New customer-focused concept uses real-time information from trucks to schedule maintenance
Scania Australia is beginning to roll out its new service concept Scania Maintenance with Flexible Plans, announcing a new national service scheduling team to handle the data-driven approach.
According to the truck maker, the new concept provides its customers with the option to schedule service intervals in line with the needs of each truck, such as how it is used, what load it carries and over what terrain.
This data is drawn from the vehicle itself, with its operation determining the service intervals and the length between such visits, which can be stretched out to 150,000km.
Analysing the data from the Scania Communicator – the communication device fitted in the trucks – will be the national service scheduling team, who monitor when maintenance, repairs or replacement parts are due in real-time.
“Scania Maintenance with Flexible Plans is based on the idea that all trucks are connected and it is their actual usage data, rather than the traditional mileage or calendar method, which determines how they are to be serviced, according to the specific maintenance contract between Scania and the individual customer,” Scania Australia national manager after sales Sean Corby says.
“There are obvious customer benefits in this, such as significant potential for fewer and/or shorter visits to the workshop.
“As the vehicle is utilised we can download the data to ensure its expected servicing needs are in line with the real-world operational data we are seeing. In this way if an operator takes a regional multi-drop prime mover onto overnight express interstate work, we can modify the servicing schedule almost in real time to accommodate its new role.
“If the customer starts running the truck down very poorly maintained roads we can adjust the axle maintenance programme to accommodate this. We can do the same with dusty operating conditions or extreme heat.
“Rather than customers having to keep track of and accommodate fixed service intervals, Scania will contact them to arrange a suitable time to visit the workshop.
“If you then connect additional services, such as Remote Diagnostics, we can be proactive in our relationship with the customer and improve their chances of keeping their vehicle at work through planned and preventive maintenance.”
In the past, Scania has tailored its serving into small, medium and large, depending on kilometres travelled, but advancing technology has made this approach unsuitable for some of its customers.
“A particulate filter typically has a working life longer than the Large service interval, but unnecessarily changing out the particulate filter to meet the SML scheduling adds unnecessary costs for the operator, and means filters are changed when they still have good service life left in them,” Corby says.
“No-one would argue with aiming to provide exactly the right amount of maintenance per vehicle.”
Having already rolled out the new scheme in Europe a years ago, the truck maker says workshops visits has decreased and the reduction in customer reliance for service times has received positive feedback.
For local customers who wish to continue with the old system, Scania Australia says they will continue to be handled as such.
“Scania in Australia has adopted the concept of Flexible Plans because the data collection is sophisticated enough to take account of Australian operating conditions,” Corby says.
“Our aim is to break down the SML service planning into smaller blocks focusing on which elements of the vehicle require more frequent or less frequent attention.
“We also have the ability to tailor servicing schedules to meet customer specific requirements, because they may feel more comfortable changing the oil at a set time, even if our data does not require this.
“We are also able to integrate maintenance of specialist bodies or trailers into the plan too, to ensure the entire combination remains in as good a working order as possible throughout its working life.”
With the end of the 2G network in Australia, Scania has already begun offering its customers the option to upgrade to a new ‘Black Box’, which utilises the existing 3G and 4G networks, free of charge.