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Mechanical Technology — February 2015
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On the cover
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Hansen’s P4 mill drive solution with a double gearbox arrangement. HTSA
now also has access to the SEISA brand of very high torque transmissions,
which are ideal for larger modern ball and SAG mills.
By implementing quick response manufacturing at its Jet Park engineering
and assembly facility, HTSA hopes to shrink total cycle times so that they
become much closer to actual touch times.
Hansen’s ‘Think’ campaign was launched at last years
Electra Mining show. Through culture change and the
KATA system of continual improvement, the company
hopes to steadily improve every facet of its business.
a mine. Road transport, because of
the state of the roads in some remote
regions, is also very difficult. By the
time a gearbox reaches its destination
in some places, in Mali or Ghana, for
example, it might have been subjected
to gearbox Brinelling before it is even put
into service,” he notes.
“We manage a very large gearbox
portfolio, so to keep a full inventory of
spares is not feasible,” says Main. “Key
to overcoming this problem is to educate
users to understand the risks and keep
on top of the condition of the equipment.
I truly believe that if customers are well
informed, they won’t end up with as
many last minute breakdown emergen-
cies. Instead, the correct replacement
components can be ordered in advance
and fitted during a planned shutdown,”
he adds.
Via sound customer relationships,
based on site surveys and training, HTSA
strives to develop sound knowledge
of the capital equipment operating at
customer sites and how to minimise the
risks of that equipment breaking down
unexpectedly.
Talking about condition monitoring,
Fourie says that HTSA, in partnership
with the University of Pretoria, is cur-
rently developing a simple gearbox spe-
cific product to help customers take care
of their gearboxes. Now in production,
the monitor is a vibration-based diag-
nostic device programmed specifically for
fault finding on Hansen Transmissions’
industrial gearboxes. “No special skill
in vibration analysis is required to use
the tool and it will be relatively cheap.
While the gearbox is running, operators
will simply enter the detail of the gear-
box into the system, including the gear
ratios, and attach the probes. The system
immediately returns a condition or fault
diagnosis. It can also compare the results
to previous measurements on the same
unit to allow deterioration to be tracked,”
Fourie explains.
“The whole purpose is to diagnose a
problem so that an appropriate expert
can be called in at a convenient time,”
Main adds. “Across Africa, including
South Africa, there are serious skills
shortages. We have lost the experienced
people that used to be able to walk up
to a gearbox and identify a problem from
the noise it is making. Our new monitor
replaces this experience. Nobody wants a
situation where a gearbox failure causes
a plant to stand still, while the delivery
time for a replacement could be up to 22
weeks,” he points out.
In line with a reinvigoration strategy
for the global group, HTSA is adopting
cultural values from Japan and Belgium
and aligning its marketing campaigns
with internal philosophies. “We are in-
troducing quick response manufacturing
(QRM) and the KATA system, the philoso-
phy that has made Toyota so successful,”
Main reveals. KATA is about continual
improvement. The word comes from the
Japanese martial arts masters who train
students to practice and repeat a set of
physical movements over and over, so
that, in a real fight, they would be able
to automatically and instinctively perform
the routines at full force.
“In the context of an organisation, it is
about reinforcing and repeating the things
that are done well and identifying areas of
weakness. Via ongoing introspection and
improvement projects, we are steadily
improving every facet of our business.
And this culture involves all processes,
people and disciplines,” he explains.
While Kata relates to continual
improvement, quick response manufac-
turing looks to improve response times
for competitive advantage. “A key goal
is the reduction of idle or wasted time,
known as ‘white time’. The production
cycle for a gear unit, for example, might
be 22 weeks, but the actual touch time
for that unit might only be three weeks.
Along with KATA, QRM asks everyone
involved to think of ways to shrink the
total cycle time so that it becomes closer
to the actual touch time,” Main says. “As
an organisation, HTSA is determined to
embrace these principles to improve the
efficiency and cost effectiveness of every
aspect of our operation.”
Concluding, he adds: “Africa repre-
sents a growth opportunity, but our South
African business remains of primary
importance. We will increase our busi-
ness, particularly on the service side, and
slowly but surely we intend to expand
north of the border.”
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