Investment improves services offering

12th July 2013

By: Chantelle Kotze

  

Font size: - +

Steel service centre and cutting specialist General Profiling last month completed its latest capital investment programme, which aims to further expand and better position its service offering to the heavy-engineering sector, MD Gavin Poplak tells Engineering News.

While increasing its production capability by 40% through the capital investment programme, the company has also positioned itself as a one-stop shop to service South Africa’s heavy-engineering requirements under one roof, says Poplak.

The undisclosed, yet significant, investment included expanding its production facility, acquiring three new specialist machines, adding a new horse and trailer to its in-house delivery fleet and upgrading its information technology (IT) systems.

“We undertook this investment not only as an opportunity to increase our machinery offering to service heavy-engineering needs but also as an opportunity to offer industry solutions that can lead the market, while designing a new production facility that suited our needs and that we could, eventually, use optimally,” explains Poplak. He highlights that since the investment programme started, the company has noticed improvements in production rates, service levels, the speed of delivery and customer-service levels.

The capital investment programme started in February last year, when General Profiling broke ground for its new production facility  1 km from its existing premises in Amalgam, Johannesburg.

General Profiling had acquired the land more than five years ago and, subsequently, waited four years for council to approve the new area and establish enough power infrastructure for the company.

The construction of the 8 500 m2 purpose-built production facility was completed in December 2012 and was an extension to the existing 4 500 m2 facility. “This expansion increased the total floor space to 13 000 m2 and doubled stockholding capacity across the board, but especially for the stainless steel and quenched and tempered material,” says Poplak.

The relocation of the workshop and offices, which took two weeks, required 15 outside technicians, who were assisted by 200 General Profiling staff members, highlights Poplak.

He notes that the new building features a more efficient production layout, with the additional space easily facilitating the acqui- sition of the new machinery and enabling future growth.

The first new machine acquired in February last year by the company, since it embarked on the capital investment programme, is an Italian-manufactured laser-cutting machine, which took just under nine weeks to install and calibrate.

The acquisition of the new machine has brought General Profiling’s laser-machinery complement to seven. The second machine, a four-roll computer numerically controlled (CNC) rolling machine, featuring a 3 m working length, was supplied by a Turkey-based company and was commissioned in March. The machine can roll material, with a thickness of 50 mm, over a length of 3 m, and can roll material much thicker than 50 mm over lengths shorter than 3 m.

General Profiling’s flagship capital investment was the installation of a new 2 000 t CNC press brake last month, which the company believes may be the largest of its kind in South Africa.

Poplak highlights that the company’s new press brake can bend across 12 m at a force of 2 000 t and may change the South African fabrication landscape, as it enables the company to bend thicker, harder and greater lengths of material than was ever considered possible.

Edited by Tracy Hancock
Creamer Media Contributing Editor

Comments

The content you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION