John Deere Parts and Merchandise
Over the last couple of years, the ability to apply self-repair and maintenance on agricultural and capital grade equipment has become a big issue. While equipment makers, including John Deere, have been advancing the capabilities of vehicles and systems well beyond what could be expected of them five years ago, a lot of that direction has also been in the environment of dealer and specialist application to support. That left the owner and self-repair of owned equipment out of the picture, especially without the correct tooling to get the job done.
Responding to the Needs of Customers
However, listening to the market and what customers want in terms of hands-on capability, John Deere has put into motion a full revamp of self-repair support, including access to a number of tools needed to effectively maintain John Deere equipment outside of a dealer or specialist arena starting in 2023. This shift will open the range of diagnostic tools that are so critical now in identifying and isolating issues with equipment as well as their proper maintenance schedules. Additionally, the enhancement will expand mobile device support and software availability, allowing users to manipulate diagnostics with their own mobile devices as well as John Deere reader tools.
The self-repair push is consistent with the support platform John Deere has already been providing in the digital arena, particularly to smart phone users, pushing out software updates, diagnostic code interpretation and more. Now, the 2023 move will allow the same customers and more to add updates to tooling equipment and controllers as well. Additionally, customers and independent repair resources will see the John Deere ADVISOR system open up to them directly; currently, this support is only accessible through John Deere dealerships.
The changes come on the heels of the federal government putting the right-to-repair on the radar for many large equipment industries, and tractor manufacturing was high on that list. Rather than wait for a regulatory approach, John Deere has positioned to be proactive in the arena and support customers directly. This is a huge boost for many John Deere equipment owners, who already support a vibrant secondary market for additional parts, consumables, replacement components, software updates and more.
Long-term Lifecycles for John Deere Equipment Happen with Support
Spare parts and replacements are a big downstream element of the John Deere market. There is always a demand for lights, fenders as well as durable part replacements on gears, pulleys, sprockets, shafts and more. Some models are practically stripped clean as soon as they become available in somebody’s surplus as a result. Understanding this ongoing need, John Deere’s approach will continue to enhance and make it far more doable for folks to maintain their existing equipment versus struggle with forced obsolescence.
While everyone loves a good treasure hunt, sourcing a particularly hard-to-find part and finding it can be an accomplishment. It’s not so fun when the same equipment inventory is needed right away for a critical operation. In this regard, part support and essential consumables continue to play a critical element in maintaining equipment, especially during seasonal highpoints, such as field prep, transportation runs, and harvesting. Add in the network capability John Deere provides with the ADVISOR system for part-finding and consumable supply, and people really start realizing the ability to “cook with fire” when it all comes together in the ideal aftermarket support system John Deere is pushing in 2023.
Good Things Coming with the New Year
All the self-repair support changes coming will be a welcome paradigm shift for John Deere equipment owners in the next year. As many secondary market suppliers are fully aware, lots of folks have little idea where to go for different parts, components and items a given local dealership simply might not stock or have access to. No surprise, which has also led to some creativity and use of the wrong parts salvaged from other sources as well, creating even bigger problems downstream when things don’t run right, or worse, cannot be supported anymore by John Deere due to the mixing involved.
While the first reaction might seem to be more competition from independent sources, dealers will instead realize increased activity for their inventory as their information and stock is shared through a wider network. At the same time, equipment owners themselves will realize greater ease in finding the right parts and consumables for their given models and units as well. The 2023 John Deere support approach is really a win-win across the board, long-term, both for the broad interest in John Deere equipment as well as their long-term maintenance for years to come.