A journey to excellence
Only three years short of celebrating a century of dedicated service to the African mining and minerals-processing industry, Weir Minerals is showing no signs of slowing down on its fast-paced journey to distinction. “Our journey to excellence started back in 2002, in which we drew our focus away from the past production methods and concerned ourselves with what the market actually wants – higher product quality and higher service levels,” states sales and marketing director Ulrich Kienle. He notes that the past 18 months have been eventful in terms of revolutionising how the company manufactures its product. “We have taken great strides in implementing lean manufacturing principles. There have been signifi- cant gains, including shorter lead times for spares and projects, improved product quality and higher service levels, as well as a greater flexibility to produce what the customers want, when they need it,” says Kienle. These improved service levels are evident in the company’s initiative to deliver higher levels of customer service directly to the customer’s location, by reviewing its route to market approach. Following the opening of new branches in South Africa and certain strategic African countries, Weir has a more effective mix of direct representation through branches or subsidiaries, agents and distributors. “We are finding that agents are making huge investments in themselves in their commitment to superior service,” says marketing communications and PR representative Penny Darroll. “Using best-practice approaches honed by Weir Minerals, we give real cradle-to-grave support on our products. This includes anything from applications engineering on projects, to site audits, fault finding, system improvement, field and commissioning service, spares support, performance and agreements and maintenance contracts, equipment service and rebuilds,” says Kienle. In an ongoing quest to do what the customer needs most, Weir Minerals Africa has concerned itself with packaging lasting solutions to the customer. Taking the demanding constraints placed on today’s processing plants in the areas of reliability, availability, costs and shortage of skills, Weir has shifted from being a seller of pumps and spares to being a provider of slurry equipment solutions. These solutions comprise pumps, hydrocyclones, mill-lining systems and slurry valves. “We can now focus on helping our customers reduce their life-cycle cost or total ownership cost (TOC),” says Kienle. This is particularly relevant at a time in which higher starting efficiencies and maintaining them for longer are industry buzz words, given the rising power costs in South Africa. The company has also invested into product development and materials research. “Many new pump lines have since been released, including the ERP, MU and XU and more exciting ones are to follow,” elaborates Kienle. Weir has also renewed its investment in new state-of-the art CNC m/c tools, extruders for rubber plant and jigs and tools to support one-piece flow. The company’s successes are mounting with growing unit pump sales and the “newer” product lines of cyclone cluster sales and mill-lining systems, both of which have topped targets set for the past two years running. “We take this as confirmation that our migration from product supplier to solution provider is well on the way,” notes Kienle. Increased sales are complemented by an increase in staff. “Some ten new sales and tendering engineers and metallurgists have complemented and strengthened our team in the past 12 months, allowing us to deliver our mission. Our aim is to look at the process of the application as opposed to the individual building blocks and they help us in this,” he says. The company’s approach must be resonating with customers, if their response to Weir Minerals is anything to go by. “It is very gratifying that cus- tomers, too, are now responding to Weir with many recent accolades for service excellence, projects concluded on time as well as best ser-vice levels and documented TOC reductions,” states Kienle. Weir Minerals can also list black economic empowerment (BEE) as one of the company’s notable achievements, following its inclusion in South Africa’s top 300 most empowered companies with an Empowerdex BEE “B” rating. This long-term practice of workplace empowerment is further enhanced with the company’s having established a new BEE company, Weir Minerals Service (Africa), with a 26% black equity partner. Alongside these developments, the company has undergone extensive rebranding. The company has commenced trading as Weir Minerals Africa and is assuming a much higher profile in the industry as a total solution provider. Following the Weir group’s acquisition of Warman International in 1996, all horizontal, vertical and submersible pumps are now branded Envirotech for Africa and Warman for the rest of the world. “We hope that, as a result of the branding, the company will enjoy more exposure. There are lots of new activities on the horizon, including participation in Electra Mining 2006,” adds Darroll. The effects of the Warman International purchase have been felt in the company’s product range.
“The acquisition of Warman has brought with it a huge product range,” says pumps product manager Don Higginson. The company now boasts a global range of pumps which can be supplied in adherance to the client’s specifi- cations. The ERP pump, developed by Weir Minerals Africa, has been proved and tested in the market and its successes are mounting with more sizes being added. “At present, there are 30 sites spread across 15 mining groups all over Africa and into the former Soviet Union and Australasia,” says Higginson. This is a sterling example of how improved hydraulic design, coupled with advanced material science and smarter manufacturing processes and attention to detail with regards to serviceability, can produce a product that delivers unparalleled TOC performance, beating competitor offerings by factors of twofold and more. It is also a completely locally developed product. “This is a demonstration of the engineering competence present in South Africa,” says Kienle. One of the manufacturing methods contributing to the pump’s success is the replicast method. Boasting 100% repeatability, this die-cast method, using polystyrene effectively, reproduces the speci- fications given and is used extensively throughout the group. “Replicast gives you a quality of definition that is unprecedented,” Kienle emphasises. Weir Minerals Africa has also upgraded its range of mill circuit pumps. Higginson explains, “These are the most critical of all pumps in process plants. As a result of a global programme we can now offer one of the most advanced mill circuit solutions in the world. This includes hydrocyclone, vortexless cyclones, cyclone and mill liners, making us a solution provider for the mill circuit as a whole.” These products are user friendly and improve the efficiency of the entire circuit.
Unlike conventional circuits, the large and abrasive materials involved make the mill circuit more unpredictable than its counterparts. The product development team has responded to this extreme-wear environment by using superior materials.
“We are the world leaders in wear-resistant materials. We are most advanced and a number of our materials and methods are patented,” says Higginson. The product development team also makes use of advanced computational fluid dynamics to identify high wear areas and thus enable them to extend the life of each component. “We have also redeveloped mechanical ends that are easier to change,” says Higginson. Being extremely robust, smaller in size and interchangeable across a wide variety of models, there is substantial development in this area. He adds, “We are also improving the motor mounting on pumps to reduce the amount of downtime and keep the product at an optimal point.” “Everything we do is based on the premise that making the product last as long as possible ensures that customers can meet service intervals. We are not the cheapest but what we offer is superior design skills that result in a product that guarantees process and by output measure you have lowest operating cost,” says Kienle. “As we approach our centenary, our investment in product and infrastructure is all coming together,” he concludes.
