Data drives productivity and process efficiency, says Hilti

14 June 2023

Having promoted the virtues of increased workplace productivity for the adoption of tools and equipment over many years, particularly regarding cordless products, Hilti is now on a mission to reach managers of hire companies and construction sites with a similar message concerning digitisation via its ON!Track Platform. 

It is a particular priority for Thibaud Lefebvre, pictured below, who was recently appointed as Hilti GB Vice President for the GB and E1 (Northern European) regions, and a member of the E1 leadership team covering GB, Ireland, Finland, Sweden and Denmark. 

Previously Hilti’s North American marketing director, his career with the company spans 22 years and includes periods working in France, Spain and Canada. As previously reported on the blog, Thibaud is a passionate advocate of digitisation across the industry, focused on modernisation for Hilti’s customers via technology. 

In the same way that BIM (building information modelling) enables data relating to captured relating to the planning, design, construction and operation of a built assets and stored on the cloud using special software and technology, Hilti believes its ON!Track system can optimise efficiencies in tool and equipment usage, procurement, servicing and return on investment. 

“We believes that in GB currently 80 per cent of construction sites are still paper-based, relying on big sheets of paper with plans on desks and walls which are manually updated,”  Thibaud told me. “Our vision is that within five years, 60 per cent of our construction customers will have adopted software and digitalisation systems throughout their operations. It’s the biggest transformation that the industry has ever faced.” 

He believes that such contractors will also expect hirers and equipment suppliers to introduce similar technology such as ON!Track, which can monitor the location and status of items in a hire fleet from any manufacturer, not just Hilti own products.

Indeed, Thibaud says that in practice around 95 per cent of the items monitored by ON!Track are non-Hilti products. He also says that the system has already proved popular in the US.

At the heart of the system is a small tag which is attached to the body of the equipment using a special adhesive pad. It is designed to create a bond as strong as the surface material it is attached to. 

Connecting to a hub, the tag constantly monitors the item’s location and usage and depot managers can check the information via On!Track software or by using an app. Equipment out on a site also sends data to the service with a gateway network so that it can be tracked and traced in a similar way. 

The system can be integrated with hire management software and ERP (enterprise resource planning) services that a company might already have in place. 

As well as benefits such as being able to compile reports on equipment inventories, Hilti believes that digitisation brings other advantages to hirers (to optimize and digitise internal processes) and their customers (providing data on usage and location). 

Walid Hussain, National Tool Hire Manager (UK) with Hilti GB, says that ON!Track enables hirers to maximise their returns on investment in their fleet. 

“Typically, a tool’s ROI is measured by determining its hire income over a certain period, subtracting the cost of running it and dividing by the purchase cost,” he told me. “But often the running cost is under-estimated. For example, if the equipment has to be collected from another depot that is a cost that can be tracked and added automatically instead of relying on manual entry.” 

He adds that if a tool cannot be quickly located, a hirer might choose to buy another which could be an unnecessary expense. 

Also, ON!Track could show the number of times a specific item in a fleet has been hired and for how long. While some companies might service or replace equipment when it reaches a certain age, this could be unnecessary if it has been used less than another similar model in the fleet. Again, the overall running cost can be determined more accurately. 

Thibaud says that data obtained from the system often shows that managers consistently over-estimate tool usage and therefore might be bearing certain costs needlessly. 

Similarly, by showing if certain tools are being left idle site equipment management can be optimised. This will cut costs as well as being attractive to contractors with sustainability targets to meet. 

As well as monitoring data relating to Hilti tools for service and maintenance purposes, ON!Track can capture information on aspects such as how often in-built operator protection systems are triggered like ATC (active torque control) to prevent the tool spinning if it jams. 

This might indicate that a user lacks experience or training, or that a different tool altogether is required to do the job. As a result, Health & Safety benefits and operational efficiencies are achieved.

So Hilti says that digitalisation offers considerable practical benefits that customers will increasingly seek. And Hilti suggests that this sort of service is also something that hirers could charge for.