A Finnish contractor relies on the consistency and quality of the Hitachi Support Chain after-sales programme for its fleet of Zaxis excavators. Maanrakennus Lassi Kaiponen Oy uses the technical support, parts, remote monitoring and extended warranty provided by the local Hitachi dealer, Rotator, from its Vantaa branch.

Each of these elements has a positive impact on its utility, road construction and groundworks projects carried out in and around the capital city, Helsinki. Owner Tuomas Kaiponen has eight employees and five Hitachi medium excavators at his disposal: two ZX225USRLC-5s, a ZX225USRLC-6, a ZX250LC-5 and a ZX250LC-6.

Maanrakennus Lassi Kaiponen’s fleet is covered by a HELP (Hitachi Extended Life Program) 5,000-hour extended warranty and service agreement as part of a contract signed with Rotator. This is paid in direct relation to the number of working hours and covers all aspects of maintenance for each machine, including any consumable Hitachi Genuine Parts and lubricants.

“HELP means that we can get on with our work and don’t have to worry about the performance of our machines,” says Tuomas. “In my opinion, it’s important that this is combined with the use of Hitachi parts, so that we can also work safely in the knowledge that the quality of our machines is being well maintained.”

The Zaxis excavators benefit from Hitachi’s 500-hour routine maintenance checks and specific service work is carried out in conjunction with Rotator’s Maintenance Manager, Ari Köpsi. He manages a team of mobile technicians that attends to Maanrakennus Lassi Kaiponen’s needs and the dealer’s technical support team also receives any alerts for the fleet.

Fast and efficient service

“The Rotator service crew is very professional,” continues Tuomas. “They call me to plan as and when each visit is due, and provide a fast and efficient service. They know what they’re doing as professional Hitachi technicians and it’s clear that they have been well trained.”

Each of the machines is monitored 24/7 by Hitachi’s remote monitoring system, ConSite. All of the operational data is sent daily via GPRS or satellite to globaleservice.com. This allows immediate access to the other remote monitoring system, Owner’s Site, and the vital information that is required for on-site support.

“We receive the ConSite report by email and check it every month,” adds Tuomas. “The number one benefit is the alert system, as it’s good to know that someone from Rotator is always looking out for our machines. Another advantage is that we can see the number of daily working hours, which is always useful when communicating to our customers.”

Maanrakennus Lassi Kaiponen and Rotator have worked together since 2004 and overall Tuomas is really happy with the Hitachi Support Chain services offered by Rotator: “There’s not much to improve on in my view. Everything that has been promised has been done. We’re very satisfied with Rotator and how they look after our Zaxis fleet.

“We buy Hitachi machines due to their reliability and they ‘feel’ good, but it’s the after-sales support that makes a big difference. When we bought one Hitachi, we had to change all of our machines to Zaxis models. Thanks to Support Chain, there is no doubt that the high level of availability and resale value of our Hitachi fleet are beneficial to the profitability of our business.”

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