The procurement industry has changed and evolved over time with the pace of rapid and significant change gathering momentum. The influence of procurement over the business of companies has also increased and become noticeable in its focus on compliance and allocating greater risk to suppliers. Construction equipment companies today are contributing to construction and material handling equipment industry by offering innovative equipment and service solution to its customers.

Future maintenance cost
Earthmoving machine’s procurement for infrastructure projects have been evolving over time from the lowest initial acquisition cost to the lowest total cost of machines. Previously, the mainstay of purchases used to be meagre machine price and the condition that machines meet minimum specification criterion of the tender or RFQ.

Sharwan Agnihotri, Head – Export & Business Development, Hyundai Construction Equipment India Pvt Ltd says, “Today, purchases are done on the basis of total operating cost (TCO)of machines. Customers prefer to have the visibility of future maintenance cost so as to predict their cashflows.”

The construction equipment manufacturer has customised offering ranging from full maintenance contract (FMC) – where complete operation is managed by the company and customer has to pay per hour operation cost – to annual service contract (ASC) – where Hyundai or Hyundai dealer organises schedule visit to inspect the health of machines and recommend the required service and maintenance for enhanced performance. This is a very good trend as the product or service quality delivers right value to the customers, he says.

Value over initial cost
Value is no more an abstract concept today. Agnihotri says, “Customers are ready to pay more for the machine which offers lower TCO over the project period thereby giving more weightage to value over initial cost.”

With regard to interacting with agencies like Coal India, NHAI, PWDs etc, the company has found the trend being towards understanding TCO of machines and thus value offering by suppliers, awarding contract to the suppliers and offering the best value not just on the basis of initial contract.

Hi Mate: remote management system
According to Agnihotri, “Understanding the need for lower TCO and ensuring right information with all stakeholders, Hyundai Construction Equipment India has recently launched remote management system ‘Hi Mate’ as an option which can be fitted on all our machines.”

The system would help customers access machine operating information, service and maintenance alerts and take corrective action without being physically present near the machine. Its fleet management system of would enable machine-to-machine communication to improve operational efficiency. This would be an app-based monitoring hence customers can monitor machine performance, operating parameters and alerts with the help of his or her mobile phone.

Hyundai machines are also fitted with self-diagnostic system for ease of maintenance and safety features like anti-restart system, automatic engine over heat prevention and auto warm up system. The 9 series updated CAPO (Compute Aided Power Optimisation) system ensures enhanced fuel efficiency of the machine under all type of applications.

Today, customers prefer to have the visibility for future maintenance cost so as to predict their cash flows.
Sharwan Agnihotri,Head – Export & Business Development, Hyundai Construction Equipment India Pvt Ltd