Manager, Mining Support

Description:

• Komatsu America Corp. (KAC)  is the second-largest, fully-integrated manufacturer and supplier of construction equipment in North America with a reputation for reliability that's second to none. We have built a network of manufacturing plants and parts depots with approximately 2000 employees who manufacture more than 90% of all Komatsu America equipment right here in the United States.
• Our product line ranges from the smallest compact construction size to the largest mining size and includes hydraulic excavators, wheel loaders, crawler dozers, off-highway trucks, motor graders, skid steer loaders, tractor loaders and backhoe loaders.

Position Purpose

• To manage customer acceptance of Komatsu mining machines sold into the U.S. market; and to ensure that Komatsu America and Komatsu America's service agent are able to meet or exceed machine performance related contractual commitments to customers.

Quantitative Dimension

• Each Mining Support Manager is responsible for a specific geographic area and manages customer acceptance and contractual obligations on approximately 700 - 1,000 active mining machines.
• The contractual obligations include product delivery commitments, uptime guarantees, equipment maintenance cost caps, repair and maintenance programs and continuous improvement value addition agreements.
• Customer acceptance and contractual sales obligations are managed through Project Managers assigned to specific customers or markets.
• A total of 7-10 Project Managers report to this position.
• Each of the Project Managers are professionals with a minimum of 15 years in the mining or construction equipment business.
• The annual capacity cost responsibility

Key Responsibilities

• Structure support terms on sales of new mining machines (delivery terms, up time and operating cost guarantees, etc).
• Coordinate project start-up with customer and service agent after sale is complete. Allocate Project Managers as required to assemble, commission and deliver machines to the customers in line with delivery terms.
• Train Project Manager and servicing agent as required to follow through on remaining contract obligations. Monitor contract performance and manage corrective actions with servicing agent and customer to close any shortfalls in performance.
• Serve as mediator to resolve any disputes among the customer, service agent and project manager.
• Conduct scheduled meetings with customers to manage product acceptance through Komatsu's collaborative continuous improvement process (JoiFUL).
• Support Project Mangers with diagnosing and resolving technical problems on machines.
• Manage the flow of machine quality information from the servicing agent/customer operations to the quality support team in the factory.
• Negotiate and manage policy settlements for out of warranty failures to ensure customers receive fair value for investing in Komatsu product.
• Manage training plans to improve skill levels of each of the Project Managers. Project Managers are required to have 80 hours of product or job training each year.
• Manager departmental budget, hiring and performance management of employees.

Qualifications:

• Education/Experience: BS in Engineering or Trade certification with minimum of 10 years experience in the construction or mining equipment business, or 15 years experience in the construction or mining business.
• Problem solving: Candidate must have experience with TQM/QC tools and/or with six-sigma tools for problem solving. A strong continuous improvement background is a plus.
• Leadership: Candidate must demonstrate strong leadership skills and have prior experience of leading functionally diverse groups.
• Good interpersonal skills/effective communicator: successful candidate must demonstrate exceptional verbal and written communication skills.
• Negotiation: Candidate must have prior experience with negotiations in a corporate setting (preferably on performance terms with mining customers).
• Extensive travel throughout the U.S. is required (over 50%).