Telematics transforms modern construction sites functioning
Hemant Mathur, Assistant Vice President – Sales and Marketing, Tata Hitachi Construction Machinery Company Private Limited examines various advantages and benefits that telematics in earthmoving equipment offers to customers What are the driving factors that
Hemant Mathur, Assistant Vice President – Sales and Marketing, Tata Hitachi Construction Machinery Company Private Limited examines various advantages and benefits that telematics in earthmoving equipment offers to customers
What are the driving factors that are expected to fuel growth of telematics in the earthmoving equipment market?
Today, telematics has helped the customer monitor his machines and operations sitting in the comfort of his office or home. The analysis built around the data that telematics offers, gives the customer insightful information that helps him identify whether the operations are going as per plan or if some intervention is required.
Telematics also recommends on which areas of operation to focus on and how. The machine informs the customers and the dealer of any emergency or a potential problem. The dealer is then adequately prepared to resolve the issue at the earliest.
All this has transformed the way the modern construction sites are functioning. Enabling customers to improve system efficiencies, schedule maintenance interventions, reduce unplanned breakdowns and maximise equipment and site utilization.
Are there any chances of further upgradation in the earthmoving equipment sector?
Previously, customers would spend most of their time on worksites, employ manual methods and depend on supervisors to give information on their work sites. Now, with increased technology usage, they can monitor their machine remotely and even manage their fleets from office. This enables them to utilize their time better and focus on their core business. Though the technology absorption rate is higher in the more organized mining industry, the construction segment is also gradually changing to adopt the benefits of improved technologies.
Hitachi is at the forefront of such emerging technology usages and has been developing ever new solutions in the field of telematics and data analytics. Hitachi is increasingly working on reducing dependence on human expertise as a factor for service recommendations and service delivery and we see the future is just filled with ever more exciting possibilities.
Is digitalisation being integrated with telematics to enhance productivity?
As technology evolves and adoption rates of modern communication extend to all spheres, even the construction industry will be positively impacted
- At a very basic level, computerization of drawings and use of CAD/CAM started the era of digital construction.
- Today, a range of technologies from drone-based monitoring, machine learning, object identification and warning, improved safety devices etc. are already being used or available in construction sites – especially road construction, given its wide geographical coverage & dispersion.
- Construction equipment is also equipped with advanced data logging that give real time information of the health & performance of the machines.
- We believe that the digital technology in construction will evolve and the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and construction management software will accelerate. All attributes of construction will be in one single place and will interact with all stakeholders, greatly improving efficiency & speed of execution, as well as cut costs.
Were there any challenges faced with regards to adoption of telematics in earthmoving equipment?
There are challenges in the field that are related to primarily two areas – regulatory & customer acceptance.
- Given the plethora of products by different OEMs in this space – it is a challenge to integrate these data systems into a standard system template that can take the utility of data to the next level – like that in construction management system.
- Further most customers are still in the early stages of using smart phones / digital literacy to leverage next generation data systems & will continue to remain a challenge apart from using on a standalone basis.
What is the future outlook and growth prospects of the earthmoving equipment market?
The CE industry, especially beginning with Excavators were the first to introduce EV’s in form of Electrically Powered Hydraulic excavators & then came AI & IOT sometime back.
- Most machines now have active condition monitoring & fleet management system
- Relay the reports to manufacturers as well as customers, to ensure reduced down time so that they get more returns on their investments.
- iOT will further strengthen – condition monitoring will get more evolved and downtime is reduced further by proactively advising the customers on next steps to be taken for better planning & leading to longer life of equipment.
At Tata Hitachi, our ZAXIS GI series excavators are equipped with Global e Service, an offering based on the platform developed by Hitachi, Japan. On this is layered a premium offering called ConSite, which we offer as a standard with all our GI machines. ConSite uses years of experience, comparative data of similar class machines operating in the region and provides insightful advice and recommendations to improve operations. There is also an alarm service which uses machine events and is an intelligent filter to communicate machine breakdown and raise caution alarms with due recommendation to the customer and to the dealer for appropriate action. Our consultative approach to examining and advising customers on the health of their machines is a major value-added support to our customers.
InSite is our home grown IoT solution that provides key operational, maintenance, location, and health data of the machine to the customers and Tata Hitachi.
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