Here an employee of Stansteel works in the machine shop to perfect a part for a trunnion. Photo courtesy of Hotmix Parts & Service
Alternatives Exist To Source Parts
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BY SANDY LENDER
At press time, many producers and contractors in North America were gearing up for winter equipment repair. Typically, this is the time of year when seasonal maintenance and planned upgrades get underway. For the 2022 season, producers and contractors alike had to plan out their needs in advance or face the possibility of postponing repairs, upgrades, and maintenance until parts and components can be available. In November 2021, Ben Brock, president and CEO of BROCK, Chattanooga, Tennessee, explained: “We are out to mid-May 2022 delivery for components, which we define as cold feed bins and/or systems, conveyors, drums, drags, silos, heaters, tanks, etc. The leading manufacturers are out that far or later. The pending highway bill will only keep things going strong. It’s as good a market for
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hot-mix asphalt plant equipment as I’ve ever seen in my life.” “As for parts, we are seeing some disruptions due to the well-reported supply chain issues around the globe,” Brock said. “However, we are doing all we can and, in most cases, we are able to meet customer requirements for delivery. A few purchase parts are out to mid-March delivery now, which is amazing to me.” He outlined the problem succinctly. Between supply chain woes and the potential for continued trucking and shipping industry worker shortages affecting deliveries of parts and materials, suppliers and vendors are getting creative to ensure they have what contractors need. Kenco Engineering Inc., Roseville, California, is located within 42 miles of a UPS shipping center that misplaced three pallets
of product during 2021, according to Brian Handshoe, vice president of operations for Kenco. That’s a problem supply chains, port managers and truck drivers can’t solve. It’s a mistake that Handshoe said is probably a function of his product being loaded under some other business’s pallet of goods. Of course, intent doesn’t take away the sting of lost time and expense getting replacement material. Kenco Engineering designs and manufactures parts and components, but works under the same physical constraints as the rest of the world. “We’re at a 12-week production sequence right now,” Handshoe stated in November. “If contractors have delayed and not purchased by now, they will not get those parts until spring.” That’s not to say every part must be manufactured at the Kenco facility. “Some things I’m able to order in bulk,” Handshoe said. “We have options.” Those options and alternatives are what will save the industry this down season. “We do a lot of custom work and service a lot of older plants,” Handshoe said. He shared that some plants still in operation today are models of manufacturers no longer in business. This means producers do not have the option of reaching out to the OEM for parts and service. Enter the innovative practices of companies like BROCK, Kenco and Hotmix Parts & Service of Louisville, Kentucky. Jeremy Miller, the director of sales for Hotmix Parts & Service, detailed the option of mining existing new production machines or used equipment for parts. He used the example of worn silos. “Silos have enough wear on the cone or sides that you may not want to perform another repair if the structural integrity is posing a safety hazard. The same is true of dryers. We have built a business looking at the machine detailed requirements. We can send an engineer out to check the machine and formulate the right solution to retrofit with proven new parts or recondition or replace. You might find and substitute a used piece of equipment instead of waiting on parts for a structurally deficient component.” If you don’t have perfect psychic abilities, options to acquire parts in time for season start-up include shopping around. Multiple OEMs and parts suppliers braced for this storm. “At CWMF, we are now stocking large amounts of inventory,” said CWMF Vice President Travis Mick. “We found this necessary after researching which parts our customers needed most in prior years. Knowing past in-demand parts and components allows
