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ISSUE No. 61 | www.bus-ex.com

Starlite Aviation Group:

A star shining bright How Starlite Aviation has grown into a global aviation business

mumias sugar:

harmony gold:

renĂŠ lagos:

Included The BE Mining Directory showcases leading mining organisations from across the world, ranging from big corporations to junior mines and their supply chains.

Be seen throughout our portfolio of magazines: • BE Mining Directory • BE Mining • BE Weekly • BE Monthly •

Go to page 74 to see this week’s listing To find out how to get involved contact: vincent@bus-ex.com

business excellence

Business John O’Hanlon Editor johanlon@bus-ex.com Will Daynes Editor wdaynes@bus-ex.com Matt Johnson Art Director mjohnson@bus-ex.com Louise Culling Production Designer lculling@bus-ex.com Richard Turner Director of Sales rturner@bus-ex.com

Business Excellence brings you content from leading business influencers and strategic thinkers providing inspiration and guidance to help you and your business grow.

We showcase some of the best examples of successful organisations from around the world giving you a unique insight into how they operate.

Vince Kielty Director of Editorial Research vkielty@bus-ex.com Sharon Rooke Administration & Operations srooke@bus-ex.com Matt Day Head of Technology mday@bus-ex.com Andy Turner Chief Executive aturner@bus-ex.com

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Thomas R. Cutler President & CEO - TR Cutler, Inc Exact Software Business software developers

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issue No.61

6 16

6 strategy

Making yourself at home in the international marketplace Planning for successful expansion of your sales activities into new markets.

16 supply chain

Reducing Customer Lead Time

How implementing lean technologies into your supply chain can reduce lead times from 15 days to less than two.

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22 Starlite Aviation Group A star shining bright

Starlite Aviation Group has grown into a global aviation business. Commercial Director, Dimmie de Milander discusses the strengths of the group and how it is perfectly positioned to capitalise on future growth opportunities.

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32

32 René Lagos

Our work is here to stay

The structural design firm of René Lagos has worked on more than ten million square metres of building: after 36 years it is recognised and respected for its expertise in realising the aspirations of architects to build tall in challenging environments.

46 Proccea Construction No challenge too complex

Proccea Construction’s vast degree of experience in international construction has made it a hugely successful player both at home in Turkey and abroad.

54

54 Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited

A harmonious approach to mining

Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited CEO Graham Briggs reveals how the company is weathering the rapidly evolving mining environment in South Africa, making itself a stronger business in the process.

64 Mumias Sugar Company The secret to sweet success

As well as being the largest sugar manufacturing operation in East Africa, Mumias Sugar Company is today making a name for itself in the field of power generation.

BE Directory 74 Consolidated Wire Industries (CWI)

64

CWI: World-class wire solutions

CWI is an premier producer of mild steel wire and wire products in South Africa.

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Making yourself international

Planning for successful expansion of y Words by

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Exac

Strategy

f at home in the l marketplace

your sales activities into new markets

ct Software

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he time when small and medium sized businesses were only busy with local or national commerce is already far behind us. New technology and free-trade zones have made the world a much smaller place. Legislation has been simplified, import duties often reduced or removed to speed the passage of goods and services over international borders.

Banks have made international finance easier as well, with payment transactions manageable online and facilitated by schemes like SEPA. In combination, these improvements mean it’s now much easier for smaller entrepreneurs to approach new markets.

The challenging economic climate has seen persistent consumer caution over the last few years, in turn making it difficult for businesses to uncover new opportunities for growth. With mature domestic markets often lacking major opportunities to drive new revenue, more and more companies have explored for new customers overseas, looking for markets where the crisis has thinned out the competition.

With first rate communications making international supply chains realistic for smaller businesses, many countries now see competitors from all corners of the globe vying for customer attention. Lead

times for their products have shortened by connecting information in newer, smarter ways. Real time insight and intimate customer contact through social media have created new ways of doing business.

And it’s not just western businesses trying their hand in the emerging economies.

Innovative, energetic companies from Asia and South America have reached Europe, their low production costs and aggressive pricing putting the margins of domestic businesses under pressure.

So, with these trends now well established, how do businesses considering international expansion set themselves up to profit from these opportunities over the longer term? To make a real go of expansion into new markets, there are a number of major considerations that need to be carefully addressed.

Do your homework – thoroughly Broadly speaking, the first step is to ensure the business has a clear view of the potential new market and a carefully planned strategy for capitalizing on the specific opportunities that it offers.

Which competitors are active? How do our products or services differ? Where are the strengths in our offerings we can leverage to create appetite? How are you going to take on the competition in terms of launching and then maintaining

“With first rate communications making international supply chains realistic for smaller businesses, many countries now see competitors from all corners of the globe vying for customer attention” 8 |

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Strategy

“Unfortunately, it’s quite often the case that employees in satellite sales offices are kept busy with all manner of non-sales related local activities” exposure? Will you challenge them on price, by offering a more innovative and attractive product or service, or will you outdo them with the level of customer service you offer as standard? And how will we steer our operations – from a central headquarters, through a local dealer/representative network, or though self-owned subsidiary offices?

With this many questions on the table, it’s essential that appraisal of where strengths lie, and how they match up to potential opportunities, is brutally honest. These then need to be translated into clear steps that will allow you to create an impact. Not having this crystal clear will result in missed opportunities, and time being invested in activities that deliver little towards the end goal. It’s also important to have a clear order in the tasks that need to happen, helping avoid scenarios when too much is done at once with little end effect. Whatever the strategy you choose and decisions you make, one thing is for sure: the IT setup you choose to support your business operations will be one of the critical success factors.

Economic outposts Sales offices overseas have one primary goal to fulfill – supporting the business in achieving its growth ambitions. However, with these outpost offices incurring significant setup and maintenance costs,

they are often run by relatively small teams to keep the wage bill under control.

In theory, the local staff members are there to fully focus on sales activities, with many of the other support processes and activities (HR, IT etc.) supported remotely. In this scenario, it’s vitally important to ensure the sales force are actually able to focus on what they are there to do. Unfortunately, it’s quite often the case that employees in satellite sales offices are kept busy with all manner of non-sales related local activities. Rather than focusing fully on delivering cash, they are committed to organizing and completing the tasks necessary to keep the operation on its feet.

Plan, plan and plan again To avoid this situation, foreign sales locations need to have solid process structure in place. It shouldn’t be thought out and planned on-site, but put in place by HQ. Think, for example, of the way in which customer information and contacts are managed, or the way in which the financial administration is conducted. The parent organization needs to take the lead to ensure efficient deployment and full focus on sales from the off. The success of a foreign presence depends largely on how effectively the personnel there can contact, impress and remain available to the local market, in addition to how effectively the central

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operations with multiple sites often struggle to create uniform ways of working. And the more locations you have, the more complex it gets, and more difficult it gets to realistically manage company-wide performance. As such, it’s very important that businesses try to think about how common practices can be standardized from the word go. It’s much easier to retain a clear picture of what’s going on if all parties are creating parallel reports, instead of engineering their own ever-growing library of spreadsheets that need to be decoded by HQ. support act can supply the services they require to get the job done.

It’s easier to start standardized Worryingly, the standardization and automation of business activities across international operations is sometimes overlooked during the set up phase of new locations. The result of this is that many processes end up being developed on site and carried out by hand. This in turn leads to things taking longer than they need to, and to human error led mistakes that eat time and money.

All kinds of spreadsheet solutions end up being created to try and couple and integrate various processes and flows.

It’s a very weak base from which to begin, with the reports and overviews created from this irregular information unable to grow effectively in line with the business’ development.

More locations, more problems Given this ad hoc approach, it’s not surprising that fledgling international

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Understand requirements in detail, and match them to the right systems For new offices, often with new employees, getting up and running quickly is hard. The questions during the initial phases are many. How are we going to manage customer contact?

Which leads need to be followed up, when and in what way? How do we maintain insight into our current opportunities? Which quotes are currently with prospects? What is the current status of our completed orders?

When are certain products available and not available? How are we going to manage after-sales activities? How will we ensure we fully abide by local legislation? What are we going to do to stay on top of our outstanding items?

If the business is going to succeed, all these questions need concrete answers.

If employees are left to search for them while also trying to get the revenue stream going, it’s likely they’ll have

Strategy

little time to discover anything useful.

Without the right tooling in place and understood from the word go, getting a grip on this issues will likely remain an unending challenge.

Protecting delivery reliability Protecting delivery reliability and efficiently managing the supply chain as the business grows is difficult for any expanding business, let alone one doing it across borders. Insufficient insight or sub-optimal process organization can lead to blockages, local pooling of stock or unnecessary reservations, all of which can have a dramatic negative effect on working capital.

Ineffective or mis-communication between subsidiaries and the head office is often a major factor in this. If it’s not clear where specific responsibilities lie, a great deal of extra work is often the result. Endless phone calls and e-mails aiming to get things organized then often make things worse, missing important information that’s required for orders to be processed accurately and effectively.

The danger is particularly apparent when companies make use of shared service centers where sales support is centralized per region or time zone, and where logistic service providers are responsible for the physical completion

“For new offices, often with new employees, getting up and running quickly is hard”

of sales orders. The number of return orders and credit notes is a good indicator of how effectively this supply network is running.

Boosting communication When a company runs sales offices that are not purely self-supporting, the lack of in-house support for HR, financial, IT and other processes can quickly become a limiting factor. On a purely physical basis, it’s often simply not possible to ‘walk by’ a colleague from another department to get some extra information or an answer to a specific question. If the right systems aren’t in place to ensure people have access to the support they need, employees will not only have to deal with continually unresolved issues, but will miss valuable interaction with the rest of the business.

Insight into stock and order information The right balance between tying capital up on shelves and being able to meet orders is extremely challenging to achieve, but certainly a key aspect of creating a genuinely profitable operation. The confidence that getting it right inspires in your sales personnel is an important part of this. If they feel that delivering on time is under threat, they tend to start thinking of creative (and usually unhelpful) ways to keep their promises and protect customer relationships. These can include reserving stock up front, storing up products in local depots, ordering more items than is necessary despite expiry risk, or artificially pulling forward delivery dates. With this in mind, it’s essential that businesses invest in creating trustworthy,

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“Setting up a satellite operation is a significant investment step for any company” transparent processes around stock and stock insight. All sales personnel need to be confident that the data they’re seeing is up to date and completely trustworthy.

Being able to track order status creates confidence around the office, strengthens its position in the supply chain and reduces unnecessary communication.

Complex administration causes problems Managing administrative tasks is, for many sales employees, a challenge. As a result, agreements and conversations with customers can fail to be recorded properly, making it difficult for every stakeholder to have access to all the information that’s relevant or useful to them. When details only exist in the heads of employees, in e-mail inboxes or piles of unfiled note papers, it’s difficult to be confident that people are always making good decisions.

Difficulties take longer to address, some opportunities be missed altogether. And if it’s a customer that reports the problem, that’s then a relationship issue with further implications. Not a great situation for any operation already running on a thin margin.

Once is enough Double work also needs to be avoided, particularly when it comes to registering and confirming orders (and deliveries),

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and ensuring they are processed correctly by finance. This often involves all manner of templates created for the sales organization to fill in, initialed and signed off further up the chain, and then manually entered by back office personnel – possibly in a system not directly linked to the financial administration.

In these scenarios, ensuring timely, accurate communication between sales in one location and administration in another is extremely important. It’s also important that everyone has an extremely clear picture of their and their colleagues’ responsibilities. Maybe HQ will handle all the paperwork. Maybe the sales office needs to deal with purchase documentation once the goods have been delivered to the end customer. Who will then use that information in creating the sales invoice and booking away the outstanding item with the supplier? How do both sides ensure they both know what’s going on at all times? It’s not difficult to imagine that uncertainty here can lead to a lot of time on the phone.

And when sales personnel are busy with these activities, they’re not busy with creating new deals.

Uniformity and consistency Setting up a satellite operation is a significant investment step for any company, particularly if there are multiple new sites on the agenda. Dispersed operations can see significant differences in work culture within one organization, local dynamics making it difficult to achieve uniformity and consistency in company-wide work processes. To be successful, all employees need to a

Strategy

“IT support is a critical aspect. The software system in place needs to be both powerful and flexible” clear, consistent approach to organizing, implementing and completing their work.

Without it, individuals will start building in their own security mechanisms to protect commitments. These might help them in the short term, but overall, it decreases the real execution power of the business. Organizations help themselves if they approach each new venture in the same way. In addition to the operational procedures, the way in which each location reports – not only financial data, but in terms of sales and other operational information – will be extremely important in steering the business through the first phases of expansion. Consistency is the key ensuring the company can learn as it grows, helping each new set-up to benefit from the experiences of the last. Once a problem is encountered anywhere in the business, it’s then easier to access the knowledge and experience required to remedy it.

wide range of influencing factors and relevant information streams mean that the software system in place needs to be both powerful and flexible. The choices are wide, ranging from best of suite solutions offering everything under one lid, to best of breed applications for specific business processes that can potentially be integrated to offer complete coverage. Your current vendor will likely have a plausible story on how to manage an international operation with their solutions. However, whatever that may be, there are a number of important points to be kept in mind when considering how to set up your systems.

The fit with your organization In the broadest sense, it’s important to consider how the available business solutions fit to the shape of your

Creating the right infrastructure Given the difficulties outlined above, how can companies go about giving their new offices the best chance of success?

How should they go about managing costs and delivering margin while still ensuring the business offers the service level customers will require?

IT support is a critical aspect. The

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“Good interaction between all data across the entire business provides a level of control and understanding that can promote genuine time and costs savings” organization. What are the specific challenges and needs that you’ve identified for your international offices?

Critical questioning of your (possible) supplier on these points is essential if you’re to properly evaluate their ability to successfully address your pain points. Be sure to request and then dive into cases they have successfully rolled out in the past with businesses that mirror yours.

Endless choice The vendor landscape is already broad, with further developments continuing at pace. Given the range and complexity available, take care to consider both ends of the functionality/price spectrum.

Although one presentation may suggest a chauffeur-driven limo is the only way to travel, it could be that a compact city model will suit your needs just as well.

Finding the right balance between cost, implementation time and functionality is a daunting challenge. Tackling it effectively will again rely on a detailed, prioritized overview of the business processes that need to be supported.

Look for a partner, not a supplier In addition to functionality, it’s also important to look carefully at the vision and philosophy of the vendor and their availability across the regions where you plan to operate. How do they go about exploring potential solutions with

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you? Are they thinking with you or for themselves? Are they present where you’ll be doing business, or will you be working with a partner network?

How will this affect your operation when you need help? Who will do the implementation and follow up? Will that be handled centrally or locally? Who will be your direct contact person? Will they have the power to make decisions in effective timeframes, or will you continually be waiting for the answers to local escalations? There’s certainly plenty to think about. Try to think of concrete examples of issues that might arise, and explore how they would approach fixing them.

Standardization, localization In many cases, the appropriate balance of cost/functionality brings an out-the-box solution to the fore – business software that’s more or less ready to go without a great deal of customization work.

Often modular in nature, they allow IT coverage to be expanded systematically – the standardized units of functionality rolled out with the minimum of time and effort. This building block approach usually allows full integration of all functionality, taking out the problems associated with getting best of breed solutions to ‘talk to each other’. With all information in one system, data leakage is minimized. This increases reporting

Strategy

power without the need to call in external experts to collate and interpret data from disparate systems.

In terms of differentiating between these best of suite vendors, their ability to fit tightly with each of your international locations will be the differentiator. Be sure to look carefully at their support for local legislations, multiple languages in the interface and help documentation, and handling of master data from international operations like banking and taxation.

Front office integration Not everything that you pin down within your organization is necessarily transaction related in the way that orders, invoices and payments are.

Think for example about CRM, HR, document management, project administration and service management activities. Having dedicated systems in place to manage these activities also generates data that can be useful to review and integrate with back office processes. This gives extra depth to your company overviews, greater insight into customer activities, better monitoring of non-transaction related processes, and improved

sharing of information throughout your ecosystem of customers, partners, suppliers and employees.

Conclusion Good interaction between all data across the entire business provides a level of control and understanding that can promote genuine time and costs savings.

When considering how to ensure this remains the case when new international operations are added, it’s essential that new offices remain connected to the rest of the business. If key business support processes are not available on location, your IT system becomes responsible for ensuring all relevant information remains available to all stakeholders at all times. Having this level interaction will help ensure mistakes and delays are kept to a minimum, and that money isn’t continually draining away as employees struggle to manage suboptimal processes. Ensuring the business is well organized and creates transparent management information will enable sales teams to create success in their core tasks – delivering revenue to the business and creating the growth that was the basis for their establishment in the first place.

About the author Exact develop ERP, CRM, HR, financial and industry-specific business software for more than 100,000 customers around the world. Based in the Netherlands, where they remain market leader in the SMB segment, their on-premise, hosted and cloud solutions focus primarily on manufacturing, wholesale & distribution, professional services and accountancy companies. With offices across Europe, Asia, Australia and America, their internationally oriented products combine with local support to offer real customer value. Read more Exact business insights at: www.the-biz-box.com

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Supply chain

Reducing Customer Lead Time <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

How implementing lean technologies into your supply chain can reduce lead times from 15 days to less than two Words by

Thomas R. Cutler

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he future of lean technologies indicates that supply chain solutions will be increasingly required to meet the demands of the marketplace. Collaborative Supply Portal (CSP) must manage raw material replenishment, Lean Factory Management (LFM) will manage shop-floor schedules, and Collaborative Demand Portal (CDP) will be required to service distribution centers, dealers and OEMs all focus on the execution side of the factory floor. Lean planning must cross-over to procurement as well in the form of a collaborative request for quote (RFQ) module.

RFQ technology allows buyers and suppliers to collaborate easily and effectively in a bidding process. The iterative process tracks and traces the bids in real time until a winning bid is converted into a purchase order. The collaborative Planning Module integrates planning data with execution and establishes a feedback loop.

It is all about leaning the supply chain.

In the past manufacturing was vertically integrated and the suppliers were located within a short radius. Manufacturing today is less integrated and the suppliers are global. Only through supplier collaboration, and real-time flow of order, shipment and receipt information can be controlled and automatically computed.

The result is the next important step of lean—kaizen, or continuous improvement.

As a manufacturing journalist it was a pleasure to interview Narayan Laksham, Ultriva founder and CEO. He founded the company 1999 with a vision of building an organization that develops customer driven solutions which guarantee high value, quick deployment, and measurable return on investment. Laksham has written articles on several lean topics including “When Push comes to Pull Kanban wins.”

He is also a co-inventor of the patent pending “Inventory Optimization Tool.”

This recent conversation revealed how much has changed in the supply chain during the intervening conversation, when first interviewed six years ago.

Manufacturing is more competitive than ever with shorter lead times, higher service levels, exploding numbers of finished good SKUs (stock keeping units) and thinning margins. Laksham points out, “The focus of leaning in manufacturing was concentrated on streamlining the factory floor, alignment of production lines, optimization of space, and standardizing of operating procedures.

One key area which was not touched was the supply chain material replenishment.

Given that purchase parts could be as high as 60 percent of manufacturing costs, applying lean methodologies to this process is critical. As excess inventory eats the margins, part shortages reduce customer service levels and result in lost revenues.”

At an APICS (Association for Operations Management) meeting in Van Nuys,

“Manufacturing is more competitive than ever with shorter lead times, higher service levels, exploding numbers of finished good SKUs and thinning margins” 18 |

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Supply chain

CA, late last fall, Nicole Smith of Zurn SKUs are being manufactured using this Wilkins (a Rexnord Company) shared advanced process.” the company’s experience of reducing After the initial process, Rexnord customer lead time from fifteen days implemented the supplier kanban modules to less than two days. She also shared across several plants in the US, to ensure how the company was able to reduce the that the raw materials were available to raw material and WIP (work in process) meet demand. More than 22,000 parts inventory by twenty percent. are being replenished by 178 suppliers Rexnord is a diversified multi-platform across these plants. Finally Rexnord industrial company that manufactures implemented internal kanban to set up and markets power transmission and a pull system from its final assembly to water management products. Revenue upstream work centers. last year was $1.3 billion and the firm In an effort to better understand why employs nearly 7,000 people. supply chain managers are frequently Ultriva, based in Cupertino, CA, broadsided with wrong size inventory, implemented a demand driven Laksham explained, “The inability manufacturing model by providing full of current supply chain management visibility, scheduling, and sequencing systems to support true collaboration of production of customer orders at the and execution between manufacturers cell level for one of the Rexnord plant in and their supply chain partners result Indianapolis. Previously it took ten days in supplier whiplash, poor delivery before the order reached the factory floor; performance, and lost revenue.” orders were scheduled on a weekly basis, The mission of providing greater causing an overall lead time of fifteen days.

L a k s h a m commented about the • RYG dashboard indicators show inventory health Rexnord situation, • Built-in workflow & noting, “We facilitated business rules engine the orders to be • Complete order tracking directly dropped at the manufacturing cells within 15 minutes of receipt. If the order was received before 2 pm it was manufactured and shipped on the same • Automated email alerts based on pre-set business rules day; if after 2 pm, it • Daily/monthly business proces routines was shipped the next • Single version of the truth - buyers day. Currently over & suppliers see the same view from their perspective 30,000 finished goods

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transparency and visibility between manufacturers and supply chain partners allows manufacturing customers to experience an average 35 percent increase in inventory velocity. The across-the-board improvements in employee productivity and supply chain decision making has delivered even greater value through ultraresponsive, demand-driven supply chains.

Scott Harvey, vice president of Operations at CareFusion, another enthusiastic user of the technology remarked, “The cloud-based platform has a low barrier to entry and allows for an incredibly high level of standardization across all of our suppliers, which made it the obvious solution. As a medical device company working in a highly regulated industry, it is imperative that we maintain a high level of transparency and accountability.”

During the extensive interview with Laksham, he concluded that the shift for most manufacturing companies is becoming demand responsive. “Returning

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“The shift for most manufacturing companies is becoming demand responsive” to a more basic question of the objective of supply chain management is vital. The goal is to source, make and deliver the product from the point of origin to the point of consumption in the least amount of time at the lowest cost. Given that goal, the two most important attributes of supply chain management are responsiveness to the velocity of product flow, and the ability to move products quickly and with agility. These attributes enable the transition from push-based replenishment to pull-based replenishment. To focus on these attributes, it is vital to look toward the customer, the customer’s customer, or the end-user of the product.”

Since few companies can source material and produce all products in the volume required to meet a day’s production, the solution lies in consumption-based replenishment.

Consumption-based replenishment has its roots in lean manufacturing and “kanban” replenishment—a Japanese term for a card used to signal the need for inventory replenishment. Kanban now describes the “pull” method of keeping production lines optimally stocked with parts at the exact time and quantity needed. A simple analogy: Think of a carton of milk in the supermarket—as one carton is pulled off the shelf, another carton slides into its place, immediately restocking the inventory.

Supply chain

The cloud-based supply chain solutions streamline the production schedules with customer demand and synchronize the supply with shop-floor consumption. It uses the consumption-driven replenishment model to establish a true pull process across the value chain. The primary goal of the system is to right-size the inventory whether it is finished goods, work in process, or raw materials. Using a unique supply chain loop based architecture, manufacturing companies can establish real-time collaboration with their customers and suppliers. This collaboration allows manufacturers to carry the right mix of inventory at the distribution center, shorten the lead time to their customers and improve the service levels through elimination of part shortages.

The kanban principle can be effectively implemented with the use of technology, as consumption-based replenishment has evolved from its simple card-based roots into highly sophisticated software applications. These applications can help manufacturers determine the most optimal inventory levels for operations, and can rapidly recalculate efficient replenishment trigger points as demand

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The cloud-based supply chain solutions streamline the production schedules with customer demand and synchronize the supply with shop-floor consumptionâ&#x20AC;? varies over time. By taking a customercentric approach to daily operations, manufacturers focus investments on enabling operations to build only what is needed to replenish what the customer has ordered. This paradigm shift results in companies embracing a goal of delivering the products customers want, when they want them, and in the quantities they want.

Now, and for the next decade, efforts to eliminate waste will start by applying lean principles to supplier and customer collaboration. This combination will result in sensing demand changes and synchronizing supply resulting in rightsizing of inventory across the respective transaction points.

About the author Thomas R. Cutler is the President & CEO of Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based, TR Cutler, Inc., (www.trcutlerinc.com). Cutler is the founder of the Manufacturing Media Consortium including more than 4,000 journalists, editors, and economists writing about trends in manufacturing, industry, material handling, and process improvement. Cutler is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, Online News Association, American Society of Business Publication Editors, and Committee of Concerned Journalists, as well as author of more than 500 feature articles annually regarding the manufacturing sector. Cutler is the most published freelance industrial journalist worldwide and can be contacted at: trcutler@trcutlerinc.com

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A star shin

Commercial Director, Dimmie de Milander Group and how it is perfectly positioned to

written by: Will Daynes |

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Starlite Aviation Group

ning bright

discusses the strengths of Starlite Aviation o capitalise on future growth opportunities

research by: Jeff Abbott

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he Africa of the 21st century is often highlighted by the vast metropolitan cities that have been building up steadily to become centres of economic prosperity, yet the continents land is still home to a vast expanse of frontier land. It is on this land, particularly along coastal areas, that many of today’s most exciting oil and gas finds are being made. However, when it comes to operating in such areas, where logistical infrastructure is sometimes non-existent, it often calls for companies to rely on expert advice and local knowledge. It is here where companies like Starlite Aviation come into play.

Established in South Africa in 1999, the group has undergone an extended period of growth to become a multi-faceted aviation business offering a range of helicopter services on a worldwide basis. Such services include relief contract work, oil and gas, passenger and cargo transport, helicopter sales and charter, maintenance and pilot training.

“We began life providing purely disaster relief and support services,” explains Commercial Director, Dimmie de Milander.

“From there we expanded into supporting various non-governmental organisations before taking on several contracts for our aircraft on a longer term basis. Through a combination of this contract work and the income that we derive from our training school we were able to begin developing our ability to provide support to customers operating in the offshore oil and gas industry.”

The capital raised from its long term contracts also allowed Starlite to invest in its fleet of aircraft. “Every time we tie up an

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Starlite Aviation Group

aircraft to a contact we endeavour to use the money from that to make another aircraft ready to be put into service,” de Milander continues. “In many ways this keeps us one step ahead of the market as it often means we have aircraft ready to take on work as it becomes available.”

Starlite’s fleet today includes aircraft from

Aerospatiale, Robinson, Bell, Sikorsky and Eurocopter. “Traditionally,” de Milander states, “we have leant towards the use of Eurocopter aircraft, however what we previously possessed was a slightly older, ageing fleet. Whereas the costs associated with upgrading to a more modern aircraft would previously have made such a possibility

“The group has undergone a period of growth to become a multi-faceted aviation business offering a range of services on a worldwide basis” 26 | be weekly

Starlite Aviation Group

Starlite currently operates 11 Puma helicopters

challenging for us, the fact that now we have virtually all of our aircraft tied into some form of contract we have the capital available to us to source new models.”

Starlite is proposing a major expansion of its activities over the next few years, which will place increased pressure on the capacity of its existing fleet. Accordingly it has embarked on a fleet renewal and acquisition programme to augment existing aircraft, and cater for a continued shift in demand for its aircraft to newer technology and heavier aircraft types.

Starlite recently signed an agreement to become the launch customer for Eurocopter’s new AS332 C1e aircraft. This new helicopter

is ideally suited to the medium-heavy utility market but could also be used to support oil and gas work. The AS332 C1e helicopter is the latest version of the popular Eurocopter Super Puma medium-weight helicopter.

While Starlite isn’t the largest of aviation businesses, de Milander is keen to point out that there is one particular characteristic of the group that allows it to compete with almost anyone in the world when it comes to supplying aircraft, and that is that it has proven countless times that it can operate along supply lines in some of the most difficult, challenging and unpredictable parts of the world.

“Whether our customers operate in the fields of oil and gas or high-end mining,

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or are involved in non-government agency programmes, they almost always eventually end up working in countries with almost no aviation support infrastructure present.

We have seen this in our work in places like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kosovo, Myanmar, South Sudan and Mali, to name a few locations, and it has always been our focus to be able to provide these clients with safe, reliable support in these regions.”

Whereas the larger corporate helicopter suppliers tend to have a much more risk adverse approach to business, Starlite has always been found to be prepared to judge each situation and scenario by its individual merits before seeing how it can be of service to a client.

That is certainly not to suggest that safety isn’t the most paramount of issues for Starlite, in fact quite the contrary. “Safety has been,

“Today the group’s talent for delivering services in some of the most remote parts of the world, let alone Africa, continues to shine through”

Pilots carrying out preflight checks

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Starlite Aviation Group

The Bell 412 reliably performs in the most extreme climates on the planet every day

is and always will be the “It was during the course of one of its tasks that the most important aspect of aircraft in question suffered our business,” de Milander an engine fault in a location enthuses. “Through the approximately ten kilometres operations of our training The year that Starlite from the nearest civilisation,” school we are able to was established in handpick the very best pilots he recalls. “In response to this South Africa for employment and these we organised for an engine to be sent from America to are invariably those with a that location, the necessary huge degree of experience, often gained through military service.” changes were then made and after just six The skill and capabilities of Starlite’s pilots days the aircraft was back flying again. and crew have been displayed countless times Understandably the client in question was in its lifetime. One particular example of this very pleased at the short amount of time that sticks out in de Milander’s mind involved required to remedy the situation and Sikorsky on of the group’s Sikorsky S92 aircraft which themselves stated that they doubted there are was providing offshore support for a client many other companies out there that could based off Namibia’s infamous Skeleton Coast. have handled such an issue so quickly.”

1999

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The Bell 212 Twin Huey on Jasper deck

Starlite Aviation Group Today the group’s talent for delivering services in some of the most remote parts of the world, let alone Africa, continues to shine through. Again in Namibia Starlite aircraft can be found operating in Lüderitz, along the south-western coast of the country. It is here, in one of the least hospitable coasts in all of Africa, that it has managed to retain a 99 percent dispatch rate of on-time deliveries.

With offshore oil and gas activity increasing at a considerable rate along both the western and eastern coasts of Africa it is significant that those within Starlite are confident that it is well positioned to provide the types of services that will be in even greater demand going forward.

“I believe that when you consider the growth of the oil and gas industry, our own position in that market and the fact that we have now proven capable of funding the addition of new aircraft into our fleet, it becomes clear that our primary mission need to be to continue delivering above expectations,” de Milander says. “There is such huge potential throughout the continent right now and it is our aim to be at the centre of that, capitalising on the opportunities that will arise. In targeting this we have been forming a number of strategic relationships in key locations such as Namibia, Tanzania, Kenya and Ghana, and in doing so we are making sure that Starlite will be wherever its clients need us to be in the years to come.”

For more information about Starlite Aviation Group visit: www.starliteaviation.com

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Our work is

here to stay RenĂŠ Lagos recognised and respected for its expertise in realising the aspirations of architects to build tall in challenging environments

written by: John Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Hanlon research by: Abi Abagun

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RenĂŠ Lagos

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The Santiago Justice Center under construction

René Lagos

W

hen René Lagos looks out from his 25th floor office in Santiago de Chile he gets a good view over the capital that now has so many high-rise buildings that part of it is known as Sanhattan. He is looking out over the history of the firm of structural engineers he founded in 1977 and it never fails to excite him. He likes to identify to his two small grandsons the many buildings in the panorama that he calls his ‘children’, so much work was put into their conception.

Santiago has 75 entries on skyscraperpage. com which is good going for a city with a downtown population of fewer than 300,000 (though greater Santiago is home to 6.5 million). More to the point Chile lies along the destructive plate boundary between the Nazca Plate and the South American Plate. It has experienced 13 earthquakes in the last year: it stands to reason that in one of the world’s most active seismic countries you can’t be in construction and not know a lot about how to build a structure that will not fall down when shaken.

Lagos has always had a passion for tall buildings. “Structural engineering became my passion from the earliest days as a student.

After working for a few years in firms that specialised in structural design of high-rise building I started my own firm, focusing on high-rise buildings.”

The firm of René Lagos started by designing mainly buildings of up to 15 storeys but in 1993 it had a breakthrough when it was commissioned as the structural engineer for the 22 storey headquarters of Camara Chilena

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Seismic hazard assessment for resilient and performance design of buildings in South America and Dubai

Forty years of leadership in seismic design and risk assessment for buildings, bridges, industrial facilities, mining projects, thermoelectric and hydroelectric power plants and large dams.

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S & S CONSULTING ENGINEERS LTD.

Forecast of design spectra for Costanera Center and Titanium buildings, shown in the figure, coincided with measured spectra for Chile 2010 Mw = 8.8 earthquake.

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René Lagos

Santiago Justice Center - Santiago, Chile

de la Construcción, the organisation that about how high buildings ought to go in a represents the largest construction companies seismically unstable country. Santiago after in the country. That project put the firm all was flattened in 1647’s 8.5 magnitude on the map and proved its competence by event, while Chile experienced the severest successfully withstanding at least two major earthquake ever recorded in 1960 at earthquakes as well as countless minor ones. 9.5 magnitude and the sixth largest at Three years later in 1996 René Lagos 8.8 on February 27 2010.

The Telefónica building came through that landed, through a competition, what was then the tallest building in Santiago, the 132 without any damage but it was designed to do that. Lagos is proud of metre high Telefónica tower. this iconic structure for many It is shaped to look like a big cellphone (and from that reasons. “The client told us point of view is now clearly that the one thing they could dated) but the engineering be certain of was that they challenges were considerable would be changing their and in overcoming them it layout frequently and did not The year René Lagos attracted a lot of professional want to call in the structural founded his firm interest – as well as a debate engineer every time to decide

1997

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Al Bandar, Al Raha Beach - Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

how to do that. We took on the challenge of giving them internal open space of 30 by 20 metres, with no intermediate columns – even today that would be a tall order,” he says proudly.

The company today has in its portfolio many buildings over 200 metres high, so size is no longer the driver it once was.

Nevertheless the Gran Torre Santiago, part of the spectacular $1 billion Costanera Center containing offices, hotels, shopping and entertainment, is today the tallest building in the southern hemisphere. At 300 metres it

is about the same height as the Shard or the Empire State (minus the latter’s pointy bits) and twice the height of the Telefónica tower.

Seismic performance is not just about being able to make buildings that don’t fall down, he explains. “The question is, do we create buildings that are flexible, with long displacements, or do we make them stiff, with very little displacement? You could take the view that a building that is flexible and has what we call ductility will dissipate energy making the basic structure safer, at the cost of non-structural damage

“The client told us that the one thing they could be certain of was that they would be changing their layout frequently” 38 | be weekly

René Lagos

300 Metres Height of the Gran Torre Santiago

to partitions and the like: if they are stiff there is more acceleration, which means that your fridge is more likely to fall over – but stiff buildings experience less non-structural damage and remain usable, without major repairs being needed.”

Where in other seismic countries the ductility argument has won, there has been a social cost. The buildings remain standing, but their inhabitants are made homeless while they are repaired. “There has been a lot of discussion about this, but the only thing we can say from our experience here in Chile is that the type of design that we have used has proved very successful from a social point of view, with very little failure of buildings or need to evacuate them. We have to design for safety of course, but also for performance and usability.”

This approach typifies his attitude to innovation – he loves it. Though he laughs when he recalls starting out with just a couple of scientific calculators, René Lagos has absorbed new technology as it has been developed. That is why he sets such store by the R&D group he has set up to do research on production tools such as software applied to engineering analysis and design and also in collaborative technologies such as building Telefonica Building - Santiago, Chile

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;There is another way to think about sustainability, and that is structural efficiencyâ&#x20AC;?

Corp Group Building - Santiago, Chile

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René Lagos information modelling (BIM).

“We also research technical solutions for our clients,” he says, “which means things like the use of seismic protection techniques like isolation or energy dissipation in high rise buildings.”

He was an early adopter of the BIM concept, and has been using model based software from Revit and Tekla for more than ten years. “We started to use it internally to collaborate with different disciplines – not too many other people were using it. Now that is changing. We have even been training clients and other firms.” BIM, he explains, enables you create much more than a 3D model and to factor in cost and time, making it effectively a 5D model of the project. Using BIM tools brings a project to life, René Lagos says: as well as making it better BIM makes his work a lot more fun to do!

Growth in the company has been entirely organic, and very pragmatic. If there’s a market for the firm’s expertise René Lagos will follow it: if the market dries up the firm withdraws. The first venture outside of Chile was Argentina, however it was felt that the company would be more effective abroad if it engaged with more stable economies, so in 2006 an office was set up in Miami in

René Lagos head office

collaboration with a local partner – it was a very successful venture as construction was booming in the US at the time, and though things slowed down after 2008 and the average size of projects became smaller, that market is again looking up. “At that time we were looking for technologies that we could apply in the Costanera project,” he continues.

“So we travelled round the world to the places where the tallest buildings were being built including Dubai. By the time we had made three trips out there we were already engaged in some projects in Abu Dhabi, teaming up

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with local operators on a project by project basis including one of more than a million square metres.”

Always choosing the right business model for the market, René Lagos then started looking again at the South American market, and in particular the active economies of Perú and Colombia.

After some market research, in December 2012 a branch office was set up in Lima,

employing Peruvian structural engineers and training them in the company’s culture. “Wherever we are in the world,” says Lagos, “we work together through cloud computing technology: it is just as if we were all in the same office. In Lima we have been active over those months, engaged on high-rise projects, many of them very challenging.” The experience has been a happy one. Growth has been

“Wherever we are in the world, we work together through cloud computing technology”

René Lagos (left) on site in the United Arab Emirates

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René Lagos

Residential property

steady and better than expected, and he sees a great future for the Peruvian market.

Though neither Miami nor the Middle East are particularly prone to earthquakes, seismic performance remains a key core skill for the company. When a group of Chilean architects invited René Lagos to become involved in some projects in China, he jumped at the opportunity. René Lagos has been in a consortium with Seismic A&E of Beijing for the last two years and has provided consultancy services for many project, so far mainly in the mid-rise category, in China. “Once again it has been again very interesting to have the opportunity to work with different cultures and methods,” he says. “It fits with the spirit of innovation and fun that we all share in this firm.” Earthquakes do happen in China, and

there has been much loss of life. Where better for them to look for sustainable solutions than Chile, with its unique experience?

That word, sustainable, sets Mr Lagos off on a new tack. “If you spoke about sustainability in structural engineering five years ago there was not that much to say: today it is becoming a very sophisticated issue with many variables involved.” Think of the structure of the building – its skeleton , he says – everything is hung on to that after it is built. The traditional way of thinking says it has to be built using recyclable materials like steel. “But there is another way to think about sustainability, and that is structural efficiency. When you design an efficient structure you need less material. And why always think of recyclability as only applying

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Workers on top of the Gran Torre Santiago (Costanera Tower)

René Lagos when the building is demolished when you hope it will never be demolished! Better surely to builds structures that can be upgraded every so many years while still occupying the same skeleton.” That, he says is an equally valid conceptual approach to structural sustainability.

Either approach will need to take into consideration things like sourcing raw materials locally, but sustainable design does not end when the building is handed over. It is a whole life issue. Seismic performance is an obvious case – the ability of the building to stay standing and usable, without needing costly repairs – but sustainability is a never ending concern for René Lagos’ researchers.

“If you always do the same thing you did before, you are dying! There is always a new perspective. That is what keeps you alive – fun and passion. We do it that way here, and incentivise younger engineers to feel it too.

That is probably why people stay here and look on the firm as a place where it is worth spending a large chunk of their career.”

After a good few years it is clear that René Lagos has lost none of his joie de vivre.

“Never get so used to the things you do that you lose your ability to be amazed. You have to be able to be astonished – that gives you energy and tells you where you are – and how far you have come. I am still amazed when I look out across Santiago! It makes me emotional and proud.”

For more information about René Lagos visit: www.renelagos.com

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Proccea Construction

No challenge too complex Proccea Construction, a hugely successful player both at home in Turkey and abroad

written by: Will Daynes research by: Robert Hodgson

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Proccea Construction

O

ne of the founding members possessing skills in various fields of the of Organisation for Economic industry. Together these engineers have Co-operation and Development worked to combine their own knowledge (OECD) international economic with the skills of hugely dedicated site teams. organisation and the Group It is the aim of these teams, and the company of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central as a whole, to complete each individual project Bank Governors (G-20), Turkey possesses the to the highest possible standards in terms of world’s 15th largest gross domestic product quality, while striving to maximise both its by purchasing power parity. Defined as an and its client’s profits. The company’s success emerging market economy by the International in delivering this aim is probably best reflected Monetary Fund (IMF), it is one of the planet’s in the continuous improvement of its order book, 95 percent of which is today occupied newly industrialised countries.

In recent years Turkey has seen a rapid by repeat business customers. growth in its private sector, however the state Proccea Construction’s site teams have does still retain a major worked together throughout role in core sectors such as the world, delivering numerous industry, banking, transport complex, large-scale projects and communications. One for the company’s clients. Such of the leading sectors in the international projects have country is its construction been completed successfully Of Proccea and contracting industry. in a number of different Construction’s order As a matter of fact it is countries, including South book is made up of Africa, Namibia, Guinea, Mali, considered to be one of repeat business Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Brazil the most competitive and and Venezuela. dynamic industries of its kind anywhere in the world. In 2009 a total The projects that the company takes on fall of 33 Turkish construction or contracting into a wide range of industries and have in companies were selected for the Top the past included hotel, military, industrial International Contractors List prepared by and mining projects. When it comes to its the Engineering News-Record, which made undertakings in the latter industry, the main the Turkish construction and contracting type of project that Proccea Construction has industry the world’s second largest, ranking taken on in the past comes in the form of mineral processing plants. behind only that of China.

One of Turkey’s leading construction The mining projects that the company businesses is that of Proccea Construction, a has been involved in over the last several design, supply, construction and management years include significant gold and silver company established by a group of highly developments in South America, Africa, experienced engineers, each of whom Europe and the Middle East. One particular

95%

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Beyer manufactures stationary and mobile screening plants, crushing plants, padding plants and conveying plants.

We have been known in sector with our customer-oriented manufacturing policy, high quality products, aesthetic design and effective after sales service. With high capacity products being served to customers, successful projects have been achieved all around the world by becoming a brand which will be heard of confidence in manufacturing plants for mining and construction sectors.

Tel: +90 312 815 14 59-60 | Fax: +90 312 815 14 39 beyer@beyer.com.tr | www.beyer.com.tr

Proccea Construction

project of note was on behalf of the Vasgold Gold Mine in Kokshetau, Kazakhstan, one of the largest mines of its kind found anywhere in the world. Proccea Construction’s role here was as a subcontractor to Summit Valley Engineering and Equipment during its construction of an Absorption, Desorption and Recovery (ADR) plant, and involved the manufacture and shipment of structural steel, the supervision of piping, steel and equipment installation and start-up and

commissioning. Despite the difficulties encountered during such a complex project, the company’s experienced team was able to assist in completing it ahead of schedule.

In addition to taking on the role of subcontractor, Proccea Construction has also acted in a supervisory role on projects including the construction, commissioning and start-ups of ADR plants at the Kitila Gold Mine in Finland and the Zarcan-Takab Gold Mine in Iran.

“Proccea Construction’s site teams have worked together throughout the world, delivering numerous, complex, large-scale projects for the company’s clients” be weekly | 51

However, it is arguably in its role as prime contractor that the company has made the biggest name for itself in the mining and minerals sector, holding this role on a number of highly successful occasions. These have included the construction of an ADR plant at the ÇÖPLER and Koza Gold-Mastra Gold Mines in Turkey, the Ouagadogou Gold Mine in Burkina Faso and the Maaden Gold Mine in Saudi Arabia, as well as during the design

and manufacturing of a de-aeration tower at Minera Triton in Argentina.

As well as taking on increasing important and challenging roles across the world, the company has also taken significant strides in the last decade to increase its presence in its home country, while also expanding into other potential fields of industry. It was this approach that saw it enter into a joint venture agreement back in July 2010 with Ariana

“Proccea Construction had committed itself to sole funding of the Red Rabbit Gold Project as it moves closer towards production in 2014” 52 | be weekly

Proccea Construction

Resources, a London-based exploration and development company focused on epithermal gold-silver and porphyry-copper-gold deposits, for its Red Rabbit Gold Project. Red Rabbit is the name given to the combination of Ariana’s two flagship assets, Kiziltepe and Tavsan, located around 75 kilometres apart in the highly prospective WAVE province in western Turkey.

Upon the signing of the joint venture agreement Proccea’s executives released a collective statement praising the creation of such an exciting partnership. “We have spent several productive months working together with Ariana in developing this opportunity and enhancing our own understanding of the project. As a result we have a great deal of confidence in the joint venture company

going on to become one of the leading mining companies in the region.”

Nearly three years on, in March 2013, it was announced that Proccea Construction had committed itself to sole funding of the Red Rabbit Gold Project as it moves closer towards production in 2014. As part of the agreement Proccea will contribute a further $6.6 million of funding to earn-in to 50 percent of the Red Rabbit Joint Venture prior to production starting in 2014. The JV is targeting construction start-up during the fourth quarter of 2013.

For more information about Proccea Construction visit: www.proccea.com

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A harmonious

approach to mining Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited CEO Graham Briggs reveals how the company is weathering the rapidly evolving mining environment in South Africa, making itself a stronger business in the process

written by: Will Daynes research by: Vincent Kielty & Robert Hodgson

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Harmony Gold

s

g

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Underground fitter, Tshepong Mine, Free State

Harmony Gold

I

think it is fair to say that quite a lot has been happening since we last spoke in June 2012,” states Harmony’s CEO, Graham Briggs. “If you look at the last 18 to 24 months we have witnessed the incredible rise in gold prices, which was a particularly welcome relief from the cost pressures that had been mounting here in South Africa, and its subsequent come down, in addition to the well documented labour issues that have beset the mining sector.”

The last twelve months in particular have also seen Harmony’s own business take significant steps as it continues to work towards achieving its core strategy, which includes safe gold production and growing its margins. “We have managed to weather the external factors such as the labour issues fairly well and today find ourselves in a position where production is again ramping up and employee morale is steadily rising,” Briggs continues. “At the same time we, like many South African companies, had a great year when it comes to safety and are in the midst of our best safety performance ever, which is hugely gratifying given the amount of hard work that has gone into that side of the business.”

As one of the world’s largest gold mining companies, Harmony boasts operations in both South Africa and Papua New Guinea (PNG). In the former the company has ten underground and one open-pit mine, as well as several other surface operations, located in Free State, North West and Gauteng provinces.

In its portfolio in PNG it has a 50 percent interest in the Morobe Mining Joint Ventures,

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Harmony Gold which includes Hidden Valley, an open pit gold and silver mine and the Wafi-Golpu copper-gold deposit where it completed a feasibility study in the last year. This was a significant achievement and one that paves the way for what one day promises to be a significant producer of gold and copper, one that possesses an estimated mine life of more than 30 years. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In South Africa,â&#x20AC;? Briggs explains, â&#x20AC;&#x153;our strategy for some time now has been to close our lower grade and aging mines, and focus

Wafi-Golpu exploration drilling

our investment on newer mines. Until now we have been sinking shafts and developing new assets and these are now getting to the stage

MINEWARE CONSULTING Since 1996, MineWare Consulting has been offering software solutions tailored to the Mining Industry. In order to keep pace with developments in technology and business, the company is writing all new software to be compatible with handheld devices such as Ipads and Toughpads. This affords users freedom of movement and greatly simplifies usage input. MineWare has made it a priority to ensure that all of its systems are SOX compliant and that all areas of said systems are fully auditable. The company also makes use of telemetry, which allows programs to track raw data and pull it directly into the software, thus eliminating human error.

New software directions include the graphical suite, which can import and link current graphical files and use these to enable

graphical planning and booking to take place.

The system allows all spatially orientated data currently stored within the systems e.g deviation to plan, safety hot spots, lost blasts, etc. to be viewed and analysed in 2D and 3D. The shift-boss logbook software can now be accessed via a new tough tablet. This device can be used underground and at the face by shift bosses, enabling them to log bookings and perform safety checks immediately on site.

MineWare is proud to be involved in the Gold Mining Sector, and believes that with ongoing innovation and attention to client service, it will continue to grow within this dynamic area of the Mining Industry.

E. isaker@mweb.co.za www.mineware.co.za

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30+ years Estimated mine life of the Wafi-Golpu copper-gold deposit

Tshepong Mine in the Free State

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where they can be ramped up to production.

We have four such projects at this stage and they continue to display great progress.”

Nevertheless, as Briggs himself has stated, the last year has been one of ups and downs when it comes to the wider mining community and this has presented the company with its own challenges.

“I suppose the biggest challenge that we have here in South Africa, where we have a very large workforce of around 36,000 people working for Harmony, is ensuring that, while labour disputes and negotiations are on-going, our people remain focused on working together as a team to do their best under a shared objective. One of the ways we are working to achieve this is by refocusing more of our efforts towards the training and motivation of our people.”

In addition to this refocusing, Harmony has also made efforts to improve the level of communication across all of its individual business units and operations groups, and to put in place clear, work-based incentives.

“We have communications officers based within each of our operations,” Briggs highlights, “and it is their job to stay close to the unit and keep the flow of information running smoothly to ensure we all work

Harmony Gold

Phakisa Ice-plant

towards a long-term goal that is for the greater good of everyone.”

As was covered in some detail the last time we spoke to Briggs, over the decades that it has been in existence Harmony has built for itself a commendable reputation for being a highly responsible and ethical mining company. Indeed it is Harmony’s clear belief

that these are traits that should be at the heart of one’s business.

“One thing that we have done a lot of in the last couple of years is assist in the process of environmental rehabilitation,” Briggs enthuses. “Where old mines have closed down and left a footprint of old buildings and shafts, we have been going in and helping

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;By remaining flexible at a time when other companies are experiencing financial pressures we have managed to maintain ourselves at close to zero net debtâ&#x20AC;?

Underground at Target 1, Free State

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Harmony Gold to clean up those areas, retrieve equipment and metals that can be recycled, and ultimately look to return them to their previous habitat. Further to this we have programmes that are looking at ways that we can take some of this land and transform it into areas where food or bio-energy crops could be grown. These are just a couple of focus areas within our business that one doesn’t normally associate with mining companies, however they are no less important than anything else we do.”

One thing that becomes clear very quickly when talking to Briggs is that, even in the face of difficult external Carrying out roof bolt installations at Doornkop Mine, Gauteng factors, he remains incredibly optimistic about mining in South Africa and partners have every reason to remain about gold mining in particular. “We are still confident of the company’s progress. “By very bullish on gold and while the current ensuring that we remain flexible at a time price is an understandable source of bother when other companies are experiencing for us at the moment, I for one certainly do financial pressures we have managed to not expect it to remain below the US$1,200 to maintain ourselves at close to zero net debt.

1,250 ounce mark for much longer. I believe In fact today we are slightly cash positive and that within the next two years it will have that is a testament in itself to the great work risen about the US$1,400 ounce mark and that we continue to do.” that will create increased opportunities in the gold space that we are already working hard For more information about to position ourselves to take advantage of.”

Harmony Gold visit: As for Harmony itself, Briggs concludes www.harmony.co.za by highlighting why its shareholders and

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The secret to s

As well as being the largest sugar manufa Sugar Company is today making a name

written by: Will Daynes |

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Mumias Sugar Company

sweet success

acturing operation in East Africa, Mumias for itself in the field of power generation

| research by: Abi Abagun

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Mumias Sugar Company

L

ocated in the Western Province on importation and aim for self-sufficiency of Kenya, Mumias is home to one when it comes to sugar production. of the country’s largest and most The company’s original factory possessed established businesses, Mumias a capacity of 45,000 tonnes of sugar per year Sugar Company. The history of when it was fully operational in 1973. In the company dates back to 1967, when the the decades since the operation has grown government of Kenya first commissioned dramatically giving Mumias Sugar Company Booker Agriculture and Technical Services a facility with a capacity of 173,000 tonnes to carry out a feasibility study on the viability of sugar and 1.8 million tonnes of cane of growing sugarcane in Mumias, before then crushed per year. initiating a pilot project.

Mumias Sugar Company’s production It is fair to say that at the time the Mumias process comprise of cane production, sugar area was one of Kenya’s more underdeveloped production, cogeneration and the production locations, typified by the fact of molasses. Cane farming that what land was used accounts for approximately was only done so by farmers 80 percent of the production growing crops for subsistence of farm produce in the sugar and grazing animals. zone, and this provides While poor land utilisation, up to 90 percent of the total coupled with the remoteness cane that the company uses of the area and virtually nonas raw material. The cane Of sugar produced existent communications itself is then used to produce annually from the the primary products of infrastructure, had until company’s Mumias that point deterred economic Mumias Sugar. factory activity in Mumias, the fact Mumias Sugar Company is that land adjudication had today responsible for between been carried out and farmers had freehold 60 and 65 percent of the total amount of title to their land attracted the interest of the sugar produced annually in Kenya. This also government due to its favourable conditions makes it the largest sugar manufacturing operation in all of East Africa. Producing for sugarcane development.

On 1 July, 1971, Mumias Sugar Company both industrial sugars for local firms and was formally incorporated as the body that table sugar for individual use, the company’s would be responsible for implementing the primary markets for its products also include project. The main objectives of establishing Tanzania, Uganda and other surrounding the company were to provide a source of nations. Meanwhile, Mumias Sugar is income for farmers, create job opportunities recognised as one of East Africa’s top 100 in the local area, help curb rural-urban brands. The company also exports some of its migration, reduce Kenya’s overdependence sugar to international markets mainly in the

173,000 tonnes

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Moving together

FEIL manufactures and supplies a vast variety of agricultural equipment and farming machinery from tractors and bailers to sugar handling and land development equipment.

FEIL also provides construction equipment and heavy-duty machinery customised to suit the ever growing needs of East Africaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s booming construction industry.

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Kisumu Showroon Nairobi Showroom

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Mumias Sugar Company Europe, with at least 20,000 metric tonnes of sugar being exported annually.

In the eyes of many the reputation that Mumias Sugar Company has carved out for itself has been built on a foundation of having a quality product at the right price, the right weight and the highest level of consumer satisfaction. In staying true to these basic principles the company has helped itself to become a market leader and it is here that it aims to stay.

Retaining this position naturally requires

a company to give its customers what they want, the way they want it. Mumias Sugar Company has shown its ability to do this time and again over the years, not least so in its introduction of both white and brown sugar products that cater for the regional preferences that exist in Kenya, where the majority of consumers in the Nairobi region prefer the former, while those in the Mount Kenya and Eastern regions of the country sway more towards the latter.

FEIL At our state of the art fabrication division, FEILâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s world-class designers use the latest technology to turn your ideas into real life products.

We provide earth moving equipment for the agriculture, forestry, mining and construction industries, and custom manufacture a range of implements including trailers, bowsers, grader attachments and front end loaders from our state of the art manufacturing facility, currently based in Kisumu. Using Auto CAD to come up with designs which are suitable to the exact customer requirements, the implements we create are made exclusively in our facility, up till painting. The utmost care is taken during this process with the implements double reinforced to ensure quality performance. Once the implements are constructed they are treated with an anti- rust spray before they are then

painted.Our after-sales service and training are second to none and most certainly our strong points. At FEIL we place a huge emphasis on sending our technicians and sales people on overseas training and towards offering training to our customers, operators and mechanics.

We currently operate seven branches in Kenya and Uganda, and one in Tanzania. Meanwhile we have our eye firmly set on expanding into South Sudan, Rwanda and DRC Congo, from where we currently operate through subdealers. In addition to this we are opening a new state-of-the-art HQ, which will be on Mombasa Road, Nairobi, that will boast technology greater than that of all our competitors.

E. feil@feil.biz www.feil.biz

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General auto hardware General Auto Hardware Ltd started as a promising wholesale and retail business set up in 1987. From then on the vision has evolved year on year and today has over 26 years experience in industrial and general hardware. The company has grown many folds and is certainly an established company and has been for this period of time had strong, vast experience in supplying products that meet required specifications as per our clients needs.

Like any company, General Auto Hardware Ltd with a sound futuristic vision to grow further, have visualized in marking our presence in the global markets. Our under mentioned products should help our clients improve efficiency

of their processes and increase competitiveness in the global scenario.

Our association with Mumias Sugar Co. Ltd is remarkable in core areas, such as the supply of: • Sealing Products - Gland Packing & Steam Gasket • Tube Cleaning Equipment (Boiler) • Roller Bearing & Cooper Split Roller BRGS • Mini Roller Grooving Tools • Boiler Tubes, Lifting Tools & Equipment • Electric Geared Motors • Insulation & Lagging Materials • Industrial Gate Valves LP & HP • Conveyor Belts gah@swiftkisumu.com

Mumias Sugar Company

Another development of interest has seen the company develop and introduce fortified sugar to the marketplace. This particular brand is fortified specifically with Vitamin A, something which resonates strongly with the needs of Kenyan children to have access to products containing important micronutrients that are essentially to a healthy upbringing.

In order to ensure a sustainable income

throughout both good and challenging economic times, Mumias Sugar Company has made a very unique effort to diversify part of its business into the power production sector. This initiative came into being back in 2005 when the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s board approved the exploration of a co-generation electric power production project, which included the construction of an ethanol plant.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Mumias Sugar Company is today responsible for between 60 and 65 percent of the total amount of sugar produced annually in Kenyaâ&#x20AC;? be weekly | 71

“Another positive facet of the company’s move into power production is that its technology allows for the creation of clean energy” The fact of the matter is that in Kenya the demand for electricity far outstrips supply. The company’s co-generation plant is designed to help alleviate this issue somewhat. At present the company has the capacity to produce 34MW of electricity, with 26MW supplied directly to the National Grid, thus supplementing Kenya’s ever increasing domestic demands. On-site power

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production from the project through bagasse co-generation is currently on the rise, with the company extremely confident that its potential has yet to be fully exploited.

Another positive facet of the company’s move into power production is that its technology allows for the creation of clean energy. This is because its source is primarily the by-product of the sugar production process, a fact that

Mumias Sugar Company

highlights the increasing important of sugar cane as feedstock for ethanol.

Kenyaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sugar industry, and specifically Mumias Sugar Company, has worked hard to take advantage of the concept of bio-refinery technologies or integrated sugar production processes which utilise the entire crop for a variety of environmentally favourable outcomes. Effective use of by-products in an integrated sugar plant diversifies the income stream by adding new intermediate-value and high-value products.

A number of regional factors including limited supplies of crude oil and refining capacity, and rising environmental concerns, have presented Mumias Sugar Company with the perfect opportunity to expand its product

range and it is with this in mind that it set about the construction of a distillery plant with the capacity to produce 22 million litres of ethanol annually.

To this day the company continues to champion a number of important social causes, from providing economic opportunities to more than 14,000 cane farmers to investing in the training, health care and education of its employees. It does all this while retaining its leading positions in both the consumer goods and power production markets.

For more information about Mumias Sugar Company visit: www.mumias-sugar.com

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CWI: World-Class Wire Solutions CWI is an premier producer of mild steel wire and wire products in South Africa

C

on sol idated Wi re Industries (CWI) is co-owned by Arcelor MITTAL and The Industrial Development Corporation. Its manufacturing plant has been based in the industrial city of Vanderbijlpark since the early 1950s with the company employing in excess of 500 permanent staff.

The CWI product range is extensive.

Its products include nails, mesh fencing, barbed wire, high-tensile fencing wire, and wire for baling and binding. Most of the wire products have practical applications such as protecting,

â&#x20AC;&#x153; CWI has one of the largest and most sophisticated wire galvanising plants in South Africa which is capable of producing high volumes of wireâ&#x20AC;?

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enclosing, and fastening to assist a variety of sectors. In addition, CWI manufacturers a range of nails that are used by both formal and informal builders throughout southern Africa.

As can be expected from a worldrenowned organisation, all CWI products conform to national and international specifications. Products are sold in markets as diverse as Africa, Europe, the Far East, the Middle East, Australia, and Canada.

Its high-tensile Veldspan wire is one of the best-known products in its field.

Veldspan wire is used by various parks boards and private game farms to fence nature reserves.

CWI also believes in working closely with its customers to understand their specific requirements. As such, it provides an advisory service to farmers that involve fence erection, repair and maintenance, and the training of farm labourers. A technical advisory service is also provided thanks to the experienced staff of CWI. The latest technology wiredrawing

CWI

machines are used to produce hard drawn wire suitable for applications such as the manufacturing of nails and core wire for welding rods.

CWI has one of the largest and most sophisticated wire galvanising plants in South Africa which is capable of producing high volumes of wire. Its technology compares with the best in the world with the company able to reach galvanised coating of up to 366g/m2.

CWI is committed to ensuring that its products and service will meet or exceed the expectation of its customers.

The company aims to increase the efficiency of its activities and processes to the benefit of all stakeholders.

This is done by creating an environment that will enhance quality throughout its processes and continuously improving everything it does by applying quality management guidelines. It is committed to using new technology to continuously improve its processes and performance.

Consolidated Wire Industries (CWI) 6 Telford Street, Vanderbijlpark, 1911 - South Africa T +27 16 980 3111 Fax: +27 16 980 3291 Email: sales@cwi-wire.co.za www.cwi-wire.co.za

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Included The BE Mining Directory showcases leading mining organisations from across the world, ranging from big corporations to junior mines and their supply chains.

Be seen throughout our portfolio of magazines: • BE Mining Directory • BE Mining • BE Weekly • BE Monthly •

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