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After more than 30 years in the heavy equipment and aftermarket parts industry, American Crane & Tractor Parts has gathered innumerable insights which will now be made available to customers here.

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Heavy Equipment Blog

New Stock of G.E.T. in CA

Posted by Carly Wallace

Jun 11, 2015 10:46:47 AM

Ground engaging tools play a critical role in the overall productivity of earth moving equipment.  Operators who make G.E.T. a high priority in their daily inspections enjoy better productivity and fuel efficiency. When they couple attention to G.E.T. with high quality replacement parts purchased at a slice of list price, it makes for fewer headaches and, most importantly, fewer requests to open the company wallet.

At our Visalia sales and distribution center in the heart of California’s San Joaquin Valley, branch manager Tim Kernan heard several complaints from customers in all areas of heavy equipment regarding the weak selection of aftermarket G.E.T. For them, it had become difficult to determine the cost effectiveness of their maintenance programs due to excessively high list prices on items such as ripper shanks, cutting edges, end bits and other important wear parts.

Collaboration between Tim and our purchasing department resulted in a better inventory mix that marries well with the needs of Tim’s customers.  Our new stock is complete with dozer cutting edges & end bits, shanks & ripper tips, grader blades, bucket teeth and much more.

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Topics: Ground Engaging Tools, Aftermarket Parts, Wear Parts, Operation Management, Heavy Equipment, Productivity, Product Offerings, quality control

A Couple Things About The ACTParts Rebuild Shop

Posted by Carly Wallace

Apr 20, 2015 8:00:00 AM

Sitting inside our Kansas City headquarters, the ACTParts machine shop is where all of our cylinder heads are loaded, components are rebuilt and transmissions are tested on the Dyno bench.  Its reputation in the heavy equipment industry is kept strong by 30+-year ACTParts veteran Jerry Duxbury.  He is vital to the processes described below that allow ACTParts to stock the industry’s finest remanufactured components, ready to ship to customers around the world.

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Topics: Aftermarket Parts, Engine Maintenance, Operation Management, Productivity, Rebuilt Components, Product Offerings, Service, quality control

Effectively Managing Collections

Posted by Carly Wallace

Feb 9, 2015 2:19:02 PM

An effective debt collection strategy can be the difference between success and failure for businesses selling parts for heavy equipment. In order to anticipate problems rather than going into crisis mode attempting to solve them later, sales representatives and AR professionals must work together so that debt collection practices are tailored to fit the nature of the business’ relationship with the debtor.

Understanding each of your customer’s businesses is critical to the effectiveness of your debt collection strategy. Approaching a lifelong customer who has hit difficult financial times the same way you would approach Bernie Madoff will have an adverse effect on your business. Because what happens when they dig themselves out of the hole and remember how you treated them when the chips were down? Or, in the worst case scenario, what happens when aggressive collection departments force them into bankruptcy and you lose both the customer and the receivable? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to work through the problem WITH that customer so that you can collect the debt AND keep them as a customer?

One way to take this approach is to make it as easy as possible for customers to make payments. By understanding the pros and cons of each payment method accepted, businesses can choose the best method of payment for a customer based on their situation. Consider the following chart:

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Topics: Aftermarket Parts, Operation Management, Heavy Equipment, Productivity

Balancing The Heavy Equipment Needs Of The Mining Industry

Posted by Carly Wallace

Jul 10, 2014 4:11:00 PM

Lowell Snow, ACTP’s resident mining expert with over 40 years of experience in heavy equipment, has said, “Managing a fleet of machines in mining requires a balancing act between time, cost, and quality.  Everyone from the equipment operators, mechanics, and purchasing managers have to work hand-in-hand with one another to anticipate problems that could lead to downtime.”

The three factors Lowell describes (time, cost, and quality) are all interconnected. Let’s take a closer look:

wheel_loader_on_mine_site_optimized

Time

Machine downtime on a mine site reduces productivity of the operation as a whole until the equipment is up and running again.  Whether it is planned maintenance or an unplanned breakdown, with the size and complexity of the equipment it can take days to perform even simple repairs. 

When a machine (i.e. a wheel loader) becomes inoperable, the operation will see a significant decrease in productivity (and revenue) until it is back scooping and loading product. Since revenue is being lost for every hour the machine is not operating, fleet managers must try to minimize the amount of time to fix the machine.

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Topics: Aftermarket Parts, Mining, Haul Trucks, Operation Management, Heavy Equipment, Wheel Loaders, Wet Brake Applications, Productivity, Brake Systems