Improving efficiency with Hitachi ConSite

Transport, waste management and recycling company TJ Group has enhanced the efficiency and productivity of its Hitachi fleet by using an innovative tool called ConSite. The Hampshire-based firm receives an automatic service report via email every month, which summarises operational information for each of its Hitachi machines. It includes detailed analysis of data such as daily working hours, swing ratios and fuel consumption.

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With five Hitachi medium excavators and four ZW-5 wheel loaders working across several sites in southern England, TJ Group benefits from ConSite’s regular insight into the performance of each machine. According to Managing Director John Gosling, it helps to enhance the efficiency and productivity of their entire business operation.

“ConSite means lower running costs over the lifetime of each Hitachi machine,” he explains. “It builds a database, so we can learn more about our equipment and operation. And it’s available at the push of a button, for health and safety, maintenance and budgeting purposes. From a budgetary point of view, we need to predict when the next service is due, and when we need to replace our fleet.”

After checking the general overview, John assesses the individual machine figures for hours, idling, temperatures, fuel consumption and CO2 emissions: “The hours are useful because equal utilisation of machines across the fleet is important in terms of depreciation,” he adds.

“One site might have two machines and the operators might favour using one over another, which means one model is clocking up more hours. The hours also show how busy a particular site is. So perhaps we need to swap machines to other sites, look at staffing levels, and check if we have the right model working there.”

Monitoring fuel consumption is also vital for the TJ Group, which has a fleet of 140 trucks for its transport business. “We have always focused on the fuel efficiency of our lorries, and now thanks to ConSite, we can focus on the fuel efficiency of our construction machinery too,” says John. “Previously, we had to estimate fuel, but now we can accurately predict it.”