Three years ago this month Komatsu began offering KOMTRAX, Komatsu’s Machine Monitoring Telemetrics System, as standard equipment on all Komatsu construction models in North America. This advanced piece of Komatsu technology provides distributors and customers with an abundance of information about their machine’s operation literally right at their fingertips. In the last three years over 20,000 machines equipped with KOMTRAX have been delivered in North America. This Komatsu designed and supported technology has no rival in performance or OEM population worldwide. In honor of this anniversary, let’s reflect on the brief history of KOMTRAX as it relates to the Bramco Companies and Komatsu America and discuss what the future holds.
Prior to Komatsu’s introduction of KOMTRAX in January 2006 Bramco’s familiarity with machine monitoring started with Qualcomm’s GlobalTRACS on its Certified Rental® fleet. While this experience demonstrates Bramco’s early commitment to using the latest available technology for fleet monitoring, there was a caution about leaving this supplier and moving to Komatsu’s new system. In the first year of KOMTRAX’s North American introduction Komatsu America encountered skepticism from customers and distributors alike, regarding the equipment, level of support and commitment to this industry-first technology. KOMTRAX delivered, as factory installed standard equipment, with free communication for five years and with the multiple level reporting functionality.
A Bramco employee questioned me in 2006: “when will KOMTRAX’s levels of functionality and monitoring technology be complete and stop changing.” My answer was, and still is, a succinct “never.” Komatsu’s machine monitoring tool, now widely accepted and validated, will continue to grow in functionality every year, as does the technology in the machine. Komatsu’s history of technological advancement in the construction equipment industry means that KOMTRAX will never be “complete” and will be forever changing.
In year two, Komatsu’s obvious commitment to KOMTRAX galvanized the commitment of resources by Bramco for employing a KOMTRAX/VHMS coordinator at each Company. KOMTRAX grew in acceptance among service departments as a vital step in troubleshooting and machine repair diagnosis.
Parts departments started using KOMTRAX for predictive parts sales opportunities. Rental fleet managers used it to monitor utilization more closely and used equipment managers were able to scrutinize trade-ins, or sell machines based on actual machine histories. Finally, in year two when diesel fuel shot over $4 per gallon, customers and Bramco salesmen had conversations relating to idle time, economy modes and efficient machine operation. The number of customers and distributor personnel managing and relying on KOMTRAX data grew exponentially.
Year three brought a softening of the market that was actually tracked and somewhat predicted using KOMTRAX North American machine fleet monitoring data. For instance, machines in residential construction end use markets reported almost nine hours less operation per week in late 2008—an entire workday gone due to the economic situation gripping North America.
Despite the market drop, the Bramco Companies have delivered almost 1600 Komatsu construction machines since January 2006, undoubtedly an unmatched three-year field population gain in their Company’s long history. Fortunately, almost half of these machines (48 percent or 762 units) are equipped with KOMTRAX, which can assist Bramco in generating better service response with fewer personnel and more parts sales during a period of longer machine ownership. Over half of the North American Komatsu construction equipment field population is now equipped with KOMTRAX. Globally, Komatsu Ltd. has over 160,000 utility, construction and mining machines equipped with telemetric devices.
The time will come, especially with Tier IV emission compliance looming, that the entire field population of Bramco and Komatsu’s machines will be able to “check-in” wirelessly. This event will occur months, or probably even years ahead of other construction equipment OEM dealer fleets. Currently, there are no major competitors who have implemented a telemetrics system on such a complete scale, being standard equipment, or as robust in functionality.
Rarely mentioned Komtrax benefits began emerging in year three for Bramco and Komatsu. We saw more productive and durable machine designs. This was due to better engineering through more accurate machine life cycle monitoring and the precise tracking of abnormality and fault codes globally to increase the speed and accuracy of repair as well as field campaign initiation. The increased level of after sale product support that the distributor could provide using KOMTRAX also increased to unrivaled levels. For customers, KOMTRAX continues to provide a fleet maintenance and management tool that uses real data to accurately determine owning and operating costs, track machine usage history and to generally supply a competitive edge.
The collective future of KOMTRAX and the impact it has on Bramco and Komatsu America’s businesses lie squarely in the present. The continual dedication of Bramco to have KOMTRAX coordinators is vital to the future of providing a competitive advantage in sales, service and parts. As stated before, the evolution of KOMTRAX technology provides new opportunities as well. For example, actual fuel consumption data is one of KOMTRAX’s biggest selling points touted by salesmen to customers on machines with Level 3 functionality.
Today’s opportunities lie in items like the KOMTRAX upgrade of Level 2.5 controllers, which can provide fuel consumption data for every Komatsu construction machine model except motor graders. Brandeis ranks 8th and Power 11th in North America when it comes to upgrading their field fleet to Level 2.5 KOMTRAX. Komatsu also realizes that expanded functionality in scope and scale is vital to KOMTRAX’s future. Items that are currently under evaluation include: alerts triggered from hour meter readings, better mapping utilities and a service vehicle version of KOMTRAX that combines machine and service truck locations for more effective resource allocation.
As an industry leader and in accordance with AEM, Komatsu, along with other CE OEMs, will eventually have to provide machine hours, fuel and other critical metrics to AEM member contractors via a Web service, so contractors can receive such data into their business operating systems.
KOMTRAX, in the last twenty-four months, has grown to become a tool both the customer and distributor depend upon, expect and require. It is exciting to think about the potential of the next three years in regard to KOMTRAX as it relates to Komatsu and Bramco’s relationship. Our shared commitment to this machine monitoring system will continue to pay dividends for years to come. |
