Western Australia-based RHT Contracting – a specialist provider of construction, maintenance and crushing services for major mining companies – has been successfully using Komatsu’s online parts ordering and oil analysis management systems through myKomatsu to handle its service, parts and maintenance needs more efficiently.

RHT Contracting was formed in 2018 to provide industry-best services for clients in tailings storage facility construction and maintenance, crushing and screening, earthworks and earthmoving services, quad road trains, and heavy haulage.
The company has adopted a philosophy of using the latest technology and systems to give itself a competitive edge in the services and capabilities it offers to clients.

For example, it is using Komatsu’s intelligent Machine Control (iMC) dozers and excavators, combined with drone technology, to develop innovative methods of constructing tailings dams for large WA mining operations.

RHT’s Komatsu equipment includes three iMC dozers, two D65PXi-18s and D155AXi-8; seven excavators including an iMC PC360LCi-11, five PC490LC-11s and a PC300LC-8M0; two WA200PZ-6, a WA500-7 and three WA600-6-wheel loaders; two HD605-7EO dump trucks; and two GD655-5 graders.

And to keep its equipment operating to the best of its capabilities, over the past 18 months, RHT has adopted the myKomatsu online customer portal for all parts ordering for its Komatsu machines, as well as a recently developed myKomatsu offering that allows it to manage its oil analysis needs more efficiently.

As a result, it is seeing significant reductions in the time required not only to order and manage parts, but also in managing frequent KOWA (Komatsu Oil Wear Analysis) tests across its fleet. And myKomatsu ensures that the right parts and tests are always ordered.

The company’s Procurement Officer Shaun Bachos handles parts purchasing for its equipment fleet, while Asset Manager Ernie Murazvu is responsible for KOWA and other condition monitoring services for Komatsu machines

Parts purchasing through myKomatsu

According to Shaun, RHT started using the myKomatsu online parts portal as soon as the facility came online.

“They got us set up with this as soon as we were able to; before that all our parts ordering had been over the phone or via email,” he said.

“We now have our entire Komatsu fleet in there, so our machine models and serial numbers are all captured. That means we have access to all their parts books online, meaning everyone in our service and maintenance teams, as well as our procurement team, can quickly and easily reference them.

“We’ve found it makes it a lot easier for us to get the right part. While this hasn’t generally been an issue previously, it’s a good double-check. Also, it lets us highlight anomalies, or if someone’s trying to order a part that’s not compatible with the machine.”

He has found the system very user friendly and easy to navigate – and it’s constantly improving.

“When it first started, we had to know the parts numbers we wanted. Now it gives suggestions and autofills with the right parts, so it’s becoming more and more user-friendly all the time.

“To navigate your way through it is very easy, and it’s all self-explanatory as you work through.”

With RHT workshops and service people spread throughout Western Australia, usually in very remote areas, Shaun has found the ability for service people to log in and identify what parts they need has been very useful.

“Our service people can use the system out on site to get parts numbers. They can actually log in as a read-only user, so they can find the parts they need, and double check they are the right ones, before letting us know what they want.

“It means we are all on the same page, which is a really good process to have,” he said.

Shaun is also a big fan of myKomatsu’s delivery offering, including the inbuilt tracking, and free standard delivery offering.

“Generally, deliveries arrive to our sites within a couple of days of ordering them. And we get advised when it’s dispatched and when it’s arrived, so we can let our tech people know when they’ll receive a part.

“We can also track the progress of an order, but as they normally arrive in a timely fashion, we haven’t had to use that much,” he said.

“The other thing we really like is the free delivery for orders over $500. We are placing at least two orders a week, and usually we’ll try to amalgamate them to take advantage of this. 

Ordering KOWA tests through myKomatsu

Since moving to using myKomatsu for ordering and managing KOWA tests, Ernie has found the whole process has become far more efficient and less time-consuming.

“There’s a big advantage with this system, because we no longer have to fill out our KOWA sample forms,” he said.

“It prefills with the details of your asset you’re getting sampled. You just need to identify the machine and the component you’re getting KOWA-tested, then fill in the current number of hours.

“It automatically calculates the hours since that component was last tested. The only paper handling is when you print off the A4 sheet with the details, cut it up and put the label in the transport bottle along with the sample bottle.”

This is a significant saving in time, as well as the efficiency benefits, Ernie said.

“When we were handwriting out the paperwork you could easily spend five minutes doing each one. Now you don’t have to keep checking the machine model and serial number, and then working out the hours since the last sample, all of which can be prone to errors.

“Now, using myKomatsu for this, we can do each KOWA sample documentation in about two minutes.”

That adds up to quite a significant saving in time, considering the number of samples Ernie’s department is responsible for each week.

“We are probably doing at least 50 samples a week, sometimes more,” he said. “So, a minimum of 50 a week – or 10 a day – and some weeks we can easily get to 100.”

And within myKomatsu, there is a complete record of each machine’s and its components’ trend profiles.

“We can go back and look at a machine’s entire oil sampling history. That makes it very easy to condition-monitor components, see any trends developing, or to have an overview of a machine’s components in relation to its expected performance at the time of sampling.

“It makes the whole process a lot easier, less time-consuming, minimises the chance of errors, and is far more efficient,” Ernie said.