New Influx of Field Data Reveals The Cost Of Ownership
According to equipment managers working for contractors owning fleets valued at $100 million and more, they will remember this period as The Decade of Data. Sophisticated electronics under the hood of heavy mobile machinery is giving these people a clearer view of the real cost of owning and operating equipment. Many managers previously had no choice but to guess at costs, based on limited historical information.
The change is having a profound effect on their jobs. "In the past, if we wanted to know the history of a piece of equipment, we had to go find a handwritten list," says J. Pat Monnot, vice president of global operations for AMECO, Fluors for-profit equipment services division. Today, he says he can find out "what happened to a machine two hours ago" anywhere in the world, without getting up from his desk in Greenville, S.C.