Lifecycle management

You can rely on us to help you with your spare parts inventory management. Not only do we know every aspect of our equipment intimately, we also have parts ordering history from worldwide customers in all mining conditions. This allows us to know exactly what types of replacement or consumable parts are frequently needed and in what quantities.

Our service teams can reconcile your recommended spare parts list with your current inventory, provide lead times for custom or long-lead time parts, and help create custom strategies for your maintenance organization. We are not just a parts supplier; instead, we are a partner that helps you troubleshoot your inventory programs and identify areas where you can save time and money. In addition, we help you identify your “critical spares”, allowing you to balance your parts budget while still ensuring that you have parts in place for unplanned breakdowns.

Proper asset management using a customized inventory plan means that you will have the parts you need - in stock when you need them - resulting in minimum downtime and reduced loss of productivity.

At Komatsu, we want to be your partner in maximizing your productivity and reaching your production goals. Therefore, we offer our machine exchange program. This program provides complete machine exchanges for our underground equipment while your current equipment is being rebuilt. This means you don’t have to lower your production rates or halt production while a machine is out for rebuild.

Contact your account manager for more information on this program.

We offer a full range of preventive maintenance programs to suit your unique maintenance needs. Our fixed cost-per-hour or cost-per-ton contracts allow you to smooth your cash flow by budgeting specific amounts to maintain your equipment.

Our preventive maintenance programs are based on our intimate knowledge of our equipment, coupled with our worldwide database of mean time between failure (MTBF) information for equipment in all mining conditions, which allows us to create customized programs for your equipment.

Our planned maintenance schedules ensure that critical components receive regular inspection, testing, and maintenance, while our condition-based monitoring evaluates components based on usage and conditions.

Contact your account manager for more information on this program.

We are committed to helping you maximize the productivity of your mining equipment. We offer application field studies that examine not only your equipment usage but your whole mining operations as well.

Operational evaluations

When we review your machine productivity, we perform a complete operational study. We compare your operator’s techniques against established best practices. As part of that comparison, we perform cycle time analysis, looking closely at the swing, tuck, and dig processes. Since we have customers world-wide, in all types of environments, we are able to use knowledge gained from observing all these locations to provide truly appropriate operating guidelines for your operation.

We also evaluate your entire operational system, such as your truck sizes, road conditions, blasting techniques, and engineering strategies. We look for any areas that could be creating delays, workflow issues, or inefficiencies.

Analysis reports

Based on the complete analysis, we are able to provide the following report:

• Detailed observations about your operations and equipment usage
• Suggested improvements for your operator’s techniques based on the mineral and the environment
• Suggested partners for other areas of your operation, such as blasting processes
• Total cost of ownership model, showing how the interaction between all the components in your system contribute to the cost of operating your equipment
• Sensitivity analysis, showing the ideal mix of equipment for your operation; for example, what reducing your cycle time or truck exchange time can do for your productivity levels

This service is available through your account manager.

New product development studies

In addition, we often perform field studies related to new product or system development. If you are willing to provide customer input into our future products or services, technology improvements, or upgrades, we encourage you to let your account manager know that you would like to become involved.

We are dedicated to helping you realize the lowest cost-per-ton possible using your mining equipment. We offer cost-per-ton studies that examine your total cost of ownership and provide global benchmarking.

Evaluation process

In our total cost of ownership studies, we examine all the expenses related to running your equipment, including replacement part costs, maintenance costs, and operational costs such as electricity, labor, and consumable parts. These total expenses are divided by your production rates to determine your current cost per ton.

Then, as part of our global benchmarking process, we compare your cost-per-ton analysis against field studies from around the world. This comparison against industry standards for your type of mine and the geology involved helps us evaluate where potential improvements should be made. 

Evaluation reporting

Based on the complete analysis, we are able to provide the following report:

• Full breakdowns of each expense type and the comparison against industry standards
• Recommendations for lowering each expense types, including recommendations for technology upgrades, operator training, and maintenance training
• Recommendations for equipment selection, such as creating optimum pass matches with your current haul trucks and developing equipment-to-production matching
• Greenfield feasibility and pre-feasibility projects and engineering houses

Request a study

This service can be requested by filling out our application study request form and indicating which type of study you are interested in:

• Dipper application study request
• Shovel application study request
• Dragline application study request
• Drill application study request
• In-pit crushing and conveying application study request
• Wheel loader application study request

Your account manager will schedule your cost-per-ton study based on your needs and our resource availability.