Asset History and Activity Case Study
Asset / Vehicle Utilization and Location History
Automated measurement of asset utilization, trip reporting, time on site, runtime, location history and idle time.
Overview
Measure and analyze asset utilization across your whole fleet and by asset. Gain awareness and visibility of:
Vehicle Trips
Start time, end time, trip distance, trip duration.
Driver Behavior
Speeding, harsh braking or cornering.
Location History
Where assets have been, how long they have been on site, what they have been doing.
Time On Site
How long have assets been at a location, have they been running, provide evidence for billing.
Runtime and Mileage
Keep track of maintenance milestones automatically and transform planned maintenance from reactive to proactive.
Idle, Condition and Time In State
Understand idle time, how long assets have been running without working or forgotten and underutilized. Understand how long assets are in downtime and in need in repair (time to fault resolution).
The Problem
Vehicle and asset centric business operate fleets of mixed equipment types that are essential for productivity and generating revenue. Most of these businesses can find it difficult to track their inventory and whereabouts, let alone understand how their assets are being used and by whom. They often lack visibility of their fleet and have a range of utilization questions:
- Where are my assets?
- What are they doing?
- How long have they been working?
- Are they sitting idle?
- Which jobs or sites are they being used at?
- What maintenance requirements are coming up?
- How to I provide proof of service and billing evidence to my clients?
- How do I know what my field staff are telling me is correct about work time and utilization?
- Is my equipment being hoarded?
- Do I really need all these assets? Can we downsize or do we need to reallocate assets?
- Do I need to hire a replacement or additional asset, or do I have an available asset in my inventory?
- Where is all my inventory? Is it lost, stolen, forgotten, misplaced?
- Inconsistent compliance as operators forget or ignore pre-start requirements or they figure no one really looks at the inspections anyway.
- Human error leads to mis-identification of assets or data entry errors leads to the wrong assets being updated with the wrong information. This creates compounding problems where the wrong asset is serviced, wasting parts and time, while the asset that actually required service or repair is still in need of service. Once these data entry issues occur it undermines your wider asset management and maintenance programs.
- Equipment is out of compliance or issues are unattended and neglected as inspections are not completed consistently or are lost or damaged. Even when inspections are entered into systems such as spreadsheets, jobs have restrictive visibility due to limited access to information.
Pain Points
Lack insight into asset location and utilization.
Asset are lost or misplaced, can’t keep track of inventory.
Don’t know who is using assets, where or for how long.
Don’t understand how vehicles are being used, where they have been, time on location or who is using them.
Customers question billing and it is difficult to resolve disputes without evidence of asset use and time on site (lack proof of service).
Questions about asset productivity and idle time leave management frustrated and create trust issues and friction with staff.
Vehicle and asset maintenance is reactive, lacks forward insight and leads to unplanned downtime, delays and additional costs.
Fleets are not right-sized. No insight into over or underutilization. No insight into where assets are needed most.
Unnecessary equipment hire as suitable assets cannot be located or there is limited insight into equipment availability. This leads to avoidable additional costs.
The Solution
Blackhawk provides a comprehensive solution for smart, digital forms. These forms can be easily customized and updated in real-time and instantly available to field user via mobile browser, iOS or Android application. This includes:
With globally unique ID codes can be used by field staff to quickly and accurately identify assets for digital inspections or checklists. This helps ensure the right data is entered for the correct asset and maintain data integrity. Our specialized QR codes can be used without the need to download anything or even register, making digital forms easily accessible to your team members.
Pre-start / pre-trip / pre-hire / drop-off or pick-up checklists. Conduct inspections effortlessly on your mobile device. Automatically capture timestamps, location data, user ID and add photos. Automatically update equipment status when urgent faults are recorded, alerting maintenance team and notifying all stakeholders automatically when assets go down. Forms can be asset specific for types of equipment or vehicles.
Conduct and record safety reports electronically. Take 5 forms, hazard reports, faulty or missing safety equipment, etc. Our flexible forms solution makes it easy to create custom forms and update instantly with changes or additional questions.
Update key compliance data such as Warrant of Fitness, annual certification, required testing or inspections digitally. When certificates are issued these can also be digitally stored against individual assets using our Documents and Files feature.
Report issues that require attention or are causing asset downtime instantly. Automatically raise alerts and escalation notifications, switch asset status to “needs repair” or “faulty” so that everyone has visibility of the problem. Follow-up with resolution reporting from qualified technicians while automatically measuring downtime and time to resolution for utilization and performance analysis.
As with breakdown reporting, report roadside vehicle issues with digital forms and include GPS location data and photos to help guide call-out responders directly to the right place with the right parts, first time, every time. These forms can be available to anyone that needs them without downloading anything or having an account making it easy for new customers or employees to access the right forms.
User information can be added to forms or logged- in users are automatically identified so you know who is reporting issues and who is using equipment.
Photos can be easily uploaded with digital forms making it easier to understand the nature of problems and provide richer context, such as the surrounding location or help with visual diagnosis of the problem.
Rich data is automatically captured as part of the form or can be requested as a custom field. This automatically enhances the overall benefits of digital forms. It helps ensure timely resolution, organize and prioritize problems and enable managers to report on and understand a range of KPIs such as response times, identify patterns or reoccurring issues.
All forms can be created and updated using our easy-to-use form editing tools. These are intuitive, easy to understand tools that enable anyone to customize or update forms without special training or coding experience. Updates and changes are then immediately applied; no need to re-print and re-distribute forms. It also makes it easy to customize a standard template form for specific asset types, such as tracked vs wheeled assets.
With smart digital forms a range of automated actions and workflows can be enabled. This includes notifications and alerts, automated equipment status changes (including visual colour changes for asset icons), automatic reporting classification and measurement of time in state (how long an asset is down for maintenance, out of compliance, or how long issues take to receive attention). This automation means that key stakeholders can be informed and aware of key issues without the need for time-consuming manual updates or account management. It also means every form triggers consistent actions and follow-up, reducing instances of human error or “dropped balls”.
A key benefit of digital forms is real-time action and follow-up. No more waiting for paper forms to make it back to the office, days later, and eventually entered into the system. You also no longer have to depend on “firefighting” phone calls to escalate urgent problems or arrange replacement assets. Now, as soon as a fault or a problem is reported, it is available to maintenance and operational teams. Everyone can see what is happening and make informed decisions to prioritize jobs and take actions. This accelerates response times, reduces downtime and improves efficiency and asset utilization as well as improving safety and compliance.
Automatically track asset state and show visual asset icons so anyone can see at a glance where assets need attention. This helps maintain constant situational awareness and enables user to filter assets by state, location and asset type.
Automatically measure asset downtime, drive informed analysis and decision making and track trends and improvements over time.
You can’t manage what you can’t measure. Digital forms enable you to report on asset compliance, utilization, downtime, maintenance issues and a host of other key asset criteria. Blackhawk provides an in-depth reporting solution complete with built-in dashboards, filters, scheduled reports and customer reporting through PowerBI or data export and API integration for third-party reporting tools.
Augment digital forms with active asset tracking and monitoring. Implement proactive maintenance based on runtime or mileage. Track compliance and other KPI’s automatically.
Blackhawk provides a range of modular asset management solutions. Enhance inspections and checklists with supporting documents, files, videos, enable a digital asset assistance for every asset and connect field users to service booking forms, parts ordering, location updates, chain-of-custody, warranty registration, and much more. Talk to us today.
The Benefits
Digital inspections and checklists provide a range of benefits:
Who Benefits
Operational Teams
Improve operational efficiency and visibility of assets, workflow automations and digital convenience. Digital forms make operator’s and driver’s lives easier.
Maintenance / Service
Improve resource planning and visibility of maintenance needs as well as real-time alerting and supporting information such as location, timestamps and photos.
Management
Asset managers and C-level management have greater oversight and insight of asset maintenance and lifecycle. Compliance is better managed, and safety and compliance standards are measured and visible.
Finance
Greater maintenance efficiency leads to lower costs, improved productivity and utilization, leading to improved profitability.
Use Cases
Here are some real-world examples of how we apply digital inspections and checklists for asset management:
Contract Forklift Maintenance (AB/Fonterra) (NZ)
Contract GSE Maintenance (AB/AirNZ), Wheelchair Tracking
Forklift & GSE Maintenance (AB)
Thinxtra / GSE Airline Operations
Wheelchair Tracking (AU)
Wheelchair Tracking (AU)
