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A field technician uses Komatsu’s online diagnostics
to aid in troubleshooting the WA250 wheel loader.
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A technician examines the PC2000 excavator, one of the
large machines included in the 2008 competition.
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As director of the Advanced Technician Competition, Mr.
Wade Archer has enjoyed watching the growth and success of the program.
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Komatsu’s
Training and Demonstration Center hosted the 12th annual Advanced Technician
Competition (ATC) from February 4 through February 8, 2008.
Komatsu distributors
across North America sent their top field and service technicians to Komatsu’s
Cartersville facility in Georgia in the United States to test their product knowledge
and troubleshooting skills against each other in a variety of individual and
team competitions.
“This event has grown every year in terms of pieces
of equipment as well as participants and vendors,” says Mr. Wade Archer,
technical training instructor at the Cartersville facility and director of the
ATC program. Mr. Archer recalls his involvement with ATC began as a judge in
2005. “I began my career as a field technician,” he explains, “so
I know first-hand the difficulties you can encounter on the job site. I knew
immediately that ATC was a program that could benefit everyone from the technicians
and their distributors to equipment owners and operators.
“We are seeing
some of the top technicians from each branch, and this competition will truly
produce the best of the best.”
One of the technicians representing Brandeis
Machinery & Supply Company, a Midwest distributor of Komatsu equipment, participated
in his branch competition for the past four years with the hopes of advancing
to ATC, and this was the first year he qualified. “Sure, it would be great
to walk away with an award from ATC,” he says, “but by making it
this far, I already feel like a winner.”
Improving Skills Benefits Technicians, Distributors and Ultimately Customers
The participants applied
their skills to a variety of Komatsu utility, construction and mining equipment,
with machines ranging in size from the 3,629-kg (8,000-lb) PC35MR compact hydraulic
excavator to the 199,584-kg (440,000-lb) PC2000 entry-level mining excavator.
Each machine has two problems or “bugs” for the technicians to identify
and share their proposed solution with on-site judges. Mr. Archer explains, “Our
goal is to completely duplicate the actual work environment so the contestants
are not only judged on whether they correctly diagnose the problems but also
on following proper safety procedures and utilizing the available literature
and diagnostic tools in addition to the questions they ask the judges.”
There
is also a team or group portion of ATC which poses even more of a challenge.
While the contestants know weeks in advance which machines they will troubleshoot
in the individual competitions, they have no idea as to which unit will be featured
in the team competition. Mr. Archer notes, “We refer to the team event
as the ‘Mystery Machine Competition’.”
Komatsu provided a
series of seminars and workshops for the participants between competitions in
which they earned additional points towards their final scores for each seminar
attended.
“Komatsu’s and my goal for ATC is to encourage technicians
to improve not only their diagnostic skill levels but also their communication
skills,” says Mr. Archer. “After the events, I see many of these
technicians networking with each other and sharing ideas and knowledge. They
now have an additional resource or contact to help them with future problems.
“In
the end, this event benefits everyone from the technicians to their distributors
and ultimately the end users, our customers. It’s our hope the technicians
will apply their ATC training and diagnostic skills in the workplace to keep
customers’ downtime to a minimum.”
For more information on ATC and
Komatsu’s Training and Demonstration Facility, please visit the following
website: www.kactraining.com
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