Manufacturers are looking to connect their products and leverage data to:
Gain insights through analytics and AI
Enhance customer experience
Offer software-defined features
Transition to new business models like "product as a service"
AWS helps manufacturers build their smart products and services platforms with:
Secure data ingestion from connected devices
Fleet management, remote control, and telemetry services
Analytics and AI-powered insights
Integration with enterprise systems like CRM and MRO
Caterpillar Overview
Caterpillar is a global leader in construction, mining, and industrial equipment
They have a large global footprint with over 112,000 employees in 24 countries and a network of 152 dealers in 190 countries
Caterpillar has millions of connected machines worldwide, with 1.5 million actively streaming data
CAT Helios Data Platform
Caterpillar built the CAT Helios data platform to centralize and standardize their data from various sources:
Enterprise data, dealer data, and 1.5 million connected assets
Key goals for Helios:
Establish a single source of truth for customer, dealer, service, and parts data
Provide a suite of data services and APIs for applications
Enable advanced analytics and machine learning at scale
Technical details:
Built on AWS with 680 S3 buckets, 21K DynamoDB tables, 5.7K ECS tasks, and other services
Processes 296 million data pipelines, 1.4 million API calls, and 50 billion data records per month
Stores 1.15 PB of data with 265 million lines of code and 3,000 data pipelines
Onboarded 125 applications and digital solutions
CAT Grade and Geospatial Intelligence
CAT Grade is Caterpillar's integrated machine control system that helps operators use equipment more precisely:
Uses GPS, sensors, and onboard computers to track blade/bucket position
Provides real-time feedback to the operator on terrain, cut/fill, and alignment
Collects machine data to send back to the office for analysis
The Geospatial Intelligence solution built on Helios:
Processes the machine data to generate elevation profiles, cut/fill volumes, and design file previews
Allows remote management of job site designs and sends the latest plans to machines in the field
Generates exportable files for proof of work completion to meet regulatory requirements
Business Impact and Use Cases
CAT Grade and the Geospatial Intelligence solution help construction and mining customers:
Reduce material waste by 10% and rework by 33%
Improve project completion rates and reduce delays
Optimize machine utilization and performance
Streamline regulatory compliance and proof of work
The solutions leverage Helios' data platform to:
Ingest and process machine telemetry at scale
Provide real-time visibility and control over job site operations
Enable new services and business models around "outcome-based" contracting
Technical Architecture
Data ingestion from connected machines into Helios data lake on AWS
Microservices for fleet management, telemetry processing, and analytics
Parallel processing of 3D design files and surface data using AWS services like Step Functions, SQS, and Fargate
Serverless architecture with API Gateway, Lambda, and CloudFront for user-facing applications
Leveraging AWS services like S3, DynamoDB, ECS, and Postgres for scalable, reliable storage and compute
Key Takeaways
Caterpillar built the Helios data platform on AWS to centralize and standardize data from their global operations and connected assets
The Geospatial Intelligence solution built on Helios provides construction and mining customers with real-time visibility, optimization, and compliance capabilities
By connecting machines, processing telemetry data, and integrating with enterprise systems, Caterpillar is able to drive significant efficiency and productivity improvements for their customers
The technical architecture leverages a range of scalable AWS services to ingest, process, and serve geospatial data and insights at the scale required by Caterpillar's global business
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