AMBIDEXTROUS CAT D10T CYLINDERS AND GUARDS DECREASE INVENTORY COSTS AT GOLD MINE IN NEVADA
In March of 2018, a gold mine customer from Nevada approached H-E Parts in need of a solution to an inventory problem. At the time, the customer stocked separate D10T dozer left and right tilt cylinders and wanted to decrease on-hand inventory. In addition, the OEM provided cylinders required separately purchased guards. Guards are necessary as they protect cylinders from impact damage and debris accumulation. They wanted to purchase one cylinder with an attached guard that could be used on either side of the dozer, thus reducing the purchase from four items to one single package.
H-E Parts had already developed a cylinder that can be used on both the left and right side of the D10T dozer; however, the corresponding guard was not ambidextrous at the time. In order to fix both problems, H-E Parts needed to develop an ambidextrous guard to attach to the ambidextrous cylinder.
Our engineering team came back to the customer with a solution. The newly developed ambidextrous guard allows for the conversion from a left or a right hand cylinder by only loosening one bolt and moving a plate from one port location to the other. The tilt cylinder can then be pinned in place, the hydraulic lines attached, and the machine is ready to go.
By switching to the ambidextrous cylinder and guard, the customer drastically reduced their inventory size. They can now stock one cylinder with a guard rather than a minimum of one cylinder and one guard per side of the dozer. H-E Parts was able to reduce overall cylinder inventory from twelve SKUs to just one.
Having fewer SKU numbers provides several benefits. With fewer SKUs, money is saved on inventory taxes as they have less inventory to tax. The risk of shipping the wrong part number is decreased as there is only one part number to choose from. Finally, having less operating income invested in inventory has allowed them to invest this income into other areas of the business.
Switching to H-E Parts for D10T dozer tilt cylinders and guards has provided significant cost savings and ease of operations.
