Caterpillar is increasing its focus on specific markets with technology developed for particular requirements as well as introducing a new focus for how it works with its dealers and customers. John Fallows, general manager of Caterpillar’s GCI territory said, “We are launching five new products at BICES, all of which are designed for customer needs.”
These new machines are the M315D/M317D wheeled excavator, the 313D2, 320D2, 336D2 crawler excavators and the 950GC wheeled loader. Their introduction reflects the key importance of the Chinese market to Caterpillar, where the firm has continued to grow its share, despite the downturn. In addition the company is launching a number of its SEM brand models at BICES, as well as introducing machine control options to the Chinese market.
The company has developed its Connect Solutions concept to better serve its customers and Jeffrey Fitch from the firm said, “This new framework is how we deal with customers and dealers. This is a global launch for Caterpillar using BICES. It is a framework for us to take to market in terms of our solutions. We have a solution for service support for our customers. We take a myriad of products and solutions to offer to our customers.”
The Connect Solutions package allows Caterpillar to offer a range of options to customers that cover five areas; equipment management, productivity, safety, sustainability, command. These options can be varied so as to be tailored to their needs and to suit their working practices and operations. Included in this is the Caterpillar finance service, which the firm says is a relatively new concept to China but is growing in popularity, with some 60,000 units and 10,000 customers now covered by the system.
As part of the productivity package the company offers machine control systems and is now marketing a simple 2D package for the graders being sold in China. This entry level system can be upgraded to a more sophisticated 3D system if required but Caterpillar believes that the 2D technology has considerable potential in China at present.
