TELEMATICS

Innovation, Telematics and a firm focus on the future

Flannery Plant Hire runs its business focusing on five core values: ‘People’, ‘Safety Focus’, ‘Innovation’, ‘Sustainability’ and ‘Value’. The company consistently adapts its business to become more environmentally friendly and to keep workers across the construction industry as safe as possible. Flannery’s Strategic Plant Manager, Chris Matthew, talks to Construction Worx on how the company is embracing the digital revolution.

Our goal is to make tasks safer, and often simpler, by evaluating new technical solutions, methods and processes. In our experience, innovation is the key to helping protect the people who operate and work alongside our equipment and to create day-to-day project efficiencies. This has led to our partnership with MachineMax on a state-of-the-art dashboard displaying fuel consumption, idle times and GPS tracking in real time for all of our digitally enabled plant on site.

Together we are committed to pursuing ways of measuring, managing and improving fuel usage and consumption. This technology is now part of the HS2 Incubator Programme, which we believe is the perfect place to highlight its importance.

Real time, data-driven decision-making on site

Before this technology, operators have been relied on to manually record their machine data and enter it into a centralised database,

which led to frequent inaccuracies in reporting. By using MachineMax, however, all information can be recorded and reported accurately and immediately.

Technology such as MachineMax provides a clear, genuine oversight for any project. Through having clear visibility of work through consistent and objective data, our clients are able to make decisions on the best volume and application of plant machinery when delivering their projects. Ultimately, this leads to improved revenue, decreased operating costs and, a drastically reduced carbon footprint and, most importantly, vastly improved safety statistics.

Innovation not only applies to our plant fleet but to all the vehicles we use to support our clients. On top of working with MachineMax, Flannery have created an extensive fleet of digitally enabled plant, including the Caterpillar ‘Next-Gen’ equipment and Komatsu’s ‘Intelligen’ excavators and dozers. These machines are fitted with digital technologies such as 3D GPS machine guidance and control,

Global Satellite Navigation Systems (GSNSS), Real Time Kinematic (RTK), site infrastructure design data and proximity warning systems. We’ve also developed an experienced team of people whose responsibility it is to work with our clients to promote and develop the use of the new and developing technologies.

Our commitment to working with digital machine solutions also involves reviewing and upgrading our haulage fleet, ensuring that we can continue to operate one of the most modern, sustainable and fuel-efficient fleets on the roads today. All our haulage trucks are now ‘Euro 6’ compliant and are fitted with sophisticated telematics that are deployed to focus on driver behaviours, route planning and diagnostics for the truck. These updates ensure that Flannery truck drivers are some of the best equipped in the construction industry.

Further alterations have been made to the trucks to advance their performance through equipping them with auto-idle technology, delivering substantial fuel and environmental saving as well as reducing noise within the communities we serve through automatic engine shutdown.

Digital intelligence, human safety

At Flannery, we’re committed to the safety of our operators and drivers, so we have introduced an Operator Fatigue Monitoring System. We have started to use sensor watches and caps that detect the pulse and blood pressure readings of our operators, as well as onboard facial recognition cameras that check for expressions and micro-gestures associated with drowsiness. This data is then used to alert operators and record working patterns so plans can be made to implement change from what that data then recommends. This increases efficiency and site safety, adding to the growing area of innovation in our digital machine solutions division.

Our safety focus is further represented on our work with Costain and SiteZone Safety on the Smart Bubble proximity warning system (PWS). This is fitted on a range of Flannery excavators, aiming to enhance the existing SiteZone Proximity Warning System and minimise the inherent risk of incidents caused by People Plant Interface.

The SiteZone PWS is an intelligent, audible and visual warning system that reduces the risk of vehicle-personnel collisions, and can be used anywhere that the proximity of people and vehicles working together is a cause for concern. The Smart Bubble innovation technology works with existing site protocols such as the ‘Thumbs Up’ procedure. Combining this technology provides a warning solution that creates essential awareness between the operator, pedestrians and other people working in close proximity to the machines. It also maximises alarm integrity and reduces the potential impact on operational performance, with a design that complements existing safety systems in the workplace. Data analysis allows monitoring of potential high-risk spots during machine operation, allowing immediate decisions to be implemented to reduce any injury risks.

From technology like the FHOSS Red Zone safety system to proximity sensors and radar braking, we are constantly assessing the technology available and actively using it to help minimise the risk of the People Plant Interface.

So, in summary, what is it about these solutions that makes the Flannery digitally enhanced machines stand out?

Visibility

Our telematics give clients the option to track all of their machines online in a single platform. The equipment also identifies training needs in operator performance, helping to highlight areas that could cut down issues such as idling time and the number of machines needed on site.

Sustainability

Cutting idling time and the number of machines on site reduces carbon emissions, as well as costs, both operationally and through a reduction in maintenance requirements.

Safety

This technology tracks no-go zones, monitors speed and also out-ofhours operation, which also prevents theft. Productivity is increased through the identification of bottlenecks, reducing cycle time and optimising shifts through tracking operator fatigue patterns.

Our work with SiteZone means that there are no blind spots, as it detects pedestrians even when they’re not visible to the operator or when the plant is stationary. These telematics are task-specific, so the exclusion zone can be customised depending on the size of the machine, the equipment and the working environment. This detection zone is not then affected by the machine’s movement, and pedestrians remain detected even in more difficult environmental conditions, such as heavy rain or fog.

The mutual awareness that is now created between the plant operator and pedestrians when working in close proximity is vital to reducing on-site safety risks, and the data collected from machines carrying this technology can be used to drive behavioural change across sites.

The overall benefits of using digital machine solutions should be obvious to anyone operating in the construction industry as the world moves towards cleaner, greener and safer working practices. We have been exploring and using them for approximately 15 years and don’t intend to rest on our laurels. The pace of change is happening faster now than ever and we fully intend to stay in touch with and invest in the latest technologies available to the sector. We might celebrate our 50th year in the plant hire industry this year, and we could be forgiven for spending time being nostalgic, but our focus is very definitely on the future.