Tag Archives: Caterpillar Inc.

Technology and Connectivity Fueling Digital Construction Jobsites

By Lonnie Fritz  which is a Heavy Construction Industry Consultant for Caterpillar Inc.  (Guest Post)

The fully connected digital worksite is more than likely the biggest opportunity construction project managers and fleet owners are missing out on when looking at enhancing their operations.

Intelligent construction is the way of the future. It’s not how hard you work in today’s construction industry, but rather how smart you work that is going to improve your bottom line. Having a fully connected digital worksite removes the guesswork and empowers contractors to expedite their projects with confidence.

Using equipment with CAT technologies can help your business increase productivity and better control costs by achieving specific results including:

  1. Managing your equipment costs

With the introduction of the Association of Equipment Management Professionals (AEMP) Telematics Standard in the winter of 2014, mixed fleet managers, either on-site or off-site, now have access to critical data concerning their equipment, such as machine location, fuel consumption and operator behavior in the palm of their hand.

Telematics data gives you more control over maintenance and repair needs of your fleet. The longer you can effectively stretch maintenance intervals, the more time and money you can save. Such data also brings maintenance and repair information to a manager’s attention before maintenance issues become critical problems. This substantially reduces unplanned downtime and repair costs.

  1. Making the most out of your fleet

Connected construction worksites allow project managers to get the most out of their fleets. The more connected your machines are and the more effectively your crew uses the data they produce, the faster you will start to see tangible results. Variables such as equipment utilization, in terms of right-sizing the number of machines on-site, and equipment productivity can be determined. Both can help in setting cost predictions for future project bidding.

  1. Taking your operators to the next level

Machine control technologies that offer automatic or automated functions help improve operator productivity, which improves the bottom lines of projects in several ways. A prime example of this is Cat GRADE, a part of Cat Connect Technology. Operating a dozer is one thing, but it takes far more expertise to shape terrain. With Cat GRADE in place, you can expect to reduce rough-grading and finish-grading costs, reduce material costs, and decrease rework overall by as much as 50 percent. Machine control technologies allow operators to manage the project and the materials, not just the machine.

As soon as you activate telematics data-feed capabilities and log into a reporting interface like VisionLink®, you’re able to take advantage of outstanding productivity benefits, as well. For most construction company owners who employ smaller fleets, this technology can deliver immediate productivity results. Larger fleets or fleets working several projects at the same time should concentrate on creating a technology plan centering around the most cost effective equipment and technology pairings.

When you decide to take your worksite digital, the decisions that need to made for that project can be made by the right people at the appropriate time in order to get the job done as efficiently as possible. However, the benefits are not limited to those areas mentioned above.

A positive byproduct of a connected worksite is an increase in safety. Our Cat® Connect Technology can send alerts and fault codes out to operators or foremen when there is a situation that requires their immediate attention. As more machines are connected on the worksite, your fleet will become progressively more efficient, safe and productive.

Falling behind the competition and facing greater profitability challenges are real risks in the construction world today. Technologies that enable optimally connected digital worksites reduce those risks. Ultimately, digital worksites are meant to make your work more efficient, improve your profit margins and enhance workplace safety. Why wait?

Guest Post

By Lonnie Fritz

Heavy Construction Industry Consultant

Caterpillar Inc

Five Ways Construction Technologies Can Improve Profitability

By: Jason Hurdis–Sr. Market Proffessional for Caterpillar Inc.

How many times have you heard the saying, time is money? That old adage has never been truer in the construction industry than it is right now. But today we can update that passage to say, “tech is money.”

Every construction company owner faces pressure to control costs and operate at lower profit margins. As you evaluate your own business operations, technology is something you should consider. By identifying areas where you can become more efficient, you can determine the types of technologies that will bring the biggest benefit to your organization’s bottom line.

Based on customer experiences and data, Caterpillar is constantly developing and refining advanced technologies to help make your equipment more cost-effective and efficient. CAT Connect technologies and services such as, LINK, GRADE, PAYLOAD and EMSolutions all help increase profit margins and worksite productivity. Here are several ways the right technology can help make your company more profitable:

  1. Control fuel costs

Fuel consumption information is some of the most valuable information you can collect and use as a construction company. Idle time can represent 40-50 percent of a machine’s total running time. Tracking and reducing idle time in your machines with CAT technologies can reduce fuel costs by as much as 50 percent.

Such technologies enable insights that wouldn’t otherwise be available to you. If fuel consumption goes up suddenly during a job, it could signal a bigger issue. Here are just a few problems CAT technologies can flag and help you uncover before it becomes a real problem.

  • Dirty fuel injectors
  • Plugged/Contaminated air filters
  • Defective sensors
  • Faulty Engine Control Modules
  • Worn piston rings or leaky valves
  • Slipping clutch or transmission
  • Improper lube oil viscosity
  • Undersized machine, bucket or work tool
  • Low tire pressure or worn tires
  • Aggressive or untrained operators
  1. Manage maintenance intervals

Analyzing the data our technologies provide can help business owners increase the efficiency and cost effectiveness of your maintenance schedules. The longer you can effectively stretch maintenance intervals, the more time and money you can save. The importance of planned maintenance – and the profitability it enables – cannot be overstated. CAT technologies can help you interpret your data, provide monitoring services and help you develop the most profitable maintenance schedules for your fleet.

  1. Increase machine utilization

It’s hard to see patterns or trends when you have multiple machines working at multiple worksites. With data produced from CAT technologies, business owners can make decisions on machine activation and optimization from one central point. If a truck is sitting at idle too long waiting to be loaded, you may find there is so much idle time between trucks in your fleet that you can park one of them.

The data produced by CAT technologies can identify underutilized assets in your fleet, and can help managers eliminate the need for rental machines while also providing them with the information they need to forecast future equipment needs.

  1. Increased uptime

CAT technologies can provide companies with fault code alerts, which are messages delivered when a machine is working outside a predetermined set of parameters. These alerts cover machine-specific situations including engine over-speeding, high-speed directional shifts and changes in temperature and pressure. The benefits of receiving alerts like these are that they notify managers when maintenance and repairs are needed, which reduces unscheduled machine downtime and equipment repair costs.

  1. Improved bidding accuracy and competitiveness

CAT on-board systems allow companies to submit tighter, more competitive bids because of the data they provide. Companies today don’t need to pad their fuel numbers when bidding for a project; they can calculate exactly how many gallons per hour they need to get the job done.

Such technologies also are proven to increase materials savings by up to 10 percent, and decrease rework by as much as 50 percent. Using fewer materials and spending less time on rework allows companies to lower their bid prices, therefore, giving them a leg up on their competition.

CAT technologies are reshaping the process of using, managing and owning construction equipment. Construction companies that want to stay ahead of their competitors for projects both now and in the future must adapt and implement the proper technologies. It’s the best way to become more efficient while maintaining margins, quality and safety. Why give the competition the edge when the technologies present profitable opportunities? Because tech is money, and a more efficient fleet equals a better bottom line.

GUEST POST

By Jason Hurdis

Sr. Market Professional

Caterpillar Inc.

 

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Caterpillar Inc. is about to bring their latest discovery, the M series of wheel loader to the market by 2014

Caterpillar Inc. is going to launch its most awaited wheel loader in the next year. This wheel loader from its latest “M series”, which as an extended and updated model of the “XE series”, contains all the features of the XE models, as well as many additional ones. The features that will be additional in the M model are: an increased and spacious size of the cab section, a modified and improved 12-ton 982M engine capacity, and all the other features of the 962, 950, 966, 980 and 972 models of wheel loaders.

As the company has understood the immense need for the equipment in any construction industry, there has been a tremendous trial for developing and increasing the qualities and features of all its wheel loaders. The company had started producing the wheel loaders as the G series, with a Tier 1 working principle. Since then, the Caterpillar Inc. has moved on to making its fifth generation machine, the M series wheel loaders. Before the M series came into the news or in front of the world, there was the K series of wheel loaders which was the most common among the users. As per the cost of the wheel loader, the fuel efficiency of the equipment was 25%. The company claims that this time, in the M series of the equipment, it has increased fuel efficiency.  The split flow oil system and the use of multi viscosity oil has made this fuel efficiency possible. What makes this new series of wheel loaders different from the rest of the wheel loaders is that it has a standard lock-up clutch torque converter. This matches the engine power and the hydraulic system of the equipment as designed by the company

By the beginning of the year 2014, the Caterpillar Inc. will offer the users with their first set of heavy equipment designed as the models 966M and the model 972M. However, during the middle of the next year, the company will have to meet the expectations of the users by providing the other two models namely the 980M and 982M. But the highlight or the most talked about models of the M series wheel loaders from the house of the Caterpillar Inc., will be available in the market by the end of the year 2014.

Caterpillar Inc. always comes up with innovative ideas and they keep renovating and modifying their equipment. The M series wheel loaders that the company is about to launch very soon is the Tier 4 or the latest engines from the house of the company. The most amazing feature that these engines have is that they are run by the Cat Regeneration System, a system that Caterpillar Inc. claims to allow those engines which have a horsepower of 175 and can be sold in the countries that are without any modification and are considered as lower regulated.