Reducing Live Work to Keep Our Customers Safe

When it comes to achieving operational excellence, the safety of our employees, dealers and customers that use our equipment every day is key. We are committed to integrating safety into our equipment design and systems, and while we are making great progress on keeping people safe while they’re operating the machines, there are still risks when performing live work in our customers’ mining environments every day. Live work is any task that requires the system to be energized and personnel to enter the machine footprint without appropriate isolation.  

So, how do we keep our customers safe while performing tasks in a live work environment? Enter our team of experts and the Elimination of Live Work (ELW) project. The project was created with a goal to eliminate live work using process and/or tooling solutions. In some cases, instead of entering the machine area to perform routine or inspection tasks, customer and dealers can do this remotely. For example, traditionally, if a customer needs to inspect a large mining truck steering linkage, the technician would be required to enter under the truck to attach a dial indicator to the linkage and view it during testing. This would also require two other individuals to complete the task.  

Now, our Dealer Service Tool Group created a hand-held electronic unit with multiple diagnostic tools, to allow technicians to perform inspections remotely without having to be under the truck during testing. This in turn reduces the number of people required to perform the inspection, allowing for more efficient work. 

With the ELW project and the many other services and innovations we offer, we are keeping our customers safe, which is the work that matters most.