Pro-Treat Intelligence Catches Errors Before They Happen

Pro-Treat Intelligence Catches Errors Before They Happen

Sometimes, operators need an assistant so alert that it will speak up to help prevent errors even before they happen.

That’s where Pro-Treat Books’ Intelligence comes in.

Pro-Treat Intelligence is a new feature of Dolphin Bay’s Pro-Treat digital treatment books, which alerts plant operators when their treatment process moves outside of certain set parameters.

“To give one example: when operators enter the wood preservative’s solution strength in a charge sheet, they could accidentally input a completely wrong figure,” explained Dolphin Bay’s Wayne Driemeyer. “It could be a typo, a misplaced decimal point, or simply a wrong number; regardless, if such mistakes happen, Pro-Treat Intelligence will pick them up in real time.

“Let’s say that the solution strength should range between 40 and 60 grams per litre. We can go into Pro-Treat Intelligence and set those parameters. Then, if the operator enters a value that’s outside of those limits, Pro-Treat will pop up with an alert. The operator can then either go back and correct their formulation, or – if they have intentionally entered those values – they can override the alert and proceed with the treatment.”

Timber treatment is a delicate science, and mistakes can – and do – creep in. If you’ve ever dialled a wrong number on a telephone or misspelt an email address, you’ll know how easily mistakes can happen.

Pro-Treat Intelligence is backed by a powerful artificial intelligence (AI) engine, which allows the system administrator to ask questions about the plant’s treatments, formulations, and so on.

“If the operator enters a value that’s outside of the pre-set limits, the Pro-Treat system will pop up with an alert.”

“I like to think of it as ‘ChatGPT for Pro-Treat’,” said Wayne. “And because use it’s AI, it’s learning all the time. The more questions that it’s asked, the more it learns, and the better insights and feedback it provides.”

Given the many opportunities for error in the treatment process, Pro-Treat Intelligence is already proving its value, Wayne said. “We’ve had several incidences where the warning system has helped operators pick up errors that they’ve made inadvertently. They were then able to correct the mistakes before carrying on.

“I monitor Pro-Treat all the time from a Dolphin Bay perspective, and I’m seeing fewer and fewer errors coming into the system from our customers’ plants. I can only ascribe that reduction to these alerts that the operators are getting.”

Wayne said that the feedback from Dolphin Bay’s Pro-Treat customers has been very positive, due to the higher accuracy of the treatment process, reduced undertreatment – which would result in severe quality problems – and reduced overtreatment, which would waste wood preservative.

“One of our South African customers who used an Excel system for many years, recently moved onto Pro-Treat, and the business owner herself is now running Pro-Treat to make sure that all the data is captured correctly. She says that it’s highlighted a few errors in their old system.”

Such stories highlight why Dolphin Bay launched Pro-Treat in the first place.

Said Bertus. “With Pro-Treat, our aim from the start was to help our customers’ operators to treat more accurately, so that their plants could run as efficiently as possible, and they could become more productive and profitable.

“To our delight, our vision is starting to materialise.”

Source: Dolphin Bay