I was at Brinklow Quarry today with Mick Sturges and his shiny new Doosan DL420, supplied by Murley's, equipped with a Loadrite L-2150 loader scale. I don't spend a lot of time calibrating and operator training these days, but it is good to keep your hand in and there really is no substitute for experiencing life at the sharp end, in order to keep you focused on what is really important in your business. The calibration was straightforward and Mick picked up the nuances of the system pretty quickly. We ran a few calibration checks and things were looking pretty sweet. At this point, it would have been really easy for me to leave him to it, on the basis that he had a pretty good grasp of the system. However, I decided to invest some more time in learning more about what Mick wanted to achieve with the system, what was important and how we might be able to deliver on those requirements. The additional couple of hours was well worth the investment; for both of us. We configured all the options for ease of set up according to specific tasks. We experimented with weighing on the move to gauge the impact on accuracy - In this case, it was well worth the experimentation and the level site, coupled with Mick's ultra smooth operation allowed us to speed up the loading time. Fine tuning and repeated practice with last bucket tip off, helped Mick gain confidence and understand the systems limitations with me there to back him up. | The end result was a system optimised to meet the requirements and, a proficient and confident operator, who really understood how to extract best performance. The extra couple of hour invested by Mick will be recouped in no time and for me, the time invested was an essential part of the value we add. As I said to Mick, 'It is my job to make you look good on this.' I left him smiling and loading with confidence. |