Terex Roadbuilding retools for future growth

Emerging from the deepest recession to hit the construction industry and U.S.economy in decades, Terex Roadbuilding has retooled its Oklahoma City facility to be leaner, more agile and more centrally focused on its customers. These changes better position the company for growth with the rebounding economy.

“Terex has worked hard to fix the aspects of our business that were not bringing value to our customers,” says Don Anderson, GM of Terex Roadbuilding. “This has led us to modify everything from customer sales and support to engineering and operations.” 

Enhanced Field Support
Anderson points to positive changes within the field sales and service structure as the foundation for improved customer interaction. All sales team members are now proficiently cross-trained on all Roadbuilding asphalt and concrete products manufactured by the Oklahoma City facility – pavers, reclaimer/stabilizers, milling machines, curb and barrier machines, and plants – to be a single solution source for customers. “This has allowed us to shrink territory size for our district managers, giving them more customer interaction and more time in their markets,” comments Anderson.

This enhanced customer interaction plan includes more equipment district managers in the field. “In March, we hired a new district manager and our plan includes more hires in the near future,” explains Anderson. Mark Oehmke, a 30-year sales veteran with a broad range of market experience, now leads this team of field managers as director of sales for Oklahoma City-built equipment. Mark Spicer will continue to work with district managers on plant equipment sales and with the plant product development group for engineering enhancements.

As director of marketing and dealer development, Julio Valladares will now work closely with Oehmke and district managers to expand the Terex Roadbuilding dealer network. Additionally, two field service managers have been added to the asphalt and concrete plant service team.

Through Terex Financial Services, these district managers have more financial tools at their disposal to assist dealers and customers in making equipment purchases. In addition to existing financing options, “Terex Roadbuilding is in the forefront, working with TFS to offer creative financing options to dealers and end users alike designed to mitigate the economic conditions affecting different sectors of our customer base,” adds Anderson.

Customer Support
At its Oklahoma City facility, Terex Roadbuilding is in the midst of implementing a three-year initiative to enhance customer support by 25 percent year over year in the areas of aftermarket fill rate, product quality and customer response time. Parts inventory levels are continually being analyzed to improve fill rates on “unit down” and stock orders.

A crucial part of this plan includes investment in a new customer support management software package. The system tracks incoming calls, analyzes hold time trends for customers and monitors dropped call rates. “It allows us to return any call that may have been dropped and ultimately enables us to continue to improve our customer response,” says Anderson.

Dealer and contractor classes held at the Oklahoma City training centre have been revamped for 2010. Instructors have updated the asphalt and concrete courses offered through Terex Roadbuilding University (www.terexroadbuildinguniversity.com) to deliver more value to new as well as returning students. Additionally, attendees are able to select from multiple courses held simultaneously.

New Product Development
A third cornerstone to the Roadbuilding transformation focuses on the engineering program and new product development process. Philip Keegin, with nearly 30 years of lean manufacturing and engineering experience, leads the engineering department for asphalt and concrete mobile equipment products.

A fresh outlook on engineering includes more customer summits and field trips, so Roadbuilding engineers receive customer feedback on equipment performance firsthand. “We listen to what the customers like and dislike about our equipment and the competition’s, and our new equipment designs and updates are reflecting more of what the customer needs to be successful in the field,” says Anderson.
 

Lean Manufacturing Investment
Terex is also making significant investments in the Roadbuilding facility in Oklahoma City to advance business operations, so it can more quickly respond to customer demand. Moving from the Terex Utilities South Dakota operations in June 2009, Anderson was put in place to continue to lead the implementation lean manufacturing principles. “The basic elements already existed when I took over as GM, and today we are much further along in implementing lean manufacturing in Oklahoma City,” says Anderson.

Implementing lean allowed the Oklahoma facility to clear nearly 200,000 ft2 (18,581 m2) of manufacturing space from its 650,000 ft2 (60,387 m2) facility for manufacturing other Terex equipment. “The system also allows us to improve product quality by monitoring quality at various stages in the manufacturing process rather than just after the machine is completed,” says Anderson. “We have also successfully reduced inventory levels to make room for more finished product, so we can reduce lead time on customer orders.”

Beginning in the fourth quarter of 2009, Terex moved manufacturing of its asphalt paver line from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Oklahoma City. By June 2010, Terex crushing and screening equipment formerly manufactured in Cedar Rapids will be fully integrated into Oklahoma City production as well. “The significant global economic downturn forced Terex to make some tough decisions, similar to those made by our competition and customers,” concludes Anderson. However, it’s these decisions that will enable Terex Roadbuilding to be more responsive and ready to handle increased customer demand as the world economies rebound.

Terex Roadbuilding
www.terexrb.com