Digitalization would bring transparency and discipline in operations.

V. G. Sakthikumar,
Managing Director,
Schwing Stetter India.

We are keen in addressing customer expectations with respect to digitalization.

Big data and telematics would definitely bring huge change in the near future on the following aspects such as quality of product, time bound operation, disciplined work force, and safe environment, says V.G. Sakthikumar, Managing Director, Schwing Stetter India. Excerpts from the interview

Could you spell out the vision of Schwing Stetter Indiain imbibing and leveraging the advantages of digital platforms?

Schwing Stetter India started offering solutions on digitalization from 2017 in Stetter concrete batching plant. The vision is to bring visibility to the customer on the efficiency and performance of the equipment and finally arrive on the life cycle of key components those are critical for the operation through telematics. Our objective is to add features that will help to evaluate the throughput of the equipment.

Could you give couple of examples from any of your product range where telematics has brought a transformational value to the end-user / industry?

The telematics in one of our product, Schwing truck mounted concrete boom pump S36X is equipped with vector control interfaced with Schwing IoT gateway device which plays a vital role in asset management. This vastly benefits in analysing the exact equipment utilization. One of our leading client also claims that it benefits them by giving a clear visibility on what went wrong in concreting and why. Schwing IoT In, IoT Ready and IoT abled along with Schwing Smartrack devices were introduced in the last year in the launch of Stetter concrete transit mixers of Supersix and in display of Superrseven.

What is the impact of big data analytics and telematics on the nature of repair and maintenance services?

We feel that we are still in the preliminary stages in the aspect of categorising the maintenance parameter as performance varies in different working conditions and concreting specifications. We are working towards this and we would be able to cater to proactive maintenance for the equipment in which client opts for digitalisation soon.

What is the impact of these technologies on safety of men and machines?

These solutions will drive the machine operators towards regular maintenance. The telematics would bring more visibility to the customer / owner. The  shortcut  and bypassing habits in operations will slowly disappear.

What is the impact of the same on the cab and on the operators? How these technologies help enhancing the productivity thereby lowering the TCO?

The digitalization would bring transparency and discipline in operations. Obviously, there will be optimum utilization of the equipment, proper maintenance and it ensures enhancement of productivity and betterment towards TCO.

What do you think the major challenges when it comes to adopting the digital platforms in terms design of machines, availability of vendors for connectivity solutions, and acceptance level of end-user segments?

When it comes to design, the major challenges would be data security and resource availability (proper network). There are many players available for connectivity solutions but are without clarity on the requirements and this is due to limited exposure in the concerned application. End users are quite worried about data privacy. Many are comfortable to have the solution offered with on-premises concept when it comes to cloud concept.

Data privacy, hacking concerns, installation costs, and overall internet connectivity strength could negatively impact the rate of growth in this area? What is your take on these and how have you been addressing these concerns?

We adopt secured architecture considering these vulnerable threats and we are also working toward offering redundancy cloud space to cater to complete resource availability. Since our equipment are designed with ease of retrofit ability, our installation cost is considerably up to the acceptance of our client. The connectivity is still a challenge in the remote areas of India. So, we have designed the Schwing IoT gateway device in Super six, SLM 4000, Superr seven and Schwing IoT abled for stationary pumps with the capability of handling both online and offline data with adequate data storage facility and battery backup.

What is the customer expectation from big data analytics / telematics service from various end-user segments?

Maximum optimized machine utilization with zero break down, clear visibility on the operational factors in regards to productivity, efficiency, equipment maintenance and secured data handling.

Are there any solutions offered in fluid analysis supported by digital platforms?

For example: Equipment like Stetter self-loading concrete mixer SLCM, Stetter concrete truck mixers super six, superr seven and Schwing concrete pump SP 1807 with IoT abled controller operation depends on hydraulics. So, we need to always be on track with the temperature and pressure levels.

Apart from that, we can provide oil contamination status / alerts as an option in the future. Fuel level along with accurate consumption is also offered in our telematics solution based on the business need.

How positively these technologies have been redefining the construction / infrastructure and mining space? How do you look at the future trends and how geared is Schwing Stetter India?

The awareness is now widely spread amongst corporate and retail customers. They have started to take a baby step towards implementation of telematics. This technology would definitely bring huge change in the near future on the following aspects such as quality of product, time bound operation, disciplined work force and safe environment. We, Schwing Stetter India as a pioneer in the concreting equipment manufacturing are keen in addressing customer expectations with respect to digitalization. We have an in-house electronics and automation department with specialists in telematics solution.

Hits: 94