Molly stands for Machine Operator Logistical Logging… It is nothing to do with drugs haha… although it will make your life easier…. Molly is designed for owner operators and small to medium sized companies. Think of her as your personal log book. You can log machine and operator hours with minimum hassle, minimum setup, no initial costs, no apps, no use of staff phone data (just a few free texts) and no additional hardware or infrastructure. If this sounds like you, read on.
Contractors! Come Friday or Saturday and you need your log book signed? Simply email your paperwork through to the site foreman as a PDF (you both get a copy…).
If you can send a text Molly will receive it.
Recording Plant and Machinery Information
All earth works sites have some sort of Health and Safety requirements. Part of this H&S is logging of Machine Prestart Checks and recording that a machine is safe to operate. At the very least, somebody will need to keep track of the machine hours for invoicing purposes. Generally this is done with a preprinted sheet of paper and a pen, which invariably gets damaged or lost, particularly if you have multiple operators using one machine. Some companies spend a lot of money building applications for tablet PCs along with the necessary infrastructure to support them which in my experience becomes a thorn in the side of most operators, batteries fail and tablets require WiFi infrastructure to work. Molly is designed to gather machinery information from your operators and create reports for you without the paperwork or IT infrastructure.
What if there was an easier way????
A simple way to log Plant and Machinery info.
These days, every man and his dog has a smartphone and even the old ones support SMS Text services. We’ve created a FREE SMS numbers that allows staff to send simple texts to Molly. NO Apps, NO Data, NO costs to your operators, NO paperwork, NO additional infrastructure.
Texts look something like this – they can be a simple start/finish or include more information. For example this site is called BSL and the machine is a Komatsu HB335LC.
BSL on site HB335LC Prestart ok 9345.6 HB335LC job wetlands load moxies HB335LC Fuel 220 HB335LC greased machine HB335LC finished 9355.0 BSL off site Note, user, times and dates are automatically included when a text is sent so Molly knows who sent it. If you are a first timer, Molly will ask you a few questions to figure out who you are and what you do. No point in asking the surveyor which excavator he runs???
Free text numbers
These are the free numbers to send texts to.
- New Zealand – free text to 8087
- Australia – free text +61481073562
Text the Plant Hours instead of writing them down
In a nut shell, you or your operators send texts to the free Molly number. Molly processes those texts into usable data and stores it. Your site management can request reports (associated with that site). Generally a report is a PDF which is emailed to a predefined address. Note: to get the reports, you need admin access for your site. Molly will keep track of plant hours, operators and the job number if required. Very little input is required from management during normal operation but Molly may request new operator validation, or to correct something if it can’t be found from time to time.
To see a list of Molly Reports click here
QR Codes
Molly can use QR Codes to make life significantly easier for the operators. The operator simply points their Phone Camera at a QR code image. The phone automatically reads the QR Code and sets up a text ready to be edited and sent. Operator doesn’t have to worry about plant numbers or Molly’s number, and it’s a free text. Try the one below.
The QR codes can be used in all sorts of different situations;
- Site Arrival & Departure, useful for logging staff hours and visitors (Provides Date, Time, Phone Number, Site Name, and whatever other information is required).
- In and On Plant and Machinery. So in a digger cab, the operator points his camera at the QR Code and it automatically opens the text box and loads the DEFAULT Prestart message for that machine with the Plant Number. For example the QR Code below will load the text ‘BSL E01 Prestart Ok xxxx.x‘ into their text box. All the operator needs to do is load the hours and hit send… If he forgets to add the hours, Molly will text back and ask…
- Maybe you want to keep track of your vehicle mileage for IRD or Accountant? Just put a QR code on the dash, point the camera, edit the text (add mileage and destination) and send DONE! e.g. LV22 mileage xxxxx and a comment.
- If you’re really concerned, you could have any number of QR codes on a machine, Hydraulic Oil, Engine Oil, Coolant etc (but that’s a bit extreme maybe???)
- Try this one…
You send us a list of machines and we’ll create the QR Codes for you… Easy!
Initial Setup
If you just want to get going and try Molly, just start sending a ‘help or hello’ text to the appropriate number (above) and she’ll respond and ask for your details plus some simple verification information such as Site Name and Site Forman Phone Number. Molly will then set each operator up on the fly.
Plant and Machinery Identification
Most companies already use Plant ID, but if you don’t, a standardised Plant ID should to be set up first to reduce any confusion. That’s as simple as labels e.g. Dumper1, Bully2 or whatever suits your company. My own digger ID is BSLE01. (My kids named her Daphne… similarly my CAT 613A was named Donald – who knows why???? BSLS01.
Machinery and users can be setup on the fly, no paperwork necessary or use a spreadsheet to (bulk) send the Initial plant & user setup by completing and emailing the Excel setup template to techsupport@brandysystems.co.nz.
Either way Molly will ask each operator for any missing information.
Plant and Machinery Reporting
The trial version provides the following reports (in PDF Format),
- Weekly Machine Hours and Prestart Checks (for one or All machines)
- Next Service report for all machines
- Tool Box notes – operators and staff can provide useful tool box feedback simply by sending ‘ Toolbox and whatever message they want to send’, e.g. toolbox toilets need cleaning
To see a list of Molly Reports click here
Free Trial
Initial 4 week trial is free. All you do is start texting your machine Plant# & hours to Molly on 8087 and Molly will do the rest. If you find Molly useful, carry on using her, if you want to stop at any time just text ‘Opt Out‘ to 8087 at any time.
On Going Costs
Obviously there has been significant development work involved to create Molly and there are ongoing SMS costs. To cover that Molly tracks the number of texts she sends and receives plus a small amount per report. In the scheme of things, Molly is very cheap to use. If you you can send one simple text to receive a report that normally needs entering from a bit of paper, your site foreman (or admin) can save about 10-15minutes per report. Predefined PDF Spreadsheets provide one off information or you can receive CSV files that can easily be imported into a Spreadsheet. Also, it is good to bare in mind that texts are free to and from Molly so you are not imposing any data costs on your staff.
Contact Info
If you want any further information regarding Molly please contact Brent on one of the following;
email : brent@brandysystems.co.nz
or +61433466632
Please Note!
Molly is currently in a trial phase and may not be running 24/7 as I make changes. However you can still send texts through anytime and she will process and store your messages when back on line. Molly will be up and running full time mid Feb 2023.
Brandy Systems Ltd 