Supporting Continuous Operations Through Component Supply

Q: How can VMX MinePro help Mexican miners deal with difficulties related to heavy machinery?

A: One of the main challenges that occurs when using high production heavy machinery, is the equipment’s availability. This availability within a mining process can greatly affect total mine production. Miners engineer their plans based on production targets; the certainty with which they expect to reach those targets can be greatly jeopardized by the availability of heavy machinery. VMX MinePro focuses on providing solutions. As a result, our sales are based on the added value of after-sales services packages and aftermarket support for each one of our products. This greatly improves the availability of heavy machinery. Imagine that you are a mine operator working with heavy machinery that costs US$2,500 a minute to use and if a technical issue makes this equipment unavailable for an hour, that operator is now looking at a stratospheric added expense for that downtime. Our after-sales support teams are trained to manage and solve these kinds of issues on site as quickly as possible. All of this amounts to a tangible material contribution to the productivity of any mine in which our products are present.  

Q: How do you support clients in choosing the equipment that suits their needs?

A: We see ourselves as the direct connection between clients and the equipment production lines in factories. Every brand manages the design and manufacturing of their products but that manufacturing is assembled from components involved in their own manufacturing process that usually involves outsourcing and third-party companies. For example, an operator might have an idea of who designed and manufactured an electric shovel based on its brand but the transmission inside that shovel was made by a completely different company. We work with all of those component manufacturers directly without having to deal with additional distributors and OEMs. We apply this knowledge and network to make supply chains more efficient. That is how we support our clients’ choice of equipment: by offering the best component quality at the best price, directly impacting their bottom line by reducing their costs per ton of production.

Q: What is the main difference between the company's product and service offerings to those of its main competitors?  

A: We have different competitors depending on what stage of a mining process we are talking about. We are involved in all the processes that encompass the entirety of a mine’s productive value chain, from drilling to foundry. However, most of a mine’s mobile heavy machinery is used in specific parts and processes of the mine and that receives most of our attention. In that space, we can find ourselves competing with OEMs like Caterpillar, Komatsu, Sandvik and others , just to name a few. Some of these competitors might also show up in our catalogues as well, since some of those companies can play several roles at once within the industry. These OEMs that we compete with have an advantage over us when one of their products, perhaps a piece of heavy machinery worth US$30 million, is still being used within its warranty period. Due to the value of that product and the corresponding value of that warranty, sticking to what the warranty offers makes sense in many cases.

However, when anything happens to void that warranty, we now have an advantage over them, since our services will be more comprehensive and less expensive than anything they can offer. For example, our service packages can include skilled technicians who can measure the wear and tear of each component in a piece of heavy machinery, such as a bulldozer. That data can be implemented into our repair services and be available digitally to be monitored by the client. The warranties on our components are also extremely competitive. For instance, we can offer warranties for up to 20,000 hours on some of our components. In some cases, a single component can be worth up to US$1 million. Our warranty includes a twin component as a backup in our clients’ operations, in case of any failures. We are solving our clients’ issues of availability and if a failure takes place, other companies might promise to send a technician who will look at the issue and eventually decide if the warranty covers the repair or replacement. We offer a replacement upfront to keep our client´s operations going and worry about everything else later. 

VMX MinePro is a supplier of components for heavy industries In the mining sector, for underground and open pit processes . It provides integral solutions, including predictive analysis and maintenance