Tracking and Management Systems to be Standard on Cat Machines
January 10th, 2008 by Sam Simon. Posted in Construction Business OwnerCaterpillar made a very intriguing announcement the other day. It plans on equipping most of its new core, mining and industrial machines with EquipmentManager and Product Link - a remote asset management solution developed by Caterpillar.
The remote tracking and management system will be a standard feature on equipment in the United States and Canadian markets. Remote asset management has been available as an option prior to this since 1998. Those machines that Product Link does not come standard will have it as an option.
Wheeled hydraulic excvators and articulated trucks will be the first units that will have EquipmentManager/Product Link phased in.
Technologies such as these are becoming ever-popular on construction equipment and are of great benefit to users. Fleet managers will find great value when utilizing these technologies and having them be a standard feature on equipment is ideal.
January 10th, 2008 at 11:56 am
We’re keeping a close eye on this Sam. Our opinion is that within 10 years tops…all machines..include the less expensive ones will have embedded GPS. The big question is going to be what the manufacturers allow 3rd parties to do with the data. CAT and Deere aren’t software companies and although product link/equipment manager are good…most folks are looking to do MORE with LESS data like “hours and location”.
I listened to a webinar recently that discussed a large scale tracking system test and through some tough questions, one participant finally said, “We don’t know what we’d do with the data..or how we’d get anything out of this system…unless it was INTEGRATED INTO OUR BACK OFFICE SOLUTIONS. Exactly.
These systems are great but what most construction equipment rental ecosystem players will end up with yet more reports, and raw data…for an overworked manager to read. Net result is not squeezing nearly enough out of the systems.
So I’d like to hear the announcement where the big guys in the industry open up the system to folks to rip out parts of the data stream for their own uses. That will be big news to me and our clients.
Prosper!