Telematics talk
Monitor information anytime, anywhere
JLR Contractors Inc. utilizes My Komatsu to see critical machine data faster for improved fleet management and reduced downtime
Brothers Scott and Tyler Roberts grew up talking about the day they would be the fourth generation of the Roberts family to lead the business that was started by their great-grandfather, which is now known as JLR Contractors Inc. When the brothers took over about 20 years ago, they decided to expand the company’s earthwork services.
“It has been a huge benefit, because self-performing that work allows us to better control our schedules and budgets,” stated Chief Operating Officer Tyler Roberts.
JLR Contractors now performs full-site preparation on its own building projects and has expanded into large scale earthmoving-only projects both as a general contractor and a subcontractor to others. The company self-performs everything from land clearing to finish grading, including utility installation of sewer, water and storm piping as well as pump and lift stations.
Earthwork expansion necessitated the demand for heavy equipment. The Roberts contacted their local Komatsu distributor, which helped them add standard excavators, dozers, loaders and trucks to their operation and has since assisted with the acquisition of Intelligent Machine Control (IMC) excavators and dozers. The Komatsu distributor also set up a My Komatsu account for JLR Contractors, so Equipment Manager Blake Carter could more easily manage the company’s growing fleet.
Within My Komatsu, Carter navigates to the My Fleet page where he can see all 15 machines JLR Contractors has registered. By clicking on a machine, he can see where it is located and monitor its utilization, fuel usage, health and production information.
“All the data is there, and it’s made it much easier and quicker for me to track compared to how I was doing it before, which was with a spreadsheet that I would text to our field personnel and going to the job site as much as I could,” commented Carter. “With My Komatsu, I can track our Komatsu equipment from my laptop or with the mobile app and get up-to-date information practically anytime and anywhere. I have all the critical data for a machine at the click of a button. It’s simpler and immediate.”
Quicker adjustments, better planning
Getting data faster is helpful when making adjustments to machine utilization and identifying and dealing with potential issues, according to Carter, who said additional tools such as the My Health feature helps with service planning.
“I can get on the phone with our fleet coordinator and together we can better schedule for service or more immediately resolve an abnormality or code,” said Carter. “If I see high fuel usage or idle time, we can quickly figure out why that may be and make a plan on how to address that with our operators. I’ve also been trying to utilize the My Health page more because it gives very good information to use as a countdown to how close a machine is to a service interval. That helps us proactively plan to take it out of service and reduce downtime.”
*The opinions expressed here are from the end user as quoted. The results described herein are those of these end users under certain conditions. Individual results may vary.
To learn more about My Komatsu visit https://mykomatsu.komatsu/.
