AI in Fleets
Advancements in applications for fleets are being driven by more practical, efficient, accessible and affordable chip and AI technologies.
Motors EV Vision advisory board.
Recently, Jack sat down with Crane Hot Line to discuss AI in more detail:
Q: How will AI technology change management practices for commercial assets?
AI seems poised to change how managers consume information about operations. Today, specialists cull through data and pull reports, but more and more AI systems are popping up that quickly cut to the chase, tell you what’ s going on and can interact with you in plain language to help you rearrange or coordinate work in different ways. AI will also change how we spot trends in the performance of equipment and make better decisions about what to fix, replace, retire, etc. and when.
At the 2024 EUFMC, Kenneth Jack, CEO of KenetIQ, discussed how AI will impact fleets and how the technology could benefit your bottom line.
Q: How does the integration of telematics systems and data facilitate more effective and advanced management?
There’ s so much telematics data from hydraulic systems, diesel engines and computer controls that it can be hard to know if you’ re missing something or if there’ s a bad trend, and that costs time and money. Experience has taught us how to read data from all kinds of sources and what decisions to make or actions to take but we can only pour over so much information before we need to make daily decisions.
We rely on our experience and knowledge to help guide us through what’ s mission critical and where we can make decisions that are directionally correct. But imagine being able to process every data point and interpret its effect on your business and make better decisions to improve safety, reliability, efficiency or profitability. As AI can learn, you may have that opportunity in the not-toodistant future.
Q: How will AI advance the goal of achieving truly predictive maintenance?
More and more, systems can learn from the collective performance of components in the field. Self-diagnostics that talk to the cloud can learn the best maintenance practices given your environment, duty cycles, etc. based on the collective experience of literally every similar machine.
We expect more from our hardware so imagine equipment that, along with AI, can tell you just the right maintenance interval and what to do next time it’ s in the shop to avoid a breakdown and to maximize your earnings on the machine between maintenance cycles. It’ s already happening in industrial and manufacturing settings, and I think we’ ll see more of this in other kinds of operations. It doesn’ t replace a good operator, a good mechanic or a good scheduler yet, but it could help you get more done with the resources you have today.
Q: What should operations look for in terms of AI from their current system providers or solutions they might be considering?
If you’ re using any kind of system ask your provider where AI is on their product roadmap. What kinds of features do they anticipate having and when? If you can see an important business impact from those features, hold the software supplier’ s feet to the fire regarding when they’ ll have the feature and how they’ ll guarantee accurate advice and benefits. Talk with your IT manager about if and how they see benefits from AI impacting your business.
It’ s not all roses and bags of money tomorrow, but don’ t discount it and remember that eventually your competitors won’ t either. AI is going to be a strategic eventuality you should anticipate at some point in your future.
www. cranehotline. com • August 2024 CRANE HOT LINE ® 21