3/17/08 - Condition Intelligence – Quick Communication of Common Issues

We have recently observed a significant new benefit of Dingo’s condition intelligence service in action.

The story began with a customer who had just started operating a new fleet of CAT 793D trucks, most of which had only about 1,500 hours on them. The Dingo Condition Intelligence team found a severe dirt entry in three of the new trucks and traced the source to a loose fitting plug in the air intake system; some of the plugs had fallen out. The customer credited Dingo saving the truck engines from a catastrophic failure. Dingo helped the customer to modify their PM process to inspect these plugs and the team is working with CAT to resolve the root cause of the loose fitting plugs as well.

This customer had acquired a fleet of these trucks, all of which were being monitored under the Condition Intelligence service. They were also spread out over several sites, and some sites owned similar makes and models in different fleets. The CI team was able to quickly spread the news about this specific problem across three different mines in the company. They also heightened their observations on this specific make/model, looking for emerging signs of dirt entry, so they could be nipped in the bud.

The result was that several other machines with the same issue were rapidly identified and also rectified, avoiding further potential breakdowns and component life degradation. So we jointly discovered two additional benefits of the Dingo Condition Intelligence Service:

1. CI provides rapid cross company communication of problems and solutions.

2. Common contamination issues can be significantly reduced before they show up in an oil sample by CI recommending PM/Inspection process changes.

For information on condition intelligence email bgriffith@dingo.com.