PODCAST: Tour of Cummins’ brand new MRC

While engines from a whole range of sectors will be rebuilt at the centre, from mining applications to trains, road transport and construction, marine engines for tugs, passenger vessels, patrol vessels, defence and fishing will be taken in and rebuilt to offer 20-30% savings to customers over new engines.

Accommodating press and customers in the Saski Hilton Hotel in central Krakow, guests were taken on a half-day tour of the new facility, which prides itself on offering three options for rebuild – the ’Classic’ in-frame rebuild in situ; an ’Advanced’ option where the engine is removed from the application and taken into the factory; and the ‘Ultimate’ rebuild, a process which will result in an engine emerging from the factory as good as new.

And because of the Service Exchange method, customers can pick up a rebuild after just a weekend without having to wait for their particular engine to be finished.

Chris Brown, Aftermarket Development Channel management director for Europe, told guests an Ultimate rebuild would save the seven months or so it could take to order and receive a new engine, at 70-80% of the cost.

The factory will employ up to 70 staff when at full capacity, Cummins says, and turn over up to 300 engines a year.

Each one will take 35 days for complete dissassembly, deep cleaning, inspection, components replacement, re-assembly and testing, all done in a factory environment as opposed to the more traditional workshop method.

“This place is the epicentre of all our products,” said Brown. “This epicentre is part of our overall strategy, the final piece of the jigsaw.”