GENUINE BENEFITS


When it comes to getting the most out of mobile plant, there is one man that has his own very tried and tested approach to equipment care and maintenance and he is John Middleton, Plant Manager for Oxfordshire aggregates specialists, Smiths Bletchington. 


Having been with the business for nearly 40 years, John took time out to explain his approach when we visited him at the businesses Gill Mill sand and gravel quarry, to see one of its three new Cat 972M wheel loaders in action. John: “As an independent family run business we have to compete with the much larger quarry operators on a daily basis, so machine uptime and longevity has always been extremely important to us. Over the past three to four years, we have seen our production volumes rise dramatically and have therefore invested in new Caterpillar® equipment to cope with demand. 


“For me, getting the most out of every machine is my goal, but when I say this I don’t mean that I look to push equipment to its limits of productivity to the detriment of its overall health. It is all about keeping a machine operating efficiently for its full lifecycle and this means in our case, achieving up to seven years of operation without any major component failure.


“To some in the industry this is seen as virtually impossible, but time and time again we have been able to achieve, and in some cases exceed this number. How we are able to do this when others can’t, comes down to our maintenance regime and approach. 


Personally, I have always worked very closely with equipment manufactures and dealers like Finning and we have purchased Caterpillar equipment for over 30 years. 

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