Everyday Heroes: Meet Finning's service ... - Finning Canada

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TEAM SPARWOOD: Clockwise from bottom left, Bob MacArthur,Randy Loewen, Tim Campbell, Al Burns, Gary Loewen, MarkWilton, Larry Lento, Cliff Wickwire and Silver Aragonesof the Sparwood Special program. He remembersit well because he was there.In 1979, Barber was a young Finning miningsales rep, working under John Powell inthe Sparwood area. One of his customers wasKaiser Coal, forerunner of Elk Valley Coal,which now operates six open pit mines in theregion. As a leading producer of high-qualitymetallurgical coking coal, Elk Valley Coaltoday relies on a 400-piece mining fleet ofheavy equipment to produce 25 million tonsof coal annually. The situation was no different30 years ago: Kaiser Coal also neededto maximize fleet availability and reducedowntime.Elk Valley Coal: a historyKnowing this, Powell proposed an idea toKaiser, radical for the time – leasing. Powellpointed out the options that continue tomake leasing popular: new, reliable machinerywould mean more productive time.Leasing rates would be lower than downpayments on new equipment or rental costs;and maintenance expenses would be lower,since this leased equipment would be coveredby warranty.Kaiser inked the deal, and Finning’s firstTractor Lease Program was born. “It startedin one mine, and soon expanded to anotherfour,” says Barber. “At the height of the programin the mid-1980s, we had 50 tractorunits out, all on rotating lease programs.”Darold Thorp, regional manager ofFinning Sparwood, has seen proof of the program’sefficiency: “One company that had afleet of 30 unreliable tractors of various ageswas able to replace those with a dozen goodnew leased ones.”Then, global economics threw a wrenchinto the program. In the late 1980s, the valueof the Canadian dollar and the yen “went upsidedown,” says Barber. The tractor leasingprogram was increasingly unprofitable forFinning. But when the going gets tough, thetough get creative. Instead of packing it in, theSparwood Finning folks turned their good,new idea into a great one.“We came up with a new take on the rebuildprogram,” explains Barber. “A customrebuild would allow a rebuilt tractor to maintainavailability standards.”It sounded good: continue supplying themines with new dozers under a lease program,but add in the bonus of rebuildingthose leased tractors at the end of their leaseterm, either sending them back to the minesfor another tour of duty, or selling them elsewhereto put profitability back in the program.But could Finning take a hard-workeddozer and give it a second life?“There was never any question in mymind,” says Gary Loewen, now a field dispatcherwith Finning Sparwood. He becamethe chargehand of the original crew who tackledthe task. “So I put together some good allroundmechanics who could work as a team,dedicated to making it a success.” The SparwoodSpecial Rebuild emerged.Terry Barber convinced the mines to give aSparwood Special a try. “It worked famously,”he says. Twenty years on, the pride in his voiceis still evident.135 million years ago Dead plantmatter piles up at the bottomof prehistoric lakes during theJurassic era, forming spongy peatbogs. Sediment accumulates overmillennia, burying the bogs. Geologicalpressures create the RockyMountains, hardening the bogsinto carbon deposits, then coal.Fast-forward to 1873 During theGold Rush, prospector MichaelPhillipps checks out the Elk RiverValley, looking for gold. To hisdisappointment, he finds coal.1884 Geologist George MercerDawson shows more enthusiasmfor B.C.’s coal. His report, releasedin 1886, draws national attention.1887 Colonel James Baker, aCranbrook landowner, forms asyndicate to develop the Crowsnestcoalfields. By 1896, it acquires250,000 acres of coal lands anda provincial railway charter.1897 Twenty miners from CapeBreton arrive at Coal Creek nearFernie, producing 10,000 tonsof coal and 361 tons of coke.By the end of 1898, the rail lineis complete; markets grow andmining expands.1900 to 1913 Coal productionpeaks at 1,528,934 tons prior tothe First World War, then slowlydeclines, with minor fluctuations,over the next 40 years.54 TRACKS & TREADS • Spring 2008 www.finning.ca
photograph By Daniel WienerPride. It’s a word that comes up frequentlyin conversations about the Sparwood Specials.Al Burns, a journeyman welder and partof the original crew, continues to work on rebuildingSparwood Specials today. “You haveto take pride in what you’re doing to make itwork,” Burns says. “You have to think aboutkeeping quality up and costs down.” Burnsremembers a recent buyer from Korea, whocame to Finning’s Sparwood shop. The buyercouldn’t tell the Sparwood Special rebuilt D11from the new one beside it.To get a dozer pristine after it has rippedrock and pushed mountains for 12,000 hoursat the mines takes a bit of doing. “The crewtakes the tractor down to the frame and startsover,” says Thorp. “They can tear it downwithin a shift.” But putting it back together,with safety checks along the way, can take10 weeks. A crew of four mechanics plus onewelder is dedicated to each rebuild.A Sparwood Special rebuild includes replacinghardware and rebuilding the engineas well as the transmission. Components areinspected and tested for wear, cracks, straightnessand leaks. Whatever fails to meetCat’s reusability guidelines is replaced.The block may need to be line-boredto new Caterpillar specs; crankshafts thatshow cracks during electromagnetic testingare replaced; rod bearing bores may needto be reground; faulty valves replaced. Newpins and bearings are put in all moving partsand components are painstakingly cleaned.The undercarriage, which bears the bruntof wear from the mine grind, requiresparticular attention.Dents are removed, and the cab is refurbishedto like-new. Finally, when the unitpasses final performance tests, it’s sandblastedand re-painted. Then comes the capper: aSparwood Special decal is put on the cab window,often the only clue that it’s a rebuild, nota new dozer.“I love seeing a tired tractor go throughthe process and come out looking new,” saysThorp. “As for the satisfaction of seeing themback in action, I know I see a lot of SparwoodSpecials on the mine sites, but unless I’mclose enough to see the sticker, I can’t tell.The gratifying part isseeing the look of satisfactionon the faces of guys in the shop. There’s a tremendousamount of pride.”That pride, along with technologicalchanges to the dozers (such as the introductionof a high-drive track on the D10, whichallows its undercarriage to last longer) are responsiblefor the increasing number of hoursa dozer operates between rebuilds. Originallythey went back after 5,000 hours; today it’s upto 12,000 hours. And many Sparwood Specialsnow go back into the field for a secondor even third time.“Historically it’s been a good program forElk Valley Coal,” says Doug Stokes, Elk ValleyCoal’s vice president of operations. “We’recurrently using Sparwood Specials in four ofsix mines, and one of every four of our dozersis a rebuild. The D10s and D11s are the backboneof our operations. We work them hardbut they’re a cost-effective, reliable machine.Using the tractor lease program has improvedour availabilities, and Finning has been agood partner.”After a pause, Stokes adds a final thought:“Elk Valley Coal’s long relationship withFinning has been a positive part of my miningcareer.” And undoubtedly the SparwoodSpecials are a very special part of that relationshipas well.Remember When…Finning words of wisdom1959 Annual production hits anall-time low at 850,000 tons.The British Columbia coal industryfaces extinction.1960s Traditional coal marketsdisappear in North America. TheCrow’s Nest Pass Coal Companysends test shipments to Japanfor use in steelmaking. Success!In 1968, contracts are signed,leading to the coal resurgence.California-based Kaiser ResourcesLimited purchases mining rightsof the Crow’s Nest Pass CoalCompany and begins miningat the Elkview location.1980s Mining methods switchfrom underground to surface, fromdark, dangerous pick-and-shovelwork to mechanized open-pitmines. Kaiser Resources becomesB.C. Coal, which becomes partof Westar Resources.2003 The Canadian metallurgicalcoal mines previously owned byFording Inc., Teck Cominco Limited,Consol Energy Inc. and LuscarEnergy Partnership consolidate asthe Elk Valley Coal Partnership.2008 Today Elk Valley Coal isNorth America’s leading producerof metallurgical hard-coking coal.The company operates six open-pitmines in the region.Sources: Elk Valley Coal and The SparwoodVirtual Museum of Coal Miningwww.finning.ca Spring 2008 • tracks & treads 55
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