Viking West:
We’re on a call with Alex Ell, After-Market Business Development Manager at Wajax, to talk about how Viking West works with and supports them by providing high-performance heavy equipment attachments, service parts and support.
So Alex, I already have a little bit of your background but is there anything you want to say about your own background and Wajax?
Alex (Wajax):
I come from more of a service support background. I came up through the parts world, did a parts apprenticeship, worked at dealership levels for the past 17 years, got into outside sales and product support, and then began selling.
As of late, my leading roles were in business development. So, working with our pricing and logistics groups, working with overseas vendors bringing in people like Mike from Viking West as suppliers for us, and then managing our product support representatives (these are our outside parts and service salespeople).
So, we’ve got our whole goods equipment reps whose job it is to sell the asset itself, put it out in the field, and then our product support representatives come in after and provide support for that product for the duration of its life span.
It’s definitely going to give us an opportunity to offer more of these Viking specific products, whether it’s attachments or guarding. Viking West has after-market parts which has been a big change for us. Probably the primary area of my focus of late has been developing that core product of after-market parts. We still do a bit on the attachment side as the product support network goes (kind of those after sales after the machine is delivered, whether it’s an upgrade or the attachments wore out); but we still also work with our sales teams and sales managers on stock strategy.
Hover over the carousel below to scroll through gallery:
With Viking West’s extra heavy-duty buckets, I just put our first package out into the field up in Kitimat on the L&G Project. In fact, there’s about 4 sets that went up there.
Viking West:
When you approach these guys, is there a specific problem that’s discussed around the attachments or is it really more about the machine?
Alex (Wajax):
Primarily at point of sale, the package would be very much machine focused but there are times when a customer has a specific need. And that’s typically some of our larger fleet customers.
Viking’s done a really good job of putting a quality product forward. We’ve pretty much been putting their attachments as our stock package on all our equipment going out, unless customers request otherwise.
Viking West:
Alex, were you involved in the design process for Viking West’s extra heavy-duty bucket?
Alex (Wajax):
Yep! We had some involvement there. A lot of it came from our experience with past products. We pulled a little R&D out of those because we knew what the market dictated over the past few years. Our participation had more to do with profile aesthetics, but we also had some input on the material.
There’s a standardized package which has worked well with our localized environment and with Viking West’s ability to mass produce at a larger scale. We wanted to differentiate ourselves a bit, so we integrated some standard features from Viking West that were optional with other suppliers.
Viking West:
Were there any specific challenges you were trying to solve for Wajax, in the process of working with Viking West?
Alex (Wajax):
Our goal with Viking West was leveraging their ability to offer a wider range of products than our current attachment suppliers could. Our current attachment suppliers only do attachments and guarding. They don’t get into the after-market parts on this side of the world, and they certainly don’t inventory anything for us.
With Viking West, it’s been a great advantage for us to be able to consolidate freight; whether it’s some ground engaging tools or undercarriage with some attachments.
And leveraging their relationships overseas with some buyers has also been where we’ve seen value.
The biggest thing too has been working with us on product development. Their product is designed for Hitachi. A lot of our competitors will have a bucket that is designed for maybe two or three different manufacturers of machines. They may have slightly different capacities, so they try to find a happy medium so they can have one product for three different manufacturers. It may not work perfectly but works “well enough”. It’s the same thing with their guarding.
With Viking it’s a perfect fit. It’s easy to install.
With some of the other suppliers there may be some slight modifications, maybe some extra gauging, maybe a little bit of fill material, maybe the spacing is not quite perfect; but they’ve done it so that they can also sell that design for Caterpillar, or a John Deere piece of equipment.
What we’ve tried to leverage is making it Hitachi focused. It makes it easier for an end user and gives us that value proposition with Viking West attachments and after-market parts. It’s also helped us on the install side to cut down our labour. That’s been a big advantage, especially for the guarding being geared to Hitachi, which has allowed us to pick up some savings on the install side.
Viking West:
In terms of Wajax’s customers, and the one thing that tweaked my ear a little is that when it comes to Hitachi, Viking West products just fit, they fit perfectly. Is that something that Wajax’s customers would appreciate?
Alex (Wajax):
We’ve got very meticulous owner/operators who are the ones sitting on that equipment every day and they want things to line up perfectly. They like it when the ends meet up. They like it when the colours match and the attachments are clearly designed for their equipment.
For the after-market parts side of the equation where customers may be installing themselves, I think it’s a HUGE advantage. For a lot of the times, these types of products either require a specialty installer or installation at a dealership. Having Viking West products designed specifically for Hitachi allows us to send a customer the parts they want, and they can do the install themselves.
Having standardized products allows us to better share inventory across regions since we’re a national company. In the past, with a lot of the suppliers and customers that were using their after-market parts, it was very regional and localized, and you were at the mercy of your local market supply. Going into this standardized nationalized spec, from a customer perspective, means turnaround time is always a consideration.
There are some customers who care about fit but the larger advantage is now we’ll have that product on hand. The fact that it’s standardized and made for our equipment with the ability to use it across a variety of different models, has allowed us a much better stock strategy than we had before. That’s probably where the biggest value comes with Viking West from a customer’s perspective.
Viking West:
Yeah, with how supply chain is going right now, and you mentioning that there are raw material shortages for local manufacturers and such, I think that is a very interesting point that you made. Being able to standardize on certain after-market parts and having a supplier who is able to supply all of your regions consistently, is a great way to ensure quality of service across Canada.
You have regional suppliers and a national supplier like a Viking West. What challenges might a customer face by dealing with a company that only deals with a certain region rather than getting parts from a national supplier like Viking West who is able to keep things so consistent?
Alex (Wajax):
For sure! Again, it’s two-fold. A localized owner/operator is probably not going to feel a big impact. But being a national company (we work with the leading corporations of the world) that has operations in every province, we have the comfort of knowing that a machine rigged up in BC is going to be rigged up the same way in Ontario or Quebec. When they ship that machine over to Kitimat to work on a project, they’ll be able to call the Prince George office and they’ll recognize the product is there too. We’ll be stocking that same product, so they’re able to swap parts.
We had examples even just this week of putting some after-market products on a machine that was sold out of Edmonton, got shipped out to Kitimat, but we had to rob some parts from inventory to make it work. Since it was a Viking West package, our Prince George branch had one on hand.
Yes, it’s never a perfect scenario to rob stuff; but it gave us that ability to deliver consistency. There will always be some nuances with different regions but that would probably be the biggest advantage; it comes full circle with that supply issue where a lot of the local manufacturers just don’t have stock and they don’t carry stock. Everything is built to order just in time.
Viking West’s biggest advantage (and I’ve said this time and time again) is the fact that their ability to keep product on hand makes us a little more comfortable to do the same. We can actually move through that inventory and create those terms. It’s a major advantage in having that product consistency coast to coast and being a national provider with coast-to-coast reach.
Viking West’s lead times have remained pretty solid, which is certainly value for our large interprovincial customers, whether or not they recognize that.
We’ve helped our customers get their machine up and running because we have a national provider in Viking West and therefore had the same item in Branch A as we did in Branch B. Maybe the unsung hero aspect could use a little more attention; but I can say it’s a value and something that should be spoken to more.
It’s definitely a shift that Wajax recognized. I mean, Wajax definitely used to operate as a silo’d company where we had regions working autonomously and in different categories, whether it was the construction category, mining, material handling, or industrial. Each region previously operated as their own little companies whereas a couple of years ago we went through a bit of a rebirth.
We standardized our product offering to keep it consistent throughout all categories to provide the same customer experience throughout the regions. Viking West fit hand in hand with that. Wajax will see a marketing shift to promote more of what Viking West offers and with supply chain being the way it is, it only makes sense moving forward.
Viking West:
You had already mentioned about cost savings in your most recent answer. You talked about process changes and efficiency. To wrap up, and in terms of Wajax’s customers that use Viking West products, are there any big wins that you would attribute to retaining Viking West for attachments and after-market parts?
Alex (Wajax):
There is always the price advantage. That was always kind of overlooked because a lot of that was blended to a capital acquisition of the product, so it was probably never actually attributed to Viking West. It was more of an internal “win” which allowed us to drive that focus more there.
I think the biggest value, that unsung hero, is the build quality that Viking West has been able to produce.
I don’t think we’ve had a single hydraulic cylinder failure on any of their thumbs for example, certainly that I’ve ever sold or seen. And that can’t be said for any of our other suppliers. Same thing on their undercarriage. Viking West has done their due diligence by only bringing their top tier quality products to market.
We have to call a spade a spade; there’s a market price for this equipment out there. There is a finite amount. Our labour and charge-out rates for labourers haven’t really risen too much; meanwhile, equipment prices have gone through the roof, so everybody is trying to cut costs.
What a lot of our other after market suppliers have done in the past, is not a bait and switch by any stretch, but their product degrades year after year as they are chasing that profit. You end up getting that little bit of quality pushed to the side.
So, I think that’s a real feather in the cap of Viking West and their products, not only products they manufacture but also products they import for us, whether it’s bucket teeth, cutting edges, undercarriage, or swing bearings. They have done the due diligence, they’ve provided the information we need, they stand behind their product.
And knock-on wood, I can’t say this for any of my other suppliers, Viking West has had next to no claims over the 5 or 6 years I’ve been dealing with them.
We appreciate the continual involvement and modification required to better support Wajax and our customers.
Viking West:
That concludes our interview. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us Alex.
We hope you found this Case Study helpful. If you are looking for a quote or detailed product specs, our sales team would be happy to help.
