Brett Hartman is the executive general manager, strategy & commercial for Cranecorp. He is responsible for planning the asset requirements for the business over the long-term. A key element of this planning has been the relationship with key supplier Tadano. Hartman explains more.
“I work with the business on the longer-term asset planning. We have a five-year asset management plan and plan well ahead of time in terms of what assets we’ll need, what we’ll be acquiring for the fleet and what assets to refurbish,” said Hartman.
“We are very data-driven when looking at the composition of our fleet. We look at a lot of information about what our customers have been lifting in load sizes. We examine whether we have had to hire additional assets during periods of peak demand to cover customer needs and look to replace that into the future with our own assets.
We regularly look at the historical customer information, have a look at potential contracts we have in our sights, and then try and work out what might be the best cranes to include in the fleet and the most economical crane to use.”
Cranecorp has grown significantly since starting in the West Australian Goldfields as Goldfields Crane Hire just under 30 years ago. Cranecorp continues to operate as Goldfields Crane Hire throughout the Goldfields Region but now operates Cranecorp Australia throughout the rest of Western Australia with depots across the Pilbara, Geraldton, Perth, and South West, as well as the original depots in Kalgoorlie and Northern Goldfields.
During that time Cranecorp continued to grow and this included acquiring a number of cranes from other smaller companies that the business took over. This left the company with a bit of mixed slewing crane fleet, but predominately Tadanos.
“The very first slewing crane Cranecorp ever bought back in the early days was a Tadano crane. Over the last few years, we’ve tried to tidy this this up and get more commonality to the fleet and Tadano has been the preferred supplier in this process,” said Hartman.
“Recently a major corporate change occurred at Cranecorp. In 2020, one of the founding partners sold out and private equity partner Viburnum moved in. Viburnum are now a major shareholder, along with the original owner, Rick Musarra, and senior management also hold a share. Cranecorp is now well positioned with Viburnum onboard to take the business to the next level. With Viburnum’s support Cranecorp has undertaken a fair amount of fleet renewal and expansion over the last two years.
“Over the last two years we’ve taken delivery of 16 new cranes from Tadano. This has provided our workforce with one of the best fleets available in Western Australia, with improved operational, comfort, and safety features over the older cranes that some of our competition run. The cranes we have brought range from 90t rough terrains to a fleet of three new AC300 Demags. We didn’t make this significant investment lightly because we wanted nice, shiny, new cranes. We made the investment to ensure the cranes are up and running for our customers whenever needed, safe for the operators to use, and as comfortable as possible out in some very remote locations that we operate in.
“As part of our streamlining process we now are now trying to concentrate on reducing the variety of cranes across the fleet, which is why we now have for example five AC160 Demags in the fleet. This reduces the need to VOC staff on a wide range of cranes and improves operational efficiencies, which makes Cranecorp more competitive.”
The interchangeability of key components across the Demag range was also an attraction in the purchasing decision for the new fleet. Many of the components such as flys and winches can be shared across different sized Demags and this reduced the overall cost of the acquisition program.
“At the end of the day, we are constantly trying to find ways to compete against business that are bigger than ourselves and believe we punch above our weight. Our staff are our key to that success but they are supported well by the growing Tadano fleet. It means that we’ve now got one of the youngest fleets in WA. With the changes in the fleet, our average fleet age is now below five years old,” said Hartman.
“The recent changes to the laws in Western Australia has reinforced the need for tighter compliance requirements. This is proving to be a challenge for the crane industry in WA but Cranecorp has been working on a compliance program for the last few years along with the support of key suppliers including Tadano to have us well placed. From my understanding a number of other companies are just starting that journey and are finding it difficult due to the lack of resources currently available in WA.
“Cranecorp has its own team of highly skilled technicians and service depots across the regions it operates in, but this is supplemented by support from the team at Tadano.
“Tadano is currently refurbishing a number of cranes for us as part of our 10-year compliance program. It is pleasing to see the investment that Tadano has made both in its Brisbane and Perth facilities. This has improved the ability of Tadano to support customers like us well into the future.
“We see the information age as key to our continued growth in providing customer solutions. Cranecorp invested heavily several years ago to provide customers with a paperless system. This system utilises iPads in all cranes for all workorders and customer signoff and provides a lot of useful information to ourselves and ultimately our customers.
“The next level is to start using onboard crane data. The technology now featured on Tadano cranes, provides the ability to remotely access onboard data and diagnostically assess the crane. Customers are constantly pushing for continuous improvement and real time data is key to understanding areas for improvement. Access to this data will allow our lift engineering team to review the lifts carried out and better plan shutdown lifts for our key mining customers and look for ways to reduce costs further,” says Hartman.
“The relationship with Tadano and Cranecorp has been developing over many years and there are a number of touch points between our organisations. A good working relationship between our organisations is important. My regular contact is with the state sales manager Darryl Reeves but I can equally call the Tadano CEO Takehiro Kusumoto or speak to national sales manager James Greenwood if Darryl is not available for whatever reason,” said Hartman.
“Darryl and the team in WA are a big part of the success relating to my dealings, and those of our asset manager Joe Pito, with Tadano. He’s been with Tadano for a few years and he has been around the industry for a long time.
“The fact that he has spent some of his time on the customer side of the industry is also an advantage as he understands what is important to companies like Cranecorp. Darryl is a genuine guy and he knows his stuff.
“We look forward to growing into the future with the ongoing support and relationship with Tadano.”