CASE takes customers seriously – so seriously, in fact, that we invite equipment users to participate in defining and improving new products. We call this our Customer-Driven Product Definition (CDPD) process. We involve CASE and competitive customers in CDPD projects to help us better understand their needs, and work with us to develop and test new models that respond to those needs.
The CDPD process includes
- Workshops with the product development team
- Customer visits and surveys
- Analysis of customer input
- A test period during which customers use prototypes of the new models and report on their usability
- Integration of customer feedback into final product designs
The process results in construction machines that not only deliver great performance and efficiency, but also meet the identified needs of the operators who use the equipment. CASE has used the CDPD process in developing our most recent line of loader/backhoes, skid steer loader and compact track loader product lines.
Customer input has guided improvements in serviceability, visibility, stability, power, ease of transport, extended time between refueling, noise reduction and cold-weather starting, just to name a few.
Customer input
CASE customer Dennis Zentner of Delta, British Columbia, Canada participated in the N Series CDPD process: “Usually, a manufacturer builds the machine, puts it out in the marketplace and says, ‘What do you think?’ To be included in the design and evaluation process was really top-notch. We suggested changes, and CASE did its best to accommodate them.”
Jordan Hess, a CASE customer from Coon Rapids, Wis, U.S.A., also took part in the CDPD program for the N Series loader/backhoes: “I had an awesome time in the program. It is really neat to sit down with a room full of equipment engineers who wanted to hear what we thought. They didn’t just want to hear what was good, but what we wanted to change.”