Story by Chris Rowan
Product Support Training Manager
Cat Dealer Thompson Machinery
To remain competitive successful loggers are always trying to find ways to boost production or reduce expense, to either sell more or spend less. The key to finding ways to do either is more information. Telematics, or remote reporting of equipment information through satellite or cellular service, can generate the information a business needs to sell more and spend less.
Many forestry equipment manufacturers are now offering a telematics option on their products and some of them come standard. Telematics installed by the OEM as a standard option will often be less expensive than a retrofit, and it is certainly hard to beat the convenience; however, a quick search of the internet will turn up aftermarket telematics vendors who can provide varying degrees of information on your equipment.
At its heart, a telematics system includes hardware and software that provides information ranging from the location of your equipment all the way up to complete diagnostics of all machine components, including fault codes, event codes, preventive maintenance due, and so on. Many of these systems include a controller installed on the machine that communicates via a satellite link to the vendor or manufacturer’s computers. The equipment owner is then able to access the information on a web site from anywhere in the world, even via smart phone. Some telematics systems use cellular service rather than satellite. This can be less expensive depending on options, but may come at the cost of less reliable communication due to gaps in cell coverage.
Some ways that telematics can help you spend less on your equipment:
Reduce idle time: For an average size machine, idle time is the equivalent of throwing a dollar bill on a fire every four minutes. One of my customers allows one hour of idle time a day for warm up and cool down in the morning and at lunch. (They shut down their machines at lunch.) Through VisionLink™, the user interface for Caterpillar’s telematics system, he found an operator had run a mid-size dozer for 40 hours one week, with 22 of those hours running at low idle. At about five gallons an hour and roughly $3 a gallon for off-road diesel, the operator had cost his company $330 that week. The operator was asked to find employment elsewhere.
Reduction of catastrophic failures: If the telematics system is capable of “talking” to the machine’s electronics, it can report Level 2 and Level 3 fault codes, emailing them directly to the owner or fleet manager. Recently, a customer had a machine that had three Level 3 fault codes for the transmission overheating. Not only did he receive three emails, he received a phone call from Caterpillar asking him to shut down the machine. The customer found the operator had deliberately overridden the fault codes and continued to operate the machine. This operator was also asked to find employment elsewhere. The problem was corrected and the transmission did not suffer a catastrophic failure.
Fleet tracking: Eliminate wasted trips to refuel a machine that isn’t there; no more phone calls to five different people trying to track down a machine that’s due for service. You know where every machine is.
Uptime: Most telematics systems can determine the number of hours run by a machine, and many have a maintenance tracking system. Say farewell to missing a service and running with dirty air filters. Preventive maintenance can more easily be done regularly, on schedule, and at a time that doesn’t interfere with productivity.
Cost per hour calculation: Telematics capable of tracking fuel burn and maintenance intervals can help you figure out how much it costs to keep a machine productive. Armed with this information, you can make better decisions about whether to rebuild a machine coming to the end of its life or to purchase a new one. If you decide to go new rather than rebuild, you’ll have good data to decide what size, make or model machine to buy.
Like any information you gather about your business, telematics only provides value if you act on it. If your equipment came standard with telematics, you are already a long way toward selling more and spending less.