Intro
Vestergaard is specialized in producing air service trucks. Airlines around the world depend on Vestergaard's service trucks and equipment to be in the right place at the right time. Vestergaard is a global company with production facilities in Denmark and Thailand as well as sales and service organizations in North America, Germany, France and Finland.
At Vestergaard, PTC ThingWorx was chosen as the IIoT platform to connect, collect and analyze data across Vestergaard's fleet operations - giving them and their customers valuable visibility into all aspects of their trucks.
Results
Frontline employees can ensure that they are always in the right place at the right time.
Real-time location services help Vestergaard and their customers optimize workflows and get the right operator to the right place at the right time.
The application provides customers with valuable insight into asset health
Vestergaard leverages the data they collect in the field to optimize the engineering and design process.
Elo Svanebjerg
Technical Director
A link between existing and new solutions
Vestergaard, a manufacturer of critical aircraft equipment such as de-icing trucks and drinking water units, helps ensure that airlines and airports operate at peak capacity. If their systems break down on a winter day, capacity throughout the airport will be dramatically reduced to around 30%. Therefore, Vestergaard implemented Internet of Things (IoT) to optimize the efficiency of their equipment and better serve their customers.
Vestergaard's products utilized an application they built over ten years ago, called the Data Transmission System (DTS). The application managed a small set of each truck's data, such as how much de-icing fluid was used, but more detailed functions like job scheduling were performed through manual systems. In order to continue to deliver premium products to their customers, Vestergaard decided to move the application to a new platform and expand its capabilities. They concluded that integrating their application with the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) would enable them to increase data processing and make more data-driven decisions.
By integrating DTS with an IIoT platform, Vestergaard planned a new generation of software with the aim of significantly affecting their bottom line. To begin with, an IIoT platform helps simplify and optimize workflows, thereby improving the operating efficiency of the service truck. Greater insight into product use promotes the optimization of service operations and also drives sustainability efforts through better visibility in KPIs. And by enabling better job management and performance, an IIoT platform streamlines compliance efforts and improves equipment efficiency. And this is only the beginning: Vestergaard wanted to create the basis for continuous improvements and updates so that they can grow and innovate in the future.
PTC’S Thingworx was the right IIoT platform for Vestergaard’s needs
Together, Vestergaard and 9altitudes (then Econocap) decided that PTC ThingWorx was the IIoT platform they needed to connect, collect and analyze data across Vestergaard's fleet operations - giving them and their customers valuable visibility into all aspects of their trucks.
ThingWorx is a powerful IIoT solution that supports asset monitoring and automation scenarios. It provides the flexibility that Vestergaard needs to connect a range of older equipment. ThingWorx helps Vestergaard accelerate development and scale quickly by leveraging an existing and proven platform instead of driving development on its own. Vestergaard was convinced that their new solution would be up and running quickly, scale efficiently and work across regions.
Elo Svanebjerg
Technical Director at Vestergaard
Vestergaard successfully launched the application and connected trucks to the IoT platform
Together, Vestergaard and 9altitudes (then Econocap) decided that PTC ThingWorx was the IIoT platform they needed to connect, collect and analyze data across Vestergaard's fleet operations - giving them and their customers valuable visibility into all aspects of their trucks.
Today, the new IIoT-based application is up and running in the United States, helping to plan, manage, service and optimize trucks. The system handles data coming from hundreds of trucks - where each vehicle has up to 230 data points - and provides a wealth of information to Vestergaard and their customers. These data-driven insights drive optimizations and efficiencies from front-line employees all the way back to Vestergaard's design phase.
Through the application, customers push job definitions to the trucks so that front-line employees know exactly where and when to perform the task. Real-time location services help Vestergaard and their customers optimize workflows and get the right operator to the right place at the right time. Dashboards give frontline employees access to critical insights, such as how much de-icing fluid they need, how the predicted weather conditions are, and how many aircraft need to be serviced. By leveraging third-party data such as weather data, historical data and more, the application unlocks deeper insights and optimizations around specific conditions or factors.
The application gives customers valuable insight into the health of the assets. Now, instead of a truck breaking down at temperatures below freezing, they can see if a system is not working properly and fix the problem before it becomes a problem in the field. Collecting huge amounts of data also helps boost a number of other scenarios, such as streamlining the compliance reporting process and driving sustainability efforts. For example, insight into key measurements such as driving patterns, emissions and potential areas for reducing equipment's environmental impact. And since Vestergaard invests in electrifying their trucks, they can collect warranty data about the batteries they buy from other manufacturers, such as battery consumption, power consumption, how often they recharge their batteries and more.
Going forward, they also plan to explore the integration of augmented reality tools and other innovative technologies.
Jacob Kildegaard
Manager of IT Engineering at Vestergaard
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