MechChem Africa October 2018

⎪ Power transmission, bearings, bushes and seals ⎪

Top B-BBEE rating for Zest WEG Group

As a definitive indication of its commitment to South Africa, Zest WEG Group has secured Level 1 B-BBEE status according to the new codes. CEO, Louis Meiring and operations director, Juliano Vargas, talks about what this means for their company.

S teadily integrating its continuous improvement efforts alongside the transformation of its business, the Zest WEG Group recently achieved Level 1 status against the new codes for Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE). A subsidiary of the Brazil-based multi- national WEG, the Zest WEG Group is over 51.6% black-owned, including a 32.1% stake by black women, and was ranked as Level 2 last year. “Our real success here has been to in- grain our commitment to South Africa and to transformation in the everyday activities and culture of the business,” says Zest WEG Group chief executive officer, Louis Meiring. “Our empowerment journey is not an annual tick-box exercise, but rather is drivenbyevery staff member working to build local capacity, people and excellence.” He emphasises that the business model has evolved to engage all employees in maintaining the group’s focus on quality and transformation.

included in the second phase. Data is extracted via Bluetooth using a smart device with the innovative app that is available on android and iOS phones and tablets. Users can also access the data on laptops and desktops via a dedicated web portal. Powerful analytics help to process the data and predict pending failures or hidden problems based on frequency spectrum analysis. Warning levels are pre-set based “We continue to invest in local manu- facturing and are improving our facilities to achieve high levels of quality and productiv- ity,” says operations director, Julian Vargas. “This also means developing the skills neces- sary and increasingour knowledgebase in the latest technologies related to our production requirements.” From its position as an ISO 9001-listed business, Zest WEG Group was recently one of the first to upgrade to the ISO9001‑2015, quality management system, making it one of only 112 companies out of 2 200 South African firms with ISO 9001 certification to reach this next level. The group has also recently invested heavily in its Heidelberg transformer manufacturing plant, where it operates one of the country’s leading test laboratories for transformers. The focus on continuous improvement has been necessarily accompanied by developing its skills base in industrial manufacturing and engineering, well beyond the legal require- ments of B-BBEE. “When it comes to skills development,

quirement to manually collect and monitor data, and it eliminates the guesswork from preventative maintenance routines,” Steyn explains. “This removes the inefficiency of reactivemaintenanceandassists inminimis- ing motor failure.” The WEG Motor Scan solution is cur- rently available for motors with frame sizes from 63 to 450, providing this innovative monitoring solution formotors ranging from 0.18 kW up to 1 250 kW. It can be fitted on newly manufactured motors or retrofitted to existing installations. q we invest at least double the percentage required by the Codes of Good Practice, and this includes creating skill-sets for our busi- ness that currently do not exist in the local marketplace,” he says. q Louis Meiring, Zest WEG Group CEO, and Juliano Saldanha Vargas, group logistics and operations director at Zest WEG Group, with the certificate Zest WEG Electric (Pty) Ltd received for its Level 1 B-BBEE rating.

WEG Motor Scan set to change industry Leveraging digital technology is said to be key to participating in the next wave of eco- nomic growth. At the very least, using it will allowmines, process plants andother indus- trial operations to reduce operating costs. Fanie Steyn, manager for rotating ma- chines at Zest WEG Group, says one of the areas that stands to be most impacted is predictive maintenance. “This is where ac- cess toaccuratedata canbeused to increase production efficiency and reduce downtime and, for the first time, industry will be able to do this remotely on their electric motor installations,” he says.

on acceptable base- lines of temperature/ vibration and sophis- ticated software is able to plot perfor- mancecurveswiththe captured data. The data is also sent to the cloud for storage, facilitating fast access and more accurate decision-making. “Using the WEG Motor Scan solution minimises the re-

WEG Motor Scan is a brand new solu- tion available from Zest WEG Group that facilitates remote monitoring of elec- tric motor installations. Steyn says that the WEG Motor Scan solution relies on Industry 4.0’s digital technology including the Internet of Things (IoT) and big data analytics. The technology allows for the monitoring of running hours, measurement of vibration and surface temperature as well as providing data on speed and start/ stop time. The load and efficiency will be

WEG Motor Scan monitors motor data and stores it in the cloud for easy access via the associated App.

October 2018 • MechChem Africa ¦ 17