Leading aggregates business, Aggregate Industries has selected Caterpillar equipment dealer, Finning UK & Ireland to deliver a preventative maintenance contract, covering the Aggregate Industries Midlands and South West areas, which represents around 50% of its total mobile plant fleet in the UK.
The three-year deal will see Finning become responsible for around 170 pieces of equipment, including Caterpillar machines and units from 16 other equipment manufacturers. The comprehensive range of equipment covers smaller equipment like Backhoe loaders, up to large wheel loaders and Off Highway Trucks.
As part of the contract, Finning will be using advanced monitoring technology through the Caterpillar VisionLink® system, with Product Link™ hardware activated or retrofitted to all Caterpillar equipment, allowing for remote condition monitoring.
In addition to the condition monitoring, Finning will be providing fluid analysis across the whole OEM fleet, helping the AI and Finning engineering staff understand the health of the equipment, by examining and interpreting results from the use of state-of-the-art technology.
With combined reports compiled from VisionLink® and fluid analysis, the AI heavy mobile equipment management team will liaise with Finning to determine the optimal time for preventative maintenance to take place.
Commenting on the Aggregate Industries deal with Finning, Aaron Bradley, Procurement Category manager, said: ‘Finning has worked with Aggregate Industries for many years and has proven expertise in preventative maintenance and fleet optimisation. With this latest deal, we were able to work with Finning to provide both servicing and repairs on our own CAT and Non-CAT equipment, which will be managed through our own newly formed Heavy Mobile Equipment (HME) team. The installation of the remote monitoring systems will allow our team of heavy mobile equipment managers to make strategic decisions on the overall management of the fleet of equipment they are responsible for, knowing that they will be backed by the largest mobile and branch based engineering team in the UK.
Commenting on its ongoing relationship with Aggregate Industries, Finning strategic account manager, Steve Platt said: “Having supplied over 100 machines to AI in the last two years through our Finning managed solutions team, supported by Caterpillar jobsite solutions, we have gained invaluable knowledge of AI operations throughout the UK. This has given us an excellent insight into how we can further support the business and in-turn has led to the successful completion of this deal.”