Capital Equipment News October 2016

PROFILE

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Quick take • 14 to 16 working days for a complete engine rebuild • Work sheet of between eight and 15 engines per month • Continuously invests in new machinery

MS: Just take me through the whole engine rebuild process. AY: We have got two types of customers. The first is the customer that sends us a complete engine. That complete engine will go through a full initial assessment process, prior to stripping. Then the engine is stripped into its component form. At that point, our workflow joins another type of customer, which is either an OEM or large end-user that have their own workshop where they would have done a complete engine dismantle and only sent us the major components. At this point we have individual engine components that flow into the next section, which is the cleaning department. In our cleaning section there are different cleaning processes that we use to get these components into the necessary condition that allows us to do our inspections. The cleaned components then flow through to specialised departments that deal with specific components, where they are assessed by qualified personnel against the OEM specification. From the inspections we generate a repair requirement. We then take all those repair requirements and submit them to the department which then quotes the customers. AY: Once we have the go ahead from the cus- tomer we initiate the required engineering repairs that take components back to speci- fication. There is a lot of boring and milling, as well as all the other different processes specific to that particular component’s reman- ufacture. Particularly important for us is that at the end of each component’s remanufac- turing cycle, it is inspected for quality. Part of our ISO quality systems requires that we have an independent second measurement done on every component and that helps ensure a quality product s. If there are any issues, they can be detected in-house before the compo- nent reaches the end user. Once those components are remanufac- tured they are packaged and preserved be- fore they either go to the customer or flow to the assembly area where they will be reassembled into a complete engine. At the same time we send the fuel pumps, injectors and turbos to Reef Fuel Injection Services for the necessary remanufacturing. Once that process is done, these components are sent back to Metric Automotive and are reassem- bled back into the engine system. After that, the engine then goes for dyno testing. The key thing here is our attention to MS: And from here the remanufacturing process starts?

detail and quality. That for us is very critical. Considering the cost of rebuilding, especially on today’s sophisticated engines, you cannot afford to have any engineering mishaps. MS: What are the potential turnaround times for a standard engine rebuild? AY: We normally quote 14 to 16 working days for a complete engine rebuild. It is possible to do it quicker than that but most often the limiting factor is the availability of spares locally. On a parts complement of more than 100 items on an engine, it’s highly likely that the local distributor does not have everything readily available in stock, and in such circumstances parts will have to be sourced from overseas. There are potential delays as often the lead times for getting spares from overseas can be longer than expected. MS: Speaking of parts, you also have the IPD engine parts in your Metric Automotive fold, which should come in handy when remanufacturing Cat engines? AY: One of my jobs is to ensure that we have availability. We offer our customers a premium aftermarket product in the form of IPD aftermarket engine parts. We try to make sure that we add value by having availability. IPD parts meet or exceed OEM specifications. IPD prides itself on the fact that all the parts are manufactured in a Lloyds certified environment. They do not just copy or reverse engineer; they have a full R&D department and they re-engineer those parts before they are sent to the market. They also back up their quality with a comprehensive parts warranty. So, if you take their part, it will be identical to the OEM one, or improvement will have been made. MS: How big is your capacity? AY: We run a work sheet of between eight and 15 engines per month on complete engine remanufacture depending on demand. But, we are quite adaptable. On component remanufacture it’s very difficult to say because we don’t always get all the components to know how many engines have been remanufactured. That said, we have significant spare capacity at this point because we have made a big investment

into new machinery and more space. We have just doubled our floor space in the past two years to facilitate growth and be able to grow with our customers. We see a growing future need for our services and we need to stay one step ahead of our OEMs’ capacity. Capacity is also not only about machines and floor space; it’s also about the skills at your disposal. You have to look at all these factors to be able to stay where you need to be. MS: You also have got Reef Fuel Injection Services, which makes you a one-stop shop when it comes to breathing new life into those critical engines. Tell me more about this business. AY: Reef Fuel Injection Services, from the service provider point of view, has the ability to pre-test and diagnose all faults in injection systems. Because some of these fuel systems are not OEM components, OEMs may not have the capacity to do a holistic test and diagnosis on fuel systems. For example, if you run a Volvo ADT, it doesn’t necessarily have a Volvo fuel pump and the OEM can only diagnose on the fuel systems to a certain point. Reef has the capacity to do in-depth diagnosis and more importantly the testing. Where we offer huge benefits to our cus- tomers is that we are able to take those in- jectors that either the OEM technician or the customer has diagnosed with a fuel system issue and test to pinpoint where exactly the problem is, whereas the customer on their own would only have the option to buy new fuel system component. So, from Reef’s point of view, the major competitive edge is the diagnosis, testing and remanufacturing ca- pabilities. Another service that Reef offers is service exchange. Earthmoving and min- ing equipment customers need equipment availability, while their safety and production issues require healthy machines. Imagine when you have a big hauler on an open pit mine with a fuel system issue and it’s block- ing the whole haul road into the pit. So, Reef offers service exchange units so that the cus- tomer doesn’t have to wait while his unit is being remanufactured. We give them a set of injectors and they continue working, reduc- ing unwanted downtime. b

CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS OCTOBER 2016 35