Hitachi Construction Machinery has announced the development of the LANDCROS Connect Insight solution, which analyses the operational data of mining machinery collected in near-real time to help customers increase the efficiency of their operations.

The company plans to deploy this solution through its dealers to mining sites around the world including Australia, Zambia, Chile and the US starting from its 2025 financial year.

Modern mines are complex operations that must maximise productivity and safety while reducing lifecycle costs, and reducing their environmental impact.

The Hitachi Construction Machinery Group has supported customers to improve their operations through 24-hour IoT monitoring of mining machinery since January 2022, through the ConSite Mine service. ConSite Mine retrieves a snapshot of operational data for Hitachi Construction Machinery-branded mining machinery once each day.

LANDCROS Connect Insight builds on this experience to deliver high resolution data in near-real time to support detailed analysis. Further support is provided by data scientists, mechanical engineers and other consultants with expertise in specialised mining fields, who assist dealers to analyze operational data and offer proposals to maximise the performance of customer mining machinery, the company explains.

Going forward, Hitachi Construction Machinery Group will build a digital platform that is capable of centrally managing and interlinking mine management data across LANDCROS Connect Insight customers, group companies and collaborating business partners, with the goal of offering solutions that lead to further optimization of mine operations.

Main features of LANDCROS Connect Insight include:

• Near-real time retrieval and remote monitoring of mining machinery operational data: Dealers can retrieve and view the operational status, output, fuel consumption, location information, etc of Hitachi Construction Machinery-branded mining machinery in almost real time on the dashboard;
• Asset health diagnosis and predictive analysis based on the retrieved machinery operational data: The ability to accurately assess the health status of machinery in near-real time based on operational data enables dealers to rapidly address machinery anomalies and failures. Moreover, anomalies can be predicted and detected at an early stage by analysing the health status trends of individual machinery. In addition, operational performance and efficiency can be improved by analysing data from multiple pieces of machinery to assess the differences in performance by machine and operator;
• Remote monitoring support and proposals for improvement from consultants: Engineers, data scientists, mechanical engineers and other personnel with expertise in specialised fields from the Hitachi Construction Machinery Group and its dealers remotely monitor the operational data of mining machinery to provide support. This enables dealers to better support customers by recommending machinery maintenance, parts replacement, or operational improvements before a machine fault results in unplanned downtime; and
• Functional enhancements leveraged by the unique experience and knowledge of Hitachi Construction Machinery (from June 2025): LANDCROS Connect Insight will inherit the functions of the ConSite Mine service solution to detect abnormalities in hydraulic pumps and predict the formation of cracks etc in the boom and arm of an ultra-large hydraulic excavator. In addition, the functions will be enhanced according to market and customer needs based on the experience and knowledge of Hitachi Construction Machinery in the mining field. Specifically, the company plans to extend functionality beyond machinery monitoring to include maintenance proposals based on machinery status instead of operating hours, visualisation of operator performance, and recommendations for reducing environmental impact.

Looking to the future, the Hitachi Construction Machinery Group will continue to face customer challenges head-on, and offer products and services under the LANDCROS name. This approach reflects its desire to “deliver innovative solutions for every stakeholders”, the company says.