Our work · Case study

Firesmart

Firesmart tracks the cleaning, repair and replacement of firefighters' protective clothing for LHD Group. Every coat and trouser carries an RFID tag, so the laundry, the fire station and management can see where each garment is, what has been done to it and how much life it has left. Codium built it in 2016 and has kept building it since.

Cloud applicationRFID scanningMobile applicationHardware integrationAustralia Post
Visit lhd-group.com.au
Firesmart dashboard on a tablet
  • ClientLHD Group, protective garment laundering and repair.
  • IndustryLaundry and emergency services
  • Launched2016, now running in several states and New Zealand, including the Fire and Rescue NSW fleet.
  • IntegrationsFeig RFID readers, Zebra label and receipt printers, Australia Post consignments, iOS and Android app.
The brief

Every garment tracked through wash, repair and delivery

Each piece of a garment carries an RFID tag that the software scans automatically as it moves through the wash, repair and delivery cycle, so users always know where a garment is and what has been done to it.

01

RFID scanning

Throughout the launder and repair process, RFID scanners pick up each item so its location is tracked and comments are applied to its history.

02

Barcode scanning

For older items, barcodes stand in for RFID tags to track them through the same process.

03

Garment history

Every garment has a full history of each launder and repair, so the next one can be scheduled as required.

Firesmart scanner list on a wall screen beside an RFID portal in the laundry
Feig RFID readers

Garments scan themselves through the laundry

Nobody has time to scan each coat by hand in a laundry handling thousands of garments a week. We integrated Feig RFID readers at the wash, repair and pickup points, so a rail of garments passing a reader is recorded in Firesmart without anyone touching a screen. Each reader is set to a mode, so the same tag read at a wash reader and a repair reader records a different step. Handheld Feig readers cover stocktake and the odd garment that needs to be found on a shelf.

  • Fixed readers on the network at wash, repair and pickup, each in its own mode
  • Handheld readers for stocktake and locating garments
  • Barcodes still work for older garments without a tag
Australia Post

Consignments booked from the dispatch bench

Not every station is on a delivery run. For the ones that get their garments by post, we integrated Australia Post so a consignment is created from the pickup and delivery request itself, with the station's address and the garments in the bag. The label prints at the bench and the tracking number is stored against the delivery, so the station and the laundry can both see where it is.

  • Consignment created from the delivery request, no re-keying
  • Label printed at the bench, tracking number kept on the delivery
  • Delivery runs for stations on a route, post for the rest
Firesmart pending pickups and deliveries on a dispatch bench monitor beside Australia Post satchels
Firesmart run sheets on a monitor beside a Zebra label printer and a receipt printer
Zebra printers

Labels and receipts straight from the browser

Even with the system digital, the bench still needs printed tags and receipts. We built printing to Zebra thermal label printers and receipt printers directly from Firesmart, so garment tags, bag labels, consignment labels and pickup receipts come out where the work is being done. There are no print dialogs to click through and no driver set-up on each PC. The printers are configured once in settings and any scanner station can use them.

  • Garment tags, bag labels and consignment labels to Zebra label printers
  • Pickup and delivery receipts to thermal receipt printers
  • Printers configured centrally, used from any station
Garment lifecycle

Every wash, repair and move, for the life of the garment

A structural firefighting coat has a service life, and the fire service has to know when it is reached. Firesmart keeps the full history of each garment from the day it is tagged: every wash, every repair, every station it has been issued to and every firefighter who has worn it. From that it works out a lifecycle percentage and warranty status, so the fleet can be graded by condition and replacements planned before a garment fails.

  • Wash, repair, location and issue history on every garment
  • Lifecycle percentage and warranty tracked per item
  • Fleet grading reports by garment type and condition
Firesmart garment list on a monitor at an inspection bench with a firefighting coat laid out
Firesmart replenishment requests on a phone in a fire station locker room
Mobile app

Stations order replacement garments from the phone

Replacing a worn-out coat used to mean a form and a phone call. The Firesmart app lets a station raise a replacement request on the spot, with the garment type and size, and the laundry sees it in the replenishment queue grouped by station and zone. The same app scans a garment's barcode, shows its history and requests a pickup, so a station can run its kit from a phone without logging in to the web portal.

  • Replacement garments ordered from the station, by type and size
  • Requests land in the laundry's replenishment queue by station and zone
  • Scan, history and pickup requests in the same app
The mobile app

Available on iOS and Android

The Firesmart mobile app gives firefighters and station officers the core features without the web portal: scan a garment with the camera, see its history, request a pickup and order replacements.

Published to Download on the App Store Get it on Google Play
Firesmart mobile app sign-in and station screens
iOS and Android

Scan, request and check from the station

Request a pickup, check a garment's history, order a replacement and identify items by scanning their barcode, all from the phone.

Technology stack

How it's built

Firesmart runs on a Laravel API with a Vue web application and a NativeScript mobile app for iOS and Android. It talks to Feig RFID readers over the network, prints to Zebra label and receipt printers, books consignments through the Australia Post API and holds the garment, station, firefighter and delivery data for each deployment, with reporting on fleet condition, stocktake and disputes.

Single page application

Built in Vue.js as a single page application, for a fast experience without page reloads and the flexibility to evolve as the system grows.

API-focused backend

The backend is built in Laravel and MySQL with an API-first interface, so the web and mobile apps share the same endpoints.

Continuous integration

Automated testing and deployment let us test new builds and update production quickly, so we can release as often as required.

Managed hosting

Amazon's Elastic Container Service runs each service in its own container within a cluster that scales up and down as needed.

Managed hosting

Need to track physical assets through a process?

RFID, barcodes and mobile scanning are things we've shipped before. Tell us what you need to track.

Get in touch More of our work
Back to our work Next case study: NSW Public Service Commission