Caterpillar - Finning Canada

GROUNDBREAKERNEWS &REVIEWSGROUNDBREAKERCOMPILED AND WRITTENBY JIM VEENBAASGetting Biggerto be BetterWhen the Finning (Canada) service centreopened in Mildred Lake near the SyncrudeCanada Ltd.’s plant north of Fort McMurray inthe 1970s, things were a lot smaller. The biggesttrucks could fit into the glove compartment ofthe monster machines that roll into the centrefor maintenance these days. Finning expandedthe Mildred Lake shop in June of 2004 andsuper-sized the building. The shop easily accommodatesthe 400-tonne behemoths thatnow dominate the operations of the big oilsandsdevelopers.Three bays were added and each is big enoughto safely accommodate Cat 797s. Moreover, two50-tonne cranes were installed to hoist the heavymachines. As well, a stand-alone wash bay and atrack press were added.“This really allows us to improve the deliveryof our service and the effectiveness of that service,”says Brian Shaw, Finning’s oilsands managerin Fort McMurray. “When you’re workingon a truck the size of the 797, you need to havea proper crane and you need a building largeenough to lift up the giant box inside.”Long Distance HelpThe expansion project was also needed to accommodatethe 200% increase in repair volumeat the service centre in the last five years. “Wecouldn’t bring the 797s into the shop unless wehad the body and the outside duels off,” saysRandy McDonald, Finning’s regional managerfor branch operations. “Now we have a placeto assemble the 797s. When the temperature is-30°C, it’s not very efficient to work outside.”In addition to the new shop space, there is20,000 square feet of new warehouse spaceequipped with the latest storage and retrievaltechnology. Finning will use the high-densitystorage system to house the large volume of replacementparts needed to accommodate the increasedactivity. “This is a huge improvement onthe parts side – better than what we had in termsof square footage and ability to access and shipthe parts in a timely fashion,” says McDonald.As the leadhand mechanic at the FinningCustomer Support Centre, Ken Stewart fields callsfrom all kinds of operators across North America.But he nearly fell out of his chair when he pickedup the phone Feb. 2 and discovered he was talkingto a farmer from Puerto Rico.“He was calling from a small island off ofPuerto Rico. He was using an old D4C tractor, itmust have been built in the ‘60s, and he wantedto know what kind of fluid to fill the gear box with,”says Stewart. “I couldn’t believe it. It was 9 p.m.and I’m getting a call from Puerto Rico. We getan occasional call from Alaska, but never that faraway.”He listened to the caller describe his problem.With experience in heavy equipment repair,Stewart knew the tractor needed transmissionfluid and guided him through the process of fillingup the fluids.“He didn’t want to damage anything and theydidn’t have much on the island where he was living.This guy was doing his regular walkaroundmaintenance and he didn’t have the service manualanymore and he just wanted to make sure itwould be ready for the next day,” Stewart says.“He found our Internet site and gave us a call.He couldn’t believe someone was still on call atthat time of night. We helped him out and his tractorwas working as good as ever.”6 TRACKS & TREADS • Summer 2005 www.finning.ca