Category Archives: heavy equipment

Caterpillar is strategizing to consolidate its future

It was a good year for most of the construction companies and so was for the heavy equipment companies but not all were doing well in the year 2015. Some heavy equipment companies were incurring losses for the last few years and they were thinking of downsizing their labor force. But they were not able to take the call as the overall industry was doing well. Perhaps they were looking at the global picture which seemed to be pleasant but with reference to the situation in the United States, it was a bit worrisome. Not all heavy equipment companies in the US were making profits and especially the giant ones were certainly not seeing any profits in their book of accounts. They made some profit in a couple of quarters but when it was time to check the fiscal growth, the situation looked dim.

One such giant company that is experiencing a hard time showing profits is Caterpillar. It seems that the primary reason for them incurring losses is having started lot of units in every part of the country. Now they have to employ people to run the unit and also port machines from one place to other which involve huge costs. Other than that, they have pledged to manufacture excellent quality machines for which they require to invest chunk of money on research and development work. As a result of this, the final product produced by them is a bit higher than the machines of other heavy equipment companies. Not every construction company can afford to buy CAT machines and they majorly sell them to big construction and mining houses. Therefore it is utterly futile to have so many units across the country and hence the first step that they will take to consolidate their position is to crack down the units that are not performing up to the mark.

Cat is planning to reduce its salaried workforce of around 4000 to 5000 employees till the end of 2016. This also includes the guys who are operating in the agency. It has also planned to shut down most of its units and manufacturing facilities by the end of this year and the process may even extend till 2018. It also planned to offer voluntary retirement scheme to most of its qualifying employees. “It will be sad to part ways with the employees but that is the want of the situation and in order to sustain in this market, strong steps are required to be taken” were the words of one of the CAT’s spokesperson.

Primarily, the major part of cost reduction is to be done from curbing Administrative costs. It seems the company spends a whopping amount on Administrative costs which will be cut down across states once the non-profitable units and the manufacturing facilities are closed down permanently. The company has to take the tough call in the year 2016 so that it can expect good returns in the following years to come.

Learn to repair heavy equipment and make a good career

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We all need to have some kind of unique skills that can set up apart from the rest of the folks. It is just that it takes good deal of time to recognize that skill and by the time we realize it, it becomes too late for us to capitalize on it. However, the one who realizes his true potential can make wonders with his/her skill and can be innovative while applying the skill to various causes. Thus, the person can earn good money and also enjoy the work. Same stands with becoming a mechanic of heavy equipment. Heavy equipment is quite a complex subject and it takes years and years of study and practice to become a good mechanic. Once you have devoted all the time it takes you to reach the pinnacle, you can set examples for others. Apart from being a complex subject, heavy equipment are really expensive products and it takes a fortune for any construction company to buy an equipment.

As long as the machine is in good order, the owners of the machine are happy but once it starts developing any complications, they want a mechanic to fix the problem at the earliest. Here is where an expert mechanic can make things merrier for himself. Since he knows everything about the machine, just be the sound of the engine he may make out the issue and thereby apply things to get it fixed. If the machine gets up and running, the owner of the machine may give further machines to him or may spread his good work to other people thus increasing his business.

Join a reputed institute to learn about machines:-

To become an expert, it is important to learn thoroughly about heavy equipment. You can’t get all the knowledge by working under someone. To get complete knowledge about machines, joining a reputed institute is the best option. There they will teach you most of the things about heavy equipment. Once you complete the preliminary training, you may look forward for advanced courses and also seek some practical training. Institutes ideally send their students to various workshops from where they can see people working on machines. This is the place from where most of the students get to learn in depth and creates their fascination for the machine.

Keep yourself in the company of students who are serious in making this as their career:-

You tend to come across various kinds of people. Some will be very intense with what they are doing and some not that serious with studies. Try to be with people who take their studies bit seriously. That doesn’t mean that you don’t mix with the rest of the folks. It is just that you be with people who can help you make your career.

Get hired by companies:-

Once you are done with your studies and manage to get good scores, you may be picked up by some construction and heavy equipment company. Most of the institutes have campuses from where students are picked up for job.

Heavy equipment predicted to make good sale in 2016

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It is expected to be a great year for the construction, mining and heavy equipment industry as it is assumed that the sales figure of heavy equipment for the year 2016 will be simply splendid and the total credit goes to the way the construction and the mining industry has performed in the last year and the way it will perform in this year. Market pundits have come down with various revelations but it ultimately boils down to the fact that the construction and mining companies are all set to make solid purchase of earth moving machines. There is a huge requirement of these machines as regions like the Middle East have made heavy investments in construction and oil business. It is because of these investments that the heavy equipment manufacturing companies will have a big time opportunity to sell their machines in this market.

Barring the Middle East and other Gulf nations, if we divert our attention to the European markets, we see great prospect there. It had been a great year for the construction industry in Europe and they are only expecting it to grow from here. There seem to be absolutely no sign of any trouble in these segments and therefore it makes more sense for the heavy equipment companies to strengthen their operation there. Many companies are opening up new sites in various European countries and they all are very hopeful about their future prospects. They want to make the most out of this and they do not see a better timing than this.

A good year for the heavy equipment company also means a great year for the buyers of the machine. They buyers can expect a lot of goodies from the company or from its dealer. The most important part of a transaction for a buyer is the quality of the machine and if he gets good quality stuff at a reasonable price, he will be automatically drawn towards the product. Other than that, some buyers are choosier about their brands and they will not easily go for a brand that they have not bought something before. They prefer to be loyal to their brand and this gives an opportunity to that particular brand to sell more of its products in the market. A survey can be done by the brand to check if the consumers who have purchased its machine in the last 5 years prefer to stick to them or go to some other brand. This will give them a clear picture of the mood of the buyers.

In order to increase the sale, they can offer discounts to the buyer or can collaborate with some lending institution which will offer loans to consumers at a very lower interest rate. Consumers are always on the look of such offers and if they get one, they are for sure going to grab it. This will only help to increase the sales figure. They can bring in such innovative offers to up their sales and make this year a great one too.

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Buying excavators that save on fuel can be a good investment

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While setting up a construction company, the owner has to go through a lot of financial hurdles and often finds it difficult to sustain with the given resources. On top of that, when he sees that the heavy equipment he is using are consuming more fuel than he has anticipated that becomes more of a financial burden on him and he then seeks for ways and means to combat the issue. Well, once you already have equipment that consumes more fuel, there is hardly anything you can do to set that off. You either have to continue with the same equipment till it completely wears off or you can sell that machine and buy a new one that is reasonable and economical as far as fuel consumption is concerned. There are many branded companies who are producing equipment that match the overall needs of the client but they may be quite expensive. The next available option would be to go for brands who are not that expensive and yet reliable. If you have this specific requirement, then the best brand would be Komatsu. Komatsu is known for producing reliable machines that are not expensive and ideally fits the budget of every person in the construction arena.

Excavator is one such machine that is required for whatever big or small project you have on hand. Other than this, it is known for consuming more fuel as it has to exert more pressure on the engine to get the work done. However, Komatsu has recently launched PC290LC-11 long arm hydraulic excavator which is designed in such a way that it consumes less fuel at work. The cabin of the operator has also been modified to make things comfortable inside. This new model is a substitute of the older version which is PC290LC-10. The operating weight of the machine is anywhere between 66,359 to 68,122 pounds and in order to provide greater stability and power it is built on a large PC360 undercarriage. Something that is quite imperative in the machine is its long arm and the boom which is powered by Komatsu SAA6D107E-3 engine. The horsepower the engine can give is 196hp which suffice the power it needs to complete the task.

The engine is specially built to reduce emissions by integrating “Selective Catalyst Reduction” and by using “Diesel Exhaust Fluid”. An electronic control system has been included in the engine that has the potential to deal with the airflow rate, supervise the fuel injection, combustion parameters and after treatment functions. Komatsu has also installed a Variable Geometry Turbocharger and an Exhaust Gas Recirculation valve that checks and administers the temperature and air control.

Thick isolation dampers are installed under the excavator’s cabin to control vibration inside the cabin. The engineers have also redesigned the seat with high back and completely adaptable armrests. They have also installed a 7 inch monitor inside the cabin that will permit the operator to change the 6 working modes available in the machine.

Overall, this excavator has been produced keeping in mind many factors benefitting the customers.

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It is a good idea to promote your business on social networking websites

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We are seeing an increase in the trend where people are promoting their businesses on social media like Facebook, Twitter and stuff. They find it to be a spectacular way to reach out to a good chunk of population at a shorter pace. You can simply calculate the number of people seeing your work if you have more than 600 friends in your list. Your work will also be seen by people who are your friend’s friend to whom you perhaps do not know in person. However, they also get the chance to see your business and if needed will hire your services.

These social media sites also play a major role in the growth of the heavy equipment and construction industry. For instance, you work for a heavy equipment company and are given the role to sell machines. You can easily place your ad on LinkedIn or Facebook and check the number of people who are interested to know more about it. Unlike Facebook, LinkedIn is used by people for professional requirements only. So it makes more sense to have a LinkedIn account and post the ads of the machines that you have to with you sell. You can also use the logo of your company so that the prospective buyers know in advance with whom they are dealing with. That also gives them a sense of security that they are in right hands and there is not any scam involved.

Other than this, if you want to recruit any operator or engineer, you can put your requirement out there and that gets passed like fire in the wild. You will soon get messages from people who are looking for the job and that gets your job done without you having to pay a single cent for it. There are millions of LinkedIn accounts and getting someone suitable for the job will not be that difficult. You can also make use of the website to hire technicians, managers for various roles etc. It may soon happen that these social networking websites may overtake job search engines or the job search engines have to work in tandem with these websites.

Now if you already have an account that you exclusively use for your business needs, it is very important that you keep that account professional. Avoid uploading any casual snaps or pictures that you have taken in some party. Your business account is not meant to accommodate those kinds of pictures. You can make use of your personal account for that purpose. You should put pictures of some new construction equipment that your company has launched in the market or if you have some news that you can share it in advance, you can put that story in your account.

Never overstate yourself in any social media website that you use for your business. If people get to know that you have overstated or exaggerated things it will give the impression that you are there to cheat. Be true to the readers as they will be your prospective clients.

 

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Regular greasing of heavy equipment can increase its longevity

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For a heavy equipment operator or for a construction company owner, heavy equipment has been an integral part of their daily life. An operator just can’t think his life without heavy equipment and probably spends more time with the machine than with his family. In a way, the machine becomes his family for the larger duration of the day and at times he finds the lifeless thing as his best pal. Heavy equipment play a very crucial role in determining the future of a construction company. If the owner keeps the machines in order, then he simply increases the longevity of the machines. However, if he does not keep them in order, he is only messing up his own business.

One of the most important parts in keeping the machine healthy is timely applying grease to it. Heavy equipment work in tough terrain and are often prone to dust particles entering inside the interiors of the machine causing friction. If the friction is too frequent, then it can cause irreparable damage to the machine. According to Stede Granger, OEM technical manager of Shell Lubricants, we cannot just limit grease as a lubricant but it works much more than that. It works as a hurdle to contamination. However, he is also of the view to check what kind of greasing your machine requires.

All the heavy equipment has own set of requirements and may not match with the other equipment. Same goes with the greasing of the equipment. One type of grease may not be suitable for all the equipment and therefore there are different types of greases available in the market. At the same time, there are also different qualities of greases available. It depends upon how much you can afford for your machine. Ideally, it is not necessary to apply the most expensive grease as it may not suit your machine. You need to know what kind of grease goes well with your equipment.

Just in case, you do not know what kind of grease you need to apply on your machine, it is better that you consult this with some expert in your place and get to know about it. You can also join a forum and get people’s opinion. You will never find yourself short of opinions as people will always come with information to help you out.  You can also find some help in the user manual that you get from the heavy equipment manufacturing company. Those manuals can be helpful to you as well. Nevertheless, it has been found that people find the descriptions given in the user manual to be kind of vague and it ultimately does not go well with the machine. It is not that they did not follow the instructions properly, but it simply does not work on their machine. The equipment’s working environment plays a pivotal role in determining what kind of grease will the machine need. You just can’t depend on one type of grease. Your machine may need different types of greases to keep working.

Used heavy equipment for sale by owner

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After putting your heavy equipment to use for years if you feel that you have to sell it off as scrap, then you have some good news to rejoice. Heavy equipment always have some or the other value attached to it and if you want to sell your machine just because you have purchased a new one which is more advanced you can be rest assured that you will find buyers for the old one. There are always people waiting to get a good deal because not everybody can afford to buy an expensive iron to complete a project. Many people who have just been introduced in the construction domain have to take care of lot of expenses and in the midst of all these expenses they just can’t afford to spend a fortune to buy a brand new machine.

At the same time, these new guys find it difficult to get new projects leave the possibility of getting big projects and therefore considering the option to buy a new machine just does not make much sense to them. It is perhaps this bunch of people who can be the prospective buyers of your used equipment. However, the most important question is how you reach them. It is virtually not possible to find them manually and you certainly need some mechanism through which you can get hold of guys who are in hunt of used machines. We will be exploring few such options.

 

Social Media is an instrumental tool:-

One can make use of Social Media to reach out to mass people and in this way he can pervade his message to the crowd at large. Well, you can make use of the same tool to reach out to guys who are in need of used machines. All you have to do is post what you intend to do; that is click some pictures of your machine and put it out on a Social Media and state that you want to sell the stuff. Anybody who is interested to buy it can contact you. This will reach to scores of people and you might be poured with messages from people. You then have to negotiate the price with them and that is it. You find a buyer for your used equipment and the guy gets the machine at a reasonably low price.

List it on online selling site:-

In a period of a decade, there have been a lot of websites that deals with selling new as well as used heavy equipment online. This has given a much needed platform to both the parties. Initially they were hugely dependent on local newspapers but that is no longer the case as the prospect can now go on to one such website and check the machine he wants to buy. Read the description and if he is O.K. with the price, make a deal out there. This also saves your time as a seller as you do not have to run around anybody and just by listing the machine online, your job is almost done. The rest gets done once the buyer pays the money to you.

Learning heavy equipment doesn’t end for an experienced salesperson

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There is probably very little profession that is simple to do or as a matter of fact there is virtually no profession that one can find to be simple. It always gives you the scope to learn something new every day. You may come to a point where you will feel that you have probably known everything about the business you are involved in but the reality can be starker especially when it comes to the profession of being a salesperson and that too of heavy equipment. An experienced person may not find it difficult to sell heavy equipment but he may also experience a tough time during his visit with a client who knows about machines better than him. It will then be difficult for him to tackle the situation with just his ability to persuade one to buy machines. He then has to make use of the knowledge he has garnered over the years to bail him out or else the meeting will turn out to be a disaster.

The ground rule for every salesperson who is dealing with heavy equipment irrespective of him being a newbie or an experienced guy is to keep learning about machines. You have to keep yourself updated with the latest technology that comes up in the market. The upgrading of knowledge is also taken care of by the heavy equipment companies as they conduct training sessions for everyone whenever there has been a new product that is being launched in the market. So the sales guy does not have to do too much of hard work from their end. They only need to ensure that they keep on updating themselves with what is going on in the heavy equipment industry.

The heavy equipment company also expects more from a tenured guy for which they pay him dearly. They believe that the veteran will make the most sales for them as he has been in this line of business for the last many years. The high hopes that the company has from the veteran also displays the kind of confidence that the company has on the person. They will definitely want him to perform and be the best salesman in the company.

In order to come true to the hopes, he got to constantly work on learning more about the equipment. He probably had experience in selling one particular type of machine but now he is being asked to sell something else that he has not much heard of or read about. That comes as a big challenge to the veteran and this is where he has to sit with books pertaining to that machine and do his research. Browsing training videos will also help him big time. This is how he can prepare himself for the next challenge in life and prove his metal. Learning is a never ending process and when it is about a vast subject like heavy equipment, learning becomes an ocean for you. More you dive deeper, the more you will get to learn.

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Heavy equipment with modern technology will be rolled out in 2016

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Consumers are always on the look of something new, something that can simplify their task without compromising the quality of the work. This has often given companies the chance to innovate and bring something new to the world. It is exactly the same thing when it comes to heavy equipment. People are always on look of machines that are technologically advanced, simple to operate and have the potential to do things in a much simplified manner. Taking this into consideration, the companies that manufacture heavy equipment have jumped into the race of producing machines that are fitted with more gadgets and also easy to understand to put them to work.

Market analysts are of the opinion that the companies are trying to bring in those equipment that can change the very face of the construction industry. This also means that the construction companies who will own these machines will definitely have to pay lot more than what they used to for the ones that is being used now. In a nutshell, bringing in new technology will by all means be a very healthy situation for the construction industry. However, it also raises a doubt of how many guys will actually be able to afford it.

The fact that inducing modern technology in heavy equipment can go a long way and for that matter, there have been a lot of trials that were made in the last many years by different heavy equipment manufacturing companies to incorporate those technologies. This has only made the construction industry a successful business and has also led many people to join in and become a part of this business. Market experts believe that the year 2016 will be a year of integrating modern technologies while manufacturing heavy equipment and give the best to the consumers. This is why many such heavy equipment companies are hiring experienced and qualified engineers who can give the end user innovative machines.

Heavy equipment companies strongly believe that if they want to survive in this market then they have to produce things that are new and that nobody else has made it before. You just can’t steal away other’s ideas. They are not going to work long if you do so and therefore the only way to remain in a consolidated position is to make a master piece that will define your company. Companies like CAT already have their imprint in this industry but not everybody has been so successful and hence it is time that other companies also bring in machines that is built by keeping creativity into consideration.

The new mantra is producing innovative machines that have the ability to ease work for the operator, allow him to complete his work keeping safety in the forefront and also ensuring that the machine consumes less fuel. Consumption of fuel is directly related to the profits of the company and this is why it should be given lot of importance. Overall, 2016 is the year when we will see heavy equipment with the latest technology and expect it to be a great year for the entire industry.

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Top Selling Caterpillar machines

Almost every heavy equipment manufacturing company produces some kind of heavy equipment that turn out to be their best-selling machine. It is not that they have always anticipated it to be their best-selling machine but at times it just happens. However, there have been occasions where they plan the making and the advertisement of a machine in such a way where they want that stuff to be the most sold over machine for that year. Other than that, the name of a brand also matters a lot when it comes to selling heavy equipment to top construction companies. As a matter of fact, most of the biggest construction companies in US prefer heavy equipment of companies that has the name of a big brand attached with it. They will not go for machines of brand that they have not much heard about. They can be called brand loyal or brand choosy or whatever one might want to name them but they would prefer to stick to brands that are famous and are also ready to pay a high price for it.

Out of the heavy equipment producing companies Caterpillar has remained the most trusted company ever and continue to win many hearts with its continuing endeavor to provide better facility to its users.

If we check deep as to which machines of CAT has been the most sold ones in the last few years it would be their excavators and loaders. Cat is renowned for producing top notch excavators and is sold not only in the US but all over the globe and when we check the details; it speaks for all over the world. It has been seen that machines manufactured by CAT more expensive than equipment produced by other renowned companies but still prefer like to go for CAT. The reasons could be plenty but few very strong ones are that the operators have found CAT manufactured machines to be very easy to use, they are gently and user-friendly and also have a long life which means that the machine will not give problems after having been used for a couple of years. Other than that, the after sales service of this company is astounding.

You do not have to keep on following up with their officials. Once your complaint is registered, the engineers will then take charge and ensure that the problem is fixed and you are not left complaining for any kind of louse service. All these reasons have attributed for the increase in the sale of CAT excavators and loaders.

Other than this, these 2 types of machine also play an important role in the construction segment. It is simply not possible to carry on with the project for long without bringing in these machines. An excavator is perhaps the one that is needed the first followed by other machines. Many mid-east countries also vouch for products manufactured by CAT which has led to the dramatic increase in its sale.

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