Heavy equipment rebuild centers from all over the world have constantly strived to simplify the burden of tracking their main component (engine, transmission, etc.) rebuild process. Unfortunately, few have ever found a simple and affordable solution to track their work in progress (WIP). This issue is significantly harder to solve when you have multiple centers spread across states and even nations.
In late 2017, Unatrac, a CAT dealer conglomerate with their Mantrac dealerships and component rebuild centers (CRC) across Africa, the Middle East, Russia, and beyond, set out to solve this challenge. Matt Woodall from their process improvement department, acting as their lead component reliability champion, was tasked to find a solution. Not only did he have to find a solution, but he also had to work across multiple rebuild centers on different continents. It had to handle different cultures, different practices, and it had to be configurable and flexible enough to succeed. Every day that passed for these rebuild centers without the kind of data visibility they were looking for, was a day of reduced profit, morale, and customer satisfaction.
Unatrac’s/Mantrac’s technological pursuit led them to attend conferences in the US, where they spoke to other heavy equipment dealers. At the annual Caterpillar North American Dealer IT Association (NADITA) conference in Las Vegas, Mr. Woodall came across Cashman Equipment Company’s Director of IT, Don Erlanger. Mr. Erlanger, in conjunction with his CRC Manager, Mike Hulse, had already implemented Krinkle Rebuild Tracker® in their Reno, NV CRC and were already successfully tracking over 2500 major component rebuild work orders per year. Matt followed up after the conference with the Cashman dealership, spoke to the management and the supervisors, and learned how easy it was to deploy and use. He then contacted Krinkle for a webinar demonstration to see Krinkle Rebuild Tracker®’s capabilities for himself.
Mr. Woodall learned that Krinkle Rebuild Tracker® is an app that’s used by floor techs to easily track every step in their heavy equipment component rebuild process, without burdening them. He was surprised to learn that each tech only had to touch the mobile app for about 15 seconds a few times a day to provide their small contribution to the larger tracking data set. He also learned that this new mobile app would deliver complete process tracking and detailed Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Once Mr. Woodall saw the value in the data visibility the reports delivered to his management and workers. He knew he had found what his company had been looking for.
“We were looking for something like Krinkle Rebuild Tracker® that would drive our process efficiency without burdening our technicians,” stated Matt Woodall. “Since deployment, monitoring WIP and utilizing automated reports have streamlined our admin process. As well as on the shop floor through Krinkle Rebuild Tracker®’s inspection functionality and ability to use process forms within the app. Our customers now have near real-time data visibility of their components throughout the rebuild process.”
After Mantrac deployed Krinkle Rebuild Tracker®, they not only leveraged the data to better track and improve their rebuild process, but they also realized that there was so much more potential they could extract from the data they have already collected. Right now, Mantrac is working continuously with Mobile Epiphany to further improve their reports and dashboard views based on their existing data. They are even moving into a scheduling system that allows Mantrac to manage both their CRC spaces and human resources.
Mobile Epiphany’s robust process tracking app, Krinkle Rebuild Tracker®, is showing heavy equipment rebuild centers all over the world that they can simplify their main component rebuild process, no matter the brand (CAT, John Deere, Komatsu, etc.). If you would like to see how Krinkle Rebuild Tracker® can improve your companies rebuild process, please schedule a free live demonstration by visiting Krinkle Rebuild Tracker®.