I’ve had a few interesting conversations with a contact at an overseas textiles mill and during one of those conversations, I formulated a plan to help him save £64,687 during his engine overhaul.
It kind of goes without saying that he was pretty pleased (and amazed!) that this was possible, so I thought I’d share the simple idea that created that saving – even if you don’t have any Caterpillar engines, it has the potential to help you make huge cost savings.Our client has 4 Caterpillar 3616 engines on site and as part of a major overhaul, the connecting rods needed to be changed.
The more expensive option would have been to purchase new rods, which would have cost him £7,099.83.
The less expensive option was to purchase reconditioned rods – more reasonable at £4,417.69 each, but still a whopping £70,683.04 for a complete set.
We went back a stage. I asked why he was planning to change the connecting rods, and he explained that the small end bush was now out of specification. He’d tried to change the bush on its own in the past, with disastrous effects.
You see, the team who’d fitted the new bush hadn’t bored it after it was fitted, and consequently, there wasn’t enough oil getting to the gudgeon pins, which eventually resulted in a piston seizing up.
After this expensive error, he felt the only option was to change them out on the next engine overhaul, – but he didn’t need new rods (or even reconditioned ones), he just needed to inspect and overhaul the connecting rods, replace all small end bushes and – crucially – have them bored to OEM specification.
So that’s what we proposed to him, and because the work is carried out to OEM specification, we provide a 12-month warranty and peace of mind for the client.
The cost? £5,996.04 – a 91.5% saving on what it would have cost to purchase new ones.
The reality is that there are plenty more savings that can be made in engine maintenance and assembly, but the key is knowing how things can be done more affordably whilst still being done safely and to the OEM standard.
