Cat® Site Evaluation
Success Story

Fuel expense represents about 30%-50% of total machine operating costs in the quarry business, making it a key target for cost reduction — but because many factors influence fuel consumption, reducing it can be a real challenge for customers. These factors include six key "fuel influencers."

1. Idling management
2. Operator technique
3. Jobsite setup and maintenance
4. Equipment selection and configuration
5. Fuel monitoring and fuel saving technology
6. Fuel quality

One large quarry customer wanted help evaluating the impact of these influencers on their fuel efficiency and costs, so they reached out to their local Cat dealer. With their dealer's help, they kicked off a Level 3 Site Evaluation. The team from Caterpillar measured, recorded and documented operating data to determine fuel consumption impacts, as well as fuel efficiency for the payload fleets, production support fleets and ranch fleets.

After the initial evaluation, the customer implemented fuel-focused recommendations, such as enabling on-board features like auto-idle, utilizing Engine Idle Management Systems and diligent production management best practices. They also right-sized their fleet, adding 11 machines to better match their production targets. The result? One year later, the customer reported 6% less idle time and more than $92,000 in fuel savings, a total savings of more than $230,000.

Here's a deeper look at their results — from baseline to the savings they reported a year later.

KEY METRICS - PAYLOAD PRODUCTION FLEET

Payload Production Summary

Fuel Savings Summary