But the piece that’s maybe not as obvious is that the newer equipment is collecting big data, giving mines multiple opportunities to improve their operations. There are many options. Suppose you’re looking at the productivity of a fleet of haul trucks, for example. In that case, we can monitor and measure the efficiency of the equipment throughout the entire haul cycle. Our technologies can break down that whole cycle into components and measure the equipment’s efficiency in each component. Our customers measure their utilization down to seconds, so this kind of visibility is becoming very strategic.
When you look at the whole cycle, you might discover, for example, that a shovel isn’t matched correctly to load a truck quickly enough, or that it’s taking too long to queue underneath the shovel. Sometimes, the data tells you you should use different machines to do the job. The real win here is that you can use the data to improve processes and make them more efficient or more effective.