How Touchless Construction Machine Diagnosis is Evolving During COVID-19
The recent transition to remote work has prompted an increased reliance on technology and a need to innovate in nearly every business sector. Local brick-and-mortar businesses are transitioning into a more e-commerce based focus, while the healthcare industry is relying on remote consultations and telehealth. The construction industry is no exception. All these changes beg the question, “How do we apply what’s working well remotely as we look to return to (the new) normal?”
For construction, telematics is a great example of adapting an existing service within the COVID-19 pandemic. While traditional telematics programs and the resulting fault codes can certainly help pinpoint when there’s a machine issue, they still often require a fair amount of deciphering or intervention from the equipment dealer to determine appropriate next steps — and many of those more complex issues still require an in-person diagnosis from the dealer.
With each dealer and each customer jobsite defining their own COVID-related protocols, in-person service has come with some increased challenges during the pandemic, and there are lessons to be learned in the ways OEMs are helping customers and dealers with remote diagnoses. As the Director of Uptime and Connected Services at Volvo, I’m providing an inside look at how our Uptime Center team is approaching customer support differently.
TOUCHLESS CONSTRUCTION MACHINE SERVICES AT WORK
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented many challenges for our team, just as it has for so many around the world. Our greatest challenge has been the need to work from home. Fortunately, Volvo has a robust communication architecture in place, and our Uptime Support team has adapted well. As a result, we’ve been able to seamlessly continue the same level of service as we did in the past — it’s just done remotely now.
Telematics and telematics data, by nature, are touchless. Machines send data without the need for us or our dealers to be onsite. What we’re doing now is taking that data and turning it into a valuable service. It’s not so much about the ability to retrieve the data via telematics. The key is the actions taken to improve machine uptime and productivity. We really didn’t make any changes to the process or the system with this pandemic. It’s simply emphasized the importance of the remote technology and our ability to function without being in the office and without face-to-face contact with people.
Remote diagnostics of construction equipment has been instrumental in making all of this work. In many cases, it’s simply a matter of us getting the right information to the customer where they can make the minor repair themselves, without having to contact their dealer. That’s a huge benefit — all of this eliminates the need for a technician traveling to the site and face-to-face contact.
The information we provide through telematics isn’t just the data — it’s diagnostic information. It contains all the details for properly doing maintenance on the equipment. When our technicians have that in their hands before leaving for a service call, they can then take the right parts and tools with them, reducing the number of trips to a site. So again, it greatly reduces the face-to-face touch point with our technicians.
We’re also working alongside Volvo Trucks and Mack Trucks on implementing technology transfers (e.g. wireless and software updates). Our goal is to provide remote software downloads. Rather than just alerts and machine information, it will allow us to actually connect with the machine. And in some cases, if it’s a software repair, a simple download will allow us to take care of it remotely without having to visit the machine. This will become increasingly important as we move toward electric and autonomous machines, which will have significantly more software-related technology.
PREDICTIVE MACHINE REPAIRS SAVE TIME AND MONEY
Our dealers are an integral part of the telematics solution. What telematics has done, specifically ActiveCare® Direct, is create a close relationship between Volvo as the OEM and Volvo dealers to help them support customers. Our dealers have been very open to our input and connection with our customers.
To sustain this kind of success for the future, the development of APIs is critical, including the new AEMP 2.0 API that allows us to provide customers and third parties with information from our telematics system. We’re also continuously improving the information and diagnostics we provide as we send ActiveCare Direct case alerts to customers and dealers when machine issues occur.
As an example, if you’ve seen the diagnostic list for any one problem, there’s probably six or eight steps that need to be taken with feedback from the actual work being done. Our Volvo Uptime Support team is continuously learning from this (e.g. maybe the list of steps needs to be reorganized where the most likely problem is moved to the top). This process improves machine uptime by shortening the diagnostic process.
We’re also looking closely at being able to create some data links behind error codes and be more proactive and predictive. In other words, we’re evaluating machine logs, temperature and pressure sensors to predict issues that will likely happen before a customer even gets an error code from the machine. It’s all about continuous improvement.
Our ActiveCare Direct service has really improved the total cost of ownership for our customers because many of these predictive repairs have reduced catastrophic failures of components — it’s hard to determine how many things didn’t happen if you wouldn’t have done anything. However, because we intervene on minor issues that could result in catastrophic failure, customers have a better chance of not experiencing major issues like engine or transmission failures. Extending the life of the components is a key advantage.
THE FUTURE OF REMOTE MACHINE MONITORING
As new machines are developed, the trend will likely be machines that aren’t as hardware intensive.
This is especially true of the component tree when you start to electrify machines. Rather than having a hydraulic pump and an engine, you’ll have an electric motor and possibly a hydraulic pump or some type of other actuator. The number of components will be reduced, making the machines less mechanically complex. This will make troubleshooting software a key part of the process because the more electronics that are placed on a machine, the more software there will be — with a need to update it. In the future, we’ll be able to make repairs using the software by changing parameters on the machine that may extend the life of a component.
The bottom line today, especially in these times, is there are going to be fewer new machines sold — the market is likely going to shrink. There will be more older machines running, which means a greater need for maintenance and monitoring. The goal is to improve uptime, with the overarching goal to reduce a customer’s total cost of ownership on their machines. That’s what they’re looking for — and it’s what we strive to do every day.
While we don’t know how long the COVID-19 pandemic will last, these services will help get your projects off the ground and your machines running smoothly. If you’re currently not taking advantage of telematics data to improve your company’s efficiency and machine uptime, I encourage you to check out ActiveCare Direct. It continues to prove value to all fleets, big or small.