4 Key Disruptions Improving Hydraulic Machinery Operations in New Zealand

Hydraulic hose failure has a significant and costly impact on companies working in forestry, demolition, mining, quarrying, civil, and other construction industries. When a hydraulic-run machine is down from a blown hose, downtime for staff and machinery accumulates, and callout and repair fees are expensive.

Additionally, there are inherent health and safety risks associated with bringing third-party contractors onsite to repair these assets.

BOA Hydraulics’ mission has always been to eliminate downtime for heavy machinery users, empowering them to take greater control of their hydraulic hose repair within their operations. This mission has driven the company to develop innovative solutions in hydraulic hose repair and maintenance that are disrupting hydraulic machinery operations in New Zealand.

Learn 4 ways BOA Hydraulics innovations are disrupting hydraulic machinery operations in New Zealand.

1. Uptime Calculator: what is your hydraulic hose repair really costing you?

For those managing many hydraulic-run assets at a time, and/or working on sites in isolated areas, the downtime and costs associated with fixing hydraulic hoses are significant. Until now, companies have not been able to quickly calculate the total costs of unplanned hydraulic hose repair.

In February 2021, BOA Hydraulics released its updated BOA Uptime Calculator, an easy-to-use tool that helps companies calculate their current spend on, and potential savings in, hydraulic hose downtime and repair.

This Uptime Calculator uses information gathered from relevant industries to calculate how much companies really spend on downtime, repairs, and oil spillages from hydraulic hose failure. Companies identify their industry and the number of hydraulic machinery assets in operation to find out the full expense of their current hydraulic hose failure rates.

The Calculator illustrates how much companies could save from:

• Reduced hydraulic machinery downtime
• Less oil lost onsite
• Replacement of hydraulic hoses, fittings, and oil.

Once they know the cost of this activity, the challenge is then finding a way to reduce the drain on resources to bring greater hydraulic ‘uptime’ to companies.

2. The BOApod: reducing hydraulic machinery downtime by up to 85%

Blown or damaged hoses are a common and costly expense for companies to repair. Further to that, there are additional costs and safety risks of bringing third party hose repair providers onsite. BOA Hydraulics have found a solution to address these issues.

The BOApod is a key element to BOA Hydraulics’ integrated solution: an all-weather, all-terrain mobile hydraulic hose repair and maintenance facility that enables companies to fix blown or damaged hoses themselves. This solar-powered facility is stocked with German-precision cutting and crimping machinery, and world-class Yokohama hydraulic hoses and matched fittings to ensure a top-quality job completed onsite.

With the BOApod, companies gain greater autonomy over their operations, and can get their machinery back up and running in 30 minutes or less. This is a dramatic reduction in downtime and call-out costs. Quality products and machinery further reduce the frequency of hydraulic hose failure.

To support the health and safety of staff onsite, BOA Hydraulics provides comprehensive training and ongoing support to enable nominated crew members to repair and replace hydraulic hoses using the BOApod facility.

In upskilling crew members, companies experience several benefits:

• reduced expenditure on costly callout and repair fees from third party contractors
• significantly reduced downtime of hydraulic machinery
• reduced health and safety risks of third-party contractors onsite
• opportunities for professional development for staff, boosting inhouse capability.

With top quality products and support from BOA Hydraulics, the BOApod is catalysing a shift towards self-repair and maintenance of hydraulic hoses onsite, improving productivity and reducing operational expenditure for companies and allowing them to turn wasted time back into profit. Over 50 companies are now utilizing the BOApod and BOA Hydraulics’ training and support solution to reduce their downtime by up to 85%.

3. BOAhub app: digitizing and automating inventory management  

In 2019, BOA Hydraulics released the first stage of the BOAhub application for smartphones. Through the BOAhub, users can manage and scan to re-order stock, including:

• Quality Yokohama and Silflo hydraulic hose
• Matched 1- and 2-piece fittings
• Hydraulic adaptors
• Quick release couplers
• Additional accessories such as hydraulic hose protection, O-rings, and pipe clamps.

In its latest iteration, the BOAhub app can now also help contractors experiencing hydraulic hose failure find a nearby hydraulic hose repair service provider. The application’s ‘Find A BOApod’ tool acts similar to world-renowned ride hailing-app Uber, whereby location-tracking technology attached to selected BOApods can help users pinpoint the location of the closest hydraulic hose repair provider through a visual map, creating transparency and increasing efficiencies in reactive hydraulic hose repairs.

With Find A BOApod, users benefit from gaining access to the closest possible service provider, reducing callout costs and downtime.

4. Shifting focus towards preventative maintenance of hydraulic hoses

Currently, companies operating hydraulic machinery are largely reactive when it comes to managing hydraulic hose failure. When a hydraulic hose blows or is damaged, there is a variable amount of unplanned downtime until the hose can be fixed. Additionally, when heavy machinery gets taken in for servicing, many other parts of the machine may be serviced, but not the hydraulic hoses.

This often means that a newly serviced machine can experience hydraulic hose failure shortly after being serviced and sent back out into the field.

BOA Hydraulics places a laser focus on both repair and maintenance solutions. We’ve discovered that preventative maintenance significantly reduces unplanned downtime on hydraulic machinery and minimizes costs and environmental impacts of oil spillage from blown hoses.

By planning the downtime of hydraulic machinery, and using an onsite solution with automated inventory management, companies can get ahead of their downtime and proactively prepare for hydraulic hose repair and replacement.

This movement towards proactive and preventative maintenance of hydraulic equipment has enabled companies to reduce their hydraulic hose bills by up to 40%. When proactively managing and planning machinery downtime, companies reduce expenditure, potential safety hazards through reduced reliance on third-party, and oil spillages – a flow-on environmental win for preventative maintenance.

Stay on top of an evolving industry

With 3 generations of market research backing our product developments, BOA Hydraulics is leveraging technology to provide solutions to companies using hydraulic machinery through a unique ‘integrated solution’, which incorporates:

• Onsite and mobile hydraulic hose self-repair and maintenance facilities suited for all terrains
• Comprehensive training, support, and certification for the safe assembly and replacement of hydraulic hoses
• Top quality products (a must in high-pressure environments)
• Online support for inventory management and planned hose maintenance to reduce unplanned downtime and oil loss, as well as having access to close-proximity hydraulic hose repair technicians.

This solution comprehensively tackles issues of productivity and profitability of hydraulic machinery.

BOA Hydraulics is reducing downtime, operational expenditure, and health and safety risks, and moving heavy machinery industries towards digitization of asset management. With these disruptions, we’re supporting a shift towards greater autonomy for companies over their own assets, downtime, and hydraulic hose expenditure.