INSITE Fleet Management Centre takes pride of place in Komatsu's new HQ

 

Taking centre stage at Komatsu Australia's new Sydney headquarters, the company's new INSITE Fleet Management Centre has been designed and located to make a strong statement about the company's customer-focused priorities in the 21st century.

Once past reception, everyone who works in Komatsu's Fairfield headquarters can't miss the prominent bank of 10 large-screen monitors showing selected machine and operational data, manned by INSITE Centre staff.

These 10 monitors show constantly updated data covering key machine, fleet, production and industry parameters across all Komatsu mining, construction and utility machines operating throughout Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia (see sidebar for a rundown of what each monitor displays).

The range of displays within the Centre run the gamut from "big picture" global and economy-wide data (such as stocks and share prices, commodity prices and production trends), through to utilisation levels across industry sectors (for example, coal mining or iron ore), then drilling right down to individual machine data and potential component issues.

According to Todd Connolly, Komatsu Australia's Head of Fleet Management & ICT, the INSITE Fleet Management Centre pulls in data from a wide range of sources, including all the company's various telemetry, machine health and service monitoring systems, and presents them in one place.

"What we are doing from our INSITE Centre is front and centre of what we do as a company; it's a suite of products across telematics, machine monitoring, machine health, fleet management, service and support.

"And by having this facility located right in the heart of our Australian headquarters, we are really sending the message out to everyone at Komatsu about how important this whole process is to the company," he said.

However, the INSITE Centre is not just a bank of screens; in front of the screens sit the people responsible for running the KOMTRAX and KOMTRAX Plus remote monitoring systems throughout the region a decision driven by Komatsu Australia's Managing Director and CEO.

"Rather than have this team working away in a back office, we've deliberately chosen to have them working at the forefront of our business," said Sean.

"We want to everyone within Komatsu is aware of what a critical and important role they all play in supporting our customers, and how our customers contribute to the long-term success of our business.

"This ties in with the philosophy behind our INSITE Centre: to make all this information across all our business areas visible to everyone within Komatsu, so that as a company we plan and react accordingly.

"At the same time, all this information is also being made available to our engineers and our technical service people, so they can also assist in better managing fleets for our customers.

"It's all about helping our customers achieve their goals, including lower costs per tonne, managing machine health and achieving higher productivity," Sean said.

INSITE Fleet Management Centre: what's on display

The first thing visitors and staff walking up the stairs at Komatsu's Fairfield HQ in Western Sydney is a large "tickertape" display constantly updating commodity prices, currency movements, resource stocks prices and more reflecting the impact these constant "real world" changes have on the company's business.

In front of the row of desks where the KOMTRAX and KOMTRAX Plus team is based is a bank of 10 large-screen monitors, covering all aspects of Komatsu machines in the region, from "big picture" equipment and industry utilisation trends, down to the minutest detail of a single machine's operating parameters.

Here's a rundown of what's on display.

Screen 1: Utilisation Trends

This screen highlights utilisation trends by segment and region, showing the monthly hours that machines are working. The graphs also highlight seasonal factors, and can be used as a forward indicator of demand for replacement equipment, parts consumption and service.

Screen 2: PDI & Reman Commissioning

Komatsu's fulfilment of demand for new equipment and reman components is tracked across the country to ensure that delivery schedules are in line with its customer's expectations.

Screen 3: Condition Monitoring

This screen highlights the two most critical levels of condition monitoring results from the KOWA (Komatsu Oil Wear Analysis) service. Information is updated in real time directly from the Komatsu's three KOWA labs in Newcastle, Perth and Brisbane, and is displayed by customer, by model and by component. Komatsu technicians use this information to take the required actions with customers to ensure machine health.

Screen 4: Service and Overhaul programs

This screen uses information from EQP Care and R&M Care to highlight upcoming services, ensuring that Komatsu's service teams are planning for these events, and engaging the customer at the right time.

Screen 5: Fleet Visualisation

This screen displays selected data on Komatsu's machine population in Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia, and includes information on machine health, machine productivity and mine site details such as Production and Total Material Moved (TMM).

This information is designed to increase Komatsu staff's awareness of machine populations and customers' operations, so they can be aware of the real situation before a customer visit. Machine information for this display is sourced from KOMTRAX and KOMTRAX Plus and is updated daily.

Screen 6: Machine Health for Fleet under Maintenance Contracts

This screen uses standard metrics from R&M Care to report on machine health for Komatsu's population covered by maintenance contracts in Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. This information is used at the site level to optimise uptime of the fleet.

Screen 7: Machine Health - Mining Fleet

This screen shows the machine health status of Komatsu's region-wide mining fleet by model and location, using information sourced from KOMTRAX Plus on a daily basis. This information is used by branches and sites each day to prioritise activities on the fleet to ensure optimum uptime. In addition, Komatsu's Reliability Engineering division uses this information to prioritise high-level incident responses.

Screen 8: Machine Health - Construction & Utility

This screen shows the machine health of Komatsu's construction and utility region-wide equipment fleet by customer, model and location, using KOMTRAX. Cautions and abnormalities are highlighted, and used by Komatsu's Tech Services and branches to prioritise action. Information for this comes from KOMTRAX and is updated based on the latest satellite communication.

Screen 9: Mine Care (Real Time Telemetry)

This screen shows a real-time feed of machine telemetry using Modular Mining Systems' Mine Care, information which can be used to help diagnose machine health as well as visualise productivity trends. This process is also how Komatsu's largest mining customers view their fleets and operations.

Screen 10: Machine Productivity Dashboard

This screen shows the productivity of Komatsu's top mining customers' fleets, including information from the PayLoad Management System (PLM) and KOMTRAX Plus.

This information is also used by Reliability Engineering to optimise the operation of equipment and contribute to an enhanced Total Cost of Ownership (TOC) position.

This dashboard has been designed to provide insights for Komatsu's Key Accounts Managers, allowing them to have informed discussions with customers by comparing fleet performance against national average benchmarks. In turn, this can be used to drive Komatsu's Continuous Improvement initiatives, designed to help its customers achieve their goals.