Taylor Abulaban
Our trip to Komatsu was a unique experience in that we had the opportunity to learn about a large Japanese company doing business in Chile. Komatsu is a multi-national corporation that manufactures construction, mining, military, and industrial equipment. Some of the key industries that Komatsu is involved with in Chile are mining, forestry, and construction.
The plant that we visited assembles equipment for sale into these various sectors and is heavily involved with training employees. The mining sector is, by far, the largest industry that drives Komatsu business in Chile. Furthermore, this is the only sector that Komatsu trains employees and workers in the country. They do not train employees in other industries, such as forestry, primarily because the workers in these sectors are in remote locations. There are a number of challenges that Komatsu faces in training employees in mining. First, it is not uncommon for people to take their newly found skills elsewhere after they have been trained by Komatsu. Another challenge involves access to machines that have been sold because often mining companies are running the equipment constantly. For this reason, the plant keeps a few machines on site to give employees the opportunity to learn and practice. Other services that the plant provides include maintenance and repair. This is performed and completed based on customer requests. Beyond typical maintenance, the plant can repair minor or significant damage to machines, and they even use their paint room for customers that seek fully restored machines. This trip was an ideal experience to learn about large manufacturing corporations strategically launching business in Chile based on the country's geography, economy, and culture.