Savings Cemented In Stone: 20 Years of Savings with Harvard Filters

A leading cement manufacturing company operating with more than 150 pieces of equipment and who services a large geographic region turned to Harvard® filtration systems for help in cutting costs.

After some investigation, it was clear that the company’s largest consumer of time and money was equipment. The company had a staff of 20 mechanics and outside contractors in order to maintain their trucks and other heavy equipment. When the company’s managers saw a demonstration of Harvard filters, the decision was clear—”we need to use Harvard products.”

The company has been using Harvard filters for nearly 20 years which have been installed on over 150 pieces of equipment that include:

• Concrete Trucks
• Dump trucks
• Bulldozers
• Rock Crushers
• Front End Loaders
• Forklifts
• Pickup Trucks

“I can’t imagine any place we have oil that we can’t apply a Harvard filter,” said Dave, who is the maintenance manager for the company.

The impact of using Harvard filters has exceeded even their highest expectations. On a more basic level, equipment runs five times longer between oil changes. These intervals are backed up and supported by oil analysis and particle counts from independent labs, showing they have the cleanest possible lubricants.

In over 20 years of service, only four trucks out of 50 required pump services. Trucks went from 10 to 20 years of service with no overhauls and trucks up to 15 years old had no repairs to hydraulic systems. Loaders are getting over 18,000 hours of service before needing an overhaul. Loaders and trucks regularly get 20,000 hours before a transmission overhaul.

The company’s cost savings come from many places. Not having to change oil as frequently saves on the cost of oil, labor and downtime. With time between oil changes five times longer than without Harvard filters, the cost of new oil is only 20% of what it would be without Harvard filters. Hydraulic fluid is never changed – only the filters are changed. Equipment performs like new even after years of service and often exceeding the manufacturers’ service life.

Another important thing that changed at the company was the mindset. Rather than having a staff that repairs equipment, the staff focuses on preventative maintenance. Equipment has nearly 100% uptime and breakdowns are almost unheard of. Equipment lasts longer and performs better. Plus, all maintenance is performed by staff mechanics eliminating the need for service contracts.

Dave sums it up best by saying, “In order to be competitive in our market we need to keep our costs low. That means we have to maintain our equipment and get the maximum life out of it.

Thanks to Harvard filters, our costs are one-third of what you would expect to find with a comparable fleet.”

If we can do this for Dave and his company, imagine what Harvard filters can do for YOU!