CAMPBELL, CALIF. - April
12, 2007 - - Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies today announced that Complejo
Agroindustrial Beta, a Peruvian grower of fruits and vegetables for export to
the USA and Europe, is using 29 Ingersoll Rand Recognition Systems HandPunch
3000 terminals in a 2000-acre field to record time and attendance, job functions
and other data from its 3,000 workers. HandPunch readers automatically take
a three-dimensional reading of the size and shape of a hand and verify the user's
identity in less than one second.
"Complejo Agroindustrial
Beta was losing money on this project, in which land is being reclaimed from
the desert, due to inaccurate payroll entries," reports Juan Carlos Merino-Reyna
Pazos, general manager of Identitronics SAC (www.identitronics.com) a member
of the Ban-Koe Companies, the integrator of the project. "They couldn't
control hours posted in the field and were concerned about buddy-punching, in
which one employee clocks in or out for another.
"To rectify this, the
company didn't want to use cards for identification because they would get lost
or forgotten. With cards, it was estimated that approximately five percent,
or 150 workers, a day couldn't or wouldn't punch in for one or another reason,
resulting in a need for a department of typists to simply input their data.
We selected hand geometry because people don't forget their hands and fingerprint
readers can't read adequately in an agricultural environment."
The HandPunch terminals
were installed in the fields, within 1x1x2 meter enclosures, in November of
2006. The 3000 people who work the land live around the 2000-acre property and
approach it from a number of entrances. Once on the field, the workers go to
the crop assigned to them for the day - one of up to 30 different crops, from
asparagus to oranges - and clock in with their hands, using the HandPunch terminal.
They then use one of the special function keys to punch in a code that identifies
what they will be doing - seeding, harvesting, applying fertilizer, etc. - as
each job carries a different pay rate.
As a result, management
now knows which crop they are working on by the number of the HandPunch terminal
and the specific job they are doing, based on the code input. When the workers
are done or go on break, they use the hand readers to punch out. In this way,
management knows the time they have worked.
Since there is no electricity
in the field, the HandPunch terminals work off of 12V car batteries. Information
is gathered with a laptop and downloaded to the main computer in Lima using
Ethernet where the payrolls are processed.
"We have had no problems,"
adds Merino-Reyna. "The data the company gets is now real. In fact, Complejo
Agroindustrial Beta has just bought an even larger 7000-acre field being reclaimed
from the desert and plans to install Ingersoll Rand Recognition Systems HandPunch
terminals throughout it also."
Ingersoll Rand Recognition
Systems was named a recent recipient of the Application Market Penetration Leadership
Award for access control and time and attendance applications in Frost &
Sullivan's study, World Biometrics Market. Website is www.recognitionsystems.ingersollrand.com.