OnePlus celebrates 25 years in IoT with launch of WasteForce platform
There’s nothing like a blast from the past to put things into perspective, says OnePlus. On an unremarkable Spring day this year, a OnePlus Systems warehouse employee uncovered the below Waste Edge flyer. As OnePlus’ first ever marketing campaign, it dates back to the company’s beginnings in 1991.
Right outside Chicago is where the OnePlus story began and continues today. Back then, the company set out with a small team and bold vision; to create ground breaking monitoring devices that would transform the waste management industry. In 25 years, many things have changed at OnePlus but the founding vision has remained the same.
So, what was the OnePlus Waste Edge? In 1991, OnePlus began developing intelligent waste compactor monitoring devices, the Waste Edge series. Designed for any industry that used on-site waste compactors, the device remotely monitored compactor fullness levels and automatically notified haulers at the optimum collection time.
Remarkably, the Waste Edge may be the first example of a successfully deployed network of connected monitoring devices, which to date has saved companies tens of millions of dollars in unnecessary haulage costs.
Original OnePlus system
The term “the Internet of Things” was coined in 1999, eight years after the Waste Edge monitor was introduced, making OnePlus one of the first IoT companies. Focused mainly on developing waste monitoring hardware, it took some time before OnePlus software was introduced to compliment the Waste Edge series.
Fast forward and OnePlus is now a global provider of cutting-edge IoT Waste Management solutions with European operations in Dublin, Ireland, partners all over the world, and now 10x its original size.
Backed by ParkerGale, a private equity firm with 20 years’ experience investing in profitable technology companies, OnePlus today boasts over 700 clients and 27,000 deployed sensors, many of which monitor the waste of household name companies like Coca-Cola and Home Depot.
Over the years, OnePlus has developed and deployed a range of wireless waste monitors, vastly improved communication technologies, and built intelligent User Interfaces for clients. In May 2016 OnePlus acquired SmartBin, the Dublin‐based leader of intelligent monitoring of non‐compacting waste containers, creating a one-stop-shop of remote monitoring solutions for the world’s waste.
On an important week in the Waste Management calendar, OnePlus is making another profound leap for the Internet of Trash™, by unveiling the WasteForce platform at WasteExpo 2017. WasteForce is a dynamic cloud‐based software platform that provides valuable, customisable insights into compactor and container fullness, usage, and pick‐up frequency. In simpler terms, monitoring waste just got a lot smarter.
For waste generators and haulers alike, WasteForce is a control centre for waste operations, with key features including:
- Real time container fullness
- Map views of container locations
- Predictive filling trends & usage reports
- Automatic notifications to haulers
- Configurable alarms & alerts
The launch of WasteForce is both a milestone and a disruptive statement to the global waste management industry. The most advanced waste monitoring and analytical tools are now available to make haulage operations highly efficient and optimise every company’s environmental sustainability strategy.
With the promise of reducing unnecessary waste hauls and the associated costs to cities and private companies by up to 40%, WasteForce is a game changer. Importantly, ensuring trucks are on the road only when required benefits cities, citizens and the environment as well.
If a slightly crumpled flyer symbolises the starting point for OnePlus Systems, a quarter of a century later, the launch of WasteForce represents a new beginning. But not for OnePlus. For the private companies, waste haulers and cities that acknowledge IoT as the future of waste management and environmental sustainability. In 25 years’ time, they too could stumble upon the past and see how far they’ve come.
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