When the Customer Knows Best

By Caterpillar | Posted: June 19, 2023

The idea behind Caterpillar’s Field Follow Program is simple. Before you go into full-scale production of a new machine, you create a test machine and test it in the field for 18-24 months.

For Caterpillar, that means finding the most challenging, rigorous real-world situation there is. Which inevitably means asking an existing customer to put the machine through its paces and telling us what works, what doesn’t, and how it can be better. With the dealer visiting them fortnightly and Caterpillar every six weeks for a full debriefing.

Alfons Braun, Caterpillar FF Program Manager, has worked with many machines in the FF Program for over 25 years, starting on the much-loved C-series. “For nearly five years, we’ve been working with the Next Gen hydraulic excavators (HEX) series on this test phase. With the new Cat® 395 excavator, we first needed to find a partner to give the machine to. Someone who was working the toughest rocks, as we want to punish the physical structure. But also, who was working in the extreme cold.”

This led Alfons and his team to Avesco Oy, the Cat dealer in Finland who knew exactly who to give it to. Mikko Raiskio, Product Manager at Avesco Oy, takes up the story. “When we were contacted by Caterpillar, we knew the company that perfectly fit.” Hannu Jurvelin, Salesman and Account Manager at Avesco Oy, knew them well. “E. Hartikainen Oy has been around 50 years and has been a good Cat customer for a long time. Back in 2004, they tested a 365 BL Pilot machine, which they then bought at the end of the program. A machine with 54,000 working hours that they have only this year traded in for a second life!”

Arto Hartikainen, CEO, E. Hartikainen Oy, couldn’t be happier to be part of the project. 

Even so, it still surprised Arto just how good the Next Gen excavator was. “The 390F was already a good machine, but with the new Next Gen HEX 395 excavator, we’ve seen a significant increase in productivity. Plus, fuel efficiency is also better when calculating tons per liter. We’ve even loaded 95 tons off highway trucks with the new 395 without any issues. We also like very much the new technology such as the weighting system (CPM) and 3D- machine control system. These have really helped our operators to be even more efficient during the shift.”

Finally, asked if there was anything else he would like to say about being part of the FF program, Arto simply replied with a smile, “I don’t think I want to sell this program to anyone else. I want to keep this for us.”