Caterpillar now equips most of its new core, mining and industrial machines with EquipmentManager and Product Link — the remote asset management solution developed by Caterpillar. The remote tracking and management system will be a standard feature in the United States and Canadian markets. Caterpillar has provided remote asset management capabilities as an option since 1998; now Cat will deliver these capabilities as an integral part of most core Caterpillar machines. Product Link will be available as an option for the remaining Caterpillar machines.

Caterpillar phased in EquipmentManager/Product Link beginning with wheeled hydraulic excavators and articulated trucks. The remaining machines were phased in throughout 2008, arriving to dealers and customers with Product Link as standard equipment, along with a three-year subscription to Asset Watch, the remote asset management portion of EquipmentManager.

The Caterpillar EquipmentManager/Product Link is a system that provides the full depth of asset management, maintenance, and health information required by equipment managers to effectively manage their fleets.

EquipmentManager is a secure, web-based application that uses key indicators from equipment such as hours, location and diagnostic codes. Combined with powerful tools such as mapping, maintenance scheduling and troubleshooting instructions, EquipmentManager quickly sorts through machine data to identify events that require attention and delivers information in a meaningful and actionable manner.

Using satellite technology, Product Link is the hardware that enables information flow between on-board systems and the web based application, EquipmentManager. The remote management system provides machine location and hours as well as time and geo-fencing capabilities.