By Roshmi Choudhury
Numaligarh, Assam
Petroleum retail outlets in the advanced countries are fully automated – the automation includes product dispensing and accounting, inventory accounting and management, product loss/gain calculation, online measurement of tank level and automatic invoicing. While it may not be possible to automate Retail Outlets in the North East to such an extent because integration with equipments would prove to be very expensive, yet some benefit is possible with software developed for the purpose.
All retail outlets store the products in tanks. A calibration chart comes with the installation of the tank. Currently the volume of product in the tank is calculated by measuring the dip and then referring to the tank calibration chart. For round numbers corresponding to the tank calibration chart, the measured volume is correct but this is seldom the case because the dip often measures with decimal places, and it is very cumbersome to calculate the volume manually when such interpolation is required. It is then that software becomes necessary.
The software will store the tank calibration chart in the database. All that the retail outlet operator has to do is to punch the dip; the software gives the volume of the product, which is very accurate. Also the amount of sales can be calculated on a day-to-day basis from the difference in the dispensing pump readings and the product price. This coupled with the receipt data and closing balance of the tank data, the loss or gain of a product can be calculated in the software. The retail outlet operator will have to do the following tasks- punch the measured dip in the software at the end of the day every day to get the closing tank balance, punch the sale price of the product per liter every day, punch the dispensing pump meter readings at the end of the day everyday & put in the receipt data only when product is received. Thus with this software inventory accounting of the petroleum products will become an easy task; all that it requires is a few punching of data and a few clicks.
For a dealer operated retail outlet this suffices, but for company owned company operated retail outlet the sales data should be transmitted over to the company, where it will possibly be integrated with the Enterprise Resource Planning software. This data is required for sales statistics & analysis, sale studies in different regions, etc. Whereas earlier it was not possible to do this with a single technology, today with the introduction of Microsoft .net technologies particularly Microsoft Visual Studio.net it has become possible, the technology supports mobile and is web enabled. Of course, a RAS dial-up or Internet dial access or leased lines will be required. Also now the software can be coupled with messaging service that will send an alert message like an SMS message when the stock level falls below the reorder level.
Today’s retail outlets are equipped with many value added services to attract customers namely a convenient store, a lube changing station, a car wash, a fast food shop, ATM services, etc. Using client server technologies with the database server residing in the back office, it will be possible to dump the sales data on the same database. The retail outlets will therefore be able to calculate the net profit from the sale of the petroleum products as well as from the value added services.
With companies like Reliance & NRL opening new retail outlets with value added services in the region and old outlets trying to keep up with modernization and IT solution providers of Assam seeking new businesses, an IT solution like this one will have a great value. The Company Owned Company Operated Retail Outlets will probably have their own software developed by their in-house IT team, the Dealer Operated Retail Outlets will have to do their own accounting and inventory management. The Dealer Operated outlets may have to submit updated stock and sales report to the Company as and when requested. Also the Company will be dispatching them products based on their sales. The company may also audit them periodically.
Roshmi Choudhury is a senior engineer at the Numaligarh Refinery, Assam
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