A factory floor or manufacturing facility may include many types of industrial scales, including bench scales, parts counting scales, platform scales, drum scales and floor scales. Each of these electronic scales performs specific functions for the people using these instruments. They may read the weight information directly from the digital indicator. The data may be used to determine when some part of a process is finished. There may be containers on the scale platforms that have to be changed when a certain target weight is reached.

In all of these cases, the local scale operator is responsible for whatever operations are required. But there may be many situations where this is not practical. For example, a particular type of chemical may be dispensed from a drum, which sits on a scale platform, into a water treatment facility. It may take many weeks for the drum to become empty. And there may be many different facilities in different locations. It would be difficult for a scale operator to have to travel to each location and accurately know when the drum must be changed.

Arlyn Scales offers an Ethernet communication option on their industrial scales. This allows the scale to be connected into a Local Area Network (LAN) within the facility. Appropriate software allows the scale to be viewed from other computers within the LAN. If is also possible to arrange for a service where the scale communicates outside of the LAN. In this case, any computer with Internet access, that has been given the proper permission, will be able to connect to the scale. Using this method, a home office can easily connect to scales at many different facilities. In the example noted above, the chemical drums may all be monitored on a constant basis. Special software may be provided which will send out special alarms when the weight in the drum falls below some target level. It is even possible to send out e-mail messages to alert the appropriate people.