Beyond machinery

Visibility in equipment brings insight, opportunities for growth and improvement, and abilities to manage operations and enhance safety and efficiency.

Discussions between contractors and heavy equipment manufacturers often centre on cutting-edge machine technologies to enhance on-site efficiency and safety.

But amid the excitement of new machinery, the critical role of supporting services in optimising machine performance can sometimes be overlooked.

While high-quality machines lay the foundation, combining them with value-added services creates a holistic solution, giving businesses a competitive edge.

“It’s not a one-size-fits-all when it comes to productivity services,” CJD Equipment productivity services manager Andrew Minty said.

“From understanding your business, your fleet, the direction of where you want to take your business, and how to improve that, we can then assist in putting a plan in place to get your business there.

“It’s important to understand the foundation of your business and equipment, as well as its needs and benefits.”

Volvo Construction Equipment advocates the synergy of the right services with machines to deliver the best solutions. Its new services are aimed at facilitating – and accelerating – work completion, reducing costs and maximising uptime.

Connected maps

Streamlining transport operations is crucial for cutting travel times, minimising material mixing and reducing fuel consumption and emissions.

Connected maps in Volvo equipment provides a real-time digital mapping of all of a site’s machines, vehicles and personnel, allowing for enhanced visibility and informed decision-making. This service boosts productivity and improves safety by identifying bottlenecks and optimising traffic flow.

With connected maps, all machines and vehicles can see each other, and managers can see what the site looks like from an office.

Volvo’s connected maps office portal provides a visual overview of all machines, operators and temporary site visitors, allowing site managers to react to the prevailing conditions.

Site managers can introduce measures such as one-way traffic or restricted zones and communicate these changes to all users instantly, helping to improve awareness, reduce accidents and increase productivity.

“Connected maps gives insight into all the machines and your overall site view,” Minty said. “It can be tailored to your overall needs, what you require that is visible on your site.

“If your focus is on reducing accidents on-site or the productivity of your equipment, Connected maps helps understand the losses and gains in your site and where to improve efficiency.”

Connected maps also has a search functionality feature, ensuring stakeholders can track the whereabouts of their machines in real-time. This not only enhances operational oversight but serves as a proactive measure in asset management and security.

Performance indicator

For detailed insights into production processes, Volvo’s performance indicator utilises on-board weighing and machine data to deliver performance metrics in real-time.

With customisable dashboards, users can monitor production, fuel efficiency and machine cycles.

“Performance indicator creates graphs, information and data to be analysed. This can be shared with operators, site managers or executives to understand where their losses and gains are,” Minty said.

“CJD Equipment can come in and help you understand what this data means and give suggestions based on the data to improve your operations.”

The performance indicator means site managers can visualise their operations with clear, easy-to-create dashboards, assess whether production is on track, and be forewarned of any production or operational issues. Performance indicators take the guesswork out of observing operation performance metrics to allow for better decisions to improve efficiency and productivity.

Speed and location are also obtained from the machine’s Connected Map. Production data is captured automatically for Volvo machines with Volvo co-pilot and On-board weighing.

“The performance indicator can also highlight if your team needs Volvo’s eco-operator training, so it can highlight what needs to be reverse engineered to ensure your site runs as efficiently and productively as possible,” Minty said.

“This tool will enhance features of the Volvo product that you may already have, but your operators may not know about.”

Task manager

Designed for overseeing larger-scale projects, the task manager provides visualisation tools to track project progress and manage tasks efficiently.

Offering real-time updates accessible from any device, the task manager enables effective planning, ensuring timely completion of tasks and coordination.

“Task manager is another insight program that can be tailored towards the three tiers of operation a site can have – operators, site managers, and executives or owners of the business,” Minty said.

“Task manager can track the materials and efficiencies and allows for targets to be present in the whole productivity services overview, including connected map.”

This tool aids site managers in planning, providing foresight into project timelines to determine if they’re on schedule or facing delays.

The interdependence of tasks on a site makes effective planning paramount, especially when managing numerous machines and coordinating multiple companies on the same project. Task manager can prove invaluable for this user demographic, offering compatibility with machines of any brand.

While operators using Volvo machines may benefit from a more streamlined experience, those utilising other brands can access it via mobile phones.

Connected load out

“Connected load out is tailored for road transport operations and gives insight into how you can meet targets for your customers, reduce downtimes and idling, and complement your sales techniques by capturing data you wouldn’t have previously,” Minty said.

“Both the loader and the truck on-site can be assured that the correct material and weight of the material is being moved, increasing efficiency.”

This service transforms the efficiency of material-loading processes, facilitating seamless communication between loaders, site offices and truck drivers.

By allowing truck drivers to place orders via a mobile app and coordinate loading operations, connected load out optimises workflow, reduces downtime and enhances overall site organisation.

These innovative services represent Volvo’s commitment to providing cutting-edge solutions to optimise business operations.

Complementing existing services like site simulation and active care empowers businesses to enhance productivity, efficiency and safety.

This feature appeared in the May 2024 issue of Australian Mining.