Sandvik has announced the upgrading of its Mackay service facility to a Productivity Centre – one of only four in Australia – capable of carrying out major machine rebuilds and repairs to full original as-new condition. It joins Sandvik’s recently opened Orange Productivity Centre in NSW’s Central West, in Heatherbrae in the NSW Hunter Region, and in Perth, Western Australia. According to Tony McDonald, Area Manager North - Service, the facility is designed to deliver industry-leading levels of service, as well as environmental, health and safety performance to Central Queensland mining operations.
It incorporates a modern, high-tech repair and rebuild facility, including a paint booth, along with a large warehouse operation.

McDonald said the facility and its processes have been upgraded, streamlined and improved to help it better serve the needs of mines in the region, and enhance safety performance in line with Sandvik customers’ requirements. It will also service equipment for customers from outside Central Queensland.
He said the Mackay Productivity Centre was the latest example of Sandvik’s focus on service and support for its customers throughout Australia.
“Our Mackay Productivity Centre – as one of four of these centres nationally – sets new standards for safety and environmental performance, service efficiency and turnaround times for our Central Queensland customers. “The Sandvik Productivity Centre concept has been designed with one purpose: to align with our customers’ goals and boost their productivity,” he said. “Sandvik’s service benchmarks are to ensure that our customers’ equipment remains safe and fully productive 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year – and to achieve that, nearly 75% of our staff worldwide are dedicated to customer support.

“We are now bringing to our aftermarket business the management techniques and methodologies that have enabled 70-80% productivity gains in our manufacturing operations around the world. “Sandvik’s vision is that the offering that we have in aftermarket will be very different in a couple of years as we go through this transition,” said McDonald. “What are we really concentrating on in this transition is all about time and waste. “We are looking to driving out waste all through the aftermarket process, from how we quote, how we handle things, to we do on the shop floor and delivery and commissioning back with the customer – with the aim of significantly reducing the amount of time a piece of equipment is in our workshop and out of action. “We recognise that the longer a customer's asset sits in a supplier's premises, the longer they don't have access to it; our ambition is to reduce this to a minimum, and to set a new standard in aftermarket service and efficiency,” he said. “We are also very much aware that the mining industry today is very focused on cost-reduction, and getting the best, lowest-cost performance and productivity from its equipment.

“Our ability to refurbish and rebuild existing equipment with several thousand hours on the clock, back to full as-new condition, at substantially less than the cost of new equipment, allows Sandvik to play an important role in reducing owning and operating costs, while maintaining productivity levels.” McDonald said the company’s Mackay productivity centre was the latest example of this philosophy. “It incorporates a state-of-the-art workshop and a warehouse – and because of our standardised processes and readily available spare parts, we can provide rapid and cost-efficient repairs.
“This includes the ability to rebuild equipment to as-new condition, to Sandvik’s OEM specifications and standards, and with full factory warranty,” he said. Complementing its Mackay Productivity Centre, Sandvik operates a number of dedicated Field Support Centres throughout Central/North Queensland, located in Emerald, Townsville and Mt Isa. Total Sandvik employees throughout the region number 122. The entire Central/North Queensland area is also supported by a fleet of mobile service vehicles crewed by a fully trained field service team with the skills and experience to handle a wide range of requirements. “Our field service technicians can also carry out machine inspections, advise on operational and maintenance practices, and assist customer technicians,” McDonald said.

“Whether it’s scheduled or unscheduled maintenance calls, our field service technicians have the in-depth product knowledge and rapid support response to get customers’ equipment up-and-running as soon as possible. “We realise that trained, customer-focused technicians are vital to maintaining equipment and delivering productivity targets,” he said.

Field services available from the Mackay Productivity Centre include:
• Repairs and breakdown services
• Servicing assistance
• Fault diagnosis
• Machine condition audits
• Scheduled maintenance
• Service maintenance agreements
• Machine tune-ups.