Capital Equipment News October 2017

COVER STORY

MAJOR PARTS SUPPORT BOOST FOR CAT ® EQUIPMENT OWNERS

Parts support for Cat machines working in southern Africa has taken a quantum leap following a one-of-a-kind collaboration between Caterpillar and southern African Cat dealer, Barloworld Equipment.

F ittingly coinciding with the 90 th anniversary of their partnership, Caterpillar and Barloworld have officially opened a new, state-of-the-art parts distribution centre in Kempton Park, Johannesburg, that will dramatically reduce the time it takes for customers to order and receive Cat parts and consumables. Customer value Barloworld Equipment’s customer partner- ships are built around aftersales service, which includes repair options and compo- nent rebuilds that keep machines healthy and productive through first and subse- quent lives to save costs for customers. The new parts facility will reinforce this strategy. The collaboration, in the interests of adding customer value, testifies to the sustainability of the 90-year partnership between Barloworld Equipment and Caterpillar. The new parts facility also underscores Caterpillar’s belief in growth in southern Africa and its commitment to continued development across the continent. Barloworld Equipment’s retail operation at the distribution centre will occupy 3 500 m², including a parts counter and sales office. “This arrangement is the first of its kind in the Caterpillar network and further improves our industry-leading aftermarket parts distribution network across the region.

Customer friendly “Our Linbro Park parts facility, serving mainly major mining customers with parts for EMPR (formerly Bucyrus) machines, has moved to Isando,” says Fourie. The new Johannesburg facility holds traditional Cat machine parts and eliminates double handling and stocking of parts by Caterpillar and Barloworld. Tania van Peer, Barloworld Equipment operations manager: Parts, says lead times have been halved and the new retail facility is much more customer friendly with dedicated customer liaison staff and integrated systems enabling full sight of every order at any point in time. Van Peer adds that customers are very positive about the facilities offered and ease of doing business at the new centre. The facility is easily accessible, located just off the R21 at the R25 offramp in Kempton Park and about 20 km from Barloworld Equipment’s Isando campus. It is close to OR Tambo International Airport and freight distribution facilities for ease of shipping into Africa. “This not only improves the parts pro- curement experience for local customers, but also increases capacity to provide fast and seamless parts availability to our cus- tomers in Mozambique, Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Le- sotho and Swaziland, as well as our joint

The initiative is another example of our close collaboration and partnership with Barloworld Equipment by leveraging our parts inventory data to significantly improve the Caterpillar customer experience,” says Chris Monge, manager of Caterpillar’s southern African regional office in Johannesburg. “The increased collaboration between Barloworld Equipment and Caterpillar gets replacement parts to our customers as quickly as possible,” adds Bonnie Fetch, Cat Parts distribution director. “This is extremely important as it allows our customers to reduce idle time and save money. When our customers win, we all win.” Anton Fourie, senior general manager: Parts at Barloworld Equipment, explains that Caterpillar’s decision to build the new distribution centre was based on limited capacity at its existing Isando facility, as well as inefficiency due to the need for supplementary warehouses in the area. Fourie adds that Barloworld Equipment had a similar problem, with parts facilities in three locations within a 30-km radius. “Our Isando parts facility has recently completed its move to the new site, now known as Barloworld Equipment Johannesburg. For both Caterpillar and Barloworld Equipment, this immediately reduces multiple transport collection points to a single source.”

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