That is, a perfect storm for an original equipment manufacturer surveying the global coal sector and asking, what does the future hold?

This is, of course, the compelling question, not least for mining houses frantically trying to milk coal’s current upswing.

For the boss of one of the world’s leading OEMs it is a time to respond thoughtfully to burgeoning demand for equipment, while retaining a focus on quality and technology improvements.

About the two key markets on his radar Sutherlin is equally bullish. Long-term sustained growth is expected in emerging markets, in particular China, Russia and India. Growth in mature markets – the US, Australia and South Africa – will be driven by major investment expenditure in infrastructure such as rail and ports in the wake of historic under-investment.

“Each one of those factors could have driven enough demand to make this a strong industry but put both together it’s like a perfect storm scenario,” Sutherlin said.

As a consequence, Joy is looking at ways to increase its ability to deliver product while being sensitive about not overbuilding or over-expanding.

Company use of plate steel rose more than 50% in 2004. Last year Joy used 100,000 tons of plate steel alone, and usage is expected to be up a further 20% this year. This quarter (ending June) Joy will build and ship more continuous miners than it has for any quarter in the last ten years. The company’s order books have topped $1 billion for the previous four quarters of its fiscal year.

Impressively, this production growth has been achieved without radical investment in expansion but more through restructuring the company’s manufacturing procedures.

“In this business the way you get capacity is equally important to how much capacity you add,” Sutherlin noted.

Much has been done to eke more out of existing facilities and Sutherlin has been instrumental in introducing a raft of improvements, such as cycle time reduction in both rebuild and original manufacture workshops.

“Our goal was to get faster at getting product through our shop and get rid of ‘dead time’. Associated with that comes benefits in efficiencies and quality, and in the amount of inventory we need to carry, and of course, you get more capacity,” he said.

Longer lead-time, higher volume components, such as motors, were tackled first as these were identified as where the most gains could be made.

“When we started the process about nine months ago, motor rebuilds were taking 40-50 days. As we stand today we are consistently getting figures in the low teens. Monthly averages out of some of our rebuild shops are 16 days and we’re up to 10 to 11 days on a lot of motors.”

In addition, process improvements have been mapped out relating to how material is moved between plants.

Despite these advances, the company is somewhat hamstrung by critical supply chain shortages.

“Our number one-through-ten focus is on the supply chain. We have the capability to build more machines in our own plants than we have the ability of the supply chain to keep critical parts coming through,” Sutherlin said.

In short supply are high-specification castings, forgings, gear steel, bearings, electric cable, and the list goes on.

Joy is working with key suppliers and identifying secondary sources to ensure it has the raw materials to build equipment, but as Sutherlin wryly remarked: “When you have ten things that are bottlenecks you have to solve all ten”

Skills shortages are another looming threat with the most critical being “the tribal skills of the guys who build our machines”

Joy has people in the training pipeline but solving the supply chain issues remains the dominant challenge.

A second notable achievement has been the Sutherlin-inspired introduction of flawless start-up. In the past Joy, like every other OEM, faced challenges with getting equipment up and running on installation.

“Sometimes we’ve done change-outs on commissioning. They were mostly nuisance items but it created the impression the equipment required quite a bit of care and maintenance at the early stages,” Sutherlin said.

“We also realized as we got past the first 30, 60 and 90 days the machine began to perform really well. So there was no reason not to expect flawless performance to be there from the very first day.”

A multi-functional, multi-regional team was formed to address flawless performance to find out what had to be done to get equipment to start-up and run flawlessly from day one.

The process put in place includes a far greater focus on the field delivery of equipment and on addressing problems as soon as they arise, with a constant loop back to improve the process.

The company most recently delivered a flawless start-up of the newly released RS20s control system at the Mandalong mine in Australia.

“We targeted 60 days of no downtime and our team was able to detect early warning signs and find solutions. We had things to fix but they were done below the radar-scope of the customer. It proved to us the importance of paying attention at the front-end of start-up.”

Sutherlin said the company would transfer flawless start-up and cycle time reduction initiatives across Joy’s global sites, including into China where the company was beginning to do rebuilds.

Looking further ahead, Sutherlin points to a need to get equipment “not exactly standardized, but more configurable” - a challenge in an industry with a tradition of building unique, solution-specific equipment.

If Joy could produce more pre-engineered, configured options that serve 90% of customer requirements, it would mean more efficiency and better spares and parts support. Increasing levels of automation and controls is a bit of passion for Sutherlin who once flew A-7 attack jets for the US Navy.

In the scramble to get machines into mines and cutting, there’s less tolerance of automation, he said, but points out the impetus to automate will become more pronounced as the industry’s workforce gets older and its tremendous amount of experience is diluted.

“We are not taking a short-term view of the industry but are committed to our customers and shareholders. As we ramp-up, we are going to be efficient. Quality will stay up and delivery capability will stay up.”