Undercarriage Flexible Supply

A customer based in the oil sands, Alberta, Canada region was dealing directly with the OEM for their crawler undercarriage components. Out of curiosity, we approached the customer and after discussing their current situation, they acknowledged that there was some risk to their sole-source arrangement with the OEM. It was identified that if the OEM was unable to supply, or if an unplanned requirement arose, their equipment would have been down for an extended period of time resulting in lost production.

We respected that the client was pleased with their current supplier, and did not want to impose on this arrangement, however, we offered to collaborate with them to provide an additional product supply solution to address their risk concerns. Bradken was able to provide a solution that mitigated the supply risk which could result in reduced unplanned maintenance delays and would support continued consistent production levels. We collaborated with the customer to determine the products in high demand and critical to production continuance and coordinated with our logistics and procurement team to ensure the products were kept in stock.

Soon after the supply arrangements were made, the customer encountered a situation where new idlers were required at short notice but the OEM supplier did not have the stock available. Our proactive and flexible stocking arrangement allowed us to support the customer and mitigate unplanned downtime and productivity loss. Through collaboration, we were able to supply the customer with a solution that provided assurance for equipment availability and improved production planning.