John Deere Takes Machine Health to a Smarter Level with Fleet Care

MOLINE, Illinois (February 9, 2010) — John Deere is introducing Fleet Care, an innovative new service that interprets machine data and advises, in the simplest terms, the best methods to proactively control machine health.

"The concept works like a health care wellness model," said David Wilson, program manager, Machine Health, John Deere Construction & Forestry.

"If you go to your doctor and your blood pressure and cholesterol are elevated, you might be placed on a high-fiber diet, or prescribed medication or exercise," Wilson said. "The model here is that by taking immediate action, you can avoid a serious medical condition down the road.

"Fleet Care does the same thing for your equipment, evaluating machine data and then thinking through intelligent business rules to prescribe the machine health solutions necessary today to avoid costly downtime in the future."

Best of All Worlds

Fleet Care takes fluid analysis one step beyond John Deere's competitors by using advanced proprietary rules logic to think through solutions for fluid condition and potential root causes. It also cross-checks those results with data from the JDLink™ machine monitoring system and machine inspections to provide a truly intelligent assessment of machine health.

The Fleet Care assessment gives equipment owners the means to detect and define a potential problem, determine how critical it is, and provide possible solutions – before the condition can cause downtime.

"Fleet Care was designed in response to customer and dealer requirements," Wilson said. "They told us we needed to deliver a machine health solution that would gather all of their machine data, interpret it, and provide simple and trusted recommendations integrated into their business systems."

And that's exactly what Deere has done. Fleet Care delivers its simple machine health solutions through e-mail or the user's business system, where the actions prescribed by Fleet Care can be accepted into a work order. Overall, it's a win-win situation. "Machines monitored by Fleet Care can experience increased uptime and lower operating costs," Wilson said.

"Using an intelligent system to look at all this data with a holistic eye really tells a story. When you take telematics data, fluid condition, and physical observation and view them through the lens of proprietary logic to 'think through' machine protocols, we can – in a way – predict the future and get ahead of problems before they even begin."

Winning Warranty

John Deere is so confident in Fleet Care, it is offering a 10-percent discount on the John Deere Powertrain and Hydraulic Extended Warranty. Between the machine uptime gains and the 10-percent discount, John Deere Fleet Care will often pay for itself, according to Wilson. "No other construction equipment manufacturer can offer this amount of machine intelligence combined with proprietary machine health solutions to address machine health irregularities before they become a critical problem," Wilson said.

John Deere (Deere & Company — NYSE: DE) is a world leader in providing advanced products and services for agriculture, forestry, construction, lawn and turf care, landscaping and irrigation.
John Deere also provides financial services worldwide and manufactures and markets engines used in heavy equipment. Since it was founded in 1837, the company has extended its heritage of integrity, quality, commitment and innovation around the globe. John Deere Construction & Forestry produces more than 120 machine models and distributes its construction, forestry and worksite products through a network of more than 1,300 dealer locations worldwide.