Fleet management for cleaning machine
A suite of tools and services for data-driven fleet managementof cleaning equipment
ISC: sale and maintenance of industrial cleaning machines
ISC is a historic Italian company with more than 40 years of experience in the distribution and maintenance of commercial cleaning equipment. ISC selects the most effective, innovative, and sustainable industrial cleaning products available in today's global market.
For two decades, ISC has been the exclusive distributor of Tennant products in Italy. These products, such as scrubber dryers and sweepers, are renowned for their construction materials, technologies, safety, and user-friendliness.
From Industry 4.0 to smart services: the challenge of fleet management
The Customer needed to build smart services to share the support data collected with those available to users of industry 4.0 machines in order to have intelligent and ideal fleet management.
ISC, as an importer and distributor, decided against relying on fleet management systems developed by manufacturers, since they are not able to be integrated and, more importantly, are separate from maintenance activities; instead, they have chosen to develop their own system of services and applications for machine management and customer-ISC interaction.
Telemetry and fleet management for industrial cleaning machines: RFID integration and indoor tracking
In 2022, ISC equipped its Tennant fleet machines with NeoBox hardware and Ubiquicom devices intended for tracking and telemetry of vehicles and small motorized assets.
Connecting with the concept of Industry 4.0, a machine monitoring and remote control system was developed, based on Ubiquicom’s TrackVision software platform, which communicates with the cleaning machines through the NeoBox hardware device mounted on the vehicle.
Based on the experience of more than 20,000 installations of BlueBox, the device developed by Ubiquicom for monitoring fleets of forklift trucks and large handling equipment, NeoBox is designed to meet the need for fleet control of vehicles and small-dimension handling equipment, such as industrial cleaning machines.
The device enables vehicle locating and the collection of telemetry data to measure a variety of operational parameters, such as:
- the status of the machines (on or off),
- times of use (when and how much the machine was used),
- the position and characteristics of any impacts.
The interface also manages access control to machines via RFID badges.
The NeoBox BLE module enables communication with any existing or future ad hoc beacon infrastructure and permits highly accurate indoor tracking, even in buildings with multiple levels.
Efficiency and savings: the advantages of the system developed for ISC
ISC can cross-reference maintenance and service data with machine usage data provided by NeoBox, thus obtaining more accurate and useful information to understand:
- which machines are most commonly used,
- how are these machines being used,
- what malfunctions occurred,
- what is the battery charging status.
In addition, ISC may collect aggregated data for the conscious management of its fleet.
Thanks to data analysis, a company is able to:
- increase efficiency,
- reduce expenditure,
- maximize operating time and fleet size,
- ensure the health and safety of personnel,
- optimize resources,
- identify areas for improvement.
ISC, therefore, is able to provide customers with machines that have the connections required to receive the tax benefit of Industry 4.0, as well as a digital environment that increases the transparency, awareness, and efficiency of fleet management.
Due to the joint venture with Ubiquicom, ISC was able to reach its aim of establishing an ecosystem of services and applications related to machine management and their interaction with customers called ISC Smart4, which is made up of 4 interconnected applications.
- Smart4Fleet: a system for monitoring and reporting the machine use
- Smart4Analytics: business intelligence tool for the analysis of costs and use of machines with reference KPIs and size analysis
- Smart4Tracking: indoor tracking system
- Smart4Parts: portal for placing orders, checking the availability of spare parts, comparing pricing on consumables, and monitoring the order’s processing status
Questions and insights
ISC is a logistics services company that operates in the professional management of industrial cleaning and cleaning services for large facilities.
It manages a fleet of cleaning machines (scrubber-dryers, sweepers, single-disc machines, and other industrial cleaning vehicles) used in large environments such as industrial sheds, warehouses, airports, and shopping centers.
The efficient management of this fleet is critical to ensure the coverage of cleaning schedules, the preventive maintenance of machinery, and the optimization of operational costs.
ISC faced the difficulty of managing a fleet of cleaning machines distributed over very large areas without real-time visibility.
It was not possible to know where each machine was at any given time, verify if it was working correctly or stopped, check compliance with planned cleaning routes, or promptly identify breakdowns and maintenance needs.
This made it difficult to demonstrate to clients the level of service actually provided, optimize fleet utilization, and reduce maintenance costs through preventive rather than corrective interventions.
Ubiquicom implemented a smart fleet management system for ISC based on IoT technology, with devices installed on each cleaning machine that transmit real-time data on position, operational status, operating parameters, and hours of use.
Ubiquicom's Synchro platform collects and analyzes all this data, presenting it on an operational dashboard with route maps, heat maps of covered areas, and automatic performance reporting.
The system allows ISC managers to monitor the entire fleet remotely, receive automatic alerts for anomalies and breakdowns, and demonstrate the actual coverage of the cleaning service to end customers.
The Ubiquicom solution for ISC integrates with existing management systems via API, allowing the connection of machine location and performance data with scheduled cleaning plans.
The system automatically compares the areas actually covered by the machines (detected via RTLS) with the areas planned in the cleaning schedule, identifying any unserved zones or work completed ahead of schedule.
This integration enabled ISC to automatically generate certified service reports for its clients, demonstrating with objective data the quality and completeness of the service provided, which is a major differentiating factor in managing service contracts.
ISC achieved significant improvements on multiple fronts thanks to the Ubiquicom system: optimization of cleaning routes with a reduction in empty kilometers traveled, an increase in the actual utilization rate of the machines compared to total available hours, a reduction in maintenance costs thanks to engine hour monitoring and preventive alerts, and the ability to schedule maintenance interventions based on actual use rather than fixed calendars.
The system also improved operator safety by monitoring anomalous driving behaviors and excessive speeds, and provided data to negotiate contracts with clients based on objective metrics of the service provided.
Absolutely yes. The smart fleet management approach developed for ISC is applicable to any type of industrial vehicle or mobile equipment: forklifts, pallet trucks, reach trucks, earthmoving machinery, warehouse vehicles, AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicles), and much more.
Ubiquicom's Synchro platform is designed to manage heterogeneous fleets with different types of vehicles, unifying monitoring into a single dashboard. The ability to track routes, measure usage, monitor operational parameters, and generate automatic reporting is a transversal feature applicable in any context where fleets of vehicles or mobile equipment are managed.