Next stage of evolution

The industry of construction and mining equipment is passing by a moment of transition due to the consolidation of a more and more demanding user profile. In this new scenario, the trend shown in the horizon is of a renewal of industry practices based on aftersales concepts focused on productivity, reliability and safety of equipment.

At first, the consistent progress that has occurred in the last decade puts countless new players fighting hard for unexplored spaces and markets. This situation caused a dispersion of human resources and—in terms of technology—a high reduction of competitive differentials between the different brands. Due to these reasons, the interest at this moment is not only to incorporate more effective features but also to ensure a continuous support during the whole life of the equipment.

This new step, however, was not reached in Brazil. In a context of retaking of international markets, innovation—that became one of the most important and emphasized values of the market—apparently is not yet enough to bring substantial advantages to the final user. “In fact, at the moment not everything is good for the manufacturers”, says Yoshio Kawakami, consultant of Raiz Consultoria and technical director of Sobratema. “It is difficult to state that reliability, for example—if understood as the probability of a machine failure—is in a better level than it was before.”

In other words, the equipment industry—as Kawakami says—reached a level of evolution that is not being overcome in the speed and intensity that would be desirable and necessary in this new context. According to him, it is the manufacturer that may (and has to) improve this process developing more effective new features based on services of diagnosis, monitoring, information management and aftersales.

With the knowledge of real data about component aging, for example, not only the total cost of the machine tends to be reduced but also its effective productivity may increase considerably. “To get this level, the current situation requires a change of practices”, confirms the expert.