Clear cut Case

Thu 31 Aug 2017

Clear cut Case

Like so many contracting companies in the South Wales area family run business WD Lewis had very humble beginnings. Formed in 1972 by William D. Lewis as a small groundworks company, the business has gone on to become a large player in the groundworks side of the house building industry locally. Tragically William D. Lewis was killed in an accident in 1976, but with his young sons Robert and Martin Lewis still gaining their education at school and college respectively, the day to day running of the company fell to William’s business partner Howard William’s, who took on the role alongside William D. Lewis’s wife on a day to day basis. When Martin Lewis left college where he had been studying geology and Robert left school they both decided to take on active roles within the family business under the guidance of Howard Williams, a situation that continued for several years during which time the lads gained some invaluable experience on how to run a successful business. Eventually Howard took a back seat in the firm and the two sons took over, taking on different sections of business, Robert was very much into the contracting side of things, so he took the reins of WDL Contracting Ltd and with Martin being more office and administration qualified he took charge of the company’s Concrete Products Division.

Some 15 years ago the company diversified into doing their own housing development work with the formation of WDL Homes. This venture initially started in a small way with Robert overseeing the development of that aspect of the business which has seen it go from strength to strength. The company today employs around 180 staff across all divisions and currently has 22 sites on the go. The company had invested heavily in its own plant and machinery to serve its needs and in 2000 the company was running a fleet of nine 13 tonne class excavators, all of which were from the Case Poclain stable. These machines were later replaced by Caterpillar 312’s. WD Lewis’s Plant and Transport Manager Graham Ponsford told us more about the machines. “We purchased the Cat’s to replace but our outgoing Case Poclain machines but sadly they proved to be something of a disappointment for us suffering from a number of issues like cracked booms and rams snapping”.

Following on from that and due to an ever increasing workload the company increased the size of its excavator fleet adding a mixture of makes including 4 x Komatsu, 4 x Volvo’s, 4 x Hitachi and 4 x Case. Having run a mixed fleet for some time the company then decided to look at doing an entire fleet change deal, Graham takes up the story, “At the time we were running a couple of Volvo wheeled loaders in the concrete products division, which much to my surprise had given us some horrendous problems, so as a way of getting out of them we traded them in for Volvo excavators, they were ok but we felt they were a bit on the large side and rather cumbersome for our type of work. We had run one Hitachi on the fleet previously and we looked back through the records to see how much we had spent on it over the 3 year period and in all fairness it was virtually nothing, except for the cost of routine servicing, so the following time the fleet was changed for Hitachi which proved themselves to be excellent machines”. By this time the company were in the well proven routine of upgrading the excavator fleet every 3 years, which works well ensuring the company always had modern reliable kit. A further 3 years down the road saw the fleet replaced once again with new Hitachi models. At the next point of fleet renewal Graham was invited to visit the JCB factory as he explained, “I have to be honest, I was a bit reluctant to go initially, however I was eventually convinced to make the trip for a look and both myself and Robert & Martin were flown up by JCB. I must say I was impressed by what we saw, at this time we had never asked JCB to tender for our fleet renewal but having seen the input that goes into making the machines we could see that the product was very good, as such after much consideration we asked them to tender and in all honesty they simply blew everyone else out of the water”. Graham continued, “We placed an order with JCB just over two and half years ago, but I have to say they have been disappointing, mainly down to silly little niggly problems which can be frustrating if you have a machine down when site managers are trying to keep on track with the site programme of works. This is one of the main reasons we continually invest in new kit so we don’t get these issues, without good reliable kit the guys at the coal face cannot do the business for us. Having said that though I must hold my hand up and praise JCB for the way they addressed any problems we had with the machines by taking them back, making amendments and explaining how they had addressed the issues”.

When it came around to change again this time all the usual brands were invited to tender, as previously mentioned the company had originally ran Case machines and been very pleased with them, especially their use of well proven Japanese components from blue chip manufacturers like Isuzu, Kawasaki and the like. This time around Graham was invited to the excellent Case Customer Centre in Monthyon near Paris to take a closer look at the new D series machines. Graham said, “We went over with an open mind, I liked the look of the set up and I got to try out a couple of the D series excavators for myself which I was instantly impressed with. During the trip I got to chat with a number of Case customers who were with us on the day, one of them being Dermot Conlon from Swindon who currently runs 12 Case machines, he couldn’t praise them enough and said he had never had any issues with them. Another contractor based locally to us Glyn Stevens, has always run Case and speaks very highly of them especially in terms of fuel economy which I must say is impressive”. On his return Graham spoke to Rob Vaughan of Newport based Case dealership LDH Plant Ltd and was offered a CX130D demonstration unit to evaluate in real life site conditions. Keeping an open mind the company also tried the equivalent sized demonstration models from JCB, Volvo and Hitachi. After the demonstration period all the operators were consulted and gave their opinions on the various makes, Graham said “It’s important for us to get the feedback from the operators, after all they are the lads who have to use the kit day in day out, so for us it’s important to keep the operators happy, happy operators are productive operators at the end of the day”.

Overwhelmingly most of the operators preferred the Case with the Hitachi coming in a close second, although they were not so keen on the Volvo on this occasion. After the demo period they asked Hitachi, JCB and Case to tender and the management team sat down to consider the options. The offer put to them for Case machines supplied by LDH Plant Ltd was certainly not the cheapest, but taking previous experience into account with the set up they have at LDH Plant, back up from the factory and a few other factors, the decision was made to go with Case, especially as the operators were all so impressed with them comparing them as close to Hitachi in quality as possible. The deal consists of 19 CX130D’s which tip the scales at 29,131lb (13,214kgs) and are powered by a Tier 4 Final emissions compliant Isuzu AR-4JJ1X four cylinder engine which offers a power output rating of 102hp (76.4kw) @2000rpm. These popular 13 tonne class machines are joined by a solitary 21 tonne class CX210D model which weighs in at 48,973lb (22,214kgs) and takes its power from a Tier 4 final Isuzu AR-4HK1X four cylinder engine which offers a power rating of 160hp (119.3kw) and operates @1800rpm.

Earthmovers caught up with five of the new machines on a Bellway Homes development that WD Lewis is doing all the groundworks on in Cardiff. During a tour around the jobsite Graham was keen to emphasize about the fuel savings that have been made since the new models arrived saying “In the short time we have been running these D Series machines the fuel savings have been nothing short of incredible, I’m convinced they would run on the sniff of an oily rag!”

All the machines have come supplied with new Hill Tefra quick couplers and a full set of the company’s Titan buckets which were specified by WD Lewis as their preferred supplier. Summarising Graham said, “We are absolutely delighted with the deal and the level of service we have received from LDH Plant, if all goes well I see no reason why we will not look to Case again in 3 years’ time”.

It was clear that the management were delighted with the new machines so what did the operators have to say? We spoke to four of them staring with long serving operator Dave Kyt who has been operating machines for over 37 years, Dave said, “I’ve been a big fan of Case machines and have run a lot of them over the years, I was on a C Series before this one and never had any trouble from them, you just can’t fault the cab, it’s very nice inside and they are so smooth to operate it’s a pure joy to spend your days in”. James Davis (pictured below) has always been a fan of Hitachi excavators having operated them on the firm previously James said, “I’m a big Hitachi fan, but I must say since having the Case on demo, they are easily on a par with them now, the CX130D is a really nice machine, I like it a lot, its smooth on the controls and has a nice cab, if I had to have a little moan about it I would have to say it’s a bit light on the back end but that’s just nit-picking really, it’s a great all-rounder”.

Pat Coleman is another long serving operator on the firm, Pat commented, “I like them, it’s a lovely machine, nice and comfy and all the controls drop nicely to hand, I especially like the double camera feature, as any operator will tell you the offside area on a 360⁰ is always a blind spot so this feature is great for safety and an operators peace of mind”. The final operator we spoke to was Mike Davis who was short and to the point with his summary, “Pretty good machine, nice tidy cab and smooth on the controls, can’t beat it!”

The Japanese Sumitomo based Case hydraulic excavators continue to gain popularity across the industry and having spent time on them in the past and spoken to owners and operators who are running them today it’s not hard to see why.

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