US-based equipment manufacturers know the unique challenges Hawai’i poses in servicing and supporting equipment on a state two thousand miles away from the mainland’s west coast. The time difference alone adds an extra hurdle to communication, to say nothing of the difficulty of getting parts to the islands. Or as John Lapa, Sennebogen’s Authorized Service Provider in Hawai’i puts it, there’s “no such thing as next day air.”
John started his company, Hawai’i Pacific Machinery, in 2024 and he immediately became a Sennebogen ASP. He credits his collaboration with Sennebogen for opening new job opportunities and building a stronger relationship with the technicians in Stanley, North Carolina. Even if John is waking up early or the techs are staying in the office later to accommodate the time difference, he says that “if I need them, suddenly need them or it’s an emergency, there’s always somebody that’s available.”
John is a native Hawaiian who grew up in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island. He started his career in automotive and worked for various outfits and dealers before landing at Schnitzer Steel, now Radius Recycling, on O’ahu. The scrap yard’s Sennebogen 850 and two 840s were John’s introduction to the world of green, giving him familiarity with the product before going independent.
Becoming an ASP meant that Hawai’i Pacific Machinery could order parts and complete warranty work, which John knows is important in this industry. “I’m not just a mobile mechanic,” he says. The ASP program allowed him to become locked in with his work on the scrap yards. After becoming an ASP, however, he realized that Sennebogen’s foremost philosophy is machine uptime. All of Sennebogen’s information was available to him when he was a mechanic for a customer. Sennebogen also holds training classes where dealer technicians, Authorized Service Providers, and customers sit side by side.
That kind of collaboration resonates well with someone who grew up in the state famous for its Aloha Spirit. “What I like about Sennebogen is how family oriented it is. Being a part of Sennebogen feels like we’re all a family,” John says. When that level of teamwork is put in place with the goal of keeping machines running, it means that operations like Radius are never down for long. “When a machine is down, it’s all hands-on deck.”
While only becoming a Sennebogen ASP in 2024, John has already seen at least one major example of Sennebogen’s collaborative effort. As an official partner with the company, Hawai’i Pacific Machinery was able to help put together the Sennebogen 875 that went to work assisting Pearl Harbor’s dry dock. Taking a little over a week, the project was spearheaded by Sennebogen’s outside service technician, Bryan Wigley. This unique opportunity at the world-famous shipyard would not have happened without having the official backing of Sennebogen through the ASP program.
John Lapa is also a frequent collaborator with James Pittman, one of the internal service techs in Stanley. When their phone calls don’t line up perfectly, the two send emails back and forth and there is never a long wait for an answer. That is not just matter of convenience on an island six hours behind. It’s a necessity. But, as John says, “we all help each other. This is all we’ve got.”
Sennebogen has built its name on building a collaborative, family approach to keeping its machines running. In this regard it has found the perfect partner in John Lapa and Hawai’i Pacific Machinery. He knows a thing or two about working together to achieve machine uptime. “I guess that’s how we were raised, with the Aloha Spirit.”
Interested in becoming an Authorized Service Provider? Reach out to sales@sennebogenllc.com