Innovation
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Every fleet manager knows the feeling. You sign off a vehicle specification, the vans roll out, and somewhere between the design office and the daily job, small inefficiencies start to appear.
A tool bracket that should have been on the left is on the right. A frequently used bin sits at the back of the load space instead of near the door. Stock is being carried that never gets touched. Engineers are stretching, bending and walking a little further than they need to — on every job, every day. None of it looks significant on its own but it all adds up!
For as long as van conversions have been built, the industry has relied on engineering expertise, customer experience and best practice to decide how each vehicle should be laid out. That knowledge is invaluable. But it is knowledge based on what we think happens in a working van, is not always transparent in the field. Modul-System UK is changing all that.
Modul Workspace Intelligence
Modul Workspace Intelligence is a new AI-driven programme that puts a discreet camera system into a working vehicle for two weeks. It doesn’t monitor the engineer. It measures the workspace — building a heat map of how the load space is actually used, which tools are grabbed most often, where the movement patterns are, and which parts of the layout are working hard for their space. At the end of the audit, the equipment comes out. The data is read alongside the job cards…And a picture emerges of how the vehicle really performs on the road. It answers the question no van fit-out has ever been able to answer: is the layout right for the job?
Layouts can be redesigned around actual movement patterns
The answers can be genuinely surprising. Prime storage locations turn out to hold things that are rarely touched. Frequently used tools are found in the least accessible spots. Bins ride around for years without being opened. Stock is carried that adds no value. Layouts, in short, are often based on how the vehicle was ordered rather than how it is used. When those insights come back, real change becomes possible. Layouts can be redesigned around actual movement patterns. Ergonomic issues that cause fatigue and long-term injury risk can be designed out. Standardisation across the fleet becomes evidence-based rather than assumption-based. And every kilogram of unnecessary weight comes off the vehicle — which matters more than ever as fleets move to electric.
The first live trial
The first live trial will run with SGN over the coming months. The findings will feed directly into how SGN configures its next-generation of service fleets. For every other fleet operator watching this space, they will also point to something bigger: a new way of specifying vans that starts with real time data, not tradition. If it delivers what we expect, it changes what “best practice” actually means. For years, we’ve built van fit-outs on what experience tells us. Soon, we’ll be able to build them on what the workspace itself tells us. That is not a small change. That is a different starting point.
Interested in what Modul Workspace Intelligence could reveal about your fleet? Talk to us about how the audit works, and what a data-led fit-out could deliver for your operation.
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