Business owners who use heavy machines inevitably end up spending time thinking about ways to reduce equipment costs. Regardless of the tasks at hand, the concern applies to all industries:
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The more you know the better, which makes data a big part of figuring out how to reduce equipment costs. Caterpillar® technology yields data to create benefits:
Warren CAT offers many ways to gather facts about your equipment, because data remains a common theme among most of the tips for lowering your equipment operating costs.
Choose from three levels of service that use some combination of data, equipment, personnel and expertise to enable you to stay well-informed and run with optimal efficiency.
There are basic, medium and maximum levels of support. For basic support, you may receive simple advice or instructions. Medium support may involve Caterpillar managing the big repairs and your company managing the smaller ones. Maximum support is when you leave it all to the professionals.
The technology includes a satellite navigation system that tracks equipment in real time, making it much more likely you’ll find a stolen machine. The International Risk Management Institute says registration of big machines is not mandatory, and it estimates that only 15 percent of heavy equipment stolen is ever recovered.
Many Cat machines come with system-monitoring technology built in. Those that don’t, as well as other brands, can be retrofitted with EMS.
Product Link is hardware embedded into Cat machines that delivers information about the health and condition of your machines, plus lets you see usage reports and stay connected to a vast dealer network. Working smarter empowers you to improve fleet management and the confidence of your crew, managers and clients.
VisionLink becomes your eyes and brings you information about your equipment’s engine, systems, and equipment hours, diagnostic codes, location, and fuel and idle time. The system uses cellular/satellite technology to deliver data straight to your mobile or other device, with options for real-time, up-to-the-minute data. Caterpillar deliberately designs the transmitting antennae to be compact. This makes it easier to access when it needs an adjustment.
The SIS Web instantly places a world of data at your fingertips from 17,000 Cat publications. You’ll be able to find technical specs, instructions for assembly or disassembly, guidelines for maintenance, and more.
Researching equipment takes a lot of time, but SIS simplifies the process of finding your answers. The SIS Web cuts risk and enhances productivity by offering solutions for managing personnel. It can generate a realistic schedule for your service technicians to prevent them from being either overloaded or idle.
As you seek ways to reduce equipment operating costs, there is probably no better tool than doing maintenance and service on a regular schedule, before something breaks or goes wrong. Many types of the Cat technology discussed here take guesswork completely out of the formula, using electronic alerts to prompt recommended service.
The Cat S·O·S? fluid analysis program involves your dealer checking and analyzing oil, coolant and hydraulic fluids for excessive wear, contamination, low levels and other conditions that may require corrective action to prevent damage or failure.
Do a walk around and visual inspection of your equipment each day to detect leaks, smoke or unusual situations, plus take note of any substandard performance. You can share any data gathered with your dealer to enhance the monitoring of your equipment and prevent small issues from becoming big problems. Look for general wear and tear of the machine or its bucket and digging teeth, breaks or pits in the windshield, tire condition and even the smallest crack on the frame or where welds exist.
Let the data and alerts enable you to catch adverse conditions and fix them before they cost you money or time. For example, change out an ill-fitting seal to make sure the machine doesn’t run low on a fluid or spring a big leak that leads to a major expense.
Monitor users’ day-to-day performance with the machine in order to identify and reinforce good practices as well as pinpoint areas for which additional training may be needed. You’ll avoid premature wear and lackluster performance, as well as extend the life of your machine by ensuring that it is used properly and not pushed beyond its capacity.
Collect and keep reports that tell you about your machines’ history, component life and operating costs to reveal trends. Those statistics will enable you to better and more accurately examine work flow and expenses plus maintain the machine’s resale value.
Check the condition regularly of air and oil filters, grease, fittings and other components essential to operation, since these checks help reduce equipment operating costs. The concept is similar to how a clean air filter in a car will help it achieve better gas mileage.
Have a qualified professional come to you for preventive maintenance rather than hauling your equipment to the shop after something breaks. Some owners presume house calls are way too expensive, but not when they prevent expensive repairs and the cost of transporting something that weighs several tons.
Create and implement a maintenance plan and service checklists that site and job managers must initial. This step organizes service items and makes them predictable, keeps operators accountable and gives you proof at selling time that you’ve kept the machines in good condition.
Let the professionals at Warren CAT provide service and parts so that you can be sure you’re getting top-notch quality. Cutting corners with inferior-quality parts or unqualified technicians actually costs more money over the long run when components don’t last as long as they should or bad service causes a breakdown. For example, hydraulic oil lubricates and protects moving parts and is an integral part of the power-transfer process, so you want it to be of high Cat quality, just like the machine is.
Form and keep a close, trusting relationship with Warren CAT or your favorite dealer for when you need to borrow equipment while yours is being serviced. You can also do this to field test a machine you’re interested in buying or renting.
Make sure all the people between you and your machine know exactly what to do and who to call in different situations. This may include equipment failure, job-site accidents or injuries, theft or damage, other unexpected problems or when something just doesn’t seem quite right. You save downtime and money when everyone knows precisely what to do and has all the resources they need to report an issue, including process charts as well as names and contact information.
Take time to make a contingency plan for all the worst-case scenarios you can imagine, then make that plan known to everyone. Thinking through such situations when you’re not in a frenzied, crisis mode will yield a much better result than when you’re forced to make decisions on the fly.
Fill the normal lulls in production with tasks that need done but rarely warrant top priority, such as running errands and making deliveries; servicing and repairing equipment; delivering, picking up, re-arranging or staging materials at the job site for upcoming production days; completing paperwork such as schedules and forms for pending inspections; and training your workforce.
Solicit feedback from the workforce to gauge what works well and what doesn’t, praise and reinforce good performance, and encourage and reward best practices. Show and tell your people how complacency affects productivity and profitability instead of having them inadvertently learn that problems are often rewarded with overtime or praise for fixing a problem fast.
Schedule blocks of time to interpret your data, think of new ideas, research solutions, market your company, develop promotional materials and both study and stay ahead of the competition.
Devote resources to know how much time your equipment spends idling. Wasted fuel is wasted money, and unnecessary idling not only wears on your machine’s engine and chips away at warranty hours, it can also conflict with some states’ emissions laws.
Identify and rectify overused or underused equipment to optimize operations across all your job sites. You want to avoid having any machine run more than it should or run only 20 percent of the workday. The objective is to use all machines to their full capacity, or somewhere close to it. Let Warren CAT do this for you or make your own charts, spreadsheets, calendars and other tracking tools in order to watch critical areas of the business.
Calculate the savings you’ll realize with data features like ProductLink, VisionLink, EMSolutions and preventive maintenance plans before you say, “Oh, I’ll add that at a later date.” While you’re waiting until you have more time or money, the features could pay for themselves and yield substantial savings through optimized performance, less downtime and best efficiency.
Include data features at the time you buy a machine whenever possible, since it costs less to get them at the time of purchase than to add them on later.
Look for remanufactured parts as a lower-cost option of comparable quality to new parts. Normally, they both have warranties and feature top quality, and are guaranteed to fit your specific machine perfectly.
Spend time working the math to know you’re using the right-sized equipment for the job. Your bottom line suffers when you use an enormous machine for a small job and when you attempt to use a smaller machine best left to the ability of bigger equipment.
Compare the costs of renting, leasing or borrowing equipment against that of buying and/or of using equipment that’s oversized, undersized or not used regularly. These options save you the headache of selling equipment when it’s old, gain you the benefit of having newer equipment every few years, and save you money on transport and storage costs.
Study the limitations of your equipment and respect the fact that it needs to regenerate at regular intervals rather than ignoring it, which could lead to breakdowns, damage and expensive repair.
Avoid misusing or abusing any equipment, but especially machines with tracks, since that multifaceted component comprises 50 percent of the maintenance and repair cost for equipment that includes them. Caterpillar designs its undercarriages with extra clearance, but adverse conditions will affect critical parts including links, rollers, seals, segments, pins, bushings, idlers and shoes.
Analyze your fleet and use the data to compute the percentage of productive time – and profit – you stand to gain by purging waste like overtime, excessive idling, unnecessary usage, bad operator practices and other things that lose money.
Build hours into the regular, everyday schedule for preventive maintenance and regular service. This way you won’t incur the extra expenses associated with deliveries or services made in the throes of an emergency or rush situation, as well as after hours or on a holiday weekend.
Implement a system in which nothing happens without a work order, which not only gives you full control over what gets bought but also produces an accurate record of what was purchased, why it was purchased, who ordered it and when. In most situations, you won’t recall those details and if you do, they’re likely to be fuzzy.
Follow the equipment manufacturer’s recommendations for usage, parts, fluids, maintenance and other procedures to ensure optimal efficiency and help machines last longer. Even if you think you know what your equipment needs, going by the manual will help in cutting costs on heavy equipment.
See how your equipment and machines stack up to comparable fleets locally, regionally and nationally, since this kind of data helps you obtain valuable benchmarks that can help in future analyses and decision making.
Knowledge is power, and there are many ways for you to gather data about your heavy equipment and apply it to yield improved profitability, better safety and a more efficient business. You can start acquiring that knowledge anytime by visiting Warren CAT online, as well as calling or visiting any of the dealerships throughout Texas and Oklahoma.
Get the most out of your heavy equipment replacement parts and increase the longevity of your Cat® equipment by learning how to balance quality and cost. You trust your Cat machines to get the job done when needed, but you also will have to care for them by using replacement parts that are just as tough as the machinery itself.
When it comes to purchasing heavy equipment parts, you have several options, but choosing the cheapest one may not benefit your equipment for the long term. Some types of parts could even cause further damage. Understanding what differentiates new, remanufactured, original equipment manufacturer (OEM), aftermarket and other replacement options is key to finding the right parts for your heavy machinery.
During the search for replacement parts, you will likely first encounter the choice of new or remanufactured equipment parts. Though similar in appearance, these parts have critical differences. What sets these types of replacement components apart is construction and whether the components have been in a machine before.
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For new parts, the choice of OEM or aftermarket equipment parts depends on several factors. When you choose OEM parts, you have engine and machine components that will fit perfectly and work well with your equipment. As exact replacements for the original parts, OEM components take out the guesswork and risk inherent with making repairs with aftermarket parts.
For Cat equipment, OEM means choosing genuine parts made by Caterpillar®. Selecting these components for your heavy machinery ensures you get the quality you know from the brand you trust. While the price for the Caterpillar name can be higher, the quality, durability and longevity make up for the monetary investment.
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When it comes to aftermarket parts, you are not necessarily guaranteed that they will work as expected. The aftermarket components come from brands with a passing familiarity with your Cat machine, but these brands may not have the same standards of construction as Caterpillar. Most aftermarket parts are made by brands that did not contribute components to your original machine and installing them could void the warranty on your equipment. Though these parts may look like the original ones, they do not have the same requirements Caterpillar has for its machinery and components.
Aftermarket parts are typically designed to a specific price point. Many people choose these parts solely for how much they cost rather than their quality. There is no standard of excellence or durability goal for aftermarket parts. As is the case with purchasing construction equipment, choosing aftermarket parts is an example of potentially getting what you pay for.
Despite these disadvantages, some choose aftermarket parts for the cost savings. But will saving money now on a cheaper part cost you more frequent part replacements in the future? Is that a risk you’re willing to take when your business relies on how well its Cat equipment operates?
If you want to save money, you may consider some type of used parts for your Cat machines. As with every used purchase, buyer beware because the used market for heavy equipment components has quality parts as well as potentially dangerous ones.
There are two types of used parts: salvaged and remanufactured parts. Remanufactured parts are also known as reman parts. Reman parts have more advantages than salvaged parts.
When it comes to used parts, learn their origins. Salvaged parts are not ones you want to install on your Cat machine. Though low in cost, these components present several problems, even if the components came from similar Cat equipment.
Safety should be your priority on the jobsite, and using salvaged parts is a dangerous decision that could cost you money or put your workers at risk of injury. Saving a few dollars up front is not worth the risk and the potential cost of using subpar components in your heavy equipment.
When you look at salvage used parts there are inherent risks, as they may not have been properly refurbished and can cause equipment damage and increased safety risks.
If you prefer trusted components without paying the price for new parts, consider remanufactured parts.
When you exchange old Cat parts to your dealer, those parts get a careful evaluation. The components in good enough condition for refurbishment will undergo the remanufacturing process.
These parts have like-new quality and the trusted engineering of the Caterpillar brand.
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The remanufacturing process requires several arduous steps to ensure the final quality of the parts. Caterpillar has perfected this process to get the most out of used parts and restore them to like-new condition.
Here’s how we remanufacture genuine Cat parts:
Getting the part from the machine requires care to prevent damage to the part or equipment.
We also responsibly use as much of a machine as possible when pulling parts, and we completely remove all debris from the components. Our approach means we can retrieve components others might scrap. We use a proprietary, environmentally friendly cleaning method and thorough inspection process to recover parts from the returned cores and restore them to like-new condition. This process includes taking equipment completely apart to retrieve the smallest components and ensuring advanced engineering updates. By making the most of the used equipment, we prove our responsibility to the environment.
When we restore parts, we completely disassemble them. In doing so, we rebuild the part from its smallest components. By breaking each part down, we can ensure the highest quality goes into the most minor details of the remanufactured component.
During the process, we inspect everything thoroughly. Due to normal wear of parts, cracks and other imperfections can appear in the smallest of places. We look for these problems to prevent minor issues from becoming more significant problems later.
Remanufacturing is not the same as rebuilding or recycling. Other companies may clean up old parts and resell them in the same condition. Caterpillar never does that. Remanufactured parts from Warren CAT or other genuine Cat dealer are the same quality you trust from the Caterpillar brand.
Controlling quality is a crucial part of the remanufacturing process. Like other Cat products, remanufactured parts with the Cat label must adhere to the strict quality guidelines of the brand. We won’t sell it unless it proves to be the highest quality after its refurbishment. Caterpillar engineers update any products to the latest specs used. Additionally, the parts undergo the same testing new products must face. If the remanufactured part cannot pass a new part test, we do not sell it.
Remanufacturing the part takes it to a like-new condition. The lower price should be the only difference you notice when you install a remanufactured Cat part on your heavy equipment. You will also benefit from the wide range of choices — 700 different remanufactured Cat parts.
Here are some of the more common questions people ask when deciding about parts for heavy equipment.
As you might expect, new parts have never been used. These components have the same level of use as the original parts on your Cat machine when you first bought it.
Remanufacturing is a different process from the refurbishment other companies use. With Cat products, they do not undergo drilling or boring to alter their structure. Instead, we use a multi-step process to ensure the remanufactured parts perform the same as new parts from us. In fact, we guarantee the performance of our Cat Reman parts through a same-as-new warranty.
If you need components for your Cat machine, choose either new OEM or Caterpillar replacement parts. The advantages of doing so include the following:
The disadvantages of choosing new genuine Caterpillar parts is the cost, which may be higher compared to other brands, though you get much longer-lasting components.
As the company does with its equipment, Caterpillar creates tough replacement parts built to a high standard. These parts are made to work as hard as your Cat machines do on the jobsite. While some components require regular replacement due to their nature, you can still feel assured of the performance of all Caterpillar brand parts you use on your heavy equipment.
If you decide to purchase new parts, you need to choose between OEM parts or an aftermarket manufacturer. Your choice will make a difference in the longevity of the piece and how well your machinery runs after the part replacement. The decision becomes especially crucial if the warranties for your equipment are critical to your investment.
Aftermarket parts have several disadvantages compared to OEM components:
Avoid aftermarket parts if you want to ensure the longevity, warranty and durability of your Cat equipment. OEM parts are direct replacements for the original components of your heavy machinery, made specifically for your particular machine. Choosing OEM parts offers you several benefits you will not have with components produced by other brands.
With new OEM parts, you get a warranty that assures performance and fit, but they likely come at a higher cost.
Used parts, such as salvaged parts, are less expensive — but have no quality guarantee unless they are Cat reman parts. Choosing remanufactured parts for your heavy equipment helps the environment by reducing waste from worn-out machinery without giving up the quality you trust from Caterpillar. Unlike potentially dangerous and untested used salvage parts, remanufactured components have standards that they must meet before being sold.
Cat parts fall into several categories. Some parts you will need to replace regularly, such as filters. Other parts may only need replacing if they break down or reach their full life after years of use. Engine components, hardware, planned maintenance kits and other supplies are some of the parts you will find online at Parts.Cat.com.
The type of Cat engine you have powering your equipment will determine the parts you need. Diesel and gasoline engines have very different designs and need specialized parts that can differ in their design and function.
Parts inside the engine such as gears, pistons and cylinders need to work exceptionally hard in the rugged conditions they are frequently exposed to. The engines used for Cat equipment are not like car engines. They need to be built to last longer and work harder with the toughest parts and components. Some common elements in an engine include:
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Planned maintenance kits, or PM kits, include all the components you need for regular services such as changing the oil or the air filter. These kits make it easier to ensure you have all the fluids, filters, o-rings and other parts you need for routine maintenance. Plan on regularly replacing components designed to wear out with typical use.
As mentioned, a kit may include the oil filters, air filter and oil you need for an oil change. The parts included in a planned maintenance kit will depend on the equipment you intend to use it for and the type of engine you have.
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While many parts you need to replace lie under the hood, there are maintenance items throughout your machine. Brakes, batteries, steering components, hydraulics, joints, bearings, hoses and accessories require regular examinations. When you do need to change out these parts, use new Cat parts for the best performance and quality. Especially with safety systems, like the brakes and steering, using the wrong parts could be disastrous.
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Maintaining your fleet keeps your job running while reducing downtime. If the time you put into maintenance, however, includes using subpar components, you could find yourself with more downtime caused by additional repairs to replace faulty parts.
During regular maintenance tasks, such as changing oil or checking tires, look for signs of wear on other equipment parts. Check for cracked hoses, worn brakes, low fluid levels, dirty filters, wires and other warning signs. A quick check can give you the chance to replace worn parts before they fail, averting more significant delays in your work.
The importance of using quality, warranty-covered parts cannot be stressed enough. When your heavy equipment’s operation constitutes a large part of your business, bad parts become a poor investment. Choosing the right parts will ensure the longevity and warranty coverage of all the machines in your Cat fleet.
No matter how well-built the machine is, eventually something will happen to cause one of the systems to fail. The causes range from missing important maintenance tasks to not using the equipment as intended. When you need replacement parts in an emergency, you should not fall into the trap of choosing convenience over quality.
For regular replacement parts like belts, fluids and brake components, consider having a few parts on hand for your most-used machines. Doing so will give you the chance to get back to work the same day. For more complex tasks, it’s worth it to order the right parts from your certified Cat dealer to ensure you have warranty coverage on your new parts and maintain the warranty coverage on your Cat equipment. Don’t take the risk. Know that you can quickly get your Cat parts from your local dealer online, by or in person.
To ensure you get the best quality and service, purchase replacement parts from your local Cat dealer. At Warren CAT, we have a large selection of remanufactured parts to save you money. You can also order new parts through our online store at any time of the day or night.
Ordering the parts you need is only half the task of getting the replacement components your business needs to cut downtime. The other half of the process requires you to quickly get the parts to your jobsite. At Warren CAT, our customers have options available for parts delivery and quick pick-up. Choose the one that best suits your business situation and available time.
Not just any company can become an authorized Caterpillar dealer. At Warren CAT, we provide our parts professionals, technicians and customer support staff with state-of-the-art training to keep up with the newest technologies developed continuously by Caterpillar. Our experts can help you whether you need to choose the right heavy equipment for your jobsite or need replacement parts for your machinery.
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