From the Factory Floor

Why I said no this week

Last Tuesday I walked past a batch of BL90-25s ready for export. Looked fine on the outside. Opened the engine cover. Hydraulic hoses routed wrong, would have chafed through in 200 hours.

I sent all six back to the workshop. The client would have never known until it broke down in their country. That's two weeks of waiting, $4,000 in shipping, and a damaged reputation — all because nobody checked.

— Vivian, at the workshop

The sound that saved a shipment

I was doing a pre-delivery start-up on a BL105-25. Everything looked good on the checklist. Then I heard it — a faint ticking from the injector. Not loud, not obvious, but it wasn't right.

Opened it up. One injector was seated wrong from the factory. Would have run fine for 50 hours, then started misfiring. The client would have blamed the engine. Instead, I blamed the assembly line.

That's why I listen. Not just look.

— Vivian

What I see in a shipping container

People think shipping is just "put machine in container, close door." It's not. I've seen machines arrive with crushed cabs because nobody padded the tie-down points. I've seen paint rubbed off because nobody put protection film on the boom.

When I load a container, I take photos of every tie-down. I film the whole process. I send it to the client before the boat even leaves. Because if something moves in transit, I want us both to know exactly how it was loaded.

— Vivian