Freightliner Bundles Security Functions at Facilities

Aug 1, 2006 12:00 PM

Based in Portland, Oregon, Freightliner LLC, the largest heavy-duty truck manufacturer and exporter in North America, employs 26,000 people at sites across the continent. Around-the-clock protection of its employees, visitors and proprietary information is essential.

Up to the early ‘90s, Freightliner, a wholly-owned subsidiary of DaimlerChrysler, protected the numerous entrances of its headquarters building using security guards; however, a lack of alarms and access control systems left the facilities vulnerable.

Thus, Freightliner has chosen to deploy the SAFEnet unified security management system from MDI Security Systems, San Antonio.

The MDI unified solution incorporates security access control, alarm management, video badging, personnel administration, and video/audio monitoring and recording all into one management platform. By centralizing its security monitoring, Freightliner immediately eliminated the need for guards, shortened its time to response, minimized false alarms and reduced its security manpower costs.

Since 1993, Freightliner's security needs have changed significantly. The company expanded to additional facilities in Portland. The company rapidly brings new buildings onto the system, and monitors them from central locations with complete redundancies.

When the company adds new locations with existing alarm panels and remote receivers, security engineers can simply write an interface to connect them with the system instead of replacing those alarms. Similarly, the company can customize its system to display maps and alarms on a widescreen monitor.

“It's very user-friendly and easy for new staff to learn,” Jim Horsley, manager of security services at Freightliner, says of the system.

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