Sturm digitalises equipment management with Flowter by GPS-Buddy
On a construction site, everything revolves around timing. Machines must be available when they are needed, trucks drive continuously between projects and teams often work simultaneously across multiple locations. For Sturm, active in infrastructure in Noord-Holland, this means that good equipment management is crucial. Not only to know where machines are, but above all to understand how they are being used and where efficiency can be gained.
To gain that insight, Sturm is digitalising the management of vehicles, machines and equipment together with GPS-Buddy. In the Flowter platform, all information comes together: from trips and locations to operating hours and fuel consumption. This creates a digital overview of the entire operation.
From trip registration to data-driven equipment management
The collaboration between Sturm and GPS-Buddy started with a practical question: a reliable way to automatically record trip registration for vehicles. With GPS tracking and automatic trip registration in Flowter, administration became immediately simpler and real-time insight into the location of vehicles was created.
It quickly became clear that the same technology is also valuable for machines and equipment on projects. By connecting more and more assets to the platform, Flowter grew into a central system in which planners and site managers can directly see where equipment is located and how it is being deployed.
For Sturm, this means they are less dependent on phone calls or manual overviews. In one platform, it becomes visible how the machine fleet is actually being used.
Insight into machine use and fuel consumption
An important step in further digitalisation was connecting machines via CAN-bus data. This made it possible to look beyond location alone.
In Flowter, Sturm can now see exactly how many operating hours machines are making and how much fuel is consumed in the process. This delivers valuable insights. Machines can easily consume ten to fifteen litres of diesel per hour. When a machine runs hundreds of hours per year, a small optimisation can already make a big difference.
By making this data transparent, the foundation is created for a more concrete conversation about the use of equipment. Project managers and machine operators gain insight not only into where machines are, but also into how they are being deployed.
Data as the foundation for more efficient working
The insights from Flowter offer Sturm the opportunity to have the conversation about working more efficiently. By giving machine operators insight into operating hours, idle running and fuel consumption, awareness grows about the effect of their way of working. This creates a concrete basis for steering towards improvement.
This connects to initiatives such as Het Nieuwe Draaien, in which machine operators learn how they can deploy machines more efficiently. The data from Flowter helps to make those principles applicable in practice. Not as a control instrument, but as a tool to work smarter with equipment together.
Even small improvements in use can have a major impact on fuel consumption and costs on an annual basis.
Always an overview of vehicles, machines and equipment
In addition to vehicles and machines, Sturm also uses asset tracking to better manage small equipment. By placing tags on tools and other assets, it becomes visible where materials are located and at which location they were last registered.
For planners and site managers, this means they can more quickly see where equipment is available and how it is being deployed. This prevents searching and makes it easier to move equipment between projects when needed.
More broadly applied within the Bussola Groep
Sturm is part of the Bussola Groep, in which several companies are active in the built environment. Within the group, various organisations work with their own specialisms and operate largely independently. At the same time, several companies within the Bussola Groep choose to work with the solutions of GPS-Buddy.
By connecting vehicles and machines to Flowter, these companies also gain insight into the deployment of their equipment. As with Sturm, this helps to better see where machines are located, how intensively they are being used and where optimisation is possible. This delivers comparable advantages: more overview, better equipment management and less machine downtime.
Sustainability through insight into equipment use
The digitalisation of equipment management also contributes to the sustainability ambitions of Sturm and the Bussola Groep. Within the group, experimentation with electrification is already taking place, including a fully electric truck that is deployed on projects.
At the same time, there is a great opportunity in using existing machines more efficiently. By gaining insight into operating hours and fuel consumption in Flowter, it becomes clear where unnecessary energy consumption arises. Machines that consume ten to fifteen litres of diesel per hour make clear how much impact working more efficiently can have.
By combining this data with awareness and training, a practical approach is created to reduce fuel consumption. In this way, digitalisation helps not only with planning and equipment management, but also with making daily operations more sustainable.
Control over CO₂ emissions and support with the CO₂ performance ladder
In addition to operational insights, Flowter also helps Sturm to gain better insight into the environmental impact of their equipment and transport. By automatically registering fuel consumption, the platform also makes visible how much CO₂ emissions are associated with this. This makes it possible to make emissions transparent per vehicle, machine or project.
For companies in infrastructure, this is becoming increasingly important. Many clients demand demonstrable efforts in the field of sustainability, for example via the CO₂ performance ladder. Sturm is actively working on further making their organisation more sustainable and making their emissions transparent.
The data from Flowter helps to structurally monitor fuel consumption and emissions and to substantiate them in reports. This creates a reliable basis for taking improvement measures, such as more efficient machine use or deploying more sustainable equipment. At the same time, it makes progress measurable towards certification and tenders.
By making these insights automatically available, GPS-Buddy supports Sturm not only in daily equipment management, but also in structurally reducing and reporting their CO₂ emissions.
A data-driven foundation for further growth
What began with trip registration has grown for Sturm into a digital foundation beneath their equipment management. With Flowter, planners and site managers continuously have insight into vehicles, machines and equipment.
Together with GPS-Buddy, Sturm continues to develop that digitalisation further. By making ever better use of data from vehicles and machines, an organisation is created that works more efficiently, collaborates better and is ready for the next step in the development of civil infrastructure.
