The Indian construction industry is an integral part of the economy and a conduit for a substantial part of its development. The industry is poised for growth on account of industrialization, urbanization, economic development and people's rising expectations for improved quality of living. Construction constitutes 40% to 50% of India's capital expenditure on projects in various sectors such as highways, roads, railways, energy, airports, irrigation etc and is the second largest industry in India after agriculture. It accounts for about 11% of Indias GDP.
More specifically, infrastructure development has been identified as a major thrust area as emphasized through such projects as Bharat Nirman, Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana, the National Highways Development Programme, airport modernization etc.
While, it is a growing industry the challenges they face are also fast increasing. Increase in commodity prices, higher energy costs, volatile capital markets to name a few are all adding to the woes of the industry.
There is thus, an increased need to improve operations and organizations the world over are adopting various techniques to do so the use of machine-to-machine (M2M) technology is one of them. For those organizations with many field assets, it becomes critical to constantly monitor and control these assets efficiently. Collecting the data in real time and using it to make operational and business decisions is therefore an essential requirement for companies with significant field assets.
And this is where ConnectMs Asset Management Solution acquires significance. ConnectMs Asset Management Solution provides access to real-time information, improves the customer experience, reduces the costs, optimizes the resource utilization, and also improves operational efficiencies.
Implementation of the solution:
The Client
Hindustan Construction Company Ltd. (HCC) is a leading engineering, construction and infrastructure development company with a rich heritage of experience. The company, established over eight decades ago, specializes in large-scale infrastructure development deploying new age construction technologies. The Company has managed and executed several technically complex and high value projects across segments like transportation, hydro & nuclear power generation, marine, irrigation & water supply projects as well as integrated urban development and management. Lavasa City and the Bandra Worli Sea link are some of the more recent projects handled by HCC.
Business Challenges
HCC uses large quantities of cement and other raw material for manufacturing concrete, which is a major component of its construction works. HCC, has its batch mixing plants spread out across the country at various locations. Some of these locations being in remote areas pose a challenge because of their terrain and weather conditions.
The consumption of cement and other raw materials used by the various projects across the country needed to be tracked on a real time basis, so that HCC could plan efficiently for the future and also maintain optimum supply chain for their inventory.
To keep track on the project costs and timelines, HCC was keen to track on real time basis, planned and actual consumption of the raw materials and output. The company also felt the need to track the different kinds of mixtures used for the manufacturing of the concrete and this was significant as each batching plant produces anywhere from thousand to five thousand tons of concrete every month.
Other issues encountered were unavoidable errors and delays in data entry of the actual consumption of raw material data from site.
ConnectMs Solution
ConnectM deployed its Asset Management Solution, to resolve the challenges faced by HCC. The solution was used to aggregate and analyze production data, process inputs and provide Batching Plant utilization information.
The Benefits
The ConnectM solution enabled HCC to look at actual data, as well as real time data. The data can now be input in real time enabling the client to track the actual and real time consumptions. The solution has also helped HCC in tracking and planning the inventory of material, thereby ensuring more efficient planning of production, says Mr. Mahendra K, Assistant V.P - Information Systems.
The solution also helped HCC in optimizing the process by facilitating daily updates of the data and delivering savings in time.
| Says Mr. Mahendra, that In the beginning, of course we had some teething issues in deploying the solution, but this was responded to effectively and in a timely manner by the ConnectM team. Since then there has been no looking back! Through this one ConnectM solution, a large number of our day-to-day operational challenges have significantly reduced thereby enabling our managers to remotely focus on important aspects of project execution. We have seen tangible benefit in deploying the ConnectM Remote Asset Management solution for our Batching Plants |
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Mr. Mahendra K,
Assistant V.P - Information Systems, HCC |
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Future Potential
HCC is looking at implementing the solution across the new projects. And with the amount of construction and infrastructure projects happening across the country, the future potential for this solution is huge, says Mr. Mahendra.
