Looking Up sat down with Indonesia-based Grove dealer Cranserco to learn about the company’s work that guarantees customer satisfaction. Director James Hoyt shares his insights on how to maximize uptime and ROI for Grove cranes in the vast archipelago country.
Grove's rough-terrain cranes are widely favored around the world, including in Indonesia, where PT Berlian Cranserco supports the brand locally. The company has the challenging task of maintaining excellent customer satisfaction throughout a massive archipelago spanning over 5,000 km (3,200 miles) from east to west and almost 2,000 km (1,200 miles) from north to south. A large number of the country’s estimated 17,500 islands are difficult to access, requiring careful planning and the execution of lifting jobs.
In a conversation with Looking Up, Cranserco Director James Hoyt discussed how the company works to guarantee that its customers receive optimal uptime and ROI from their Grove rough-terrain cranes, regardless of their location in the country.
Looking Up: Can you describe your current service setup?
Hoyt: We have 37 highly-trained technicians dedicated to service support for Grove rough-terrain cranes. They operate from six locations across the major islands: Pekanbaru in Sumatra, Jakarta and Surabaya in Java, Balikpapan in Kalimantan, Sumbawa, and Papua New Guinea. We are evenly distributed and provide solid coverage across the country. This keeps us as close to our customers as possible.
LU: Is it challenging to provide great service in a large country with dispersed locations?
Hoyt: Travel is invariably one of our biggest obstacles. It’s not just flights and road transport concerns either; we have to ensure our technicians travel with complete tooling and a selection of spare parts. Weather conditions can also cause headaches, and flights to smaller islands can be challenging. But our customer-first attitude means we’ll do whatever it takes to transport someone to a site ASAP. Issues are generally resolved with minimal inconveniences.
LU: Many of your customers operate in the mining and energy sectors — what steps are required to adequately support these industries?
Hoyt: Such sites typically have strict entry requirements for external parties, which can add a lot of paperwork. But we have years of experience. We usually must provide proof of an updated Medical Check Up (MCU) and vaccination status first. We then must prove that our internal HSE compliance meets industry standards and sometimes include our technicians’ resumés with evidence of their qualifications. Additionally, we have to prove our BOSIET [Basic Offshore Safety Induction and Emergency Training] certification for offshore sites.
LU: How do you work to ensure necessary parts availability for customers in the country?
Hoyt: We discuss the Life-Cycle Cost Analysis with customers to confirm the maintenance strategy, preventative maintenance process, and component plans to prepare for the required parts. We also analyze the responsibility matrix to confirm who is responsible for certain tasks. We will investigate our customers' transaction histories to understand the inventory buying pattern and stock up on those desired parts. And, of course, our shop is always stocked with critical components for unscheduled breakdowns.
LU: Are there any Grove RT crane design features that help to simplify the support process? If so, which ones?
Hoyt: The commonality of Manitowoc’s CCS [Crane Control System] across the GRT and GMK models is majorly beneficial. Our technicians can work safely thanks to the easy installation and removal of handrails, as well as easy access to the powertrain and hydraulic components. For our customers, the 360° camera and service reminder on the display are particularly useful features.
LU: What are the most common service issues you address?
Hoyt: A technician may not always have a necessary part handy due to an inaccurate problem diagnosis from the site. We are excited for Grove CONNECT to receive more widespread use in Indonesia because of the reliable and efficient crane service it will provide. It’s a remote diagnostics tool that is currently available for all-terrain cranes. We’re looking forward to having it included on rough-terrain cranes as well. We also see crane downtime from inadequate, non-OEM parts use. We always try to help our customers understand that using original parts is one of the most important factors in ensuring they receive maximum uptime from their crane.
LU: Cranserco is now offering service support for Grove all-terrain cranes. How did you prepare for it?
Hoyt: All our sales and service staff are participating in Grove online training courses for all-terrain cranes. They’ve now completed the GMK 1.1 and 2.1 modules, and the GMK 3.1, 4.1, and 5.1 are in progress. By the year’s end, all our senior technicians will have completed the training. We’re also increasing our parts holding and updating our customer training courses to include all-terrain cranes.
LU: What do you hope to achieve by expanding crane support across Indonesia?
Hoyt: We hope to expand our collaboration with Manitowoc as the relationship between our two companies gets stronger. We want to be a full-service partner to customers, offering sales and service, but also additional activities. And of course, we want to grow — more crane sales, service and support. There is so much opportunity in Indonesia and we’re looking forward to leveraging that together with Manitowoc!