Collie-Preston MLA Mick Murray and Premier Mark McGowan recently visited the Premier Coal mine to inspect the achievements that are taking place.
Premier Coal’s maintenance teams have defied industry standards in machine overhauls, rebuilding a Caterpillar 24H Grader in five weeks – two and a half weeks less than the expected industry standard of 7.5 weeks for a job of that scale.
Due to the complexity of technical skills and time required to conduct a full rebuild, machine overhauls are traditionally outsourced to external providers, many from outside the Collie area.
Collie-Preston MLA Mick Murray said it was great to see the jobs being kept local to great success.
“After seeing the work that has been completed down at Premier Coal I can only commend the team for their fantastic efforts in this rebuild,” he said.
“Keeping jobs in Collie is my highest priority and this is a great example of Premier Coal doing what’s best for the workers of Collie by keeping jobs local.”
The grader was the fourth machine to go through the overhaul process on-site at Premier Coal.
The overhaul involved dismantling the machine back to bare chassis, complete rebuild works to the engine, drive train, steering and hydraulics, through to cab refurbishment, line boring, full resprays and decals to finish.
Works were completed by a dedicated project team on-site involving nine fitters, two apprentices, a boilermaker and an auto electrician working in shifts 24 hours a day.