Capital Equipment News August 2022

Pilot Crushtec’s SupportLink division provides equipped, qualified and experienced personnel to professionally service and repair their equipment.

Kwatani service team assisting on a customer site

term basis. The objective is to offer a full life cycle service and support customers with the expertise needed to achieve their production targets consistently with the highest overall equipment efficiency. For Pilot Crushtec, aftermarket services have always been of critical importance. As equipment improves, says sales and market ing director Francois Marais, product quality also gets better and warranty periods are extended. However, the life expectancy of machinery increases with correct mainte nance and aftermarket support. Extending the life span of a unit can gen erate large returns for clients. This bodes well for capital equipment owners, especial ly those in the crushing space, where a large capital outlay is typically required. “That is why brands such as Metso stand out in the market,” says Marais. “A greater focus on product quality and reliability, complemented by sound backup support, translate into high returns that outweigh the perceived benefits of purchasing a ‘less-ex pensive’ product. Machinery sold without proper backup support does not get the op portunity to prove whether future purchases of the same brand are worthwhile.” Garth Jones, MD Multotec Services, believes that the success and sustainability of an OEM lies in the proven total cost of ownership (TCO) of the product compared to other competitor offerings. TCO, he says, is strongly dependent on a deliberate and robust programme of product care and maintenance. Joseph Appiah-Kubi, GM at FLSmidth, Ghana, has in recent years seen an in creased focus on aftermarket by OEMs than ever before. Aftermarket, he adds, is now a business unit in most businesses and in some companies generates more revenue than product or capital sales. Commenting on why aftermarket has be come such a big focus for OEMs, Appiah-Kubi says during tough business spells with low project activity, most OEMs survived because they had a decent aftermarket business.

Plant efficiency and uptime are today more than ever the watchwords of modern industry

The OEM’s ability to keep in-country stock allows customers to reduce their site stockholding, translating into reduced working capital

Aftermarket has proven to be the security for many OEMs during low growth cycles, provided it is well taken care off

Rather than running equipment until it fails, capital equipment owners look to implement predictive maintenance

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for customers,” says Baller. Marnus Koorts, GM pump products at Weir Minerals Africa, says aftermarket support is what drives value on site. The OEM’s ability to keep in-country stock allows customers to reduce their site stockholding, translating into reduced working capital. “It also shields a mine from the detrimen tal effects of potential breakdowns due to poor stock levels. Aftermarket is the life blood for continued operations. To provide context, the cost per hour of downtime at some mining plants can run into millions of dollars,” says Koorts. Jan Schoepflin, GM sales and service at Kwatani, says aftermarket has always been

a cornerstone of the company’s business model. This is because customers invest in uptime, performance and peace of mind – not only products. “In our market, customers want to focus on their core business of mining and processing – rather than on equipment maintenance. An indicator of this is the number of service level agreements we sign with customers, tailored to the level of aftermarket attention their operation needs for maximum uptime,” he says. Mannam John Michael, head of Customer Services, Mining, South Asia at FLSmidth, says OEMs and technology providers are keen to engage with customers on a long

CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS AUGUST 2022 21