Hills Machinery has launched Hills Uptime Operations, a new division that facilitates lifecycle fleet management and real-time equipment monitoring and service — both for its customers’ fleets as well as Hills’ own rental fleet.
Hills is offering Uptime Services to all business owners and fleet managers throughout its service area of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Virginia — including companies with mixed fleets looking to centralize all equipment operations in a single platform.
Hills Uptime Operations will serve businesses through a subscription-based program at either a base, flex service or full service package level. Uptime Services are available to all fleets of equipment, whether they were bought from Hills Machinery or not.
“The most vital thing to anyone who oversees a fleet of earthmoving and industrial equipment is the protection of the fleet’s uptime and the ability to minimize downtime events,” said Jim Hills, president, Hills Machinery.
“We are bringing to market a fully integrated solution that benefits businesses by centralizing all monitoring and data for machine performance in a single platform. This will simplify the overall flow and interpretation of that data, and tie it directly to service, fleet management and parts actions, keeping equipment running in short order.”
Hills Uptime Operations is powered by T3 — “the only cloud-based operating system that brings together construction workflows and data from constantly moving elements in one place.”
Hills completely renovated a large work area in its Columbia, S.C., headquarters to serve as an operations center, complete with wall-to-wall monitors and workspaces to house the staff who will make up the Uptime Operations group.
At its core, the Hills Uptime Operations division is made possible by T3 technology — a powerful combination of hardware, telematics software and intuitive data analysis that takes fleet management to the next level. This includes the most basic detail around machine location and service hours for preventive maintenance, to more in-depth utilization, machine health and operator performance reports — all empowering the Hills team to make data-driven decisions in proactively monitoring and supporting equipment fleets of all sizes. These resources allow the Hills team to respond intelligently and with the right resources to get machines back up and running faster.
“This will also give us historical data and trends for each machine in the system, allowing us to get ahead of preventive service needs, and also any other service issues that might predict a downtime event,” said Rodney Hancock, Uptime Operations manager, Hills Machinery. “We want to keep each customer up and running as much as possible, with as few trips to our shop, or as few trips by our technicians as possible — keeping service costs and downtime low, while keeping operational profitability high.”
The ability to proactively identify needs and potential downtime events before they become greater repair situations is equally as powerful. This further supports the company’s new PAE Group — a highly trained team of service professionals focused on critical equipment service issues in industries known to be particularly harsh on equipment, such as paving, crushing and grinding.
“We pride ourselves in that first-time-fix rate,” said Hancock. “This approach allows us to take the fault code, run the troubleshooting matrix, and make sure that the technician goes to the field with all the tools and parts they need to fix the problem so that the customer can get back up and running.”
As routine maintenance service intervals approach, the Uptime Operations Group will proactively schedule the convenient time and location for service. For operations that complete their own equipment maintenance, Uptime Services offers preventive maintenance parts packages for pickup or delivery, before the machine is due for service.
The technology also allows Hills to become a strong partner in fleet management, lifecycle equipment care and getting the most out of each equipment investment when the machine hits the secondary market. It will also make it easier than ever to keep track of equipment out on rent and to make sure that Hills is using data and intelligence to build a rental fleet that properly meets the demands of local markets — and that equipment availability is optimized to meet the ever-growing demand for rental equipment.
“Equipment is now more of a service industry than it is a retail industry,” said Hills. “The resources we are putting in place now will help your business be successful no matter what market you work in.”