Devin Wadholm and Mitch Strehlow, smart construction manager, manage the dealership’s technology support side. GES is a Komatsu dealer, but it also sells and supports JCB, Dynapac, KOBELCO, and other heavy equipment brands.
“We have KOMTRAX, Livelink for JCB, Dyn@Link for Dynapac, and KOBELCO has KOMECX, so we have quite a few different brands of telematics that I’m using,” Wadholm says.
GES feeds KOMTRAX data into its backend business system, but Wadholm says he uses the other manufacturers’ individual portals rather than feed them into the system because the data is richer through the OEM portals.
“That drills in more to a specific fault code rather than a more generic style of reporting,” he says.
Wadholm set up the process for how the dealership handles machine data.
“Every machine we have is linked to a PSSR [product support sales representative],” he says. “That product support rep is linked to that customer’s machines. When I set up email notifications or when I set up a machine, I put that [PSSR’s] name in. When it throws a code, it automatically goes to their email for their customer.”
Customers determine what sort of notifications they want. In some cases, alerts go to both the PSSR and the customer; in others, only to the PSSR. Wadholm also receives the alerts, and he can escalate action if the PSSR or customer have not acted on an urgent situation.
In addition, customers can set up their own email notifications through the MyKomatsu app if they want to track specific data such as excessive DPF regeneration, Wadholm says.
Strehlow says GES also uses machine data to evaluate how the customer is using its Komatsu Intelligent machines as a smart construction tool. MyKomatsu also has an “My iMC” tab for specific machines that allow customers to see how those machines are being used.
“We use that data...quite a bit. We can use it as a training opportunity. ‘Why are you not using autos and machine control?’ Does the operator not know how to use it the right way? Is it a bad model you’re running off of? Should we build the models for you?’
“The owners made that significant investment into that machine, to go from a standard to an i-machine; let’s use it to its capacity.”
GES is also moving toward using data proactively, for predictive maintenance manner.
“Engine rebuilds are hard to predict,” says Strehlow, “but when it comes to dealing with the emissions side of things, whether it’s DPFs and active regens, we are able to look at a history and say it’s ready for a forced regen or due for a DPF [replacement].
See more on predictive maintenance in the video below.
