Initions AG: OPHEO - Transportation management and telematics
Good organization is not only important, but indispensable when planning construction sites. OPHEO transport management and telematics from Initions AG offers an interesting solution for those who want optimum results. We had the function and possibilities explained to us at bauma 2016 in Munich.
OPHEO - Platform for transportation management and telematics
Helge Plehn: We are presenting the OPHEO product here, which is a platform for transportation management and telematics. We have now simply exhibited a typical workplace here at the trade fair. Messe TV: In which plant would that be the case, for example? Helge Plehn: This could be the view of a user sitting in a concrete plant, for example, who is responsible for scheduling both his production plant control system and the vehicles that deliver ready-mixed concrete in the field, for example. This means that we always have the requirement that I have to serve different customers on a mixing tower at the same time, different construction sites and the vehicles that drive the concrete from the plant to the construction site and back again run at the different construction sites. The difficulty is that I have to plan it so that unloading takes place continuously at the construction site. I don't want any truck mixers waiting in between, because the concrete in the truck mixers hardens after 45 minutes. That's why I have to have continuous unloading. And especially with large construction sites, large bridges or similar, I have to operate different plants at the same time, which means I plan across different production sites. Messe TV: And I can keep an overview of several construction sites at the same time, so to speak? Helge Plehn: Exactly. In this example, I have several orders, several construction sites on the left-hand side. I have a line for each vehicle here, where I can see the order in which they will be driven out. I have a map view in which I can see both the construction sites and the vehicles and I have an overview of my capacity utilization throughout the day, both for the vehicles and the plants, the production plants. And I am always up to date.
Messe TV: And how are you in contact with the drivers? Helge Plehn: It runs via a separate application - I have displayed it here below - we can take another look at other devices later - which means I have complete process integration of the driver. That means I don't have to keep asking him and calling him where he is, but I can see where he is at the moment via GPS tracking. There are status messages from the driver and whenever I have difficulties, I get feedback. The position report allows me to see what is happening in the field at any given time and I can use it to extrapolate if any problems should occur at some point. Messe TV: Let's take a look at an example! Helge Plehn: Sure. I simply mark this order here. I can see, for example, that he is transporting 96m³ of concrete. I can see the individual tours here in the list display and the data record I have just marked has the tours that belong to it highlighted in yellow. The routes are run in a certain order. You can see the unloading here in this red-brown area. I can also see when the unloading of one vehicle is finished here, the unloading of the next vehicle begins, then the next.... And the complete unloading at the construction site follows in this corresponding sequence. So that I have continuous unloading, that I don't have to stop during unloading. Messe TV: If we had a problem here, for example, that it comes to a standstill or is too late? Helge Plehn: Well, first there would be a delay and then you would immediately see a warning message. Attention! I have a delay here. This means that whenever a problem occurs, a corresponding symbol appears and gives me a warning.
Time and process management on construction sites with OPHEO
Messe TV: What do you do when you receive such a warning? Do you contact the driver and give him instructions or how do you deal with it? Helge Plehn: That is very different. For example, if I have a delay later in the process that might not occur for another hour, then of course I still have the opportunity to plan ahead and can reschedule immediately and change the vehicle deployment again. Yes, and thanks to this additional time window, the foreman doesn't call me from the construction site and say, "Watch out, the drivers aren't coming," but I can see it in good time. Messe TV: What kind of feedback do you get from the companies that already use your software? Helge Plehn: Many of them say they can't even imagine what it was like without it. And I also have the opportunity to say that I can train new employees very quickly thanks to these intuitive interfaces. It's often the case that if you don't have such tools, employees have the problem that when someone is ill, nobody knows exactly what's happening. These schedulers are incredibly brilliant, they know exactly which trucks are where. They have it in their heads, from where to where they need which driving times, but if someone is not there or is ill, or if I have to train a new one, I have the problem without such support. Messe TV: It's a universal head, so to speak. Helge Plehn: Exactly. Messe TV: But concrete is just one example? Helge Plehn: Exactly. That is one possible application of the solution. Its strength is its flexibility and the fact that we can use it for a wide variety of different types of traffic. Messe TV: This is what it would look like for the driver.
Helge Plehn: Exactly. One of the strengths of the product is that we can achieve a very detailed integration of the driver and the entire driving process in this planning solution. We have different devices here - but they are all very similar in terms of operation. We have large touch surfaces everywhere, where you can also press with a large thumb. All the individual buttons are labeled and have their own icon. For example, if I press the "Current tour" button, it says, "I was just unloading" - now I'm on an "empty run" and this information goes straight back to the office and the dispatcher knows exactly what's happening with the vehicle without me having to call, pick up a cell phone or anything like that. I have continuous transparency throughout the entire transport process for the entire vehicle fleet. Messe TV: You are constantly developing the product. What other innovations do you see for the future that can be made here? Helge Plehn: I think we've just seen how I can integrate drivers into the transportation process very easily. The next steps are, of course, to integrate customers and service providers. In other words, we have corresponding interfaces to customers. These are the big steps. More interaction. More integration of customers, senders and recipients. Messe TV: I wish you a successful trade fair and we will definitely see you again. Helge Plehn: Have a nice day, it was a pleasure.
