Right Part, Right Place, Right Time

Cat^® machines are at work around the clock in every corner of the globe. When customers buy yellow iron, they expect the legendary Caterpillar product support that helps them to be more productive and profitable than anyone else in the industry. Making sure customers have the right part, at the right place, at the right time is what Caterpillar does.

Parts support to dealers and customers is a 24 hours per day, seven days per week, 365 days per year business. Minutes matter to customers — and they matter to Caterpillar, which ships more than 158 million parts orders a year. That translates into 400,000-plus orders per day, 18,000-plus orders per hour, 300-plus orders per minute of every day of every year. That kind of around-the-clock global support doesn't happen without a world-class distribution network.

The Caterpillar distribution network is second to none, yet improvement and expansions are always occurring to ensure customers have support when and where they need it. In fact, in 2012, Caterpillar invested in product support capabilities in every region of the world and announced new distribution facilities in Yatala, Australia, and San Luis Potosí, Mexico, as part of a multiyear modernization plan to enhance the global Caterpillar parts distribution network and to get parts to dealers and customers faster.

These facilities will join new distribution facilities in Waco, Texas; Clayton, Ohio; Spokane, Washington; Arvine, California; and Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). These new facilities represent an increase of nearly 4.5 million square feet to the overall distribution network and support the commitment to providing unmatched parts availability to customers and dealers around the world.

In addition to creating new distribution centers, Caterpillar invested in the expansion of existing parts distribution facilities in Grimbergen, Belgium; Melbourne, Australia; and Shanghai, China. All of these facilities are leveraging common systems and processes in addition to deployment of SAP's Service Parts Management (SPM), a global solution that replaces multiple legacy software systems supporting the Caterpillar parts network.

"We are focused on ensuring our customers' success through a global, high-velocity network that delivers the industry's best parts availability," said Steve Larson, president of Caterpillar Logistics Inc. "All of these investments have the singular purpose of ensuring that Caterpillar and Cat^® dealers support our customers' success better than anyone else."