SANY INDIA STRENGHTHEN ITS PRESENCE IN NEW DELHI WITH THE INAUGRATION OF A NEW COCO OFFICE
SANY India, a leading manufacturer of construction equipment, announces the grand opening of its new Company Owned, Company Operated (COCO) office in Delhi. This new office in Delhi aims to play a crucial role in the company’s vision of enhancing customer satisfaction and driving growth in the Indian market. Focusing on innovation, quality, and customer-centricity, SANY India continues to lead the way in the construction machinery sector. The inauguration ceremony was led by the Managing Director, Deepak Garg, alongside Shashank Pandey, Business Unit Head, and other senior management members from SANY India. Other distinguished guests and industry partners witnessed the ribbon-cutting ceremony and toured the state-of-the-art facilities. The new office is equipped with modern infrastructure and advanced technology to support SANY India’s operations and provide an excellent working environment for its employees.
Expressing his enthusiasm for the new office, Deepak Garg, VC & MD at SANY India, stated, “The opening of our new COCO office in Delhi reflects Sany India’s ongoing growth and commitment to delivering exceptional service to our customers. This office will enable us to better serve the needs of our clients in the region and further strengthen our presence in the Indian market.”
Shashank Pandey, Business Unit Head, added, “We are thrilled to open our new office in Delhi. This facility will not only help us improve our operational efficiency but also foster closer relationships with our customers. Our team is committed to delivering innovative solutions and exceptional service, ensuring that Sany India remains a trusted partner in the construction industry.”
The new COCO office, spread across 3,000 sq ft and strategically located at the Mohan Cooperative Industrial Estate in Delhi, marks a significant milestone in Sany India’s expansion strategy. It reinforces the company’s commitment to delivering exceptional service and support to its valued customers in the northern region. This office will serve as a central hub for operations, sales, and after-sales services, ensuring enhanced customer engagement and streamlined processes.
Ashok Leyland bags Single Largest Order of 2104 Fully Built Buses from Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation
Ashok Leyland, the Indian flagship of the Hinduja Group and the country’s leading commercial vehicle manufacturer, recently announced that it has bagged single largest fully built bus order from the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) for 2104 units of Viking passenger bus. This will further contribute to strengthening Ashok Leyland’s dominant position in the bus segment.
Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) is one of the largest state transport undertakings in the country with over 15,000 buses. With this order, Ashok Leyland buses will dominate its fleet. These modern, fully built buses will be fully compliant with the latest CMVR standards, will feature AIS 153 compliant body, and will have the proven iGEN6 BS VI OBD II technology with 197 HP H-Series Engine, and Rear Air Suspension, among other significant features. These buses will be manufactured at Ashok Leyland’s exclusive bus body plants with state-of-the-art technology, and will offer enhanced safety, improved comfort, and a lower total cost of ownership for MSRTC.
Shenu Agarwal, Managing Director & CEO, Ashok Leyland, said, “We are excited to continue our long-standing partnership with the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC). This new order underscores our dedication to producing highly efficient and technologically advanced products, driving the growth of public transportation in the country. Our deep understanding of our customers and our ability to quickly respond to their needs is what sets us apart.”
Sanjeev Kumar, President- M&HCV, Ashok Leyland, said. “We are thrilled to have received this order from MSRTC. The order win emphasizes the confidence and trust our customers have in our products. Specifically tailored to meet the unique requirements of Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation, our buses stand as a testament to the reliability, durability, and robustness of our products. We are proud to offer MSRTC and the people of Maharashtra a modern fleet that ensures superior comfort and the highest standards of safety. This order reflects the trust that our customers place on Ashok Leyland.”
Ashok Leyland is among the Top 5 largest manufacturer of buses in the world and India’s largest bus manufacturer. This recent order further consolidates Ashok Leyland’s position in the Indian and the global bus market.
Caterpillar’s Construction and Technology Days- Key take aways
Now, more than ever, the once ‘emerging’ high-tech features of construction machines appear to be becoming the norm.
With such advances, it’s as important of a time as ever to ask: Is my company keeping up or falling behind?
Discussing the matter at Caterpillar’s Construction and Technology Days at the company’s facility in Edwards, Illinois, US, was a panel of seven US contractors who explained to a room of end-users and business owners exactly how to level up their firm with the right tech.
The panel consisted of: James Bennett of Otto Baum; Robert Gaines Blackwell of Partners Excavating; Curtis Blank Jr. of Associated Terminals; Tyler Flynn of Savage; Shay Stutsman of Stutsman Gerbaz; Bryce Wuori of Pavewise; and Justin Spates of Luck Stone.
New tech as labour aids, not ‘Big Brother’
Frequently throughout the discussion, the seven panellists encouraged owners and managers to have an active role in implementing new technology for their crews and fleets and highlighted the importance of using modern data and work-tracking software as an ally, not a meddlesome monitoring system.
Perhaps the technology seen as most invasive by operators and crew members is machine and worksite monitoring software.
“It’s not a ‘Big Brother’ tool,” iterated Justin Spates, whose firm Luck Stone produces crushed stone and aggregates. He added anyone implementing monitoring software for the purpose of checking up on their employees is likely to get severe pushback from the crew.
“[Implementation of technology] really falls flat on its face when you do it that way,” he said.
Instead, Spates encouraged incorporating the crew in understanding how data is analysed and used. He said doing so can increase productivity, particularly as operators become more aware of what positive and negative actions lead to data notifications.
As an example, one operator may have an excessive idle time on a Monday. Using that information, managers can work with the operator to see why the machine idled for longer than expected and use proactive solutions to limit idle time on Tuesday.
“We use it as a training opportunity, as a development opportunity,” explained Spates.
Bryce Wuori of Pavewise also encouraged contractors to stay away from becoming their employees’ ‘Big Brother’ – another of at least a half dozen mentions of the Orwellian idea when discussing data software. He said, using the toolset to encourage positive use of machines and worksite time leads to better results.
“We found a crew, and they had success on it,” said Wuori, who said managers could then commend the workers, while showing them what exactly they did right.
What they did ‘right’ could be anything from reducing idle time, operating the machine in a way that reduced average fuel consumption, or limiting machine-destructive movements.
By the next shift, a different crew – catching word of the data-based results – wanted to perform better than the prior team.
“We were maxing out incentives on density on projects [and] being super-efficient to the point where we could even take a roller off the mat because we were being so efficient with the others,” he said of the performance of the workers after introducing healthy, data-based competition. “Each crew wants to be the A-team, right?”
The same with in-cab and on-site cameras; the panel found that operators, initially, were opposed to the idea until they realised the immense safety benefits they provide. Cameras that can identify exterior surroundings, as well as determine if an operator is distracted, were widely accepted, the panellists said, once the purpose was amply explained.
“Cameras tend to have a kind of negative thought process,” acknowledged Wuori. “But we’ve seen resistance of our team members to now full acceptance. We have drivers and operators that will not operate the piece of equipment unless their cameras are working.”
Remote operations should be carefully implemented
A major shift in the last decade regarding machine operations is the ability to remote-control machines.
It’s a future gamechanger for the construction industry, but one that comes with a high price-point to start and mild uncertainty.
For Curtis Blank of Associated Terminals – a stevedore and terminal operator located in Louisiana, US – the unique nature of their business (unloading cargo from barges on the Mississippi River) using Cat Command (a remote operations platform) was a common-sense approach.
“Our goal is to remove personnel from harm’s way,” said Blank, who noted remote operations means workers can oversee heavy lifts away from the barge and cranes.
In part due to their unique work, skilled labour is often in short supply, which Blank said worsened during the pandemic.
“The ability to be dynamic with labour, to touch different sites without having to send personnel to those sites, which could be 150 miles apart, became very valuable and it just began to scale from there,” he said.
But what was common sense for Associated Terminals isn’t necessarily for every firm. Even Blank noted that he’s eager for remote capabilities to start implementing 3D plans, which would increase operator control and limit accidents and damage compared to the current 2D scheme-building software.
“We set safe zones, benchmarks,” he said. “We’ve got a steel floor, a lot of structure in the area we can damage on the ship. The 2D side of things helps us at least set some thresholds.”
Now, Blank is already eagerly waiting a new update to the existing tech. “Once 3D comes in, it’ll be a game changer for us, again,” he said.
Contractors retaining and finding new employees with modern tech
That technology in construction can be a bridge to encourage a new workforce to enter the industry has been said so often it might feel like a platitude.
But the panellists all noted how embracing modern construction technologies has brought about a noticeable difference among their existing workforce and their future one.
Shay Stutsman of Stusman Gerbaz Earthmoving, regarding grade control technology, said, “Now that we’ve implemented all this, our retention of employees has been absolutely tremendous.
“In fact, we now are getting more applications than we ever have because people want to come and run this equipment.”
Grade control for dozers and excavators has existed for decades, but today’s programmes are even easier to use and more accurate than before. Where an operator once needed hyper focused physical control of a machine to cut the appropriate grade, the worker can now simply input the needed information into a machine and let it do the work.
Stutsman noted this reduces time, cost, and operator fatigue.
“They want to be part of this process. They have these new toys, they’ve got this technology, [and] it’s been absolutely amazing to see how our operators have grasped the technology and see how many people have wanted to come to work for us because of it,” he said.
Altogether, Stutsman estimated his return on investment in modern grade control machines came after one year.
“If you can see a return on investment in less than a year, I kind of think that’s a no-brainer, right?” he said. “It’s not what something costs. It’s what it saves you.”
Blank responded, on his end, that he’s also seeing access to new workforce demographics as his company invests in construction technology.
“You obviously want to open up your labour pool to the widest possible. In south Louisiana… traditionally it’s been a male operator workforce for us,” he acknowledged. “What we’ve seen is we’ve been able to tap other labour markets. Now we have females that want to run equipment for us.”
Remote operation technology, Blank said, also opened the door to workers with physical limits.
“We’ve had employees in the past that have disabilities, and we’re able to bring these folks in,” he added.
Technology can be scary (and expensive), but worth the investment
Ultimately, not every tech solution works for every construction company, but there are definitely modern tools that can benefit even the smallest of firms. Instead of delaying the inevitable, contractors and builders would be wise to make investments in the right tech now or risk falling behind the competition.
Blank summed up the sentiment of the day, commenting that, “It’s about being competitive in the market. What we’ve really learned over the years [adopting new tech] is you’re miles ahead of your competitor. Early adoption of some of these things… it has so much upward potential.”
Hyundai introduces crawler dozer for North America
HD Hyundai Construction Equipment North America expanded its product categories with the introduction of the Hyundai HD100, a new tracked dozer model.
The crawler will join Hyundai’s other machines in the North American product line, which includes wheeled loaders, excavators, dump trucks and compact track loaders.
Hyundai HD100 specifications
The Hyundai HD100 dozer is a 10-ton-class machine with a standard blade capacity of 2.9 cu yd (2.2m3) and a digging depth of 18 in (457mm).
The four-cylinder Hyundai G2 DM03 engine meets Tier 4 Final emissions standards and achieves 115 hp. Standard operating weight totals 23,589 lb (10,700 kg), and track length on the ground is 108 inches (2,737cm).
“A hydrostatic transmission provides smooth control of speed and torque while enhancing ease of operation,” added Hyundai.
The machine’s undercarriage system includes dual-flange rollers outside the chain of the track and single-flange rollers inside the chain of the track to help ensure the track stays on the undercarriage to reduce wear and provide greater operator comfort.
David Spooner, product manager with HD Hyundai Construction Equipment North America, said, “This new Hyundai dozer delivers best-in-class power-to-weight ratio and the best
visibility to the dozer blade. Our dealers and customers, especially in landscaping and forestry, have already expressed a lot of interest in this machine.”
Increased visibility and tech grading precision on the HD100
The company highlighted the cabin’s visibility and grading precision features upon the HD100’s release.
“The Hyundai HD100 dozer offers superior visibility to the standard 6-way angle blade,” said the company. “Positioning the electronic cooling system at the back of the machine results in an unobstructed view of the blade.”
Using 2D technology with 3D capabilities available, Hyundai said improving grading work is a vital part of the dozer.
“The standard 6-way variable-angle-pitch dozer blade – with a maximum angle of 25 degrees – delivers more precision when grading or moving dirt, clay and other materials,” said Hyundai. “The standard blade float function is ideal for fine finishing or smooth back grading. The machine is compatible with grading technologies that help even novice operators work faster and more precisely, save time and fuel, and maximize productivity.
“The 2D Smart Blade assist function, which comes standard, makes precision grading easier. The HD100 can also be ordered Trimble-ready from the factory. This optional 3D machine guidance and 3D machine control system activates automatic blade movements based on GPS coordinates.”
