General Equipment & Supplies is Construction Equipment’s 2019 Dealer Excellence Award winner, and it brought on a telematics coordinator around that same time.
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. 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].
Devin and Mitch talk about predictive maintenance in the video.
