MechChem Africa March 2017

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4 ¦ MechChem Africa • March 2017
Having officially opened in South
Africa in April 2015, SMC Pneu-
matics moved into its state-of-
the-art Growthpoint premises
in Midrand in November 2015, enabling the
company to receive stock and begin trading.
“When we opened nearly two years ago we
estimated that SMC’s market share in South
Africawasataround2.5%.ButSMChas32%of
theglobalpneumaticsmarketandafootprintin
83countries,making it the largest pneumatics
company in the world,” says Buddingh.
“InApril 2016we hostedour official grand
opening, so we have nearly completed our
first full year of official trading. Fromthe2.5%
market share this time last year, we feel that
we are now on target to achieve our market
share vision by the year 2020,” Buddingh as-
sures, adding, “we see this as a good indication
that demand is there and growth potential is
realistic.”
During this first full year, the local cus-
tomisation facility was accredited by the
company’sJapaneseparentandspear-headed
by head of manufacturing from SMC UK and
long-time employee of the company, Peter
Austin, toensure that SMCSouthAfricaaligns
to stringent global standards. Austin will
spend thenext fewyears inSouthAfricahead-
ing up the local production team. “We have
also been systematically increasing our staff
complement, a few of whom are relatively
new to SMC’s product offering and internal
processes.We have, therefore, been focusing
on internal training conducted by both local
SMC Pneumatics celebrates its second year in South Africa this April.
MechChem Africatalks to the pneumatics and automation specialist’s
general manager, Adrian Buddingh, about the company’s growth path and
2017 plans.
SMC’s exponential
expansion plans
team members and international colleagues
from various parts of the world. The support
that we have internationally is phenomenal
and ensures that we are on-par with global
trends and international standards,” he tells
MechChem Africa.
“Locally, webelieve thatwehave found the
right skills to accompany us on this journey
andwe nowfocus onour sales teammembers
with the specific expertise to open up newav-
enues whilst being backed by an experienced
team of office staff,” he says.
“Within SMC, we take a planned approach
to each financial year. We determine the de-
mand and the potential in the industry, and
fill positions based on careful calculations
and the right people for the job,” he reveals.
Starting with two people at its initial
launch, SMC had employed 27 people by the
end of February 2016. “People-wise we are
also on track, having grown our staff to 64
people during this financial year.
“Thefive-year plan is to achieve significant
market share by 2020, which initially means
we have to grow exponentially,” Buddingh
explains.
Lean manufacturing
Themanufacturing facility is now fully opera-
tional and quality-accredited for the licensed
set-up of components that can be locally
manufactured and assembled. The facility
has three actuator assembly lines; a fourth
line for the assembly of valve manifolds and
FRLs (filter, regulator, lubricators); and a fifth
for adding accessories to existing products.
“We are licensed to manufacture a key
set of products here, but, should the demand
emerge, we are able to expand the number of
products we canmake locally. The capacity is
in place for the long term, so we anticipate
exponential growth in this offering, as well,”
Buddingh says.
The latest addition to the locallymanufac-
tured product offering is the large bore CS1
cylinder range, which includes bore sizes of
up to 300 mm in diameter. “These cylinders
are ideal for use in the mining industry,” says
Buddingh.
In addition to local component manu-
facturing, SMC is adding a panel assembly
facility to itsMidrand factory. “Control panels
are almost always required for pneumatic
automation systems, so we are adding panel
assembly to our production offering. At the
starting point, wewill offer pneumatic circuit
and panel design services.
“We will then have the panels locally
manufactured, before populating them, typi-
cally with the required valve terminal blocks,
pre-pipedandwiredtothechosencontrollers,
PLCs, electric drives and interfaces.”
Customisation is an inherent concept un-
derpinning the use of valve terminal blocks,
which enable custom-designed solutions to
uniquely suit applications and plant layouts.
“Control panel design and assembly enables
us to offer holistic customised solutions
based around basic pneumatic components
such as valve terminals, air service units and
controllers. The idea is to start small and
simple, but ultimately to expand in terms
of sophistication and scale so as to offer
complete automation solutions,” Buddingh
informs MechChem Africa.
“What we are doing now, though, is to put
in the infrastructure to support this.We have
employed a designer, Ingrid Horner, who will
put the panel designs together in CAD and
she has now been trained overseas in the use
of SMC systems,” he adds.
Once panel production is on the floor,
which should happen before the end of the
third quarter of 2017, SMC SA’s customised