Big Data Used in Manufacturing Industry: Providing Intelligent Service

While a concrete pump is operating on a worksite in Daxing District, Beijing on July 4, 2016, the after sales service center of Sany Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. in Changsha, Hunan province which is a thousand miles away from the worksite, is closely monitoring the work condition of this machine.

About 20 people are sitting in front of computers, watching the map on the screen that shows the details of SANY’s machines working around the world.

This is SANY’s global customer management system - the ECC control center. It monitors SANY’s machines in real time on a global basis to provide greater after-sales service to customers.

As a leading manufacturer of construction machinery, SANY takes innovation and service at its core based on a profound understanding of customer requirements, said Xiang Wenbo, president of Sany Heavy Industry.

To better deal with customer requirements, GPS has been used on SANY’s machines to help increase efficiency of the after-sales service.

A sensor and a controller are equipped on every machine to send the machine’s operation parameter back to SANY’s ECC control center timely, which enables engineers to inspect the machine’s operation and conduct remote diagnosis. If any component is found broken, the engineers can also search for the replaced component at the nearest distance through the system.

In addition, if some customers default on the payment, the sensor, controller, and GPS can lock the machine through remote control, pushing the customer to pay in time to reduce the company’s fund risks. 

Every machine’s basic information, including working hours, oil consumption, and maintenance frequency, can be found through the global customer service platform. An electric map can draw the moving track of the machine in the past in an animated way.

SANY can provide more services to customers based on the system. They can use the system to manage their equipment. It can be bound to a cellphone where customers can receive messages containing information about the machine at appointed time.

An alarm message will be sent to the customers once their machines are found working out of the region they set previously.

Customers can dial SANY’s 24 hours service call when a machine breaks down. The service engineers in Changsha will inspect the malfunction rapidly based on the received data from the equipment and help customers repair the machine through remote control.

In addition, SANY has deployed service-cars on a global basis. The system will search for the service cars and gas stations within the scope of 300 kilometers to provide customers with the resources they need. SANY will also send the nearest engineers to the work site if remote control doesn’t work.

Besides maintenance assistance, big data also helps prediction. The application of big data generated from real time monitoring can discover the machine’s future breakdown and take measures in advance to ensure longer service life of the equipment.

SANY transforms its service mode from passive response to active service and from breakdown maintenance to predication. The predicative information will be sent to customers’ cellphones in advance so that some actions can be taken in advance.

“Customers can not notice it before the equipment breaks down. While the machine health analysis and diagnosis allow customers to be aware of the information in advance, which will create enormous values for our customers,” said He Dongdong, Sany Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. Senior Vice-President.