Transference of technology Ag->construction. AJX /DE in syncDeere & Co. (DE) Q3 2021 Results - Earnings Call Transcript Aug. 20, 2021
Joel Gifford Tiss - BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - MD & Senior Research Analyst
I wonder if you can talk a little bit about getting paid on the construction side. I think just for the industry, that's been a little bit more of a difficult endeavor.
And any characterization you can give us on how far construction is behind precision ag? Just to give us an idea like how much work has to be done in order to get paid for that.
John H. Stone - Deere & Company - President of Worldwide Construction & Forestry Division and Power Systems
Joel, this is John Stone. Really good question.
I think certainly, construction as an industry has probably lagged, what you see in terms of technology advancements in precision ag. But like we talked, we stand to benefit a lot from moving from just these historical enterprise synergies you've heard Deere talk about to being able to
leverage common hardware components, common base software, common sensors and just a different application and different use of those technologies, and they can solve a lot of the same problems in construction. Labor availability is tough to find for construction companies, so
making machines more automated. It's easier to train a new operator and get them up to speed quickly. When you look at an average job site, estimates would tell you that 30% of the cost of that job site is due to waste and rework. And automation like smart grade, a technology that we have introduced into the market that controls the blade tip, controls the bucket, allows you to do a very precise job down to just over 1 inch precision on the grade, get the grade right, get it fast, do it right the first time and eliminate that 30% waste.
We've got customer testimonials, it's real. Take rates are on, I'd say, the early part of the adoption curve and it starts to get steep. We're in the mid-double digits and growing. So I think there's a great opportunity. And
leveraging Jahmy's organization, leveraging technology developed for ag, we can certainly go a lot faster and at a fraction of the investment that we'd incur if we try to do it all by ourselves.
"Charles Albert Edward Dillard - Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Research Analyst
So can you talk about the ability to expand autonomy into construction? Perhaps you can leave in what sort of opportunities the acquisition of Bear Flag presents? What workflows will be first in line? And how should we think about the particular product category? Is that why you do this?
Jahmy J. Hindman - Deere & Company - CTO
Yes. This is Jahmy, thanks for the question. It's a great question.
I think John mentioned some of the transference of technology from ag to construction already talked about the ability to take technology, for example, that we're developing for See & Spray and apply it in the construction space. We see similar opportunities on the autonomy side.
It's the perception problem from a technical perspective is different in the environment that we're operating in, but the core technologies required to execute it from ag to construction or to roadbuilding are remarkably similar. So we see a really good opportunity to leverage the work that's been happening in ag into that construction or roadbuilding space as well." AgJunction Inc. (AJXGF) CEO Dr. M. Brett McMickell on Q2 2021 Results - Earnings Call Transcript Aug. 13, 2021
"The strength of our modularization approach to support different levels of automation from guidance to autonomy is illustrated in our
engagement with Komatsu, the
industry-leading manufacturer and supplier of equipment for the construction, mining, utilities, forestry and industrial markets. We previously worked with Komatsu on integrating customized
autosteering into multiple vehicles for agricultural use. Following the success of those solutions, Komatsu awarded our wholly owned subsidiary, Novariant, a new contract to develop a
general purpose automation retrofit kit for Komatsu that supports autonomous operation of their dump trucks. Our engineers are hard at work, starting with Phase 1 of this project, which entails developing a proof-of-concept system that demonstrates safe operation using Novariant's advanced obstacle detection and avoidance algorithms. We look forward to building on our strong relationship with Komatsu. The flexible modular solutions we provide give our OEM and VAR customers the building blocks they need to rapidly meet the growing and changing needs of our customers in the off-road market. We've done a great job meeting the needs of our customers using connected modularization -- or connected modularization approach."
"We've got -- we've been one of the early pioneers of autosteering, and have since then been investing in all of the different elements necessary for full autonomy including obstacle detection, the automatic turns, the sensor fusion. And so the technologies been developed within AgJunction most of it, and actually a lot of it's been deployed into modules to some extent. And so
this allows us to do something like a full autonomous project for Komatsu very quickly because we build on all of that previous research and investment in obstacle detection and all of the elements leading up to autonomy. So we can pull those apart and build semi-autonomous vehicles, and we can put them all together and build fully autonomous vehicles. And I think that is one of the key differentiators for us is this modularization allows us to do this customization and move the full autonomy rapidly." "And so our strategy with every OEM -- every OEM will go into -- in with a single platform or a limited number of platforms in mind. And through our performance, we expand that. The goal is to expand that across the broader range of their offerings." See:
https://www.agjunction.com/press-release-july-15-2021