (MEI), a leading supplier of liquid handling equipment in North America, to design a new automated chemical loadout facility. Murray Equipment supplied the liquid handling equipment (tanks, meters, pumps, valves, hoses, etc.) as well as the automation controls.
Dan stated, “We chose Murray because they aren’t just programmers, they know how to handle crop chemicals.”
The facility features two loadout bays which are run by a touchscreen automation panel with a split screen. This approach allows for easy management of both bays simultaneous during peak season. The operator simply selects the amount of product desired and fills the driver tanks, creating product with minimum error and time.
THE RESULT
Through automation, Morral Companies aims to increase efficiency while maintaining its commitment to the service and safety of its employees, customers, and community.
The new automated loadout system practically eliminates the chances of errors such as incorrect chemicals, or inaccurate quantities. Also, less time employees spend in line means more progress elsewhere.
“We were able to expand our company with the existing personnel.” Dan Hempy shared. “We not only avoided training new hires, the automation equipment is so easy to use, employees needed very little training.”
Companies are often concerned about the disruption a new facility brings to both operations and a community. As Dan puts it, that’s exactly their reasoning for the expansion. “This new system allows us to improve working conditions for our employees, to ensure we continue to offer our customers the same level of high customer service, and at the same time, to maintain our responsibilities to our community.”
He added, “Our business is built on trust – trust with our employees, customers, and community – all of which will continue with thanks to this new facility.”
