Dive Brief:
- Cummins is developing technology to provide fleets with data designed to improve fuel economy and performance, the manufacturer’s executive director of On Highway and Digital told Transport Dive.
- Executive Brad Sutton said in a video interview in May that the company is piloting with a few fleets to provide optimization recommendations for a particular unit, where several parameters can be changed to meet different goals.
- The manufacturer’s new tools will go live in Q4, he said, as part of a series of additions the company is making with its tech initiatives this year.
Dive Insight:
Cummins’ artificial intelligence and prognostic technology, available on certain 2017 and later engines, is seeking to help revolutionize how fleets operate and minimize downtime.
These digital features involve data-based sensor prognostics to determine if a part will need to be replaced before a breakdown occurs. For Cummins, this predictive maintenance is part of the powertrain, as opposed to an add-on, and incorporates an artificial intelligence platform, Sutton said.
“We build these models on these predictive services on that artificial intelligence platform,” Sutton said. “As we get more and more data and train that model, ... that model only gets better.”
Through the manufacturer’s Predictive Service Insights, Cummins can alert fleets and service locations when specific components might fail, “providing a service recommendation and allowing them to plan a replacement,” the company said. That means it can “notify a customer of a potential component failure up to 90 days before it happens,” Sutton previously said.
The company unveiled its Predictive Service Insights capabilities earlier this year, and it’s seeking to roll out additional services each quarter.
“We're getting ready to roll out the next three, and there's another six in the following quarter, by the end of this year, we'll probably have around 20 of the prognostics actually out there running live,” Sutton said, adding that customers are asking how many more features will be available and when.
But Cummins isn’t alone with these advances. Although its engine customers include major OEMs such as Daimler Trucks North America, Navistar and Paccar, Navistar previously unveiled its own preventive maintenance platform called International 360.
Third-party data analytics provider Noregon also has worked to distinguish itself in the space: Its remote diagnostic application, TripVision, features predictive fault technology that identifies the likelihood that a fault escalates or another issue occurs based on the vehicle’s current state, the company said in a statement.
“Noregon uses advanced analytics to provide diagnostic insights into an engine and its health and performance,” Chief Strategy Officer Sandeep Kar said in an email. “This coupled with diagnostics insights into upstream and downstream systems and components that collectively constitute the powertrain of a vehicle provide fleets with powerful vehicle insights that ensure higher uptime and utilization.”
