Today was NPI training at Edwards all day. We kicked off at 8:00 am with a session on Tier 4 engines. Our instructor Sam Nelson did a class room session on Tier 4 Interim engine & after treatment systems diagnostics. She then took the group out to the workshop and spent some time on the practical side with discussion and answering questions. Lucky for the team, the machine used today for the sessions was a 320E. That meant no photo's, so we can only share with you some basic pics ...
Here is Sam talking through some of the Tier 4 issues with Dave and Andrew on the 320E
We also had a session on the new 795F AC OHT that we saw at Tucson.
Next up was the Schematics Group with Steve Davis and his team. They wanted to meet with the guys to get some feedback on what technicians want to see on schematics and what information they need or do not need and what views are helpful. This was really a session on collecting voice of customer where schematics group is getting user needs from technicians.
Here is Matt having a "Jason moment" with his grin just after he found out more about the hot links and interactive capability of the schematics on SIS. I am pretty sure that this was Matt's best bit of the day.... being able to provide some feedback and requests and will mostly likely see some of these come true very soon.
After finishing off on the schematics, they had an NPI session with Mike Stobaugh on HEX. Once again the 320E was used for this training. There was no class room session, but everything was done out on the machine, so we cannot share any photo's with you.
But here is one we were allowed to take of the guys with Mike and Gerard who conducted the training.
The Shop Tools and Supplies group was last on the agenda for day. Now for those of you who have been following the blog, you may remember that John Karson and his team donated some excellent tooling prizes to the 2nd and 3rd place getters.
What they wanted today is get some feedback from us on how they can communicate better with technicians on the tooling available and new information. They shared some great ideas which we will all take away and work towards sharing information on shop tooling with technicians in Australia.
Then John announced that they had a surprise for the 5 guys and he gave them each a Caterpillar toolbag and also a mystery grey box ........
.. whatever is in there must be good judging by the look on Andrew's face.....
......... nope, they still won't share with the rest of us what they got .....
... but when they were not looking, I sneaked this photo. The shop tools and supplies group presented each of the 5 guys with a digital torque wrench that is personalized by having their name engraved on it.
Matt was very impressed by the whole thing and especially to see his name engraved ....
Dusty in the back ground there looks pretty happy too ..
It took a while for Jason to realise that this was actually his to take home ....
Andrew put his new cap on ( I think he must have collected every Cat hat he's seen on this trip) and showing off the prize ...
Yep, Dave looks like he was happy too ....
Back into the workshop to compare .... and found they are all the same....
Here is John and his team who I guess would be fair to say are now sponsors of the Elite Field Team. A very big THANKS to Shop Tools & Supplies group for their support in this program, for wanting to get feedback from the technicians and also for offering to support us in the program again next year ! We will work towards getting more information out to technicians on the tooling available and also opening the feedback communication channel.
So, with all that excitement out of the way, we had to call it a day. On the way out the guys wanted to stop to take a minute to read the sign along the road. ..... mmmmm ?
They really were reading a sign. See, here it is .....
At 6pm Mike Kamp took us to the Burger Barge for dinner .....
Almost as excited as when he sees scrapers ...........
Chuck Boen, Parts & Service Manager / Equipment Management & Service Ops joined us for dinner tonight and took some photo's.
He also captured most of us getting stuck into a very very greasy burger that just could not be any good for you, but tasted oh so very yummy.
Dusty had no problem getting this one finished ...
Jason and Matt was not going to leave anything behind on their plates either ....
No camera was going to get in the way of Andrew eating his burger ....
And I guess, if I am going to put those photo's on the blog, then it is only fair that I embarrass myself too ...
Needless to say, after that very unhealthy meal, we all needed some exercise, and went outside for a walk ..
Well, 5 of us made it as far as the chairs ........ and doing it very tough ..
It was not long before they all spotted something really interesting that got the heart rate going again, and off they went ...
Yep, it's a car. I would say that they have now all qualified to join the group of "Gear Heads" here in Peoria as Mike calls it.
Okay, so its Chuck's '68 Corvette that got all the attention .... Here is Chuck telling the story of how he came about buying a car that was stored in a hangar and had not been started in 21 years.
It was only a matter of time before somebody had to get in it ...
Jason also enjoyed this one, but he is still dreaming about all the yellow machines he wanted to take home over the last 2 weeks. ...
And finally, here is Brian Dennison, the entertainer for the evening. He was very good and reminded us after each song to check him out on youtube. Go and take a look for yourselves ...
Today was an absolutely huge experience once again. We have met some fantastic people and learned even more about the pieces of the puzzle that puts Caterpillar together.
A really big thank you to Rick Beal who put today's program together for us . There was not one moment in the day where they did not have the full attention of the team and there was something in there for everybody to take home with them.
Tomorrow we are off to do some more facility tours and hopefully everyone will be on the bus at 7:45am
No comments:
Post a Comment