From one bucket a month to 200: The people behind Barracuda's evolution
Every product tells a story. Sometimes it’s a story about engineering, and sometimes it’s about innovation, but more often than not, it’s about people.
As Schlam prepares to deliver its 200th Barracuda mining bucket, it’s a moment to reflect on far more than a production milestone. It represents years of listening to customers, refining designs, challenging conventional thinking and building a manufacturing capability that continues to raise the standard for mining loading attachments.
Few people have witnessed that journey more closely than Sheree Clancy.
Over the past 14 years, Sheree has grown alongside the Waroona operation, beginning in a junior accounts role before moving into operations, leading the manufacturing facility and now stepping into a new global role focused on expanding Schlam’s bucket refurbishment capability across the business.
Her career mirrors the evolution of the Waroona facility itself.
What started as Schlam’s first workshop specialising in bucket overhauls and refurbishments has become a world-class manufacturing and export facility producing market-leading Barracuda loading attachments for mining operations across Australia.
A challenge worth saying yes to
When the Waroona team began manufacturing Barracuda buckets in 2020, they weren’t simply building a new product, they were transforming the way the business operated.
The first Barracuda, a Komatsu WA1200 wheel loader bucket, marked the beginning of a steep learning curve.
Moving from rebuilding existing equipment to manufacturing an entirely new product demanded new processes, new skills and countless refinements. Every bucket built helped improve the next one.
“There was never a mindset of ‘we can’t do that’,” Sheree says. “Everyone simply said, ‘Let’s give it a shot.'”
That attitude became the foundation of the operation.
Working closely with Schlam’s engineering teams, manufacturing processes were continually refined to improve quality, efficiency and consistency while maintaining the performance customers depend on in the world’s toughest mining environments.
The focus never changed: deliver a high-quality product, deliver it on time and ensure customers receive exactly what they need.
Built through partnership with miners
At Schlam, innovation doesn’t happen in isolation.
Every Barracuda loading attachment is designed around a customer’s operating environment, maintenance strategy and productivity objectives. That partnership has driven continuous product evolution from the very beginning.
Today, Barracuda loading attachments improve payload productivity across 16 models of excavators and wheel loaders ranging from 100 to 600 tonnes, with the product range continuing to expand into face shovels and rope shovels.
One of the most significant developments has been the introduction of the Barracuda T2.
Developed in response to customer demand, the T2 features a fully replaceable lower shell, allowing customers to maximise wear life before replacing the shell as a single component.
The result is less downtime, simplified maintenance and a lightweight attachment that continues delivering payload performance.
The Waroona team’s 100th Barracuda was a T2 bucket for a CAT 6040, a milestone that reflected not only manufacturing capability but Schlam’s commitment to designing solutions around real operational challenges.
Learning, improving and accelerating
Like any successful manufacturing operation, progress didn’t happen overnight.
Early production averaged around one bucket each month while manufacturing methods and product designs were refined.
Today, the Waroona facility produces an average of six Barracuda loading attachments every month while continuing to provide overhaul and refurbishment services for OEM buckets across the mining industry.
It took 4 years to build the first 100 Barracudas. The next 100 have taken just two.
That acceleration reflects years of experience, process improvement and the confidence that comes from solving increasingly complex customer challenges.
Investing in people as much as products
The Waroona team now includes 39 people, including 5 apprentices, continuing a long-standing commitment to developing skilled trades within the local community.
For Sheree, that’s one of the most rewarding parts of the job.
Watching apprentices arrive with little industry experience before developing into highly capable boilermakers, and in many cases future leaders, is something the team is incredibly proud of.
Supporting regional communities has always been part of the Waroona story, creating opportunities for local people while building expertise that benefits mining customers around the world.
That same investment in people has helped develop leaders across Schlam, with many team members progressing into senior operational and technical roles throughout the business.
Taking Waroona's expertise global
As production reaches its 200th Barracuda, Sheree is already focused on the next chapter.
Her new role will help expand Schlam’s refurbishment capability across the company’s operations, beginning with Forrestfield and Muswellbrook before extending globally to facilities in China and Mexico.
The goal is simple: deliver the same quality, consistency and customer experience regardless of where a rebuild takes place.
The knowledge developed in Waroona over more than a decade now provides the blueprint for growing Schlam’s bucket services worldwide.
Because while manufacturing 200 Barracuda loading attachments is an important milestone, it’s only one measure of success.
The real achievement is building a team that continues to solve customer challenges, improve productivity and deliver innovative load and haul attachments that perform where it matters most, on site.
As the 200th Barracuda, a Hitachi EX3600 backhoe bucket, prepares to leave Waroona for a local WA mine, it represents far more than another product leaving the workshop.
It represents what can be achieved when engineering expertise, manufacturing excellence and a commitment to solving customer challenges come together.
That’s what continues to make Schlam the global expert in load and haul attachments.
