If you’re in the heavy equipment industry, simulators can provide cost savings for your customers. The market leaders in the construction and mining equipment industry are using virtual training simulators to deliver cost saving and safety benefits. In order to compete in today’s competitive market, you need to deliver training simulators with your equipment.
A great example is Caterpillar Inc. Caterpillar, better known as CAT, is the world’s largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, and industrial gas turbines. CAT delivers increased safety and cost savings to their customers through Caterpillar Virtual Training Systems and their custom line of heavy equipment training simulators.
These 3D training simulators are available to the public on the Cat Simulators web site. CAT sells their simulators to customers requiring training on Large and Small Wheel Loaders, Mining and Medium Off-Highway Trucks, and Hydraulic Excavators. The prices range from $11,000 for their Motor Grader Simulator to $25,000 for their Mining Truck Simulator.
The CAT equipment operator training simulators are designed to increase the bottom lines of companies that are using real-world CAT heavy equipment. Suited for both inexperienced and experienced equipment operators, the training simulators provide safety, production, and cost saving benefits to customers.
Cost Saving Benefits
- Does not require expensive consumables, like diesel fuel and oil.
- Does not increase engine-use hours on real-world equipment, lowering maintenance costs.
- Leaves real-world equipment available for billable work.
Safety Benefits
- Operators can practice complicated maneuvers until they master them.
- Operators can become familiar with equipment controls before entering real-world vehicles.
- Training can occur at any time, regardless of weather, time of day, etc
The simulators include a training curriculum that takes an operator from machine control comprehension, to basic equipment operation, to complex machine tasks and mining operation scenarios. The Mining Truck Simulator trains and orients operators on machine operation as well as equipment-specific tasks like loading, hauling, dumping and theory on materials (Elgiloy Hastelloy C, etc). The simulator tracks an operator’s performance and delivers a scoring report across more than 20 different criteria, including the user’s scenario execution time, total time spent in reverse gear, average break temperature, and number of collisions – valuable data when assessing an operator’s ability.
The world’s largest manufacturer of heavy machinery delivers hands-on training in a safe and economical way by providing operators with virtual training simulators that teach machine controls, operating procedures, and complex construction and mining tasks. CAT’s training simulators produce safer operators and result in many cost-reduction benefits for CAT’s customers.
Caterpillar achieved better than expected earnings in Q1, with 2010 revenue estimated between $38 billion and $42 billion. On average, analysts are estimating a $2.66 profit on CAT shares in 2010.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that if you’re not offering a training simulator with your product, you cannot be competitive with the top industry players.