Allied Systems

CRANE SPECIALIST EXTENDS REACH WITH NEW CONTRACTS PAYLOAD

Allied Systems, a US-based design and manufacturing hub for marine cranes and davits, is forging ahead, having secured its biggest-ever contract. Mr Hitesh Patel, VP of Sales and Marketing, spoke to Andy Probert about the company's commitment to client satisfaction and its extensive global support.

Cranes and davits are the silent workhorses of the maritime sector, hourly performing loading, unloading and handling tasks, then in critical moments, enacting rescue and boat deployments. For more than 40 years, Allied Marine Crane - a division of Oregon-based Allied Systems - has designed and developed cranes, davits, handling arms, winches and A-Frames to meet global demand.

Allied Systems is a veteran- and family-owned business operating from a 250,000 sq ft facility in Sherwood, Oregon. The company offers a full-service fabrication shop, a dedicated CNC shop with 13 CNC mills and lathes, and many other capabilities. These include a largescale paint and sandblasting section (one of the largest in Oregon), an 84,000 sq ft assembly facility, and critical test facilities.

“We proudly produce our products here in the United States, something that few of our competitors do,” said Mr Hitesh Patel, VP of Sales and Marketing. “We keep as many processes as possible here inhouse to ensure the highest-quality end-to-end control.”

Dedication to detail is never far from Allied. It has a 25-strong engineering team focused on designing and customising product.

“We specialise in highly-specified marine cranes, davits and handling systems designed and built to industry standards, including API, ABS, SOLAS and Lloyds Register among others.”

Their cranes are utilised on vessels for clients including the US Navy, US Coast Guard, oceanographic research vessels, and commercial customers worldwide. Clients include shipyards, vessel owners and operators. Allied’s handling systems are deployed on oceanographic research vessels for various needs including recove ring sediment samples from the seabed thousands of metres below the surface of the ocean, as well as measuring ocean water data at varying depths, including conductivity, temperatures, density, etc.

Core values

“Maintaining every aspect of our processes on-site, allows us to design to the exact specifications our customers’ need,” said Mr Patel. “That could be for a very high-sea state, extreme cold weather conditions or specific regulatory requirements. Designing purpose-built equipment is what differentiates us in our industry.”

He added: “One of our core values is our support. That is very important for clients. We have so many cranes in critical applications with customers, such as the US Navy, it is essential their equipment is always ready to run.”

Allied has a 15-strong team of service technicians that are deployed worldwide to handle crane issues for clients. The company also maintains a fully dedicated service parts warehouse that can ship globally 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

“That support is the backbone of Allied and the core values we extend to clients,” Mr Patel said. “Many of our US customers appreciate that we are a US manufacturer.”

Within Allied's five different product lines, marine crane applications account for the largest portion of all turnover for the Sherwood-based business. But things are now moving fast for the company as it seeks to scale up employment from its current 200-plus workforce.

Mr Patel explained: “Allied is growing rapidly and continuing to pick up momentum. Sales growth is up 52%compared to last year, and 120% over 2020. Our major challenge is recruiting people fast enough to keep up with business growth.”

History-defining contract

Underpinning that sterling performance is Allied securing its biggest-ever contract in 2019, worth $70 million, to design, manufacture and deliver Crash and Salvage Crane units for the US Navy.

The mobile rubber-tired cranes move aircraft with mechanical failures or battle damage out of the way on the flight deck of aircraft carriers, landing helicopter assault and dock vessels. “They

are critical equipment,” Mr Patel said, “as no flight operations are allowed without an operational Crash Crane running on standby.”

The Crash Crane design was pulled from Allied’s experience in designing and manufacturing its Wagner product line of rubbertired logstackers and chipdozers, and its skill in designing cranes for harsh marine environments.

“While it was our largest ever contract, it has also been the most challenging,” Mr Patel continued. “The US Navy wants to make sure that no matter what environmental conditions are present this crane is operational, otherwise they cannot conduct any flight ops off the carrier. You don't want a multi-billion aircraft carrier sitting dead in the water if our equipment isn't working.”

With a prototype close to completing exhaustive testing to ensure it can withstand extreme environmental and operational conditions, Allied has been greenlit to begin full production and that will continue for the next four years. The new crane is designed to support a fully-loaded F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, for which the previous model did not have the capability. Another challenge was reducing the machine's weight to meet strict deck loading requirements while increasing the load capacity.

New reach  Mr Patel confirmed lucrative contracts are in the pipeline, with negotiations ongoing with potential clients. Allied is also engaged in making new standardised crane product lines. Additionally, it has just released the new DX Series Davits range, a lightweight, ultra-compact, cost-competitive design intended to fit within tight deck envelopes.

The company is engaged in the push for environmentally friendly applications and offers eco-friendly oils for crane operation, according to Mr Patel: “We understand the importance of equipment being as environmentally safe as possible and continue to invest in research and development in those areas.”

Allied cranes are built for the long term, and he acknowledged that many were still working globally for 40-plus years. “That is a testament to our product longevity and the support we provide,” he said. “We want to ensure that we are placing customer support above all else. Support is the most valuable product we offer to our customers”

“Unique to us is that our support team is directly employed by Allied and are experts in our product. We provide direct and rapid engineering support to overcome client problems when there are challenges.”

Mr Patel concluded: “We understand how critical our equipment is to our customers. Our product is 100% tested before it leaves our factory. Our customers appreciate that they can trust that our equipment is safe to use, and they appreciate the support we provide over the life of the product, and we believe that leads to a mutually beneficial relationship.” n