Going paperless proves profitable

When Branch Civil’s equipment operations division chose to replace paper-based record keeping with a digitally based data management system, company service technicians had been burdened with mountains of administrative paperwork costing them valuable time in the field.

Four years later, with its new data aggregation system up and running, the Roanoke, Virginia-based construction company’s service techs and other equipment operations personnel are using smartphones and other computerized devices to do everything from entering time sheets and other payroll data to tracking the repair needs of a vast fleet and identifying fault and repair codes.

Three members of the equipment operations team at Branch Civil who oversaw its data management transformation are on tap to tell their story at the triennial ConExpo-Con/Agg heavy equipment trade show in Las Vegas in March, 2020.

“Our primary message is that we have the ability to gather lots of data, and we now have a way

to turn that data into useful information,” equipment operations manager Tim Morgan told Service Truck Magazine, offering a sneak preview of the planned session, “Making Data Useful: A Telematics End User’s Journey.”

Branch Civil’s equipment operations fleet includes 400 on-road cars and trucks, 500 pieces of heavy equipment, and more than 1,000 smaller machines such as pumps, generators and air compressors. Roughly 48 people manage all that, with the heavy lifting done by technicians working in the field from 18 fully equipped service trucks and 17 fuel and lube trucks.

Flooded with paper

When Branch Civil initiated the transformation in 2015, mechanics and other department employees were feeling inundated by administrative tasks, Morgan said.

“Everything had to be done on paper and had to be filled in, interpreted and inputted into our computer system,” Morgan said. “Mechanics filled out time sheets for hours spent working on equipment. Fuel (consumption) was tracked on a spreadsheet that had to be mailed or sent into the office and entered by a second or third person into our computer system. Everything was all manually tracked by hand, pencil and paper, sealed, mailed and sent to an office and then entered into a computer. The data aggregation program takes all these steps out.”

The department’s first step was to map out and review its needs and consider various options through a process improvement exercise. Project proponents had to gain buy-in from executives who wanted assurances data automation would help the bottom line rather than be a burden.

“You have to be able to show a return on investment,” Morgan said. “And that’s not always just dollar signs. It can be return on investment in terms of efficiencies and time savings.”

Corporate blessing in hand and homework already done, the project leaders reached an agreement with a systems developer who had a simple data management program to use the department as a test bed to further enhance the program’s sophistication.

“We provided the resources and data needed to test and gave them our expertise and helped them develop it,” Morgan said. “It was built on our processes without our having any upfront development costs.”

Situational awareness

Implementation was serious business. Branch Civil’s equipment operations team went so far as to establish a situational awareness room into which data from across the company would flow and be visible over wall-mounted television monitors where it could be understood and analyzed at multiple levels.

Along the way, the kinds of issues that typically accompany the implementation of new technology arose. It took considerable patience, for instance, to integrate data from multiple sources into a single program. The project team also needed buy-in from department employees.

“There are challenges with any change,” Morgan said, emphasizing the need to provide ample training so anyone reluctant to embrace computers will quickly see the benefits. “It’s just a matter of staying committed, getting people everything they need, and making sure they understand the ‘why’ of why you’re doing it. Once we got through the challenges and people saw how well it works, they realized it’s worth it.”

With the program nearing full implementation, technicians, dispatchers and other equipment operations personnel can access the system through a secure online portal using a range of devices, from smartphones to tablets and computers. On a user-authorized basis, personnel can enter, retrieve and analyze all manner of data, from equipment records, work orders and service data, to fuel consumption figures and fault and repair codes.

“We’re even using it to do our time sheets, with plans to integrate into our payroll programs,” Morgan said, noting its limitation to organizational workflow rather than performing equipment diagnostics. “It tracks our time and everything. We’re doing very little with spreadsheets now — it’s almost all done electronically.”

Equipment superintendent Chris Caldwell helped coordinate the technology rollout with an eye

on how the enormous volume and variety of data would reach people on a need-to-know basis. A communications board in the situational awareness room helped set that in motion so that, for instance, requests for equipment are brought into a single, centralized area where people and equipment can be dispatched as needed.

Making data meaningful

The notion of turning data into meaningful information that can enable people both in the office and out in the field to make decisions based on good information is the bottom line. “We can make decisions about whether or not we’re going to repair a machine or sell it,” Caldwell said. “A lot of factors go into that. We track all our rentals, our fault codes, our on-road vehicles — all of our telematics — on this communication board.”

Branch Civil also uses the technology to analyze service codes and other data to know, for instance, how often a particular malfunction is recurring. “We can also catch things before they become bigger problems and alert field technicians before they have an equipment failure,” Caldwell said.

“We also have GPS tracking, so if someone calls and asks where their dozer is, we can look on a map and tell them approximately how soon that machine will be at their site so they can plan their work in the field accordingly,” Caldwell said.

Equipment operations data analyst Natalie Kerschner, who is also presenting, said the session

stands to help attendees consider how they might want to use any data they gather. “I’ll be talking about what we wanted from our program and some of the things we’re measuring, including our equipment status and health, so we can make the best decisions about repairs and replacements. We’re also looking at how we’re using our equipment, which helps decision-making with logistics.”

Branch Civil’s system even includes video chat capability. Kerschner said a well-implemented system should enable employees to do more of what they do best. “Almost everything can be more automated and more efficient so that we can have more time to use our brains and skills instead of using our time just for routine administrative tasks. We’re really cutting down on administrative time and increasing wrench time.”

For more information on Branch Civil, visit www.branchcivil.com.

— Saul Chernos

Saul Chernos is a freelance writer based in Toronto.