No Weak Links

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In just a few short years, Progress Mining has transformed from an ambitious startup into a formidable competitor in the undercarriage market. As the team is prepping for MINExpo 2024 in Las Vegas, we caught up to discuss their early challenges, ambitious vision to be the ultimate undercarriage supplier, and their groundbreaking new link designs primed to propel them to the forefront of the industry.

We've been very fortunate in the way that the market’s accepted us. Six years ago, we started what was a 12-month pilot project to generate a basic product range and test if the market was open for another aftermarket player. We found that owning the design, manufacturing and aftersales support processes, we were able to build on our combined decades of experience and understanding of the market to come up with an offering that really got some attention. 

There were times in the initial stages when we asked ourselves if we were ever going to get an order. To now, six years later, having supplied over 15,000 tons of undercarriage products, it has been a time of rapid growth for the business. And while we took on the challenge to keep up with the demand, you can’t build this sort of capacity overnight, so at times, our ability to deliver on-time to our customers has suffered. 

Like most, we've had our product issues as well, though we are proud to say that we have always stood by our products and we have got the right people and processes in place to correct the issues. We feel most of our customers appreciate this, and while not everyone has stood by us, the ones that have are going to get the returns in the long run.

Before looking at innovation, it was more important that we build a company that can support the basic needs of the market and be able to keep up with the continued demand. We have invested massively in the factory, we've improved processes, put the right personnel on, and spent a lot of time reviewing how we can deliver better.  

Now that we have our product issues resolved, and the increased capacity we have at the factory, we see our near-term competitive advantage being availability. We want to be that company that you can call and we're going to have it. We’re talking about a significant amount of stock in Australia, North America, South America, Africa - everywhere we're operating we're really doubling down on that stock availability. We want to be an alternative to the OEM for all occasions whether it's long-term planning or that emergency spare.  

In terms of longer-term innovation, we see the company being a complete undercarriage supplier. That's going to include even more investment in expanding the product range, developing side frames, car bodies, slew bearings, final drives…and that’s going to give our customers the ability to purchase a walk-in walk-out solution. Giving them a sole provider and support for all their undercarriage requirements.

That’s what MINExpo is all about for us, it’s going to kick start that next phase. The market is always looking for suppliers that can innovate and create answers to their problems. The basis of us attending the show is to hear the voice of the customer and showcase our whole range that covers Caterpillar, Liebherr, Komatsu, and Hitachi.  

What we're really excited about is the launch of our new heavy duty link design range. This range is focused on 200–400-ton machines and is designed to replace the classic chain and grouser system. We're seeing customers in certain applications where these link designs aren't up to heavy duty requirements. Mines that run a 500 and a 200-ton digger currently have to split undercarriage supply between two vendors. Now Progress Mining can be the one vendor for your site, so that any mine, any planner, any operator can come to Progress and we can service that whole range. That range covers the EX1900s, PC2000s, R9250s, R9350s, and R9400s – which is a big thing for our customers because, at the moment, they don't have an alternative.  

This link design range brings our first differentiated design. Historically we've made direct replacement products to get into the market, essentially, we've been hiding our abilities. We've done that intentionally, not wanting to stress the market out by saying “We've come here with all these new designs. We’re excited to show the market that we can do this, make it last longer, be suitable for all applications, and safer to use.  

MINExpo is an opportunity for us to engage with the wider market and share our goals for the longer term. Having discussions about what's next, what products we need to develop to fix someone’s problem providing them a solution are key to the ongoing success of Progress Mining and our customers.

Currently, particularly in the larger link designs, they need to bring in a 500-ton press on site to split the tracks with the press in situ. It's additional lifting, people in awkward positions, risks of things falling, pinch points, and dealing with a lot of stored energy. What we've done with ours is created a master slip fit pin that can be removed without the press. We see it often where someone may have a failed idler or roller and they won't change it because of the cost, the risk and the downtime to split the track. They're destroying the whole undercarriage because its too difficult to split it. Our slip fit master pin will give more flexibility to change out those critical components rather than having to wait, push it to the limit, and then call the OEM saying “Oh, we need the press now.”. 

We will be showcasing the link system so people will be able to step up to it and see it, and there will be an interactive digital display illustrating all the features and specs. As well we will have the tool there to unbolt it, slide it in and out and show people how it works rather than just being on a screen.