consult. an expert.

Consult is a comprehensive program on earthmoving equipment application and selection. It is a decision-making tool utilized by Hitachi and is used by equipment purchasers and operations management. It finds lowest cost equipment alternatives, predicts the production and O&O cost of hauling and loading equipment, compares the price and specifications among competing equipment, and prepares a report making its recommendation that utilizes supporting tables and graphs. It is available in two configurations — a public version, downloadable from this site, which features just Hitachi products, and a more robust version, which contains a broad spectrum of machinery from a variety of manufacturers, which can only be accessed by Hitachi dealers.

Consult consists of many modules which have been designed to work in a coordinated and consistent manner. Significant features include:

Point-and-click Equipment Specification

Specifying equipment is as simple as pointing at the equipment options you want and clicking a button. Consult automatically retrieves the price, weight, and complete physical performance characteristics for each machine and each option.

Comprehensive Database

Consult's database contains complete specifications on Hitachi and Euclid products. Specification comparisons can easily be shown on the screen and printed.

Road Editor

Consult's road editor makes the process of building road profiles a snap. The editor is presented in a "spreadsheet" style format but has been customized to make data entry and error checking.

Performance Simulation

Consult contains an extremely complex simulation module which predicts machine performance over specified road profiles.

Comparison Graphs

An extensive graphing capability is built into Consult which allows effective comparisons among various machines. Graphs include bar charts, line charts, rimpull curves, loader pass charts, and parametric equipment drawings.

Expert System

Within the automatic reports is a "Summary" chapter which selects the best equipment for the customer and tells why. Consult doesn't just generate more paper with meaningless numbers. It generates answers, proclaims a "winner" and presents the supporting detail.

Buy/Keep

This module performs a complex financial analysis to help the customer answer the simple question of "Do I buy new or keep the old?" The program uses MAPI's capital replacement model to generate an easily understood return on investment answer.