Partnership
Caterpillar is expanding as a technology company
2017-12-27
The Wagner Asia Equipment LLC, top position in Mongolian mining and infrastructure sector, has new goals and plans for the upcoming year. The company has drafted a strategic plan until 2025, and the implementation activities have already begun. With regard to this, we have interviewed Kelvin Kaukinen, the Managing Director of “Wagner Asia Equipment”, Executive Director of the “Wagner Asia Group” and Mr.Enkhdelger, Director of RUN division.
This year marks the 95th anniversary of Mongolia’s mining sector development. The development of this sector cannot be imagined without the contribution of foreign investment, especially mining equipment companies in the world. “Wagner Asia Equipment” is a well-known company that has developed for 20 years of mining industry and has introduced the quality and service of Caterpillar’s products. Shall we start the interview about the contribution of the company?
Kelvin Kaukinen, Managing Director:
“Wagner Asia Equipment” was founded in 1996. Before that, in 1993, Caterpillar equipment was supplied to Mongolia, with the support of the World Bank, to the Baganuur mine, which provides electricity to Ulaanbaatar, also with a USA grant, two pieces of Caterpillar equipment had been supplied to Shivee-Ovoo mine. One of the two bulldozers supplied to Shivee-Ovoo mine was still being used until 2016, which clearly shows the quality and durability of the Caterpillar brand.
20 years of historical development of the modern Mongolian mining sector is definitely tied to the activity of Wagner Asia Equipment company. One of the real examples of Mongolia’s western mining standards since 2003 is the Boroo Gold mine. Although the Caterpillar machine first came to Mongolia in 1993, Boroo Gold’s mine was able to experience the power and efficiency of Western mining equipment.
Also very experienced in mining contracting operations at the national and international mining level “Khishig Arvin Industrial” has worked extensively at Boroo Gold Mining.
Since 1997, “Khishig Arvin Industrial” has been a loyal customer of Caterpillar. We have heard that majority of 400 technical tools are of Caterpillar brand, are they?
E.Enkhdelger, Director of RUN division:
Yes. “Khishig Arvin Mining” LLC is operating at TavanTolgoi, a major global mine. Also, we are pleased to mention that the ”National mining company” has been operating successfully, was founded by people who used to work at Boroo gold mine.
In 2010, Leighton Asia, one of the world’s largest coal miners, was operating the “Energy Resources” UkhaaHudag mine, using large-scale Caterpillar brands.
Similarly, world-class companies have become a major contributor to the growth of Mongolian mining and infrastructure sector personnel and suppliers. On the other hand, “Wagner Asia” has been proven to be the support of national mining companies as a rival in the world.
In 2010, our company successfully set up a Caterpillar official and international certified petrochemical laboratory, and one year later, our first Aggregate repair center was successfully set up and commissioned. All this historical development has allowed Mongolia’s mining clients to lower their operating costs.
Oil analysis is very important in preventing high cost damage to the equipment and to make necessary maintenance and repair on time. For aggregate repair workshops, mining equipment should be repaired every three years or 20,000 motorcycles per hour. Idea is not to get new engine and fix it, what we do is rebuild and re-use it.
Your company is planning to extend the operation of the aggregate workshop. What are the goals in this area?
Kelvin Kaukinen, Managing Director:
With the expansion of the Component Rebuild Center (CRC), “Wagner Asia Equipment” will double its footprint and quadruple production which reducing turnaround time by more than 50%. In addition, it is important to maintain quality as we are raising production. In the future we will not send equipment components abroad to repair, saving time and efficiently executing the repairs in Mongolia, assisting the Customer to improve their equipment fleet availability while lowering their cost per ton. We are also investing considerable millions of dollars in a machine shop which will support the CRC and Customers’ operations.
We know very well how large the Caterpillar fleet is in Mongolia and the number and frequency of component rebuilds, which allows us to plan and improve our productivity. To do this, first of all, we have to expand our production space. It is estimated that the component assembly and disassembly area size will be increased by two to three times, and with that, the corresponding increase of the labor force will be by two to three times. We are currently selecting 50 students to be the first apprentices in this expansion program to be formally trained in the Wagner Asia Training Institute.
In addition to component repair services, availability of spare parts is essential for customers. What do you say about that?
Component rebuilds are performed in a shorter time, i.e., accelerating the assembly and disassembly, and predicting and ordering in advance, parts required for the component rebuilds.
The “Wagner Asia Equipment 2025 Vision” strategy developed by our company is closely linked to the construction of Component Re repair shop. The Aggregate Repair Shop will be able to provide the ready-made equipment for the customers by creating a spare parts shop. In addition, Wagner Asia Equipment LLC is exploring the technology of “Parts Printer”, a new generation of Caterpillar’s advanced technology.
Please specify more about “Parts Printer”?
This is a brand new production technology by Caterpillar. In the future, for certain parts, we will have the ability to 3D “print” the Caterpillar original spare parts. “Parts printer” is not about drawing parts, it ”prints” the product directly from metal powder to a single mass.
In a recent interview with the Mongolian Mining Journal three months ago, Kelvin Kaukinen, Managing Director, briefly described the strategic plan from 2025 to the Wagner Asia Equipment Company. Then this work started from the beginning, right?
Yes. In the past three months, significant progress have been made towards improving certain processes and capabilities at Wagner Asia. The strategies and business cases that were mentioned in previous interviews have been approved at the company’s level of management and have been included in the 2018 budget. Planned tasks are realistic.
The company has rolled out its strategy of 2025 plan to every employee. We will concentrate on improving our employee core competencies in order to achieve our strategic plan and goals. As well, “Wagner Asia Equipment” plans to be the Employer of choice in Mongolia and is developing plans to attract and retain best in class employees.
For example, Wagner Asia Equipment LLC is offering a comprehensive range of health insurance for employees as well as their families in the Mongolian market. In 2018, “Wagner Asia Equipment” will plan and carry out many social responsibility work activities. One important initiative will be protecting our employees and community from air pollution, through the distribution of air purifiers and masks.
The company has placed air purifiers throughout the UB headquarters and is committed to protecting the health of our employees. Air pollution in Ulaanbaatar today is not only a matter of daily health, but also a significant impact on Mongolia’s national security.
You have previously mentioned that Wagner Asia Equipment is committed to increasing its position in Mongolia’s 25% market share in equipment supply. Of course, it will require certain time to reach this goal?
We are meeting with Caterpillar Group leaders on a quarterly basis and discussing our mutual future plans and work. Recently, we have approved the plan for the next three years. “Wagner Asia Equipment” seeks to maintain its leading position in Mongolia’s mining industries throughpro-active business development, leading edge marketing efforts, withthe aim to provide world best mobile equipment maintenance and repair practices in the mining and construction industries.
Wagner Asia Equipment LLC will provide better service to meet the potential of the mining industry’s competitiveness and low cost and high productivity to our clients. Accordingly, the target will be to increase the market share by 25% in accordance with the three-year plan.
Thank you for the time for interview.