158 | Business World Magazine |
November 2013
factory standard in one heavy equipment ve-
hicle, almost 98% of their customers never
allowed their fuel tanks to drop below fifty
percent. This realization ultimately led the
OEM to reduce the size of the gas tank on
the manufactured vehicle and achieving of
savings from $1,000 to $2,000 per piece of
equipment. For OEMs, as Jones says, there
are great benefits from having better insight
as to how customers are using the equip-
ment that is manufactured as well as under-
standing how that equipment is performing.
Jones says this not only helps OEMs to bet-
ter structure warranty agreements, but also
improves on the servicing of equipment be-
cause it can be done in a manner that is more
proactive than reactive. “So, a customer can
be contacted and informed, ‘Hey, I see that
your oil pressure is too high. I’ll be out there
tomorrow to service that.’ The OEM can
drive the appropriate service and parts into
customer account proactively... that way the
customer is not as prone to look at other av-
enues to buy parts or service,” says Jones.
The servicing of equipment is further im-
proved by increased efficiency. As Jones ex-
plains, for customers that go through dealer-
ships, there are fees arising when a dealership
