For this article, I interviewed Wes Taylor, Director of Autonomous Vehicle Platform for Komatsu.
Wes and his team develop Komatsu’s next generation autonomous system for its mining portfolio.
He studied mechanical engineering at Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE), started at Komatsu as an intern, and never left.
His team works across Komatsu’s factories around the world from a base right here in the MKE!
There’s a coffee shop hiding inside a mining equipment company in the Walker’s Point Innovation District.
I met up with Wes after strolling through the front lobby at Komatsu. It’s a public space with a coffee shop, a calm waiting area, a company history wall, and plenty of interesting, hands-on Komatsu artifacts.
A few minutes before meeting Wes, I had responded to a text from my friend David Fockel about being at Komatsu. He quickly texted back, “Are you working from their coffee shop?”
It hadn’t dawned on me that I could do that. But, maybe I should do it more often.
People often ask how I find these places and people. I guess I’m fortunate to be able to do this work. Because, more often than not, I just show up and ask questions.
You’ve probably driven past this building, too.
Komatsu acquired P&H, a longtime maker of mining equipment and Wes worked out of its old facility here in Milwaukee. When he told people where he worked, they’d ask what he did there.
“I work on mining equipment,” he’d say.
He’d get something similar to this back from whoever he was talking to…
“My grandfather spent 40 years in manufacturing there. He ran a lathe. But he never knew what he was building.”
To me, that’s the fascinating part of making things this big at Komatsu.
The machines are enormous, so the finished product rarely sits in one place. Pieces are built, loaded onto rail cars or semi trucks, and then put together on site by Komatsu dealers. Wes called it “big Legos.” Even inside the company, he shared, not many people see the final machine up close.
And Komatsu doesn’t advertise to the public. The company sells to billion-dollar mining companies, not people like me. So the building and the work in it often stays a mystery to most of us.
Can you understand why I wanted to sit in their lobby?
“If it’s not grown, it’s mined.”
One of his first bosses at Komatsu often told Wes the above.
From steel in our city’s buildings, raw materials in our phones and computers, all of it comes from mining.
And the sites that Wes described are massive. Think small cities. They’re also factories with raw materials going in and finished products coming out.
Driverless trucks aren’t new to Komatsu.
Komatsu was one of the first to market with a fully autonomous haulage system. That was almost 20 years ago. Over the last year, they celebrated more than 1,000 autonomous trucks commissioned in the fleet, roughly 1/6th of the global fleet are autonomous.
I thought of Waymo. And I asked Wes about the comparison of what happens with autonomous engineering between Waymo and Komatsu.
Both companies work to attract the same kind of talent. Both rely on a similar original equipment ecosystem. Both are developing similar technologies. However, Komatsu designs for the harshest of environments in a 24/7 operating mindset. That’s pressure.
It’s not what you’d picture a mining job to be.
As Wes puts it, a lot of people still think of mining as a pickaxe and a rock. Nope.
Wes dubs his team as a “mini Silicon Valley.” He has roboticists, automation specialists, software engineers, and more.
Even when I toured the manufacturing floor, I noticed that it was clean, high tech, and full of people looking out for each other.
The advice from Wes: bring your curiosity.
He didn’t plan on what he’s into professionally. Wes told me he didn’t even think he’d stay in Milwaukee because he didn’t think this kind of work existed here. He got the internship by fluke and didn’t know Komatsu was here. “Like many Milwaukee locals.”
And yet, both Wes and Komatsu have grown together. Because of the people there.
And for anyone considering a similar path, Wes says it’s hard to teach passion, so be curious.
If you like what you’ve read, then you need to listen to the full conversation below or on Spotify.
And maybe, one morning, stop by the Komatsu lobby and grab a coffee.
Love you, Milwaukee.
