The Civil Engineering Contractor May 2019 | Page 42

SUPPLY CHAIN NEWS
K
ONE, an elevator company, has enjoyed success in
introducing digital technology into its core activities
while creating new business opportunities from
that, according to Hans van Grieken, the EMEA Technology
Research & Insights leader within Deloitte’s global CIO
programme. He was speaking at the presentation of Deloitte
Insights: Tech Trends 2019 in March.
“KONE is an example of a company that has gone
really far in digitally transforming itself.” What it is doing
provides an example of what we may expect to see from
plant and equipment in the construction and mining
space. KONE’s elevators, escalators, automatic doors, and
turnstiles are using cloud analytics; digital experiences;
cognitive, digital reality; and other technologies to
reinvent the way its products are serviced, with a roll-
out called KONE 24/7 Connected Services, according to
Deloitte Insights: Tech Trends 2019.
The development involved embedding sensors throughout
KONE elevators to transmit performance data in real time.
This enables potential faults to be predicted before they
happen and equipment to be monitored in real time. In
industries such as construction and mining, where the cost
of work stoppages is massively out of proportion to the cost
of maintenance, this is a game-changer.
“In one example, through constant performance
monitoring that suggests preventative measures for 100
customer elevators over a 12-month period, the company
saw customers report 60% fewer maintenance issues.” This
survey in fact covered thousands of elevators.
Another significant element is the ability to connect
KONE 24/7 Connected Services to earlier generations of
equipment, as well as customers’ equipment irrespective
of the manufacturer. “This means bringing the benefits of
Internet of Things, artificial intelligence (AI), and analytics
to a broad portfolio of assets,” the report states. The
implications of this in South Africa would be profound,
where companies often have a ‘Smarties box’ of different
OEMs’ equipment. A single OEM that introduced this AI
technology would be able to solve problems before they
cause breakdowns.
Vast amounts of data about critical parameters are
collected around the clock from the sensors installed in
the equipment. This data is analysed in the cloud by the
digital brain behind the operation — using the IBM Watson
analytics platform, which employs intelligent algorithms.
More than simply gathering and processing the data, this
cognitive platform can understand and learn from it, thereby
making the service more intelligent all the time. It does this
by comparing information gathered with that of thousands of
other units and can see if something doesn’t look quite right.
One issue that is of enormous importance to the
earthmoving and heavy yellow-equipment sector, is the
40 | CEC May 2019
OEMs can be examples in digital transformation
Hans van Grieken, the EMEA Technology Research & Insights
leader within Deloitte’s global CIO programme.
Barloworld Equipment chief procurement officer, Colette Yende.
environment, and big data similarly lies at the heart of
innovation. Speaking a day earlier at the Regenesys Business
School ‘The Future of Construction in a New Digital Age’
panel discussion, Barloworld Equipment chief procurement
officer Colette Yende emphasised that sustainability was an
important deliverable of the digital age: “We are currently
collecting data right now on the impact of [both] emissions
and the digital economy. Last year we upgraded our digital
section by taking on the services of a chief digital officer to
look at data and improve the productivity of the machine,
the serviceability of the machine, and its efficiency in
terms of our customers and how we can pass that on to
them [customers]. Over and above that, we need to see
how, right now, that data can be used, so that when we
modify a machine together with Caterpillar, that data will
be taken into account in terms of what is the impact on the
environment.” nn
www.civilsonline.co.za