Thirteen parts managers from the ALL Erection & Crane Rental Corp. Family of Companies recently attended a week-long class on Link-Belt parts identification.
The class was held at the Milwaukee branch of Dawes Rigging and Crane Rental, a member of the ALL Family of Companies and a Link-Belt dealer in Wisconsin. Though this training is available to dealers only, the extended education greatly assisted the parts managers assembled from ALL yards all over North America who are responsible for fulfilling Link-Belt parts orders.
The thirteen attendees learned about hydraulics and lattice crane parts, spending 20 hours on each subject. They also toured the Milwaukee crane yard, in order to see the parts up close. In addition, the students were trained in how to better utilize Link-Belt’s own resources, including its Web site and key sheets.
Jenna Maddox, parts manager of ALL’s Southeast branches, which include Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, found the training highly useful. “It’s a much smoother process now,” said Maddox. “I feel more comfortable finding the parts information online, or even through the service manual in order to locate the correct parts page. It’s a more complex process than it seems, and the training really helped clarify details and homogenize the process.”
In addition to yard tours, Web site, service manual, and key sheet instruction, the students completed individual worksheets about proper Link-Belt terminology. They also worked in small groups, reinforcing the proper research method.
Previous training on both Grove and Manitowoc systems proved helpful in streamlining orders, and now the same can be said of the Link-Belt research process. “Every company uses a different name for a similar part, and sometimes, even when you go by the serial number, you might find that the machine has been altered in a way that makes knowing how to find just the right information vital,” said Maddox. “Now we have what we need.”
This story also appears on Crane Equipment Guide.
