During the course of 2015, SANY is going to start trying to source more local components in America.
A company doesn’t get to be the fifth largest construction equipment manufacturer in the world without good reason, and at SANY Global that long list of reasons begins with good service, product support, dedicated people and a broad range of equipment at a reasonable price. Or simply put, SANY offers its customers the value, quality and customer care.
And yet, SANY’s explosive growth is something of a well-kept secret.
“KHL ranks the largest equipment manufacturers globally as far as revenue and volume,” said Eric Teague, senior vice president of SANY. “We were listed number five in the 2013 KHL Yellow Table for largest construction equipment manufacturers in the world and most people don’t know that. We’re large; we have the capital behind us to grow. We build a great quality product. We support it well and we’re a great option for those people that are looking for an alternative to what their current supplier is.”
Headquartered in Peachtree City, Ga., SANY has traditionally bought components for its equipment from foreign manufacturers, then assembled the machines at its 400,000 sq. ft. (37,161.2 sq m) manufacturing plant in Georgia.
“During the course of 2015, we are going to start trying to source more local components,” Teague said. “It’s the same vendors that we’re using from Japan and other parts of the world, but we buy the Cummins engines locally and then ship them or install them here. We can buy a Kawasaki locally instead of having to buy from Japan. We’re going to start working next year to do more and more locally sourced components.”
Cummins engines will remain the preferred brand when possible, but when the vendor doesn’t have the right engines to match up to the equipment, SANY will continue its partnerships with Isuzu and other OEMs,
“That’s why we think our value proposition is so good because we use the same vendors that you see globally in many other brands, but we happen to offer that same quality product at a competitive cost, said Teague.”
SANY also plans to introduce new equipment to the market, including graders, wheel loaders, backhoes, pile driving machinery and dozers.
“The grader is something that we showed here in North America in 2011 ConExpo and its been in testing and introduced to other markets prior to now and has compared very well,” said Teague. “We benchmarked the leading competitors and took what the customer liked about those and didn’t like about those and tried to build a product that would more or less satisfy all their needs. The wheel loaders and dozers we are now just introducing to the Chinese market so we want to do some testing there and we’ll have to do some local modifications for the customer base and market demands in North America. That’s why it’s going to take 18 to 36 months to get those here. But they are on the board and coming.”
With so much growth, it’s only natural that the manufacturing plant will require expansion as well. A new paint booth is expected to be up and running by December. And they’ve already added additional building pads so they’re ready when new space is required.
“Pretty soon we are going to outgrow our warehouse space so we are going to have to build a separate building,” said Teague. “Due to the manufacturing volume capacity need for next year we’re not going to have room for it in this building.
“SANY is a very aggressive company and we are intently focused on the North American market. We just had our three year strategy meeting and we’re going to roll that out for ’15, ’16 and ’17 and SANY definitely wants to establish themselves as a player in the North American market.”
SANY is committed to continuing the top-notch service customers have come to expect. The company’s next day air time for shipping parts and products is greater than 95 percent because of the large stock it keeps on hand.
“Most manufacturers try to arrive between that 90 and 95 percent within 24 hours and the rest will come from overseas or whatever,” said Teague. “We really focus on being able to provide as much as we can in that 24 hours so if we have to remove a part off the assembly line, we remove a part off the assembly line to keep a customer up and running. That’s one of the worst thing you want to do from a manufacturing standpoint, but it keeps your customer base satisfied.”
And keeping the customers satisfied is of utmost importance at SANY. Because ultimately everything manmade can and will break and when it does SANY knows when and how you support the customer is key.
“It doesn’t matter the brand; it doesn’t matter the product,” says Teague. “It could be anything from refrigerators to airplanes. If you going to have an issue, and you are going to have an issue, the customer remembers that issue, he doesn’t remember the 4,000 hours of great service he got out of the machine before. He cares about the problem he has today and how quickly it can be rectified.”
Lori Tobias
Lori Tobias is a journalist of more years than she cares to count, most recently as a staff writer for The Oregonian and previously as a columnist and features writer for the Rocky Mountain News. She is the author of the memoir, Storm Beat - A Journalist Reports from the Oregon Coast, and the novel Wander, winner of the Nancy Pearl Literary Award in 2017. She has freelanced for numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Denver Post, Alaska Airlines in-flight, Natural Home, Spotlight Germany, Vegetarian Times and the Miami Herald. She is an avid reader, enjoys kayaking, traveling and exploring the Oregon Coast where she lives with her husband Chan and rescue pups, Gus and Lily.
Read more from Lori Tobias here.
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