Home > News > Article

Increasing Safety and Efficiency with Two-Way Radios

By Brent Bisnar, Contributing Writer

Suncor Energy is a fast-growing, integrated company that is strategically focused on developing one of the world’s largest petroleum resource basins—Canada’s Athabasca oil sands. In 1967, Suncor made history by tapping the oil sands to produce the first commercial barrel of synthetic crude oil. Since then, Suncor has grown to four major businesses with more than 5,000 employees. Suncor’s primary brands are Sunoco and Phillips 66.

Like many energy companies with a large employee base, Suncor experienced inefficiencies because much of its workforce spent a great deal of time in the field. Using out-of-date technologies, those employees were challenged when it came to providing real-time analysis and communicating information to fellow team members. Those issues were accentuated when Suncor began planning a major turnaround at its refinery in Colorado. The energy giant turned to BearCom for help.

After consulting with Suncor and conducting a thorough needs analysis, BearCom provided a rental solution based on the latest technology in two-way radios. The package included more than 400 Motorola intrinsically safe radios, as well as five Motorola repeaters and a multi-coupler/combiner. BearCom also reprogrammed all of the radios to the required frequencies, expanding their capacity from three channels to 16.

“The ability to instantly alert someone or call for aid has had a dramatic effect on our ability to limit the damage a problem could cause,” said Allen Moseng, an instrument electrical planner at Suncor. Moseng noted that another benefit has come in the area of efficiency. “Partnering with BearCom enabled us to have something akin to conference calls in the field. Our employees are broken up into groups with very specific responsibilities. Those groups might use a particular two-way radio channel, and everyone in that group monitors that channel. They may not have to act on what they hear, but the information they receive as a result affects the way they do their jobs in a very positive way.”

For more information or to learn how organizations like yours have been able to improve their operations through the use of wireless technologies, contact BearCom today at TwoWayRadios@BearCom.com or 800.527.1670, or visit the BearCom Web site.

Today's Wireless World Sponsor:

For more information, contact us at TodaysWirelessWorld@BearCom.com.