With each of the Cat 775 trucks playing an important role in the recent transformation of the business, Finning News caught up with Northfield Quarry Manager, David Strachan to find out more:
David: “It has been a busy time for us at TQ, as we have undergone a major and diverse investment journey, rebuilding our old Cat 775F, whilst embracing the benefits of Cat Minestar™ technology for our two Cat 775Gs, all in less than 12 months.
“The start of the journey was our decision to rebuild, instead of replace, our existing Cat 775F after it had completed 9000 hours.
“The reason for this was that we knew the machine had been well serviced and compared to the price of a new unit, the financials of a machine rebuild with Finning really stacked up.
“This was especially the case as Finning was able to provide a Cat 777D rental unit to carry out the work of the Cat 775F, for the 5-week period it was at the Glasgow branch being rebuilt.
“Because Finning had a rebuild option that allowed us to be more specific with the rebuild process, we also opted for a new steel liner for the skip and the replacement of the custom built high spill-boards.
“With a complete refurb of the cab and a three-year warranty on the work carried out, backed by a service and maintenance agreement, we now have a new machine that is performing well and has already done over 1500 hours.
“At the same time as the rebuild was going on, we also took delivery of a new Cat 775G. As part of the purchase of this machine, we opted to use the Cat Minestar™ production monitoring technology.
“This represented the first time we have used technology to actively monitor the performance of a primary hauler unit, so it was all very new to the team.
“We started with monitoring payload and fuel consumption and soon moved on to look at excavator load counts.
“It was at this part of the process that we identified some inefficiencies and scheduled operator training to reduce the load time.
“We have found the information so useful, that we recently asked Finning to retrofit the technology to our older Cat 775G, allowing us to combine information from both units, which is proving very insightful.
“The plan moving forward is to use the real-time monitoring to our advantage and to have weekly metrics reports produced by Finning with KPI’s in terms of target payloads, load counts, fuel burn in litres per tonne etc.
“By sharing this information with the whole team, we will all be able to work together contributing ideas and actions that will help increase efficiency and productivity.
“And although the technology is not available on the rebuilt unit, we have used information from the Cat 775G’s to support the Cat 775F operator, improving productivity for our overall operation.
“With such a large amount of change in approach, we were naturally nervous about the outcomes, but I can honestly say that the whole team has really embraced the technology.
“As for the rebuild, well I can definitely say that when the hours on our older Cat 775G reach 9000, I won’t hesitate to recommend a rebuild to our management team.”