Case Study - The Steel Efficiency Review

CASE
STUDY
P&H MinePro
Services
Australasia
Buckets of Experience
CATEGORY:
Mining
LOCATION:
Bassendean,
Western Australia
PRODUCT:
XLERPLATE
®
To understand what an effective business relationship can deliver; look no further
than P&H MinePro Services Australasia and BlueScope Steel.
The relationship, which has existed for decades, has arguably benefitted not just
both companies, but the Australian economy as well. It’s a relationship that begins
at the Port Kembla Steelworks, extends to P&H MinePro’s major sites in WA, NSW
and QLD and helps a thriving export business. It’s a relationship at its most active
between BlueScope Distribution’s Kewdale branch in Perth and P&H MinePro’s
manufacturing facility at Bassendean.
Quality mining equipment
P&H MinePro Services is at the forefront of original equipment manufacture for the
surface mining sector and its Bassendean workforce keeps this site humming. The
Company has provided quality products and services – like electric rope shovels,
draglines, conveyor components, machine upgrades, rebuilds and parts – to the
Australasian surface mining industry since 1958, including the recent addition of
LeTourneau wheel loaders.
BlueScope Distribution’s Strategic Accounts Manager – WA, Justin
Stevens (left) visits P&H MinePro Operations Planning Supervisor, Colin
Rayner, at the mining equipment specialist’s Bassendean works in Perth.
At any time there are huge rope shovel buckets with
capacities to 63 cubic metres under fabrication, alongside
a steady output of large conveyor pulleys and TowHaul Low
Loader mining equipment, capable of transporting loads to
450-tonnes.
In the current mining boom customers have an inherent sense
of urgency and P&H MinePro Services is already scheduling
work into 2013.
Streamlined production
To streamline its production process the company purchases
the large amounts of special XLERPLATE® steel grades it
needs direct from the Port Kembla Steelworks.
As a result of equipment upgrades and the intensity of
activity at Bassendean, P&H MinePro has chosen to keep its
XLERPLATE® steel stock at the BlueScope Distribution branch
for its needs.
“Because of the non-standard sheet sizes and grades that suit
our requirements, we order directly from BlueScope Steel’s
Port Kembla steel mill,” Operations Planning Supervisor, Colin
Rayner explained.
“By pre-planning and having BlueScope Distribution hold
that stock for us we are able to eliminate the lead-time which
would otherwise result if we had to wait for the steel to be
produced at the mill.
“BlueScope Distribution’s Kewdale branch actively manages
the steel stock they are holding for us. We get regular reports
and can draw down on that stock to have it on site within 24
hours.
“Although we order steel from the mill for specific purposes,
the vendor-managed inventory system gives us maximum
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flexibility in how we use it. As we draw down stock we reorder through BlueScope Distribution.”
Much of the XLERPLATE® steel used at Bassendean is custom
range 350 grade L15 plate, produced by BlueScope Steel
under licence to P&H MinePro in non-standard plate sizes
and various levels of thickness up to 100 mm thick.
It is a product that came out of collaboration in the 1990s
between steel technologists at the Port Kembla steelworks
and P&H engineers at the Company’s Milwaukee, WI, USA
headquarters.
“BlueScope Steel changed its manufacturing process to
advance its own standards and also to accommodate our
requirements,” Colin said.
“There was an intensive back-and-forth process with our
head-office engineers in Milwaukee to perfect that grade of
steel up to 100 mm thick. Prior to that, BlueScope Steel had
not produced an L15 grade up to that size.”
BlueScope Steel’s steel-making initiatives during that
earlier mining boom period have had flow-on benefits for
all fabricators. Additionally, it’s helped P&H MinePro’s
Bassendean facility prosper in the local market as a
manufacturer using Australian steel.
“We export to our parent company in America and to
Indonesia, South Africa, Russia and Canada,” Colin said.
“Dippers or buckets and the handle or support structure to
which they are mounted, plus face shovels or rope shovels
are our main products.
“Because of our distance from suppliers and markets we try
to be independent and self-sufficient. The relationship with
BlueScope Distribution for vendor-managed inventory is
working very well.”