Tracks and Treads - Finning Canada

SpECIaL REpoRT
CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE
It has one of the world’s largest Cat equipment signs, two
massive buildings – each bigger than 100,000 square feet – and
it sits on 31 acres of prime alberta real estate. Finning’s centre
of excellence dominates the landscape along Highway 2 in
red
deer and is helping the company streamline its service operations and
position itself for the future.
th
e massive service centre, already with more than 300 employees,
will become the company’s flagship new equipment preparation and
machine overhal shop.
“th
is will boost our capabilities to meet the growing demand for
service from our customers, particularly in the mining, heavy construction
and power systems industries. the world’s mining markets are
still booming and a big part of this facility is devoted to meeting the
demands of those markets,” says Finning president dave Parker.
“this will not only allow us to provide superior quality in terms
of new equipment preparation and used equipment overhauls, it will
also free up time for our branches and let them capitalize on what they
do best – focusing on local customer needs for product support.”
th
e centre of excellence was born from Finning’s $145-million ac-
quisition of collicutt energy services in November 2007. the spacious
set of buildings were headquarters for collicutt and can easily handle
the biggest machines that cat manufacturers – with the exception of
the 400-tonne 797 mining trucks, more than 100 of which are cur-
rently in use in the oilpatch in northern
alberta.
everything else, even
793 trucks and 24M graders, sits comfortably in the 75-foot bays that
are easily accessible through 30-foot bay doors.
“these are the largest and best equipped buildings in the company
and they are critical to Finning’s ability to provide superior
customer service,” says scott Wakefield, general manager of red
deer equipment services. “Our operations here are set back from the
front lines so we can develop standard procedures and processes and
focus on volume-based production, which will help us get even better
at what we do.”
Once it’s fully operational in september, the centre of excellence
will run with a staff of 400 people, including 200 heavy duty mechanics,
and be capable of doing 40,000 hours of service a month.
that will shift a massive volume of work from the outlying branches
to red deer, where work can be done quicker and more efficiently.
“We’ll save the branches nearly 500,000 hours each year. By
bringing it all here, we’re going to standardize the way we do business
and treat it more like a manufacturing function,” Wakefield
says. He adds that the move will also free up space in the branches
and increase productivity. “We think we can improve our efficiency
by a minimum of 20 per cent.”
www.finning.ca Fall 2008 • tr acks & treads 29