OLATHE, Kan. — John Deere Connected Support — Expert Alerts has been honored by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) with the AE50 Award for 2018. The AE50 award highlights the year’s most innovative designs in product engineering in the food and agriculture industry, as chosen by a panel of international engineering experts.

Expert Alerts utilizes JDLink machine connectivity and data analytics to predict service needs, reduce diagnostic time and minimize downtime. This results in higher levels of machine availability, improved machine performance and lower cost of operation. Unexpected machine downtime during critical busy times of year is a risk for producers and service providers, especially as farm sizes continue to increase and seasonal operating windows become tighter. The use of Expert Alerts allows customers and dealers to reduce service costs and improve operational efficiencies to get the work done on time with fewer service interruptions, says Jeremy Goebel, aftermarket product development manager for John Deere.

“Expert Alerts provides remote machine monitoring and notification to John Deere dealers, which enables them to contact customers about an impending or potential issue, and often gives dealers solutions to resolve the issue,” Goebel says. “John Deere Connected Support tools enable dealers to proactively support customers, which results in customers experiencing less downtime, or sometimes avoid downtime altogether, leading to increased productivity and profitability.”

John Deere Connected Support with Expert Alerts is factory installed on new John Deere self-propelled equipment, and can be dealer-installed on late-model machines, including tractors, sprayers, combines and forage harvesters.

ASABE is an international scientific and educational organization dedicated to the advancement of engineering applicable to agricultural, food, and biological systems. The awards will be presented at the ASABE Agricultural Equipment Technology Conference in Louisville, Ky., in Feb.. Information on all award winners will be included in the Jan./Feb. 2018 ASABE’s Resource magazine and on the ASABE website. Further information on the Society can be obtained by visiting www.asabe.org/.