39
FEBRUARY 2015
ACT
TELEMATICS
INDUSTRY FOCUS
Link-Belt’s
Bill Stramer
discusses the benefits of
telematics and how his
company created a system
that assures the crane
owner owns the crane data.
Datamining
THEAUTHOR:
BILL STRAMER
is vice
president of sales,
marketing and customer
support for Link-Belt
Construction Equipment
based in Lexington, KY.
This articlewas adapted
from a speech given by Stramer at the
World Crane & Transport Summit held in
Miami inOctober 2014.
A
pplying telematics to crane
fleetmanagement has been an
evolvingprocess among crane
manufacturers. Link-Belt has tackled
telematicswith anew approach to the
industry.
To explain the concept of telematics
youneed tounderstandhow it started. It
didn’t start in the construction industryor
even the automotive industry. Telematics
actually startedwith space exploration
– remember the telemetryunits on the
surfaceof themoon?
The term telematicsdescribes the
process of long-distance transmissionof
computer-based information. Telematics
componentsmove information from
pointA topointB. In the caseofNASA,
telemetryunitswere sending information
back toMission
Control inHouston.
In the caseof cranes,
wherever they are,
ownershave the ability
toknow everything
there is toknow about
theirmachines.
Today telematics
iswell established
in awholehost of
industries that include
the transportationof
goods and services
around theglobe, be it a shipon the
ocean, a truckon the roador apackage
tobedelivered. It also can aid in steering
a combine in a field, recordingyield and
determiningnext year’s fertilizer’sneeds.
Telematics ishere to stay, I thinkwe can
all agree.
It sounds simple, but themovement of
the information is the easypart.Where
thedebatebegins, ishowmuchdata
canbe seen,who sees it, how is it being
compiled toview, andperhaps themost
critical debate:whoowns thedata?
Link-Beltwasdefinitelynot the first
in the construction industry toget into
telematics, or even the first on the crane
side.Wewatched closelyhow customers,
dealers andothermanufacturers
developed and adopted their technologies.
Therewereplentyof Links,Nets, Stars
andTRAX, literally firingdata across
thehorizon.And this ishow thedebate
ensued.
My experience is thatwhenyou ask
10 customerswhat theywant todowith
their telematicsdata, youwill get 10
completelydifferent answers.As a crane
manufacturer,we are in thebusiness of
meetingour customer’s expectations
throughour “Voiceof theCustomer”
quest. But opinions among enduserswere
not at all consistent.
Weknew thiswasn’t going tobe an easy
task. In fact, oneof thebiggestmistakes
we couldhavemadewouldhavebeen to
develop something too specializedor too
complicated and therefore less friendly to
use.
Wedetermined earlyon to reachout to
a trustedvendor,A1ASoftware.Along
withLink-Belt’s sponsorship,A1Ahad
developed the lifting industry’s leading lift
planning software–3DLift Plan.A1A is
ledby folkswhoknow the crane industry
throughyears ofworking for bothOEMs
and contractors in the liftingworld.
Our relationshipbeganback in2007,
when3DLift Planwas co-launchedby
A1A andLink-Belt atCon-Expo2008.
Today this softwarehas thousands of
usersworld-wide.Numerous crane
manufacturershave theirproducts
representedon the3DLift Planwebsite.
It’s aone-stop shop for craneownerswith
multiple lines in their fleet.
Whenwe contactedA1A,we found
out that theywere in the infancy stages
of planning an “all-encompassing” crane
management solution. Theyhad answers
toquestions their thousands of crane
customershad requested in terms of fleet
management. Themissingpiece forA1A
was anOEMwith the samevision.
With the commission and subsequent
success of 3DLift Plan, itwas onlynatural
to againpartnerwithA1Awithour
telematics initiative. Thisdevelopment
began in earnest in2012aswe strategically
looked at the stateof telematics for the
crane industry andplanned for the future.
What didweuncover?
1
There isnot standardization among
crane telematicsprograms.
2
Customers and equipment dealersdo
not see thebenefit of the technology,
and adoption rateswere low.
3
Ownershipof datawas left to
interpretation.Our systemneeded to
be able to satisfy and respect the rights
of our cranedistributors/owners and
their information, andyet alsobe able
to sharedatawhenproduct support
assistanceby telematicsdata could
The Association of EquipmentManagement
Professionals (AEMP), alongwith
assistance from the Association of
EquipmentManufacturers (AEM),
announced their Version 2 Standard
draft of their “Telematics Data Standard”
for construction industry customers in
September 2014. Today, the standard
is in draft form, awaiting ISO adoption.
Currently, no specific crane data or crane
OEMs have been included in the
Version 2 Standard.
Telematics componentsmove information
from point A to point B.
